Practical Life - Making Popsicles with Kids

Summer weather has reached Minnesota and I couldn't be happier about it. We don't get a very long warm weather season, so I try to take advantage of every second that we get. With this warm weather comes requests by my children to have popsicles every afternoon for snack. And, while I personally love the sweet sugary ones from the store, they are way too big and way too filled with junk to eat that often. So enter a perfect practical life work for the summer - making your own popsicles! 

This is something that Gus can do pretty much independently which is super nice, and they are much healthier than many of the kinds we can buy at the store. The other great thing about them is that you can pretty much customize the flavors to anything your kids like. In our house, we often experiment and the popsicles are just whatever little bits of ripe leftover fruit we can find. 

These are a few of our kid friendly favorite recipes. The exact amount of each thing we use depends on what we have, and how many we're making. But, popsicles are super forgiving and it doesn't seem to really matter. 

They really are easy for kids of all ages to make. Even little toddlers can often pour ingredients into a blender and hit start. For some of the recipes we make, it also involves juicing a lemon or orange, which is added fun and another great practical life work. Then, I typically pour the mix from the large blender into a smaller pitcher for pouring into the molds. 

There are so many great options when it comes to molds. We use little ones from IKEA with Gus, Nora, and Henry. They are a great size and the popsicles pop out clean every time. (Tip, hold them in your adult hand for a second then slide them out.) I did just order a smaller mold to give to Teddy this summer (number 3). We'll see how those go with him. The silicone shapes are also super super cute and I bet my kids would love them.