Most people have spent a lot more time indoors this past year than they would have liked. Now that we are all starting to slowly emerge into the sunlight again, this is the perfect time of year to show our planet all the appreciation it deserves. With that in mind, here are five super easy ways to have fun while making a difference this Earth Day.

1. Family trip

It’s been said that passion starts with education. Instead of just filling up that blue bin this week, load up your recyclables into your vehicle and drive on down to your local recycling center. Seeing the large bins that separate each type of material, physically depositing items into the bins with their own hands, and witnessing the entire community contributing to this effort will leave a lasting impression on your children.

2. Have a contest

Over an entire week or for just one day, have everyone in the family compete to see who can collect the most recyclable items. Old newspapers, plastic packaging, cardboard boxes are all fair game. Just make sure the little ones don’t collect things that are still being used. Also be prepared to reward the winner with an appropriate prize. In our house that would be ice cream.

3. One person’s trash

Many items that are commonly thrown away could be repurposed in creative ways. You can use old paper towel tubes and some paint to make a beautiful pencil holder. Cut the tops of some paper milk cartons and use them to plant some herbs for your kitchen. Gather some large cardboard boxes, some scissors and a paint brush to make an awesome secret fort for your kids. Every little bit of reused trash makes a difference.

4. Paper of plastic? Neither

If you are like our family you have lots of cardboard boxes that either take up space in the garage or get folded into stacks for recycling. The next time you go grocery shopping, take some medium sized boxes cut in half with you. Instead of getting grocery bags, place all of your items into the boxes. Not only will they be easy to carry, but they also won’t spill everywhere while you are driving.

5. Farm fresh

An inordinate amount of trash is produced from the packaging of food. Try visiting a local famer’s market once a week. Even purchasing some vegetables and fruits you would normally buy at a store will reduce a significant amount of waste packaging over time. Oh and a great way to transport all of your farmer’s market loot back home? Those boxes you made in #4.

I hope you and your family will try at least one of the ideas in this list. Let’s all strive to tell the world that we learned something, we had fun, and we made a difference. Happy Earth Day everyone! Don’t forget to share your Earth Day activities with us by posting on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with #mothergooseclub.

Teaching your children literacy can be a lot simpler (and much more fun) than it sounds. Sometimes, all it takes to get through to your kids is a creative, entertaining way to do it, and this Alphabet Bean Craft/Game is a perfect example. This activity is great for helping kids visualize the letters of the alphabet and interact with them in a hands-on way. Here’s how it works!

Materials:

You don’t need too much for this craft. Everything you need can be found in your own home, or in your local supermarket. The materials are…

• Dry butter beans
• Muffin liners
• Small alphabet stickers (small enough to fit on a bean)
• Muffin tray (optional)

(Note: If you don’t want to use stickers, or if you don’t have any available, you can use a sharpie marker instead)

Step 1 – The Muffin Liners

After you’ve assembled all your materials for this activity, the first step is to take your muffin liners and let your kids stick one letter of the alphabet at the bottom of each one. Do this 26 times until you have at least one muffin liner for every letter.

Step 2 – The Butter Beans

Next, take the rest of your stickers and put a letter on each bean until you have one bean for each letter of the alphabet as shown in the picture above.

Step 3 – Have Fun!

Now, let the games begin! Let your kids match each lettered bean with the accompanying muffin liner to get them familiar with their ABC’s. When they’re done with that, there are a host of other activities they can do with these beans and muffin liners as well. For example, you can call out a word and let your kids find the right beans to spell it out. Or, you can put several different letters in a muffin liner and challenge them to come up with as many different words as they can using only those letters.

Using nothing but beans, muffin liners and stickers, you can come up with dozens of different ways to teach your kids about letters, spelling, words, and phonetics—all of which are skills they’ll need their entire lives. What Alphabet Bean ideas can you come up with? Let us know on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter using #mothergooseclub.

Mother Goose Club’s eclectic library of kids songs are designed to inspire kids (and even parents!) to get up and dance, all while developing important language skills. So in the spirit of International Dance Day, gather the family around and get the dance party started with MGC songs! We hope the resources below will help inspire a day of joyful learning in your household.

Stream Us

Mother Goose Club songs are available on all major streaming platforms. Follow us on your favorites, and rhyme with us at home or on-the-go!

• Mother Goose Club on Spotify
• Mother Goose Club on Apple Music
• Mother Goose Club on Amazon Music
• Mother Goose Club on Pandora
• Mother Goose Club on Google Play Music

Read With Us

Mother Goose Club board books make early literacy a joy for kids and caregivers. “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe” features Jack, Teddy and Bo Peep dancing and counting. Introduce simple number concepts and inspire movement with this classic.

Watch Us

And of course, Mother Goose Club’s video catalog includes plenty of dancing and playing. Try some of our favorites below to inspire fun, family activity for International Dance Day…or any day!

ABC Dance With Me:

Rockin’ Robot:

Rig-a-Jig-Jig:

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes:

Doctor from France Disco Dance:

Share With Us!

We hope your family enjoys dancing along with us! Share your favorite moments on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter using #mothergooseclub!

Rachel

Rachel is a Mother Goose Club producer and former teacher based in Las Vegas, Nevada. She enjoys hosting celebrations for all ages centered around crafts and activities. Rachel is excited to share her favorite things with you, and hopes to inspire your family to get creative!

I’m hosting a small Easter celebration with some of my favorite people and kids this weekend. This playful dessert is sure to delight them and work as festive decor! I really enjoyed making these because piping the grass frosting isn’t hard and you can have kids help each step of the way if you want (we’ve got lots of other activities planned for this gathering, so I’ll keep the baking to a minimum day of – I’ll have kids who want to feel involved add their own jelly bean eggs).

I’ve outlined some tips below! Be sure to use #mothergooseclub on social media to share pictures and videos of your Easter baking adventures – can’t wait to see what you come up with!

• Place your stencil at the top fold and when you cut out your bunny, make sure the ears stay connected at the top, giving you two sides -front and back (though I just opted for doing bunny backs on each side since a tail is easier to draw than a face!).
• Use a crayon in a slightly darker shade to outline your bunny and add a tail – the outline really makes them pop and the tail is just so cute.
• Use hot glue to attach your craft stick between each side of your bunny and then add a few small dots to connect the paper bunny edges completely.

• Bake chocolate cupcakes with your favorite recipe – I just used a box from the supermarket.
• Add drops of food coloring to your frosting until you get your desired shade of green – I wanted mine to feel a little pastel and used about 12 drops.

• I placed the plastic frosting tip in the piping bag first to see where the frosting would come out, made a cut across the bag there and squeezed to get the tip in place.
• Spoon/spatula your frosting into your bag and frost.
• As you gently squeeze the piping bag, pull up and away to get the frosting to disconnect and create the grass effect.
• Finish with a few colorful jellybeans for Easter eggs!

After the holidays, many of us want to take a break from cooking. And as the temperature starts to drop, I always crave warm soups!

Vegetable soups are great because they’re easy to make, they can feed everyone in the family (including young children), and leftovers can be frozen and saved for the next meal.

One of my favorites to make at home is organic butternut squash soup. It’s so much better than buying soup out of a can. This one has no preservatives and you can control the sodium amount. It also takes less time than you think!

Ingredients:

• 2lbs of pre-cut organic butternut squash cubes (many groceries store-sell pre-cut pieces so the hard work is done and saves a ton of time)

• 1 tablespoon of Celtic salt

• 1 tablespoon of fresh ground pepper

• 1 can of unsweetened organic coconut milk (I like the Native Forest brand below), or heavy cream

Native Forest Simple Organic Unsweetened Coconut Milk

Steps:

1. Boil the squash cubes in a large pot for about 10 minutes. Make sure there’s enough water to immerse the pieces.

2. Once the squash is softened, transfer it to a bowl and let it cool for a few minutes.

3. In a blender, put the cooked pieces with 2 cups of its cooking liquid and add the can of coconut milk. Add salt and pepper.

4. Blend away for 2-3 minutes (I love to use my Vitamix blender as it can blend hot liquids – with other blenders, you may have to let the ingredients cool down before blending).

And voila! You will have yummy soup (about 6 cups, or 48 ounces) to last you for several meals. I like to save leftovers in Ziploc bags or containers. I date and freeze them, and when I’m too tired to cook, I just defrost them and dinner is ready once again!

Cheers to joyful cooking,
Clara

It’s the holiday season and that means “…there’ll be parties for hosting, marshmallows for toasting and caroling out in the snow!” Even if there’s no snow where you live, caroling with holiday songs from Mother Goose Club (around the house, in the car, or in your community) can be a great way to get your kids in the holiday spirit.

Singing your favorite holiday songs with the kids is a great way to get them to practice expressing emotions through song. The next time you’re making a mental note of how fun it is to be singing “Jingle Bells” at the top of your lungs together in the car, know that you’re helping your child develop important social emotional skills. While it may be easier for grownups to bring mindfulness to, or articulate the warm, fuzzy nostalgic feelings that come from holiday songs – it’s really no different for kids. The sense of familiarity and memories they associate with holiday music can make them feel safe, secure and loved – so sing, sing, sing!

We’ve got your holiday music needs covered! Our songs are paced appropriately for even your youngest children, which allows them to hear, follow and better understand the words and sing more confidently (kids learn words better when they’re singing them). Our growing collection of nursery rhyme videos can also help build vocabulary by providing rich, visual context and repetition. While we can’t promise your child might not think “A party in a pear tree” was what your true love gave on the first day of Christmas, we can promise building vocabulary will be a fun journey for everyone involved.

Our Kids Holiday Hits playlist on Spotify and our Holiday Songs & Christmas Videos playlist on YouTube are great places to start your caroling adventure. Do you use another music platform? See below for links to all the places you can stream Mother Goose Club holiday songs this year, and for more tips on singing with your child, watch “How To Sing With Your Kids” from our Show Me How series.

Stream Mother Goose Club on Apple Music

Stream Mother Goose Club on Spotify

Stream Mother Goose Club on Amazon Music

Stream Mother Goose Club on Pandora

Stream Mother Goose Club on Google Play Music

Share With Us!

Are you streaming Mother Goose Club holiday songs? Does your child have a favorite song they love to sing along to? Maybe you have a funny lyric mix-up story! Share with us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter using #mothergooseclub. We love celebrating with Mother Goose Club families around the world!

Happy caroling!

It’s often challenging to get your kids to eat a variety of foods. One thing that has helped me is a face plate!

Check out the holiday plate I made with my daughter! She couldn’t wait to dig into her afternoon snack and Santa Claus never looked so delicious! I used homemade vanilla maple-cream frosting for Santa’s beard and eyebrows, and organic strawberries for his hat. Vanilla whipped cream is super easy to make with an electric mixer. I use my KitchenAid Mixer, but you can also use any handheld brand.

For some extra fun and creativity, I use Fred & Friends Food Plates, available on Amazon right below. I love using the Mrs. Fred plate to serve a variety of vegetables!

Fred MR. FOOD FACE Kids’ Ceramic Dinner Plate

Fred MRS. FOOD FACE Kids’ Ceramic Dinner Plate

To make your very own face plate with the family, see all of the ingredients and steps below!

Ingredients:

• 1 pint heavy whipping cream (I use Organic Valley)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons organic maple syrup
• Organic strawberries

Steps:

1. Start whipping the cream slowly in the mixer, gradually increasing the speed.

2. Once the cream starts to stiffen, mix in vanilla extract and maple syrup for flavor. If you don’t have time, you can use a store-bought whipped cream – I like the 365 Whole Foods brand. If you’re dairy-free, you can use whipped cream made with almond milk or coconut milk.

3. Cover Mr. or Mrs. Fred’s jawline and eyebrows with whipped cream, and the hairline with strawberries.

That’s it! So simple! Have fun decorating face plates using healthy (or not so healthy) ingredients – it’s a great opportunity to get creative and a little silly with the family!

Cheers to joyful eating,
Clara

One of my secrets in the kitchen is incorporating math while teaching my daughter how to cook. Cooking is a terrific way to introduce simple mathematical concepts, allowing children to begin conceptualizing and understanding addition, multiplication, fractions, number order, ratios and more.

So what is a good recipe that’s doable for kids? Pancakes! Our family eats gluten-free, so we use a pancake mix called Pamela’s Baking & Pancake Mix, found on Amazon at the link below. It tastes so good that even my friends who aren’t gluten-free absolutely LOVE it. It comes with simple, mistake-proof instructions on the back.

Pamela’s Products Baking & Pancake Mix

How do I use pancakes to teach math? First, I ask my daughter to measure how many cups of the mix we need to make for the number of people we plan to serve. If the package says you need 1 cup of the mix for 4 people, how many cups do we need for 8 people? Voila – 2 cups it is!

We love adding bananas into the pancakes – it naturally adds that extra sweetness. I ask my daughter to slice the bananas into equal parts, which teaches basic division and cutting skills. If each pancake needs 5 slices of banana, how many do we need to make 8 pancakes? 40 banana slices!

Next, we add the eggs. Encourage your child read the directions on the package to decipher the amount needed.

Make sure to use another bowl to crack the eggs, since little pieces of shell can fall into the mixing bowl. You can also introduce a concept called mise en place, a French culinary term that means “everything in its place”, so that your family can cook more efficiently and safely.

Time to mix the batter! Kids LOVE this part – one less task for the parent!

Fire up the stove, use a little coconut oil in your pan to give the pancakes a nutty flavor, and scoop your batter into the pan. You should wait until bubbles form at the edge of the pancake as it cooks, and then flip it just once.

An opportunity to instill patience!

Now the best part – pouring maple syrup on top!

Sometimes I ask my daughter to cut the pancakes in halves or quarters as a serving size, which illustrates division in a real-world way.

You can also add blueberries, walnuts and other ingredients of your choosing. Kids love chocolate, of course. I like to use Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips, which can also be found on Amazon below. They’re dairy-free, soy-free and nut-free.

Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Vegan Chocolate Chips

And there you have it! In just 20-30 minutes, thoroughly delicious and healthy pancakes for the family! Plus, we learned some math along the way! It’s become one of my favorite activities to do on a Saturday morning. The most important part is the quality time – be creative and have fun with it together!

Cheers to joyful eating,
Clara

Lou, Lou, skip to my Lou.
Lou, Lou, skip to my Lou.
Lou, Lou, skip to my Lou.
Skip to my Lou, my darling.

Flies in the buttermilk, shoo fly shoo.
Flies in the buttermilk, shoo fly shoo.
Flies in the buttermilk, shoo fly shoo.
Skip to my Lou, my darling.

Cows in the cornfield, moo cow moo.
Cows in the cornfield, moo cow moo.
Cows in the cornfield, moo cow moo.
Skip to my Lou, my darling.

Going to the market, two by two.
Going to the market, two by two.
Going to the market, two by two.
Skip to my Lou, my darling.

Lost my partner, what’ll I do?
Lost my partner, what’ll I do?
Lost my partner, what’ll I do?
Skip to my Lou, my darling.

I’ll get another one, nice and new.
I’ll get another one, nice and new.
I’ll get another one, nice and new.
Skip to my Lou, my darling.

Lou, Lou, skip to my Lou.
Lou, Lou, skip to my Lou.
Lou, Lou, skip to my Lou.
Skip to my Lou, my darling.
Skip to my Lou, my darling.
Skip to my Lou, my darling.

View on YouTube!

This little piggy went to market.
This little piggy stayed home.
This little piggy had roast beef.
This little piggy had none.
This little piggy went
Wee wee wee
All the way home.

This little piggy went to market.
This little piggy stayed home.
This little piggy had roast beef.
This little piggy had none.
This little piggy went
Wee wee wee
All the way home.

View on YouTube!

This little piggy went to market.
This little piggy stayed home.
This little piggy had roast beef.
This little piggy had none.
This little piggy went
Wee wee wee
All the way home.

This little piggy jumped up.
This little piggy sat down.
This little piggy wouldn’t take a nap.
This little piggy ran around.
This little piggy put his nose in a book
And never made a sound.

This little piggy took a bus.
This little piggy took a train.
This little piggy took a taxi cab.
This little piggy took an airplane.
This little piggy, she missed the boat
And sat there singing in the rain.

This little piggy went to market.
This little piggy stayed home.
This little piggy had roast beef.
This little piggy had none.
This little piggy went
Wee wee wee
All the way home.

This little piggy went
Wee wee wee
All the way home.