These recipes are quick, nutritious, kids will love them and enjoy making them – especially the messy moulding or crumbing part!

Vegetable Nuggets
Process uncooked but defrosted ready cut vegetable mix. Add a pinch of salt and enough flour to make a workable paste.  Place on a baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes at 200c until crisp.

Fish fingers
Slice hake fillets into bite sized pieces, dip in flour, beaten egg and breadcrumbs. Bake at 200c for 10 minutes until crisp.

 ‘Fried’ Chicken
Mix freshly grated breadcrumbs with salt, paprika, and BBQ spice. Dip chicken braai cut pieces into flour, egg then crumb mixture. Bake at 180c for 40 minutes or cooked through

 Beef Burgers
Fry until soft finely diced onion, mix into beef mince, egg, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper. Mix well. Form balls and squish to make patties. Grill until golden brown on each side. Let the kids make their own burgers with a selection of greens, relishes and condiments.

 Oven baked potato, sweet potatoe or butternut wedges
Cut washed unpeeled potatoes,  sweet potato and/or  butternut. Boil for 5-10minutes until just going soft. Place on a baking sheet sprayed with cook and bake and roast on a high heat 220c for 20-30 minutes until crisp.

 Lower Fat Fruity Coleslaw
Mix equal quantities grated cabbage (red or white or a combination), and carrot, mix in some raisins and diced pineapple. Mix equal amounts of reduced fat mayonnaise and smooth cottage cheese and simply mix all together.

 Funky Rice Salad
Chop a handful of dried apricots, peaches, mangoes and apples together. Mix into cold rice with a tin of creamed corn.

 Low Fat Butternut and Feta Pasta salad
Mix cooked and cooled penne pasta with cooked butternut, feta, fat free yoghurt and a squeeze of lemon juice season to taste and serve.

Recipes supplied by Richard Rust, Chef and co owner of Deli SuCasa, Restaurant and Deli, Fourways – “feel at home” – Cell 0741722312 or richard@delisucasa.co.za

By Freda Paxinos, an  educator and  authority on the use of dietary supplements in the effective treatment of ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) and ADHD (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder) in children. Read her   blog

(And, NO,  kids… that should not be “Love and a PS3!)

 We are half way through the first term, and your child should have settled into the school routine by now.

 If he hasn’t, you need to ask yourself  if he’s getting enough sleep, if he’s  stressed out,  getting sufficient exercise, and most importantly, is he eating properly balanced meals that provide him with the essential Vitamins and Minerals needed to stay healthy, energetic and alert?

 Going back to school can be stressful.  There is the anxiety of being in a new class, making new friends, bonding with a new teacher, absorbing more complex information, etc.  Most children deal with all this, with ease, but if your child is battling, get to the bottom of it now.

 Make sure your child gets enough sleep. The “Early to bed, early to rise” verse is not as clichéd as you might think.  A child needs ample sleep in order to concentrate and focus at school.  

But, what about nutrition?Most people lead a fast-paced lifestyle, which can,  unfortunately, lead to bad eating habits.  Sorry mom, but hamburgers and chips, fried chicken or sausages and…errrr…. chips, and pizza (with or without chips) are NOT nutritional meals. Fruit, vegetables, high fibre foods, dairy products, eggs and lean meat and fish are all essential to your child’s well-being.  

 IRON is essential in the building of healthy brain tissue. Research has shown that increased iron levels lead to better concentration in children. If your child is lethargic, apathetic and irritable (well, more than usual!), his iron levels could be low.  Lean beef mince, eggs, dried fruits, nuts, whole grains and green leafy veggies (yep, the dreaded spinach!) are excellent sources of natural iron.    

 PROTEIN is essential “brain food” for children. Your child should be eating small portions of lean meat or fish, eggs, or plant protein such as soya, lentils, tofu and other pulses.

 UNREFINED CARBOHYDRATES will provide the body with the necessary supply of glucose. Wholewheat bread, oats and brown rice are great examples of “good carbs” and they will keep your child’s glycaemic index on an even keel and ensure that his blood sugar is kept at optimum level.

 CALCIUM is vital for the growth of young brains and bones!  Dairy products are an excellent source of calcium.

 OMEGA-3, found mainly in salmon, tuna and sardines, is important for optimal brain function in children, and research has shown that it has proven to be an effective alternative to drugs, in the treatment of ADD and ADHD.

 In conclusion, if your child refuses to eat healthy foods, you need to try and re-educate him, but fortunately, there are scientifically tested natural supplements, yummy fruit flavoured vitamins and delicious protein shakes available on the market.

 If you need advice in this regard, or have any questions, please feel free to ask!

I have to start straight out and say this eagerly awaited adaptation of Alice in Wonderland is not a typical Disney production.  This is Alice all grown up.  Now aged nineteen, Alice is fleeing from a marriage proposal when she follows the mythical white rabbit and tumbles down a hole. Before you can fall into familiar Lewis Carroll territory however, the violent nature of the fall, with objects whizzing frighteningly near her (in 3D) warns that this Alice in Wonderland, though a beautifully crafted and fantastically imaginative cinematic work, is not aimed at young children.

Tim Burton, master director and visionary of movies such as Corpse Bride, Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas makes children’s movies that aren’t really for children. Borrowing loosely from Lewis Carroll’s classic, Burton’s Alice has to save the day by killing the Jabberwocky, the dragon that helps the evil Red Queen rule Wonderland.

The Red Queen is played by Helena Bonham-Carter, Burton’s wife and with her prominent bulbous head and acid, bored tone calling ‘Off with his head” at every turn she is brilliant. The Mad Hatter is Burton’s favourite actor Johnny Depp and although he kept reminding me of a caricature of previous camp and kooky roles he has played, from Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean, he does lend the Hatter a very human side, portraying him as a shattered, post traumatic stress syndrome version of himself; all frizzed out hair and glazed green eyes after the Red Queen’s destruction of Wonderland.

The recurring theme of madness, which dodges both Alice (her ‘dream’ makes her think she is going mad) and the Hatter, adds further darkness and depth to Burton’s version. I think children would be disturbed by Alice’s growing dismay that this is not in fact a dream that she can pinch herself out of.

For all these concerns the movie’s dreamy fantastical landscape and moments of sheer brilliance make it a must-see to share with your older children. When Alice says ‘Curioser and curioser’ this classic saying takes on a new meaning and greater depth when seen as a calm response to our world today which can often seem crazy and out of control. Alice is also portrayed as a strong willed young woman who is not a super hero but rather someone who has to learn to overcome her fears.  At one stage the Hatter tells her; “You’ve lost your much-ness Alice, you used to be much more much”, striking a note about the need to be ourselves and realize our potential, which Alice learns by the time she faces up to the Jabberwocky.

AGE RESTRICTION:  10M which means 10 with mature content – so use your discretion. For sensitive children, I would wait for 12. I do have a problem with the way movies and media in general assume that because children are becoming young adults sooner than ever – they can deal with the psychological impact of darker issues and fears.  While they may seem to enjoy it and insist that they are not scared, I don’t believe they always have the emotional maturity to process what they are seeing.

This morning I attended a Pilates class. As usual, I was running late, so I hurriedly grabbed my empty 2 litre Valpre water bottle, filled it with water, and rushed out of the house.

My water bottle was next to my mat, and while doing the downward facing dog (it’s a yoga position), I glanced at my water bottle, which was eye level.

There was a tampon floating in it. It had puffed up to full capacity, as only a tampon can.

My son had obviously been on one of his ferreting missions in my bathroom cupboard that morning, and found my box of tampons. He has displayed a fondness for them before, and who can blame him?

They are neatly shaped, the see-through plastic wrapping comes off in a neat twist way, and after spinning them around your finger by the cool little string thingy, you can drop them down the toilet, at which point they puff up before your very eyes.

He has done this over and over again.

My approach to such behaviour has been to ignore it. I find that when I make a big deal about something, he does it more often, and when I ignore something, he gets bored on his own, and stops doing it. I am a mom of 2 toddlers. I pick my battles.

In retrospect, I guess I should have picked this one to fight.

As I breathed deeply, in and out, along with my class, I chose to ignore the tampon in my clear water bottle entirely. The oxygen and exercise endorphins had clearly gone to my head.

If anyone asked, I reasoned, I would tell them it was a trick of mine to keep water fresh, like putting rice grains in ones salt cellar.

by Gina Jacobson,

Aaron is a pretty well adjusted 2 year old.  He moved from his cot to a big boy bed without a hitch.  He started school with very few tantrums or clingy moments.

What he is not adjusting well to is the fact that daddy has moved out of the home office and into a new office.  He is teary and clingy, he makes me call daddy each morning so he can speak to him and then sobs and begs daddy to come home.

He is suddenly very clingy with me, he cries and wails when I leave him at school in the morning, which he really wasn’t doing that often before and he gets very upset when I leave to go back to work after lunch.

He has also been sick the last few weeks and Im sure that he is still feeling out of sorts from that as well.

It  just breaks my heart to see him sob when daddy goes off to work and when I go back to work after lunch.

What has your experience been with separation anxiety and with anxiety caused by big changes in your little ones life?  Do you have any tips to help us ease through this transition?

by Je’anna Clements, a mother, and certified Aware Parenting Instructor. She helps organise ‘aware parenting‘ support groups,  events for pre-schooled and homeschooled kids in Gauteng plus a new  ‘Kid’s Fun Market’ in Observatory, Johannesburg.

For many parents ‘normal’ seems like something real rather than just a relative mental construction. Sometimes so real it’s not even labelled ‘normal’, but simply ‘life’, or even ‘reality’.

Living in South Africa one has the privilege of seeing a different culture to one’s own, and get the gift of realisation: “oh. They do things differently.” Sadly the next thought is often something like “Time we get everyone modern, learn what’s normal, what’s real.”

Quite apart from my luck in being South African, I grew up with an anthropologist. I learned early on that there are countless cultures out there and that each and every ‘weird’ one considers its ways to be ‘normal’, ‘life’, ‘reality’.

I remember reading about some ‘tribe’ that strapped the soft moldable heads of their newborn babies between two wooden planks so the bones would grow into a conehead shape. For them, this was normal. It’s what you did when a baby was born.

This would be weird, maybe even prosecutable if I did it here and now. Instead, in my culture it seems ‘normal’ for newborns to be put in an incubator.

Just as the very first things that happen to babies are prescribed by culture, so is every other parenting practice thereafter – from where and when it is ‘normal’ for kids to sleep, to how they are disciplined, educated, fed.

We might have slightly individual preferences about our chosen parenting practices – our neighbour spanks, we use time out – but how often do we stop to consider that each and every thing we do with our kids is creating not only a personal relationship but also a cultural orientation? That the state and shape of the world we live in right now, is the way it is, as a direct result of past parenting practices?

The above-mentioned ‘tribe’ happened to be intensely warlike, regularly terrorising and invading the neighbours. But I doubt many new moms consciously thought “well these big planks completely stop me picking up or initially even feeding my baby, which will make him so lonely and confused and angry that the perfect foundation will be laid for the cruel violence our culture will require of him as an adult.”

Just as we today seldom stop to wonder what it means for children to spend the most impressionable bonding hours ever, experiencing busy machines and schedules and ‘things’ rather than being quietly close with people who love them.

(Hmm. Just for starters, off the top of my head, maybe a culture where new moms are told it is ‘normal’ to override any yearning for intimacy and quiet being-with that sweet, soft babeling; to go back to the schedules and machines asap, in order to acquire more things?)

And, of course, as with the head-strappers, that’s just the beginning…

by Hailey Fudu a mother of two, a childbirth educator and labour/birth doula practicing in Johannesburg, originally from California, who loves moms and babies!:) For more information on active and natural birthing in Johannesburg, please visit the Genesis Clinic website.

In today’s busy world many mom’s rush through their lives and it all becomes a blur. This blur often begins when the pregnant mother decides she can’t wait for her baby to arrive and books in for an induction or elective C Section.  I would like to share some information that women deserve to know before making a final decision regarding their birth choice.

I have had the privilege of working with mothers through their pregnancies, births and after they are settling in at home.  Adjusting to a new baby is a challenge, but this challenge can be approached with tranquillity, or chaos. When a mom lets her labour happen naturally her baby is best prepared to enter this world. Few women know that 35 out of every 1000 babies born by caesarean suffer from breathing difficulties, while only 5 out of every 1000 babies born naturally.( National Collaborating Centre for Women’s and Children’s Health. Caesarean Section: Clinical Guideline. London: RCOG Press; 2004). Babies with breathing difficulties end up in high care and lose out on the essential first hours of breastfeeding and skin to skin contact (which ironically helps the baby absorb any access fluid in their lungs). My hope is not to spend a lot of time going through the statistical benefits of letting babies come into this world without the rush.  I only want to encourage mom’s to do their homework and if they do, they will find that the World Health Organization, National Childbirth Trust and other highly reputable sources of research, overwhelmingly show the benefits to mother and child of birthing naturally unless clear medical intervention is necessary.

I have assisted in many births at the Genesis Clinic in Johannesburg. This clinic is a very unique environment for birthing. More clinics like this are beginning to open in South Africa. At Genesis each woman has her own private room, bathroom and garden for her labour and birth. There is no feeling of being rushed, and the woman can listen to her body and is allowed the space to move and do whatever feels most effective.  When this type of atmosphere is created, the child’s entrance is gentle and well supported. The result: a happy and calm mother, and a non-stressed baby that is ready to begin breastfeeding. Rooming in with one’s newborn should not be a privilege for the rich. When a qualified midwife delivers a baby, the cost goes down rapidly. Women don’t always know that gynecologists /obstetricians are trained in dealing with surgery and complications; they do not specialize in natural birth! The first 24 hour period after birth is critical for the establishment of the breastfeeding relationship and after nine months in the womb, shouldn’t that closeness and ability to feel mother’s loving touch and heartbeat continue?

When mothers and their babies get off to the right start and begin to work together in the calm, slow pace of the early days of motherhood, the stage can be set for a healthy and balanced lifestyle.  I would like to wish all the mommies to be many blessings!

Your child is born amidst teddies, new clothes, bouquets of flowers and many visits from excited family and friends…when the hustle and bustle dies down and your happy family returns home from hospital, you are left hoping, praying, and wishing that this child will be an easy one.  That your child will cruise through the journey of life without a hitch or a problem.  That your child will be different from all the ones that you hear about in the media that make bad choices or are exposed to negative circumstances.  That your child will be the one where homework is always done, suitable friends are chosen, manners are good and model behaviour is displayed.

As baby grows steadily and the developmental stages are ticked off one by one, you shower the little soul with so much love and affection that there is no doubt that they will grow up into anything other than your special and gifted child with so much good to offer the world.  Then school starts, and so the uphill battle of homework, bullying, pressures of tests, strict teachers and reduced playtime steps in.  Your once precious little soul that adored being with mommy and daddy and loved hugs, kisses and piggy back rides now pulls a face at the thought of mom dropping them off at the classroom door.  Fights and arguments are reduced to having the latest gadgets and toys and which clothing labels are the best to wear alongside why fast food is way better than vegetables.

Before you know it, your once adorable 6-year old with two front teeth missing turns into a revolting teenager adorned in black clothing and enough piercings to resemble a Christmas tree. Your beautiful daughter insists on wearing skimpy, provocative clothing that relays the message that she is no longer a child.  The cheekiness and sullen behaviour steps in and nothing you do is good enough and so the endless cycle of habitual arguing in the household begins.

So what are we debating here? Are the swift changes in technology to blame for a value shift and decline in positive behaviour in our children, or is it the lack of distinct traditional parenting, perhaps we need to look to the media to find a scape goat, or is it the overwhelming toxic influence of alchohol, sex and drugs that are impacting on our children’s precious lives along with not enough exercise, poor diet, role models in the form of singers and scandalous movie stars and crime statistics on the upswing?

We can point fingers, we can allocate blame, we can raise our hands in the air in frustration, but as parents we need to realise that it is reasonable to assume that a generation shaped by this new fast paced world of ours will be different from those who have gone before it.

Albert Einstein said that “Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others; it is the only means.” Let us acknowledge that times are changing and that we need to move with the times rather than stay stuck in the rigid confines of parenting with blinkers on that can sometimes exacerbate problems in our children.

I bet you have a fancy job doing something useful and fulfilling. Are you a dentist? Or a business analyst. Maybe you’re an astrophysicist. Or a fabulous home exec. No matter what you are in your professional capacity nothing you’ve ever done will compare to working with plaster of paris.

I recently began volunteering once a week at my son’s nursery school. I take an arts and crafts class on a Friday morning, alternating between age groups. (I had an urge to give back, God knows why, as it was his idea.)

For my very first class of my craft-teaching career, I decided to do plaster of paris hand prints with the 2 – 3 year olds. That involves mixing plaster of paris, pouring it into a pliable shallow plate, pressing a 2 year old hand gently into the mix, producing a perfect hand print, removing the hand, letting the mixture dry, and painting it before removing it effortlessly from the pliable shallow plate.

How hard can that possibly be?

Well. I can tell you emphatically, it is hard. I used 6 litres of plaster of paris mixture, and had to do each child’s hand 3 times. My advice is, don’t even bother trying it at home.

But if you’re dead set on the idea, are up for a challenge or want to add plaster of paris in small letters after your name on your business card, consider the following:

However,  I must share that after our third try, the little hand prints actually came out beautifully, and the children had fun. That perhaps is the point. They don’t care whether it actually works or not. It’s only you who has any expectations.  Children don’t mind at all. They have fun, they love making a mess, and they love getting involved. They enjoy texture, they adore mess. So my advice when tackling any kind of craft is to follow their lead. Make a mess and laugh a lot. The best part of arts and crafts is doing it together.

Corinne Lamoral is a freelance writer and media consultant and mother of three children 3-9yrs. She reviews books and movies for a living which has sharpened her eye to spot out the must see’s  and must reads out there.

1. DANDYLION
by Lizzie Findlay (Random House)

This is a gem of a book – beautifully written and illustrated and sharing a message that will make your soul sing.  It’s OK to be different! Dandylion is the new kid in class and right from the start he stands out. With his fun attitude to life and zany way of doing things, he spills paint in his eagerness, brings sweet sandwiches to school and finally gets the whole class in trouble by going wild with a Koki pen… Dandylion learns a big lesson but so do his classmates when they ask him to stop being so wild and he decides to stay at home. This is great for provoking discussion about how everyone does things differently and how we can all learn from each other.
Age: Good for children aged 3 up to around 8.  Older children will find it too simplistic.

2. HERE COMES FRANKIE
by Tim Hopgood (Macmillan Children’s Books)

With a burst of sound and colour Frankie finds his true calling in this gorgeous book by the award-winning author of books like Our Big Blue Sofa and A Dog Called Rod.  The cover illustration of a little boy playing the trumpet grabbed my attention as I fished it out from behind the other books on the Exclusives shelf.  What a find.  My nearly four-year old son Joseph loves trumpets and the delight on his face as he watched Frankie making colours with his sounds was wonderful.  The story follows Frankie and his very quiet librarian parents who read books and do the crossword everyday until Frankie announces LOUDLY that he wants to learn to play the trumpet.  The story introduces the concept of Synaesthesia –the mixing of the senses that allows some people, like jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, to perceive colours, shapes and smells in music.

Age:  3 to 10yrs. Older children will get the concept more, but Hopgood’s illustrations will talk to everyone.2