Creative Family Fun

Your one-stop shop for kids activities and family fun

Terri Thompson

Peaches and Cream Popsicles

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Popsicles are one of our favorite summer treats. They’re cool, refreshing, and delicious. When our sponsor Yoplait® asked me to create a recipe using Yoplait® yogurts, I knew right away that we were going to make popsicles. And, boy were they yummy!
We took a classic flavor combination – peaches and cream – and added a frozen twist. Get ready to try some yummy Peaches and Cream Yogurt Popsicles.
Peaches and Cream Popsicles
Makes 6 popsicles
 
Ingredients
1 peach
2 6oz. containers Yoplait Original Harvest Peach yogurt
1 6oz. container Yoplait Original French Vanilla yogurt
First, peel and dice one peach into small pieces. Next, empty 2 containers of Harvest Peach yogurt into a bowl. Add the diced peach and mix thoroughly. Fill the bottom 1/3 of your popsicle molds with half of the peach and yogurt mixture. Fill the next 1/3 of your molds with French Vanilla yogurt. Finally, add the other half of the peach yogurt mixture to your molds.
After the molds are full take a knife and mix up your yogurts to make a swirl pattern. Insert the knife and move it up and down 3 to 4 times in each mold. Don’t mix too much as you still want to keep your 2 flavors separate.
Insert sticks and place in the freezer. Freeze until solid.

 

These popsicles are so easy and make a great wholesome summer snack. I can’t think of a better way to cool down on a summer afternoon.

 

 

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Yoplait®. The opinions and text are all mine.

 

Learn With Play: 150 Activities for Year-Round Fun & Learning

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I’m so happy to tell you about a great new book that I co-authored with my friends from the Kid Blogger Network. Learn With Play: 150+ Activities for Year-Round Fun & Learning is packed full of good stuff.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links including Amazon affiliate links. As a co-author, I do benefit from every copy sold. To find out more, please read my disclosure.

Check it out:

This book stands out in a lot of ways. Not only are there a ton of fun activities, but:

  • It was authored by 94 members of the Kid Blogger Network. Every single author is committed to learning with play. With so many authors, you’ll find an amazing variety of fun for your kids. I promise you’ll find plenty of activities your kids will love.
  • It’s bright, colorful, and easy to read. If you get the hard-cover copy, your kids will have a blast thumbing through it to figure out what to do.
  • Not only will you find tons of great activities, but you’ll be linked to all of the authors’ blogs. You will never run out of ideas!
Here’s a peek of what you might see inside. Take a look:
You’ll find learning activities, just for fun activities, play recipes, toddler activities, and so much more.
Are you ready to snag a copy? You can get this in a e-book format, Kindle format, or hard-cover. Click any of the links below to purchase.
 Ebook price: $14.95. Click here to purchase.
Kindle – $14.95 at Amazon.com
Hardcover – $29.95 at Amazon.com
And, can I ask a favor? If you purchase the Kindle or hardcover cover, I would really appreciate it if you would be willing to leave a review on Amazon. I’ll send you a big virtual hug!!

Surviving the Sidelines

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Soccer, baseball, swimming, lacrosse… have you been sitting on the sidelines of your kid’s activities lately? We don’t do it nearly as much as other families, but enough to realize the dilemma of the bored child who is NOT participating. Oftentimes, it’s the younger siblings that are on the sidelines, but in the case of our family, my oldest daughter is finding herself more and more on the sidelines.
While I’m happy that my youngest is discovering activities that she loves, I also understand my oldest not always being eager to come along. It’s not always fun to sit on the sidelines. So, what to do?
Disclaimer: Thank you to Parragon Books for providing the fun activity book showcased in this post. All opinions are my own. This post also contains Amazon Affiliate links. Please see my disclosure for more details.
Books – If your child is a bookworm, they may be perfectly willing to sit and read the entire time they are waiting on the sidelines. But, sometimes they just may not be in the mood. We always bring along a book as one option. It’s easy to carry along and can sit in the car if not needed. You can’t go wrong with a book of choice.
 
Activity Books – Activity books have saved the day a few times. My 8-year-old can go through page after page on her own. A recent favorite was Totally Brain-Bending Puzzles from Parragon Books. It was challenging, but not too hard. Plus there was such a great mix of puzzles that she didn’t feel like she was doing the save thing over and over again. This is probably her favorite sideline activity. Don’t forget a supply of pencils and a small pencil sharpener!
Pencil and Paper Games – You can play a ton of games with just a pencil and paper. Bring along a notebook and a supply of pencils and you’re all set. You can play Paper Golf. Hop on over to Mama Smiles for the instructions. Tiny Rotten Peanuts has a collection of 10 Drawing Games. Several would be perfect for the sidelines.  Or, you can play Dots and Boxes. Find out how at What Do We Do All Day.
Travel Activity Kits – Have you seen all those great ideas for travel activity kits all over Pinterest? Many of them are also perfect for the sidelines. Try one of these 20+ Road Trip Activity Ideas curated by Childhood 101. Or, print off one of these Roadtrip Drawing Prompts over at Picklebums.
Movement! – No matter the age, your kid on the sideline is going to need to move. Depending on their age, they may be able to walk around a bit themselves. Let them stretch, do a few yoga moves, jump, or even run. Just because they’re not the ones participating, doesn’t mean they have to sit around the whole time.
 
Stay Hydrated – Your little athlete isn’t the only one that needs to stay hydrated. Make sure to bring along water for those sitting on the sidelines. And, if you’ll be there awhile, bring along a healthy snack.
What are your best ideas for keeping kids happy on the sidelines?

Addition with Rocks: An Outdoor Math Activity

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Whether your child is just learning a new math concept or needs help reinforcing a skill, math manipulatives are always a big help.

Manipulatives aren’t just a fancy new math term, nor is it something you need to run out and purchase.  It’s simply a group of small items used to illustrate a math concept.

I’m teaming up with a group of bloggers to showcase ordinary items you probably already have at home and the fun ways you can use them to reinforce math concepts. We’ll be doing some addition with rocks. It’s a great indoor or outdoor math activity.

Practice math in the backyard with this for outdoor math activity, Addition With Rocks, which uses rocks as a math manipulative to work on adding.

We’re using a basic item, rocks.

With rocks, you can do math anywhere… in your house, in your backyard, on a camping trip, in the park.

They’re easy to find. And, if your kids are anything like mine, you may already have a nice collection of rocks at home.

We’re using them to reinforce addition skills, but they can be used in many other ways.

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links. Please see my Disclosure Page for more details.

Practice math in the backyard with this for outdoor math activity, Addition With Rocks, which uses rocks as a math manipulative to work on adding.

My youngest daughter just finished kindergarten where they started learning the basics of addition.

She understands the concept, but doesn’t have her facts memorized. (It’s a bit too early for that anyway.)

Right now, the reinforcement she needs is to work on is the concept and manipulatives are perfect for the job.

How do we illustrate addition with rocks?

It’s simple.

Check out the picture above. The problem we need to solve is 3 + 2.

Add 3 rocks and then another 2 rocks. Add the rocks together and you have 5. Easy peasy.

Practice math in the backyard with this for outdoor math activity, Addition With Rocks, which uses rocks as a math manipulative to work on adding.

Even before a child is writing the number sentences, they can start learning the basics with manipulatives.

Make 2 piles of rocks and ask your child how many rocks they have all together.

Or, start with a small group of 3 rocks. Ask your child to add 2 more to the pile, and then ask them how many they have all together.

It can be a very simple way to sneak in a bit of math practice.

Other fun ways to use rock manipulatives:

Practice subtraction. Start with a pile of 7 rocks and ask your child to take away 3 rocks. How many do they have left?

Use the rocks to help when adding 3 or more numbers together.

Do you have toddlers or preschoolers? Use them simply to learn how to count. Help them count a small pile of rocks. Or, ask them to collect 10 rocks.

Have you ever practiced addition with rocks?

Practice math in the backyard with this for outdoor math activity, Addition With Rocks, which uses rocks as a math manipulative to work on adding.

Rocks aren’t the only fun everyday math manipulative you can use. Check out all the great ideas from a group of fantastic bloggers at this link, or on the image below.

You may also enjoy one of these fun math activities:

Plus 1 Minus 1: An Easy Math Game

Number Stories at the Park

Driveway Hundred Chart

Math Fact Sticks

Paper Plate Addition at Better Than Homework

Activities for Kids Who Want to Save the Earth

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My youngest daughter recently had her birthday. After tossing about party themes for a few weeks prior, she came home from school one day and told me she wanted a “Save the Earth” birthday party.

Her kindergarten class had been doing a lot of earth-friendly activities in the days leading up to Earth Day this year. She was inspired and she wanted to do a few activities for kids who want to save the earth.

Recycle, reuse, and learn with these fun activities for kids who want to save the earth. These ideas are fun for elementary kids, tweens, and their families.

She had a few friends over for her birthday and we planted seeds, made bird feeders from recycled materials, had a recycling relay race, and tried to be very conscious of our waste (i.e. no fancy decorations or little plastic toys). The kids had a ton of fun.

Ever since then, she’s become my tiny earth warrior. She’s interested in learning all about saving the earth.

I’ve been looking for fun ideas to help her learn all she can. I’ve rounded up some fun activities for kids who want to save the earth. These ideas are perfect for Earth Day or any day.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Recycle, reuse, and learn with these fun activities for kids who want to save the earth. These ideas are fun for elementary kids, tweens, and their families.

Fun activities for kids who want to save the Earth

Have a day of service and clean up your neighborhood with What’s Up Fagans? It’s such a simple idea, but a very effective one. This would be a great idea for a group activity.

Create and decorate recycling sorting bins with Every Star is Different. You have to scroll down to the end of the post for instructions. While you’re there, check out all the other fun activities!

Learn about ways to conserve water with KCEdventures. Read some books, come up with ideas and put them into practice.

Speaking of water, what is water pollution and how can you prevent it? Find out with these fun activities from One Time Through.

What is a carbon footprint? Find out with this fun activity from Kitchen Counter Chronicles.

Switch from paper to cloth. Kitchen Counter Chronicles has an easy tutorial for making cloth napkins. Help your beginning sewer make a set, or let the kids be in charge of choosing the fabric.

Attract butterflies to your yard. Plant some of these plants recommended by The Garden Glove. Or, make a DIY butterfly feeder like this one from Reading Confetti.

Grow your own food. Try one of the quick-growing vegetables in this post from Rainy Day Mum.

Feed the birds. Create a bird feeder from a recycled milk carton like this one from Red Ted Art.  Or you can make a simple bird feeder from pine cones like these from Juggling With Kids.

Upcycle! Use materials from the recycle bin to make crafts. Here are some of our favorite craft supplies from the recycle bin.

Make and give a gift that helps the earth. Everyone would love to get one of these recycled paper seed cards from Fireflies and Mud Pies.

Which one of these activities would your kids love to do?

You may also like one of these fun kids activities:

Earth Day Pledge – Turn Off the Lights!

Family Bird Watching Club

Let’s Go on a Listening Walk

Volunteer as a Family – Support Your Local Food Bank