Freshly Grated Nutmeg

'Tis the season for little nutmeg grinders and jars of whole nutmeg. When Natalie was little I gave her a grinder and a jar of nutmeg in her Christmas stocking. Children love this work! Carol Petrash has it listed as a Winter activity in Earthways: Simple Environmental Activities for Young Childrenpage 79. She said that the children in her class treasured it so, and would wrap the specks carefully in little packages made of folded paper towels and guard it as if it were precious gold dust.




What to do with all that freshly grated nutmeg? Our Kindergarten class, which is studying Colonial times, made a delicious bread today from the book Goody O'Grumpityby Carol Ryrie Brink (Goody O'Grumpity's Spice Cake recipe is included in the back). Every single person who walked through the kitchen of the school today said the exact same thing, MMMM, it smells so good in here. We had slices of the cake for dessert.




Another wonderful book that I picked up while wandering through the Kindy classroom is Eight Hands Round: A Patchwork Alphabet



This book is perfectly suited to a study of Colonial times and would work easily into a sewing unit on Quilting as well.