Natural Dye Easter Eggs

What do cabbage and beets have to do with Easter eggs?

Over the last several years, a tradition I have really enjoyed bringing into my home and classroom is dyeing Easter eggs.  We often just buy a dyeing kit, but when I’m feeling super industrious, we make natural dyes! This can be a lot more work, but if you’re up for it, it offers you a chance to experiment and produce some stunning colors.  What ingredients produce the best colors? The ones I’ve had the most success with are 1. Beets, 2. purple Cabbage, and 3. Tumeric. You can also try red or yellow onion skins, paprika, coffee and blueberries for fun results.

There are many different recipes online, but the best one I’ve found uses just 2 cups of water along with 1 teaspoon of salt and a bit of vinegar, along with whatever gives the color.  This recipe combo is simple, but has great results. See full recipe at end for quantities.  

Method:  Place your ingredient of choice in two cups of water along with 1 teaspoon of salt.  Bring water to boil and continue at a rolling boil for 15 minutes. Strain the water and place in a dish.  Add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar and allow to cool before using. Children can help add ingredients to the pot to make dyes.  This can be done a day ahead, but if so, keep them in the fridge.

Tips:  Don’t forget to hard boil your eggs… white eggs produce more brilliant colors.  

Tricks:  Beyond solid colored eggs, optional ways to engage kids can include making patterns on the eggs with a white crayons before you dye, or wrapping them with rubber bands - riffs on batik.  The white crayon is like a magic trick to most children, that they won’t quite understand until after the ‘big reveal’ happens in the dye.

How Long?  The longer the better.

Recipe:  So, how much cabbage, or turmeric, etc do you put in the water?

Each of these options makes a different color:

1 chopped Beet (skins are fine)

2 cups chopped Cabbage

2 tablespoons Turmeric powder or ¾ cup fresh

2 tablespoons Paprika

2 cups red Onion Skin

2 cups yellow Onion Skin

1 cup Blueberries



Hamburger’s Outing

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Hello everyone!

Today I want to share a little story of Hamburger. Hamburger is a female Russian tortoise who lives in P.S.S. classroom. You might find her presenting herself in front of curious eyes of children at circle time. She gives invaluable lesson on how to make silence and use a watching body. She has an amazing power and charisma. She can even calm down a child who is having a big emotional outburst. When I speak to her, she listens to me and looks me in the eyes.(I'm not imagining that. It's true!) Overall she is purely awesome.

Many people might think that tortoises are slow and low energy animals. Well, not our Hamburger. She can move from one place to another in a jiffy! When she roams around in our classroom during the nap time, our non napper explorers are often in charge of keeping track of her movement because she moves so fast.

She is pretty chill and relaxed inside her small shelter, but She needs to go outside and get some exercise. So We visited Nia House to care for her last week. After she had a big bowl of fresh green salad for lunch, we took her out of the terrarium. She was ready for an expedition. 

She walked all over the yard. She ate a whole bunch of dandelion flowers which are her absolute favorite. The afternoon with Hamburger was relaxing. It let us hear the faintest sound we miss all the time. We listened to the sound of her feet rustling in the grass. We held our breath to hear her eat dandelion flowers. She gave me a chance to slow down and focus on what's in front of me. 

Parenting Stress

Hello, dear families.

Parenting stress is real. Experiencing heightened stress or anxiety right now is a normal experience.

If you need immediate parenting support, please do not hesitate to call:

Parenting Stress Helpline

800-829-3777

Parenting Stress Helpline provides free and confidential counseling, information and referrals to anyone in need of parenting support. You have access to caring helpline counselors for anonymous calls at any time, or schedule regular call backs to support you with your parenting or family concerns. Parenting Stress Helpline also can refer you to Family Paths’ services and 900+ Alameda County resources.

You can also visit FAMILY PATHS WEBSITE for access to parenting tips and classes.

HELP ME GROW

Help Me Grow Alameda County is a system that collaborates with agencies, families and providers across the county to help ensure children ages birth – 5 years reach their optimal development.

To achieve this, Help Me Grow

  • Provides FREE and confidential support in early childhood development

  • Promotes early identification of developmental concerns

  • Helps families access resources

  • Builds the capacity of early childhood providers

  • Partners with families, agencies and providers to build a strong network of services

You can call Help Me Grow: 888-510-1211

NIA HOUSE

Schedule a meeting with a Nia House teacher to discuss behavioral challenges and strategies. We are here for you!

Click here to schedule a meeting.





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Waterworks with Sydnee and Esme

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Supplies Needed:

·      Designated work space

·      2 bowls (similar in size)

·      Water

·      Sponge

·      Rag or towel (for clean-up)

Directions (all of these can be done by your child):

1.    Find a work space that you do not mind getting wet.

2.   Fill up one of the bowls, about halfway.

3.    Place bowls side-by-side

4.    Place sponge in the bowl with water.

5.    Squeeze the sponge in the bowl with water, transfer the sponge to the empty bowl, and squeeze it again!

6.    Continue until the empty bowl is filled with water, and the other bowl is empty.

Objectives of this work:

·      Practices dexterity, fine motor skills

·      Helps child practice clean up water messes

·      Child gets a visual of moving the water from one bowl to the next

·      Sensory: child feels the temperature of water, water trickling from sponge to bowl