Lakeshore West Music Together's Music Program Engages Oakville Babies, Toddlers & Kids!

momstown Oakville's music and movement programs always bring out a big crowd and this morning was no exception.  Oakville moms and kids welcomed Miss Amber from Lakeshore West Music Together to lead us through a fun and engaging music program.  We had kids ranging from just a few months old up to five years of age and all of their eyes sparkled as we sang, danced, moved and played instruments during the 45 minute program.

Miss Amber Singing An Action Song 

Lakeshore West Music Together is new to Oakville and will now be offering Saturday classes starting on September 21st.  Register one child, and a sibling under 8 months (at time of registration) is free! Activities where siblings can be part of the same class can be hard to find but are so convenient for parents.  Even if your second child is over 8 months of age, a discounted rate for registering a second sibling applies.  All classes are for mixed ages.

Miss Amber kept all the kids engaged and smiling this morning.  Everyone got a chance to use shakers, instruments, a stretchy band and of course, their singing voices!

Miss Amber lead our group through some favourites such as Itsy Bitsy Spider but also had lots of new songs for the kids to learn as well.  The 45 minute program passed quickly as the kids were all enjoying themselves, and I'll be honest, us moms were too!  Music is always a great addition to the activities your kids may participate in so make sure you check out Lakeshore West Music Together's website for more information on their Fall registration.  

If you'd like to check out Miss Amber's classes, she is doing a free demo on Saturday, September 14th at 9:30 AM at the Oakville Parent Child Centre (461 North Service Road West).  To register for the free demo, please email amber@lakeshorewestmusictogether.com.  For more information on momstown Oakville and the events and programs we run each month, please visit our website to find out how you can join us.

Apple Kuchen Recipe - Easy Fall Dessert

I first made this recipe years ago and it was a hit!  It is easy and is a delicious way to welcome Fall into your kitchen.  This is a great recipe to make with kids as well as there are only a few simple steps (aside from peeling and slicing the apples) that little ones can easily help with.

Apple Kuchen

What You Need:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 package yellow cake mix
1/2 cup flaked coconut
2 1/2 cups peeled and sliced baking apples
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 cup sour cream
1 egg or 2 egg yolks

Pre-heat oven to 350F.  Mix butter into dry cake mix until you get a crumbly mixture.  Add in coconut.  Pat mixture into a 13 x 9" pan (build up the edges a bit to keep in the apples).  Bake for 10 minutes.

Arrange the apple slices on the warm crust.  Mix the cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle on top of the apples. Mix the sour cream and egg or egg yolks and drizzle over the apples.  The mixture will not cover all of the apples.

Bake 25 minutes (do not overbake).  Serves 12-15 people.  Best served warm.

Learning To Read: Sight Words For Kindergarteners

My son starts JK in just one short week.  And while I think he's pretty prepared to start the program, I've also been looking into what I can do to assist him as he starts this big new adventure.  My sister (who must have been a teacher in another life) is super organized when it comes to getting activities together that will help her kids learn the outcomes intended for their age group.  Thankfully she is happy to share with me!

Learning to read is such a huge accomplishment for a young child and I can't wait for my son to reach this milestone.  I loved reading as a kid and that enjoyment has followed me all the way through my life and I hope my kids feel the same.

My niece reading to my daughter when she was a baby

Once your little one has a grasp of the alphabet and of letter sounds, a great next step is to move on to what is called 'Dolch Pre-Primer' words and the ability to recognize certain words by sight.  These are commonly used words that will help pave the way towards learning to read.  A list of these words can be found here. Another term used when helping kids learn to read is 'popcorn' words.  These are words that 'pop up' often in every day reading and writing and can also be referred to as sight words.  Here is a great online game for kids to help with sight word recognition - Monkey Madness Movie Theatre.

Here is a quick and easy craft to assemble at home to help learn sight words is a 'word wall'.

What you need:

-Bristol board
-Scissors
-Glue stick
-White paper

Get your child to pick out their favourite coloured bristol board.  Write or type the pre-primer sight words (a, and, away, big, blue, can, come, down, find, for, funny, go, help, here, I, in, is, it, jump, little, look, make, me, my, not, one, play, red, run, said, see, the, three, to, two, up, we, where, yellow, you) on a piece of white paper and cut out each one so that each word is a separate piece.

Post three pre-primer words using tape or glue onto the bristol board and hang it in your child's room. Practice those three words and then on the start of the next month, post three more.  Kids get so excited when they start to be able to recognize the words when they see them out at a store or in a book.  Happy reading!

Are You Using Coconut Oil? 5 Easy Ways To Work It Into Your Diet

More and more information seems to be coming out lately about the huge benefits derived from cooking with and eating coconut oil.  Has it made its way into your house yet?  The word on the street is that coconut oil is heart healthy, can help build resistance to viruses and bacteria, balance hormone and blood sugar levels and even help get rid of that pesky abdominal fat that seems to hang on for dear life and won't let go!

Piqued your interest?  I thought so.  And just so your not confused when you go buy it in the store, coconut oil will mostly come in thicker format then say, olive oil, and changes depending on the temperature.  In the summer months, it will be more like an oil and in the colder weather, will be more like a solid mass.

Coconut oil has been a hot topic on our message board so I thought I would share some quick and easy ways that Oakville mamas have been working it into their diets and into their family's diets as well.  Most people said the addition of this oil was very smooth with no complaints!

1.  Spread it on toast instead of butter.

2.  Use it in baking instead of vegetable oil or butter.

3.  Use it to pan fry foods (think stir fry or browning meat).

4.  Add it to oatmeal, it makes it thicker and creamier.

5.  If your kids like pasta with butter, put coconut oil on top instead.

While no ideal amount of coconut oil has been determined, it seems as though 1-2 tablespoons a day is the suggested amount that will produce healthy benefits.  If you use coconut oil, let us know your favourite use for this fantastic super food in the comments below.

Momstown Monet: Art Program for Oakville Kids Ages 3 And Up

Momstown Oakville moms and kids love to get crafty!  We have interest from all ages to participate in craft projects, but the momstown Monet program is designed to engage preschoolers and school agers who really enjoy crafting and love to create their own masterpieces.  These projects typically more steps than the crafts we do with our toddlers and early preschoolers.

Sunshine Plates

This month our momstown Oakville Monet group made sunshine plates to hang in the garden to help the flowers and vegetables grow! We used paper plates which we filled with yellow paint to make the sun, yellow and orange construction paper triangles for the sun rays , dried pasta to jazz it up and pipe cleaners to be able to hang up our sunshine makers.  Everyone had a blast making there own special sunny sun creation!

Come and join us next time - sign up here to view our calendar and see what events are coming up that your kids would love!

momstown Oakville Celebrates Turning Six With Oakville Families And A Huge Birthday Party!

On Saturday, August 17th, hundreds of Oakville families came to Coronation park to celebrate momstown Oakville's 6th birthday.  This free family event welcomed over 1,000 people and had something for everyone from face painting to arts & crafts, prizes and of course, cupcakes!  A big thank you to all the Oakville parents and kids who came out to celebrate with us.  We also want to thank all of our sponsors, partners and volunteers for making this our biggest and best party yet!  Thank you also to Danielle Wilson Photography for capturing all the fun.

The line up started about 30 minutes before the party began!

Kids CBC's Daniel Tiger was on hand to greet guests as they arrived.  Thanks to Rachel Bailey Photography for being on hand to snap pictures of kid with Daniel!

The party kicked off with a few draw prizes for our guests who were first to arrive and then we got the crowd moving and grooving with music from Suzy Sunshine.

The crows was also treated to a few more amazing presentations from No Limits Martial Arts, Annex Dance Academy and Little Kickers.

WOW!  The crowd loved the moves from No Limits Martial Arts

Annie, the hippo mascot from Annex Dance Academy got all the kids participating in their dance demo

All the kids starting to line up to get their turn at a penalty kick with Little Kickers

There we so many activities for people to participate in!  In addition to the interactive presentations going on throughout the party, we also had a bouncy castle sponsored by Kyle & van der Steen LLP, a sensory station from Reeves Financial Services, colouring station from St. Mildred's Lightbourn School, a SupperWorks Picasso painting station where kids got to paint using fruits and vegetables, bubbles with Kidex Academy, glitter tattoos from Hopedale Community Nursery School, face painting from Little Rascals Indoor Playground, great recipes for healthy snacks from Dr. Michelle Peris ND, science & discovery fun with Physioremedy, a chance for kids to try out rugby with Rugby Tots Canada, an obstacle course from Monkeynastix and our own momstown Oakville station giving out balloons and Klutz sticker sheets!

Can't forget to mention the always busy Fisher Price Little People Play Zone that had four awesome toys for kids to play with.  And four lucky winners each got to take one of the toys home with them!

Thank you also to our partners, Red Cross Canada for bringing a very cute fishing station and the Oakville Public Library for having their puppet theatre and tons of books to share with our party guests.

And what's a party without presents and cake?  Well, we had tons of happy families going home with some awesome prizes.  In addition to giving away four Fisher Price Little People toys, we also gave away a Britax B-Agile stroller and organic baby carrier, four tickets to Dora Live show coming this Fall, a Scholastic Canada book pack, a Monkeynastix's birthday party package, a year of free dance classes from Annex Dance Academy, a certificate to have legal wills and power of attorney done from Kyle & van der Steen, a session of classes with Rugby Tots and the list goes on!

Some of our lucky winners!

Then the time came to sing happy birthday (thanks for the help Daniel Tiger & Suzy Sunshine!) and our guests lined up to enjoy a delicious, nut free, cupcake from Cupid's Cupcakes.

We feel very lucky to have had such a wonderful celebration and that so many Oakville families came out to join us. To see more pictures from the event, click here.   This event was the perfect end to summer and we're are getting excited for all the fun things momstown Oakville has planned for the Fall.  We invite you to join our growing community!  Sign up for your free four week trial or purchase your membership here. Every 1 year membership includes a 12 month subscription to Today's Parent magazine! momstown Oakville offers support to moms and families with young kids and provides a great opportunity to meet and make connections with other Oakville moms.  We offer over 40+ events each month and would love to have you join our momstown community.  

momstown Supports The Telling Tales Festival at Westfield Heritage Village

Mark the Date, Sunday, September 15th, 2013 for the Telling Tales Festival! 

As you pass through the Westfield Heritage Village "Gates of Time", you will be delighted to discover a world that existed before the internet and video/computer games… Here life can be simple, and stories come alive! Storytellers will hold crowds spellbound in the Native Village.

Preschoolers especially will find a world of things to do in our Large Meadow: Musicians, puppet shows, “learning through play”, crafts and much more. Plan to visit the Telling Tales Giant Book Swap and Shop Tent, a place to bring your slightly worn children's books, donate them to literacy and, if you choose, purchase second hand titles for just loonies and toonies.

Find out more information here: www.TellingTales.org.  PLUS! don't forget to like them on Facebook to participate in contests happening from now until the Festival!

momstown Oakville Moms And Kids Use Shapes To Make Yummy Bird Snacks

momstown Oakville's theme for the month of August is birds.  This week Oakville moms and kids got together in the kitchen to create some fun food that matched our theme as part of our Junior Chef program. We started off our morning by reading Owen's Way Home about an owl looking for his house.  After story time, each child got ready to make their own edible owl.

Our owls began by spreading either Nutella or peanut butter (for a nut free option, use WOW Butter or Sun Butter) on bread, then used fruit to make the features. We had lots of circle fruit which we layered to make eyes, like apples, oranges, kiwis, bananas, grapes and blueberries.  We cut pieces of banana into triangles to make beaks, and we used peach slices, or halves of kiwi or oranges or apples to make wings.  Blueberries, grapes and cheerios were added to make the feathers.

Finally, momstown Oakville Junior Chef's sliced up mini cucumbers and used them to make a tree with a pretzel trunk.  After we ate our yummy creations, we wanted to make a snack for the birds outside to enjoy so we spread peanut butter on a toilet paper roll, and then rolled it in birdseed.  The kids took home their birdseed creation to add to their backyard and watch the birds enjoy the snack they'd made for them.

momstown Oakville's theme for September is apples - so many delicious possibilities!  We now offer our Junior Chef program during the week and a working mamas edition in the weekends.  Come and join us - buy your membership here for just $45 a year.  Membership includes a 12 month subscription to Today's Parent magazine too!

How To Go Bird Watching In Your Backyard With Toddlers & Preschoolers!

momstown Oakville moms and kids came ready to learn all about our theme of the month, 'birds', for our Little Scientist program.  Each little one made binoculars by glueing scrapbook paper around toilet paper rolls, stapling them together, punching a hole in the side and stringing ribbon through, and then decorating with bird stickers.  Then we looked at a few pages of birds in some books, and studied our bird diagram sheets, with the labels of all the parts of 4 birds - Blue Jay, Woodpecker, Great Blue Heron and Loon.

Birds hidden in the backyard, ready to be discovered!

Oakville moms and kids talked about the four things that make birds, birds: their bodies are covered in feathers, they have wings, they lay eggs, and they are warm blooded.  Then we headed out into the backyard, armed with our binoculars, our bird fact sheets, and pencils to tally up how many of each bird we saw.

Our bird fact sheets

Using the binoculars he made to find those birds!

We talked about what a tally was, and how it is a good way to count things and all you have to do is put a line beside the picture each time you see that bird.  We had fun finding the 10 bird cut outs that were hidden in the backyard, and we also saw and heard a few real birds as well - a cardinal and a dove.  We sat in the shade and counted our tally marks, and talked about where we found the birds, which ones were our favourites, and what each bird looked like.  The Little Scientist program ended with a few books about birds and our little scientists went home very happy after spending their morning bird watching!

We run a Little Scientist program every month and would welcome you to join us.  Find out more about becoming a momstown Oakville member by clicking here.  A one year membership is $45 a year and includes a 12 month subscription to Today's Parent magazine!

Spray Bottle & Frozen Paint Painting With Kids

momstown Oakville moms and kids are still taking advatage of all the beautiful summer weather and holding our events out doors to enjoy the sun.  This morning we tried a new type of messy painting,  a perfect activity for outdoor space. The bright beautiful paintings that were created made me think that this would be a perfect activity at a rainbow themed birthday party for kids!

Spray bottles and frozen paint popsicles ready to go!

Loved the look of all the bright colours

To make spray bottle paint, pour some washable paint into the spray bottle and then add water until the bottle is about 1/3 full.  Shake well.  Another great option is to pour water into paint containers that are almost empty, put the cap on, shake it up and then pour that mixture into a spray bottle.  Great way to use end of the bottle paint that is hard to get out!

To make frozen paint, pour washable paint so that each ice cube spot is about 3/4 full.  Add about 1/2 tsp of water to the top (helps the popsicle stick stay in).  Stick the tray in the freezer for about 20-30 minutes until partially frozen and then put in the popsicle sticks (they should stand up straight, if they don't, they need a bit longer in the freezer).  Once the popsicle sticks are in, put the tray back in the freezer overnight (or at least for 8 hours).

The spray bottles produced really neat splatters that resulted in quite an artistic picture!  The frozen paint started out more like a crayon and then as it melted, got more and more fluid.  This was a pretty simple activity to prepare and the kids had lots of fun.  We'll have to do this one again soon!  As an added side benefit, one mama noted that using the spray bottles would help the kids increase their grip strength, a great precursor to writing with a pen or pencil.

Kids always enjoy a painting activity and its fun to go outside of the normal paint and paint brushes routine sometimes.  If you'd like to get in on the painting fun, be sure to join us next time.  momstown Oakville takes care of all the supplies, the prep and the clean up - you just come for the messy fun!

Prizes To Be Won At Momstown Oakville's Free 6th Birthday Community Event on August 17th!

The momstown Oakville's 6th Birthday Party is less than 2 weeks away!  We are in full birthday party planning mode and are so excited to share the celebration with you.

One of the amazing things that will be part of this event is all the prizes we have to give away!  Which of these prizes do you have your eye on?  Keeping checking back for new prizes added to the list!

Britax B-Agile Stroller, Valued At $270

Britax Organic Baby Carrier, Valued At $150

Fisher Price Little People Animals Sounds Farm
Fisher Price Little People Happy Sounds Home
Fisher Price Little People Stand & Play Rampway
Fisher Price Baby Skin Products Prize Pack
Family Pack of Tickets (4) to see Dora Live!
Birthday Party Package from Monkeynastix Canada
One Year of Dance Classes at Annex Dance Academy
Scholastic Canada Prize Pack
Pampered Chef Rectangular Baker
Two Personal Training Sessions From Oakville Naturopathic Wellness Centre
$50 Gift Card for SupperWorks
$50 Gift Card for Whole Foods
Gift Card for getting a Will done with Kyle & van der Steen LLP

Thanks to all of our sponsors for providing such awesome prizes!  Make sure you RSVP for the event as that will get you an extra ballot for the prize draws!  Please note, you must attend the party to win.  We will be drawing prizes at three different times throughout the event.

Good luck!

Brownie Mint Birthday Cupcake Recipe

I place great importance on the cupcakes or cake used to celebrate a birthday so I am constantly trying new recipes to make sure that the dessert served on a birthday is simply amazing!  This recipe certainly falls into the amazing category.  I made them for my brother's birthday one year - he is a big chocolate and mint fan. This recipe is simple, it doesn't even need icing, but does well with a scoop of vanilla or mint chocolate chip ice cream on top.  As momstown celebrates our 6th birthday, I thought this was a great time to post this delectable recipe.

What you need:

8 ounces of semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
1/2 all purpose flour
1/4 Dutch cocoa
12 small/mini chocolate covered peppermint patties

What you do:

Preheat oven to 350F.  Line a muffin tin with paper liners (feel free to use some decorative birthday ones!). Put the chocolate and the butter in a bowl (microwave safe) and use the microwave to melt.  Do 1 minute at a time, stirring after each minute, until melted.

Whisk in the sugar and salt, then eggs until all combined.  Gently add flour and cocoa and mix just until smooth (do not overmix).

Spoon one heaping tablespoon of batter into each lined up and place one peppermint patty on top.  Gently press it into the batter.  Top with 2 tablespoons of batter, covering the patty completely.  Bake for about 35 minutes but start checking them at 30 minutes, it is important not to over bake these treats. They are done when a toothpick inserted into the centre (above the patty) comes out with with just a few crumbs on it.