Giveaway: Skill It Online Cooking Course!

Enter to win a FREE spot in this amazing online cooking course by leaving a comment below telling us your child's favorite food.  We will then choose a winner randomly on July 24th and announce it here on our blog!  For a second chance to win, sign up for our newsletters:  Skill It Newsletter and Little Acorn Learning Newsletter!

Are you ready to get cooking with your kids in the kitchen? Skill It is delighted to share classroom-tested recipes for delicious, healthy dinners…and your kids will be helping at every step!

In Skill It’s online class for families, Season’s Eatings, you’ll get the tools & inspiration you need to create fun, joy & connection around food and family dinnertime.

Over the course you’ll get an email every Monday for 4 weeks with printable recipes & activities. You can cook at your own pace and give your little chefs the activities whenever it’s convenient for you.

Each week you’ll get:

* 2 Step-by-Step Recipes {8 Total!} for family dinners that tell you which parts your kids can do. Each week includes a kid-friendly, printable shopping list you can take to the store.

* Tips, Games and Fun Activity Sheets to incorporate your kids in the food shopping at grocery stores or farmers’ markets, setting the table, and exploring new cooking techniques.

* Connection to other parents in the Season’s Eatings Facebook Group so you can share questions, successes, and post photos of your finished dishes!

Season’s Eatings is offered at the end of the summer, just when you’re ready for a burst of inspiration and looking for more activities to enjoy with your little chefs. This is also the perfect time to start planning new meals for school lunches!



Skill It cooks with kids in schools and community classes and they know how much your little chefs are capable of. Our kids show us time and time again that if they’ve made it, they will eat it!

GOOD LUCK and be sure to check back with us on July 24th to see who won!!!

Foraging Wild Raspberries

We have discovered wild raspberries all over our property this summer and the girls are just in LOVE with gathering them up each day.  It has become one of their most favorite things to do in the summer afternoons as they search and pick each ripe berry and place it in the bowl. 

I first discovered them and picked them alone one day.  I think it was probably the first time I had ever picked wild berries... can you imagine?  At 37 years old, this was the first time I had truly experienced nature in this way. 

I was filled with such awe at the earth's ability to provide such amazing and nourishing food.  It made me wish that I had these types of experiences in my childhood.  Just the simple experiences of picking berries, playing in the woods and enjoying the outdoors as much as my girls do.  The blessing of a backyard and a wooded area to roam.  I was filled with gratitude that my girls are able to experience these beautiful yet simple things in their childhood and sad for so many children and adults now who may not ever know or experience the beauty of the natural world in these ways.

After they are gathered, we wash them together and pack them up for a healthy snack at camp the next day. My girls have been attending our local waldorf school camp and they are having such a wonderful time.  These wild berries are the perfect snack to add to their lunchboxes.

Earlier in the season we also had wild black raspberries to enjoy. Foraging for berries and herbs is a wonderful activity to do with children. Just be very sure you know each plant and teach children well to never eat anything without an adults permission, especially mushrooms and berries.  And I always teach the girls to leave a few berries for the birds :)

Berries and Birds

Five little raspberries growing in a bunch.

(hold up left hand, fingers and thumb brought together)

Five little raspberries, will you come and lunch?

(spread fingers out)

Five little raspberries count them every one.

(count fingers aside, move them quickly)

Five little raspberries, read and round and sweet.

(hold up left hand, fingers and thumb brought together)

Five little raspberries, good enough to eat.

Five little red-breasts flying fast this way,

(hold up fingers of right hand, moving them quickly and bring hand close to left hand)

See the berried red hanging on the spray.

Five little red-breasts

(hold fingers of right hand close to fingers of left hand)

quickly it is done,

(bring all fingers together at tips)

Not a berry left in the summer sun.

(drop hands behind back)

Summer Vacation

This summer we were lucky enough to be invited to my cousin's wedding in Martha's Vineyard. What a beautiful place to get married and what a wonderful opportunity for us to extend the visit into our summer vacation.

The ferry ride there and back was a treat of its own.  The girls loved watching all of the magical things the ocean showed us... boats, birds, fish, waves

We arrived and had beautiful beach weather all week.  I could sit at the beach all day long and the girls had such a blast playing in the water.

While there isn't a ton to do at the Vineyard for kids - we had a great time, ate lots of ice cream...

And took life a little slower, enjoying the simple pleasures...

a little more quiet time, 

and togetherness.

Hunting for seashells, seaglass and rocks was an all-day event, each day...

And back at the house we rented there was a perfect yard with plenty of trees for climbing.

The ride home on the ferry was just as fun as the ride there. 

And while I truly enjoyed our trip, I was so happy to see my pets when I got home.  I missed them like crazy and love being back in our very own cozy house.

There really is no place like home.

Graduation

The day has come and gone and my oldest is soon to leave for college.  I cannot believe her high school graduation day arrived.  18 years and she is ready to take on the world.

We love you and wish you a beautiful journey Dee!