Teacher's Day

I've been looking for an excuse to do some craft with the kid and so the upcoming Teacher's Day was godsend.  We often do coloring and random doodlings but I always find it difficult to decide what to do with the end products.  It seems like a waste to throw them away and yet keeping them only adds to the amount of things we already have.  So a "productive" craft that can be given as a gift is always a bonus for me - all I need is an excuse!

There are many food jar ideas on the web - ranging from home made food like cookies and cakes to premixes.  I toyed with many recipes and finally settled on a multigrain soup with chicken recipe.  The bottles were colorful enough and the ingredients were easy enough for a toddler to handle.

Things we learnt along the way:

1. Measurements with the cup
2. Fine motor skills in pouring 
3. How to use a funnel and how funnels help make work easier
4. Different shapes, sizes and colors of grains and how different ones pour with different ease through the funnels
5. Taste and smells of different herbs and spices

The little one loved the exercise and had lots of fun with the cup and funnel.  There wasn't much of a mess as I handled the herbs, distracting him with smelling and tasting the herbs.  I'm actually quite optimistic that we could try this again perhaps for Christmas!  We added instructions and a thank you card to the jar.

What did you do for Teacher's Day with you child?

Multigrain Chicken Soup
(Modified from here)
In the jar
3/4 cup raw brown rice
1/2 cup medium barley
1/2 cup red lentils
1/2 cup yellow split peas
2 tbs dried parsley
1 tbs dried thyme
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp dried marjoram
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
Instructions attached

1. Pour contents of jar into pot and add the following:
1. 2 large ribs celery, sliced
2. 4 large carrots, sliced
3. 2 cloves garlic crushed
4. 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
5. 12 cups of water
6. Salt and pepper to taste
2. Bring to a boil.
3. Cover the pot and turn down the heat to simmer.
4. Cook for 1 hour until all grains are tender.
5. Check seasonings.
6. Thin with water or chicken stock as required.