Young children love to help in the kitchen but in summer it’s a bit hot to be baking. With Apples, Strawberries, Blueberries and Bananas in season it’s a great time to introduce them to nutritional drinks. Preparing fruit is an easy way to start teaching skills of food preparation and addition of nuts, celery and herbs can help you hide a lot of extra nutrition for fussy eaters.

Remember that the ‘milk’ ingredient can be substituted with the full range of milk products, yoghurt, soya milk, almond milk, etc depending on dietary needs. If you'd like to thicken your smoothie without using frozen yogurt or milk, add a banana instead.

Share your hit smoothies with us.

Even better if you let the kids make up their own recipes from a selection of ingredients but here are a few to get you started.

Apple Pie Smoothie

1 sweet apple, such as Gala or Fuji (peeled if preferred)

1/2 cup of whole milk

1/8 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup vanilla frozen yogurt or ice cream

Add ingredients together in blender and blend until smooth.

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

1 cup frozen strawberries (remove green leaves)

2 cups orange juice

1 banana, cut into pieces

½ cup milk (or coconut milk)

2 tablespoons sugar/honey (optional)

Add ingredients together in blender and blend until smooth.

Here are some stories written and shared by WA educators or centres to help give you some ideas. If you have a success story you would like to share, e-mail them to the address at the bottom of this blog post.

Hilary Rimmer, Manager of Riverdale Childcare Centre sent us a fantastic update on what they have been up to:

The Kangaroo room have been doing some great things with some of the items they have received from parents over the last few weeks. They encouraged the children to ask their families to bring in one recyclable item each time they came in. When they did this they were given a special sticker for their ‘Nature Play Passport’.

The response has been great and educators have done some amazing things with some of the items they have collected.

The Centre also belongs to the recycling centre known as ‘Remida’, for an annual fee staff can go and take any items that they can use for experiences within the Centre, so this is a great source of free items. Last time the educators went, they brought back several lengths of material and were able to construct the tepee that the children have really enjoyed playing in.

Hopefully some of the photos will encourage other Centres to experiment with recycled items and see what they can construct with the children. The scope is endless!!!!

Great work Riverdale Childcare Centre! We are so proud of all your efforts and just love hearing from you. If you have any stories you would like to share, we would love to hear from you! Please send your stories to lgs@aaeewa.org.au

Abbie is knee high to a grasshopper but she is powered with natural energy (Solar, I think!). She never walks; she darts, runs, hops, or skips. She sings and hums and is always busy. Then she sees a bug and stops dead in her tracks. She calls for someone to watch it while she makes a quick dash to get her magnify glass and bug catcher.

Watching the bug is a very important job and you must be sure to tell the bug to stay still until Abbie returns. You must not take your eyes off it and you should sing to it to make it want to stay. The bug is duly encased into the bug catcher, examined, talked to (usually told how much it is loved), discussed, shown to everyone, then dutifully released at the spot where it was found. All other bugs found that day are the original bugs Mum or Dad, brother or sister, cousin, Aunt or Uncle, Nan or Pop! More often or not, Abbie picks a little flower to put next to each bug to make them happy and to thank them for letting us play in their garden.

One afternoon, after a shower of rain, the front lawn was covered with snails. Abbie named and said goodbye to each one and farewelled them with a sprinkling of flower petals. Her Mum had to wait fifteen minutes while this ritual was performed before they could leave to go home!

It's these moments that remind me that it is the little things in life that are important.

This story has been kindly shared by Meredith Glistenti a Family Day Care Educator in Cockburn.