A simple way to nourish your little ones...with poetry and good food!
Bread and milk for breakfast and woolen frocks to wear, And a crumb for Robin Redbreast on the cold days of the year. - Christina Rossetti
Christina Rossetti has written several darling little poems for children, such as the one above titled simply "Winter". Poetry is wonderful to read at nap or bed-time to young children. I find that poetry, rather than an exciting story book, can calm and relax a child while promoting sleep. Most poems are short and sweet and will satisfy your child's need for a bed-time story when Mom might be a bit too tired for a full length book. Another tip for bed-time is to choose a familiar Psalm and read it each night until the children have it memorized and then move on to another. Psalm 23 can be learned easily this way.
Bread and milk, or "milk soup", as our Amish neighbors refer to it, makes a delightful evening snack for children. Try topping it off with a bit of honey or molasses. This is quite delicious and very filling without being too heavy on a little tummy. The Amish families who live around us often eat milk soup for breakfast, lunch, and evening supper and my 97 year old great-grandmother still enjoys her bread and milk, too. When made with day-old homemade whole wheat bread and fresh goat or cow's milk, it is certainly a wholesome treat! I know that most of you won't be able to obtain fresh, raw milk, but it is worth a try! Milk is a highly nutritious food when it is consumed straight from the farm, and it seldom causes the same kinds of allergic reactions and intolerance that occurs when store-bought, homogenized, ultra-pastuerized milk is consumed. Two of my sons are very sensitive to store-bought milk, but they show no signs of intolerance with raw milk. Ofcourse, you will want to make sure that if you do consume raw milk that it is being handled properly. Milk can harbor dangerous bacteria when proper hygiene is not practiced. When I serve milk soup to my children, I simply warm up some milk on the stove, pull apart some bread and place it in a cereal bowl, top the bread with a natural sweetener and pour the warm milk over top. What could be more simple? Give it a try and enjoy!
