R Week- Road R

This week's letter to put on Trip's door is an road with red race cars on it. I first cut an R out of a piece of black construction paper. I then colored a basic white label yellow with a marker and cut it into little strips. These made for quick and easy divider lines. (By the way, it helps to cut a strip from the label, remove it from the backing, and then cut it into smaller pieces. This keeps you from fighting to get the paper off of tiny stickers.) I printed out the race cars and had hoped that Trip would want to stick them on the road, but he didn't care, so I did it myself. You can find the cars that I used on the second page of my R list.

R Week- Rainbow Rock Hunting

Trip enjoys playing with the rocks in our driveway, so I decided to paint some of the larger ones for R week. I went outside, found seven rocks, washed the dirt off of them, put them back outside to quickly dry in the sun, and then got to painting. I put two coats of paint on a few of the rocks, but they don't have to be perfect since they are to use outside. I used acrylic paints because they are more resistant to water and wear than many other paints. Spray paint would work well too and would be even faster. Although I chose a rainbow of colors (so that we could work on their names), this game could still be played if all of the rocks were the same color. The rocks could also be wrapped in aluminum foil or colored tissue paper.

When we were ready to play, I placed the colored rocks back in the gravel driveway. I left some of them in plain sight,

while others were slightly hidden.

Trip enjoyed eating his frozen squeezable yogurt while looking for colored rocks. I had to point out the first couple, but then he got the idea and found most of the others on his own.

Sometimes, I just let him find the rocks. Other times, I put them close to each other and ask him to find a certain color. There are a few color names that he knows well and others that he's still practicing. This game utilizes an object and a location that Trip enjoys, which makes it more fun and helps build all of those great connections in his brain.

R Week- Reading at the Library

With reading on the list for our letter of the week activities, I decided it was time to take Trip on his first visit to the library. We went in the late morning and found the tiny children's section deserted, which made me very happy. He was quite excited to be there and didn't want to keep his voice down.

We sat down at the little table and looked through some board books. This one with babies showing different expressions was his favorite. We read it several times.

Trip was briefly interested in the puzzle, but then found a spaceship and dump truck on a shelf with a few other toys, making him quickly loose sight of everything else.

Before we left, he spotted "Llama Llama Red Pajama" displayed with the new books. This is a favorite of his at home so it was fun for him to see it at the library. We immediately had to get it down and read it.

Our visit only lasted about fifteen or twenty minutes, but it was a great start. Trip has mentioned the library once since then, so we'll have to go back soon.

R Week- Food

R week was a great one for food!

As I mentioned during T week, I had hoped to make T-shaped pancakes but never did. I gave R-shaped pancakes a shot, but they were a huge flop, so I made normal ones. Then the thought hit me that I could just make an R on each pancake with chocolate syrup. Perfect! Next time I attempt to make letter-shaped pancakes, I will need to make a thinner batter and dispense it from a squeeze bottle of some sort. Trying to do it with a spoon just doesn't work for most letters.

I made a batch of Six Week Raisin Bran muffins as well. My mom made this recipe often growing up. It makes a huge batch so you can just bake as many muffins as you want at a time and store the rest of the batter in the fridge for up to six weeks. The flavor of the muffins gets even better as it sits, so when I think ahead, I make the batter several days before I want to bake the muffins.

They are amazing right out of the oven, but also stay moist for a couple of days in a container or zip-top bag. I like to eat them any time of day with butter or cream cheese.

Six Week Raisin Bran Muffins

1 (15 oz.) box raisin bran cereal (the kind with "crunch"/granola is good too)

1 quart buttermilk

1 cup canola oil (vegetable would work too or part coconut oil, part canola)

4 eggs, beaten

3 cups sugar (I usually use about 2 cups)

5 cups flour

5 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons salt

Crush cereal in bag then pour into a large bowl. Add buttermilk and mix. Let soak for 5-10 minutes to soften cereal. Mix in oil and eggs, followed by sugar, then dry ingredients. Mix well. Bake immediately or store batter in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to six weeks. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake at 400*F for 15-20 minutes, until browned and toothpick comes out clean.

Some time ago, I had seen an episode of the Rachael Ray Show when she made Ridiculously Good Chicken Riggies. It looked delicious, so I wrote down the name as something to try. R week finally prompted me to make it. I figured you can't go wrong with pasta, chicken, mushrooms, peppers, and a little cream. We were not disappointed. It was a great change from the regular pasta and red sauce and will definitely be on the menu again soon.

R Week- Hide and Seek Bowl

Since the hide and seek bowl was such a success last week, I collected lots of R objects and made a new one. Again, Trip asked to see it each day. He calls it the "towel" activity so I think the towel is sticking with us when we have a hide and seek container.

The rainbow pasta I made was the perfect cover for our treasures.

The great part about the salad macaroni was that we could scoop it up in our hands and make it "rain" over the container. Trip loved that!

R Week- Rainbow Rigatoni

I had never realized how easy it is to dye pasta. Armed with the little bit of knowledge that it takes, I got to work.

I colored two 16oz. boxes of pasta, one rigatoni and the other salad macaroni. I divided each of the boxes into six more or less equal amounts. Next, I took six quart-size zip-top bags and poured 1/4 cup of rubbing alcohol in each one. You can use vinegar instead of rubbing alcohol if you prefer. After 10 to 12 drops of food coloring in each bag, they were ready for the pasta. I put the filled and sealed bags on a foil-lined cookie sheet to contain any potential spills. I left the bags like that all day, turning them a few times, although I think an hour or two would have been sufficient. Once I was ready to dry the noodles, I drained out as much liquid as possible in the sink and then dumped the pasta back onto the foil-lined cookie sheet with a few added layers of paper towels to absorb the remaining liquid.

I put the tray outside to dry since the alcohol smell was quite potent. If outside is not an option, I would suggest a garage or other place where no one has to smell it. It dried quickly, but I ended up leaving it outside for about 24 hours to completely get rid of the smell. The colors were definitely lighter once they dried, but looked great nonetheless. I'm guessing that the color would have been a little more even if I had just used one size of noodles.

Basic pasta-dyeing formula:

1/4 cup rubbing alcohol or vinegar

10 to 12 drops food coloring

about 1 cup pasta

a zip-top bag

Mix alcohol/vinegar with food coloring in bag. Add pasta and seal. Let sit for 2+ hours (or as long as you leave it), turn once or twice. Drain as much liquid as possible then let pasta dry on paper towels. Air out for up to 24 hours to eliminate alcohol/vinegar smell. This recipe can be doubled for larger amounts of pasta.

I had hoped to get Trip to string the rigatoni on a shoelace but he wasn't interested so I made him a necklace that he enjoyed.

The rainbow salad macaroni was perfect for our R hide and seek bowl.

R Week- The List

The PDF of my R week list is posted here.

The activities we did this week include:

• an R-themed hide and seek bowl
• hunting for colored rocks
• following a recipe- Six Week Raisin Bran Muffins
• reading at the library
• a paper R decorated as a road with race cars on it
• rainbow rigatoni stringing
• rainbow ice cubes in a bag