Make Your Own Hummus—Let Your Children In On The Fun!

Humming Hummus

One of my all time favorite concoction to eat is hummus.  

It is delicious, nutritious and tastes nothing like chicken!

Classic hummus

Rightfully so—a child’s taste buds should be opened to a variety of foods—so, use hummus as a go to snack of humongous proportions! Mostly used as a dip, an assortment of edible digging utensils adds to the lovely nutritive value of this chow. Skip those salty potato chips—instead have your children cut cucumber chips, slice up carrot, celery, and sweet pepper sticks—even radish slices. Rad right! Use your own favorite vegetables for the children to clean, prep and eat as hummus scoops. Come to think of it, I’ve used tomato wedges also! Pita wedges are popular but I don't use them—prefer blue corn chips—infusing some Tex-Mex flavors (see Additional Ingredients list below.)

Introducing 'Ping Parenting'

The Equator of Life

"The middle region of our being is the temperate zone. 

We may climb into the thin and cold realm of pure geometry and lifeless science, 

or sink into that of sensation. 

Between these extremes is the equator of life, of thought, of spirit, of poetry, 

— a narrow belt."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ping Parenting

An ideal situation for a newborn growing up over the first five years of life—before formalized schooling—would be to have adults who were not 'Helicopter' parents, who were not authoritarian parents, who were not neglectful parents. There is a sweet spot in-between for the ideal parent, and therefore, the ideal environment for children.

The sweet spot on a baseball bat is about a third of the way down from the end or tip of the bat. This is where the ball upon contact will 'ping' off the bat and soar back in jubilation!

Hands Free Life

After reading Hands Free Life: 9 Habits for overcoming Distraction, Living Better, and Loving More by Rachel Macy Stafford, I began to understand myself better. Her poetic, philosophical, spiritual, and above all, inspirational writing reminds me of Kahil Gibran's masterpiece, The Prophet. But Stafford is also a contemporary Maria Montessori. Perhaps, a beautiful blend of the two.

Compassion is contagious!

Lighthearted Fathering

Playfulness with Purpose 

The approach I took with my daughter, Anna, when she was a baby, toddler, infant, K12, college... has always been playful with purpose. I consider myself a happy person so it was natural for me to transfer this to everything I did with my daughter from the first zurburt on her baby belly 28 years ago, to the rhyming silliness I shout during a rousing game of Bannagrams today.

Anna and her pops

Here are five areas that were a part of Anna's daily life with her Papa:

All Are Significant

Elevating Community

Everyone in any given community is important. That might be a neighborhood community, a work community, a school community.  Recognizing custodians in the community has been in the news lately. This post celebrates the often overlooked role of custodians, including the fact that they have private lives with family. In fact, I have a custodian in my immediate family to honor. 

Finding Awe In Children

The Fear in Awe

When we become parents for the first time we experince awe in all its glory. The reverence of something greater than ourselves. The admiration of a living miracle. Also, the fear about everything connected to becoming a parent... fear that we won't know how to handle the baby, fear that we aren't

Real Neat Blog Award

This Award is Recognition for Trying to Make a Difference 

I would like to thank The Peaceful Papa for his nomination of Papa Green Bean for the Real Neat Blog Award. The Peaceful Papa's Facebook page is full of positive tips on raising children. In fact, his wife just delivered a little baby girl less than a week ago. He is blogging in real neat daddy time!

Time To Rhyme

Using Poetry with your Children

Poetry is as simple as saying to your two year old, "I don't suppose you can touch your nose with your toes?" or, "Before you put on your pants, shake out any ants!"

 I dream of ice cream

This kind of rhyming catches a young child's attention and forces them to smile, but also to think. One of the reasons I did these fun exchanges with my daughter was because it kept me engaged in some of the daily activities like getting dressed... always an advocate for living life with a smile...

Five Good Reasons To Spank Your Child*

Five Good Reasons To Spank Your Child*

1.   Love -  You have to love your child enough to be tough and do what is necessary to get the desired result. Parent first, friend second.   

Thank you, mama... I trust you, now

2.  You want to be respected - 
To be feared (in the sense of reverence) is to be respected. Your children should be afraid of going against your rules. It also teaches them to submit to authority regardless of whether or not they agree.

The Love Of Learning

         What Does It Take To Love To Learn?

Introduction: 
Being a truly successful parent means instilling the love of learning into your child. That's it! Once they have it, they'll have it forever. You don't lose the love of learning once you have it.

This two minute video, Confidence in self and baby, has gone viral and for good reason. Please watch.

Also, Confidence in self and baby makes a simple but profound point. It is not about the overuse of technology. It is about a parent having enough self-confidence to do the right thing for his child.

My parents let me be an artist on the sidewalk with colored chalk when I was two!

The love of learning is a human trait that we are all born with. If people do not have an instinctual curiosity it is because it has been taken away from them at a young age. Many individuals are robbed of this 'key to life' because the major influencers in their life don't have it and/or don't know how to allow it to become a permanent part of their young ones persona. 

Role Modeling Play: Letting Loose

Laugh and Your Child Laughs With You

Think back for a moment of pure childlike joy as a youth.

Perhaps it was racing bikes through a field, or playing whiffle ball in a random made-up 'park', or playing 'hide and seek and tag' at night. I did all these many times. The last one we called "Capture The Flag" using plastic bowling pins as the flags. There were prisons, 'free' bases and other rules we made up all agreeing to... pretty exciting!

Simon says "Live-Laugh-Love"

Research shows that spontaneous play in youth helps us deal with life's challenges, innovate, think more creatively, and have, of course, tons of fun!

In his book, Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul, Stewart Brown says not only can play be beneficial, it's actually essential. He states,

"The opposite of play is not work, the opposite of play is depression".

Nurturing Human Nature

 Baby's "Joie-de-Vivre" 

Introduction

Yes! Babies are born ready to work at learning. Humans are born with "creative sensitivities". It is due to these that the whole psychic life of the individual stands upon a foundation which is laid down in the first years of life. No! Babies are not born lazy.

"Let's Walk To The Park"

Ruby and John Take A Walk 

My friend, Ruby, and I are spending the day together. Ruby is just over two years old. It’s a bright late afternoon.

Ha

Who wants to go to the park?