Candy Kabob Tutorial 

Have you heard of Candy Kabobs?

No?

Neither did we, until a month ago when we came across the Instagram feed of the Hollywood Candy Girls

And being thousands of miles away from that giant Hollywood sign here in the sunny island of Singapore, it's obviously quite difficult for us to get our hands on any ready-made ones.

So naturally we had to get our hands dirty making them ourselves. (We ain't called KinderHands for no reason!)

Since then we've made these candy kabobs on three separate occasions. 

And decided we should create a simple tutorial so you guys can make them on your own too!

So why are we so fascinated with Candy Kabobs?

Because they look great, are inexpensive (depending on the kind of candy you purchase) and are unique and customizable to your preferences!

Of course they do require some effort and a little skill, but with our little tutorial, we can help save you from some of the mistakes we went through and also all of that broken candy we had to stomach (okay, I'm not really complaining).



What you will need:

1. Bamboo skewers (we used 8 inch skewers for ours)
2. Assortment of candies
3. Plastic wrapping bag and vinyl string (we got ours from Daiso)


Choose candies that are not so soft that they might fall off the skewer, or so hard that you have a hard time driving them through the skewers. We recommend at least 0.75 cm thickness, depending on how firm the candy is. Gummies, sour belts and marshmallows are our favourite candies to work with. You can even do fancy some fan-folding or rolling with the sour belts. Try to get different colours and shapes of candies to achieve maximum aesthetic effect for your candy kabobs.

If there is a theme for the party that the candy kabobs are a part of, or your child has a favourite theme or item, try to find candy that matches it. E.g. Your child loves dinosaurs, then use a dinosaur shaped gummy as the topper for the candy kabob.

 

Instructions:

1. Poke the skewer through the center of the candy. If it's not easy for the skewer to go through the candy smoothly, use a gentle screwing motion with your hand that is holding the skewer while slowly pushing the candy through with your other hand.

2. When you are skewering your last candy (the topper), you do not have to skewer it all the way through as we do not want the tip of the skewer to be visible in the final product. If you accidentally skewer it through then just adjust the position by bringing the topper candy back up.

3. When you are done with the candy kabob, place it in the plastic wrapping bag and seal it tightly with the vinyl string to make sure the skewer fits in the bag. Sit back and admire your first candy kabob, and if you are happy with it carry on replicating it for the rest of your candy kabobs!

Other things to take note of:

Dietary Restrictions: If you are giving out these candy kabobs to people who might have dietary restrictions (e.g. Halal or No-Beef, remember to read the packaging of the candies carefully before you purchase them. Many types of candies contain beef or pork gelatin!) PS: We gave up on sourcing Halal sour belts after searching everywhere in Singapore. If you do find them, please let us know! 

Sharp Parts: If you are giving out these candy kabobs to young kids 6 years and below, we recommend snipping off the sharp ends of the skewers to prevent them from hurting themselves when handling the skewers. After you are done snipping the sharp end, gently push the candy back up to conceal the tip.

Have loads of fun and share your creations with us on our KinderHands Facebook page!

Love,
KinderHands
zerzy2000.wix.com/kinderhands
www.facebook.com/KinderHands

More Easy Peasy Monster Munchies For Halloween!

Remember the Monster Munchies Project below from our Monster Theme Boxes?

We took the cookie cutter and candy eyes out from our Monster Theme Box again to experiment with more Monster Munchies for the upcoming Halloween. (Did we mention we LOVE themed holidays?)

And they are so easy to make that you can make them with your little ones.

How about Monster Munchies for Halloween breakfast or afternoon tea? :)  

Here's what we made:

1. 'The Thing' Monster Munchies

Ingredients we used:

• White Bread
• Candy Eyes
• Coco Pops 
• Nutella Spread 

Directions:

1. Use the cookie cutter to cut the bread out.
2. Spread on a thin even layer of Nutella, or any of your favourite Spread.
3. Place the candy eyes and Coco Pops all over the bread.

We kinda think it looks a little bit like a dark-skinned version of 'The Thing' from Fantastic Four, minus the blue pants. Do you think so?  Perhaps you can use some peanut butter and Cheerios to get a skin tone closer to the original :)


2. Ghost Munchies

Ingredients we used:

• White Bread
• Candy Eyes
• Cream Cheese Spread
• 1 Coco Pop for the mouth

Directions:

1. Place the cookie cutter on top of your bread. Instead of pressing the entire cookie cutter into the bread, we only pressed the 'head' part of the cookie cutter into the bread. We then used a butter knife to cut out a triangle shape below the head.
2. Spread the cream cheese onto the bread.
3. Place the candy eyes and Coco Pop on the face.
4. Use your butter knife to make three lines on the bottom of the ghost.

Have lotsa fun and remember to share your masterpieces with us on our Facebook Page!

Love,
KinderHands
www.kinderhands.com

Benefits of Board Games for Children

One of the projects in our latest Stars Theme Box is the My Star Board Game, a simplified version of Snakes and Ladders with added suggestions to vary gameplay difficulty according to your child's abilities.






Are you aware of the benefits of playing board games with your children? They include developing Math skills, Social skills, Thinking skills, Self Regulation, cutting down on TV and Electronics and increasing family bonding time.


We found a great article in the Washington Post about the benefits of playing board games with children to share with everyone.

Read on for more information http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2010-01-14/news/36798883_1_board-games-favorite-games-chutes-and-ladders

Time to roll out the board games!

Love,
KinderHands
www.kinderhands.com

 

Make Your Own 'Monsters Be Gone!!' Spray

Check out what we did with the Monster sticker included in our Monster Theme Box.

We made a Monsters Be Gone!! spray with it!

Not only can our sticker be used to familiarize your child with the word 'Monster', it can also be used to make a spray to keep the monsters away. If your child is afraid of monsters (especially during bedtime) use this spray under the bed, in the closet or anywhere your child thinks the monster might be hiding so he/she can go to bed with a peace of mind.

What You Will Need:

• A Monster Sticker 
• A Permanent Marker
• A Spray Bottle (Best to get one with a smooth surface or the sticker might crinkle like ours did)
• Water
• Coloring or Fragrance (Optional) 

Step 1: Use the permanent marker to draw an X over the monster on the sticker.

Step 2: Fill up your spray bottle with water. If your child isn't one to be easily fooled by plain tap water passing off as magical spray, add a little coloring and/or fragrance into the water and shake well (but make sure it will not stain the surface the water comes into contact with)

Step 3: Paste the sticker onto your spray bottle and spray away!

Have Fun!

Love,
KinderHands
www.kinderhands.com

Monster Sandwich

Howdy! We hope you are having fun with our Monster theme Project/Book Boxes so far!

Inspired by one of the projects in the box - Monster Munchies, we thought we could go a little further to make an even more elaborate Monster Sandwich.

Take a look at what we made!

Can you identify the ingredients we used to make the facial parts?

Hair - Red Cabbage
Nose & Ears - Japanese Green Cucumber
Eyes - Hard Boiled Egg Slices
Mouth - Round Ham Halved
Teeth - Cheese

To make it resemble the Big Green Monster in Ed Emberley's book even more, you could add black olive halves on the egg yolks and spread some green dressing on the bread. But we didn't have any of those in the pantry, so we thought we'd just skip it.

Oh and by the way, the sandwich tasted really good and it was even better to know that it was pretty nutritious too! For a meat-less version, we suggest replacing the ham with a big slice of tomato.

If you attempt to make one yourself, don't forget to share it with us too!

Have loads of monstrous fun!

Love,
KinderHands
www.kinderhands.com

We have officially launched!

That's right! We have officially launched our website www.kinderhands.com and we are so excited to welcome you to our website! Feel free to browse around and don't forget to keep a lookout for our special launch promotions! We hope to see you around more as we share more ways with you on how to Inspire, Create and Learn!