Thursday, a woman at my work brought a treat to share with everybody. It was called Tiger Butter.

Such a fun name! (I imagine the name would really appeal to little grandsons.)

When I tasted it, I had a hard time eating only one piece.

(Actually, I went back at different times throughout the day to check on the candy . . . Totally for security’s sake.  Totally. It was sitting on a shelf and I didn’t want anything bad to happen to it, you know. And if you believe that, then I would like to introduce you to my friend from Nigeria who needs all of you bank account information . . .)

When she told me how to make the candy, I knew immediately that I had to share it with my readers. It is such a snap to make!  Here’s the recipe.

Tiger Butter

16 ounces white chocolate chips
1/2 creamy peanut butter

Microwave for 1 minute — or until melted. Cover a cookie sheet with waxed paper. Pour the mixture on the paper and spread it out.

Take 1/2 cup of chocolate chips and melt in the microwave.  Drop small spoonfuls of chocolate over the peanut butter mixture.  Swirl the chocolate into the peanut mixture with a knife. Cool until firm.  (It’s best not to cool it in the fridge. Just leave it on the countertop.) Break into pieces.

This candy is something that would be really easy to make with grandchildren.  And, it will be a hit — if your grandchildren like peanut butter and chocolate. (I can’t imagine any grandchildren who don’t.)

And the best thing is that there aren’t lots of pots and pans to clean up and it’s fast, fast, fast to make.

It’s also fast, fast, fast to gobble it all up!  Voice of experience here.

The other day I got a request to show how to do a heart snowflake. At first, I thought that I would do a video demonstrating how to make one. But then, I realized that I really didn’t need to do another video. I already had one that showed how to fold a snowflake. Folding is the most critical part.

What my Dear Reader really needed was just a pattern.

Being the kind, helpful outta-this-world snowflake cutter, I decided that I would create a pattern.  (I may not be very skilled at doing crafts but I sure can cut great snowflakes!)

I realized that if one Dear Reader would be interested in cutting a heart snowflake then possibly there would be others who would be interested, too.

So here’s the heart snowflake pattern.

Actually, I made two heart snowflakes and both patterns are in the above PDF.  Here are pictures of the two snowflakes.

Snowflake 1

Snowflake 2

Granddaughters would LOVE making this snowflake — especially out of red paper.

Directions

Fold the snowflake. Print out the heart snowflake pattern.  Cut out the pattern.  Now, you can either trace the pattern onto your folded snowflake or just hold the pattern in place while you cut.  In my humble opinion, it would be easier to trace the pattern and then cut out the snowflake.

On the pattern, I identify the fold side. When you fold the snowflake, there are two fold sides. But one is a solid fold. The other side opens up. When I refer to the fold side on the pattern, it is the solid fold side.

I hope this make sense and that you can follow the pattern.  If this is confusing, let me know!!  I’ll modify the directions so it will be easier to understand.  Send your comments, concerns, or questions to nina @ grandmaideas.com.

It would also be fun if you shared a comment here if you made a heart snowflake.  Comments are welcomed.  Always.

Children and grandchildren love to color and draw and I feel it’s important to give them opportunities to artistically express themselves and their creativity.  That’s why I am totally delighted with the iPad app Pirate Scribblebeard’s Treasure by Kidoodle.

The Pirates of the Caribbean movies has made being a pirate cool.  Talking like a pirate.  Swashbucking like a pirate.  Argh, matey!  Now you can draw like a pirate.

This app is narrated by Oscar and Josephine.  There are 16 pages where children can draw pirate scenes: a pirate flag, a treasure map, a pirate ship on the ocean, a tattoo, a pirate swabbing a ship deck, and a treasure chest.

It has a simple drawing tool that is like a marking pen.  You can select different colors as you draw your picture.  After you finish and you tap the arrow to go to the next page, funny animations happen to your drawing.

You can follow the pages in order or you can choose random pages that you want to draw on.  This is nice because a grandchild could draw on just her favorite pages if she wanted to.

The app has a peppy pirate sounding melody that makes you want to get up and dance a jig.  (Do pirates dance jigs?)

Here are screenshots of my favorite pages.

When your grandchild has finished her picture, she can e-mail it to her parent so they can see her fabulous drawings. Or, she can save it to your Photos on your iPad.  Once in your photos, you can print it up, use it as your iPad’s wallpaper, and e-mail it to other family members or friends.

You can get this app for $1.99 through iTunes. Oh, and it is also available for Android Tablets and the Amazon Kindle Fire.

This is another app that would make a great Christmas gift for your grandchildren up to age 10.  They can spend hours creating and drawing with this app.

I give it 5 out of 5 stars.

Oh, and by the way, you don’t have to take just my word for how good this app is.  It was chosen as the Best Entertainment App in the Adobe AIR App Challenge sponsored by Sony.  Cool.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this application. However, it did not influence my opinion of the product.

Stick with me for a moment while I discuss a study done by a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison that measured mathematical abilities and gender inequalities. In countries, such as India, where gender equality is low, there is a low percentage of females scoring high in the International Mathematical Olympiad (an international math competition).

In the United States where gender equality is relatively high, girls score equally as well as boys on standardized math tests. However, more boys are identified as mathematically gifted than girls.  The professor that did the study said that there is a gender stereotype where parents and teachers believe boys are smarter than girls when it comes to math.

Come on folks!  That was the attitude back in the day when I was in school.  Why hasn’t it changed over the last half of a century, huh?

I think it behooves parents — and especially mothers and grandmothers — to nurture their daughters into believing they are just as mathematically capable as boys.  We should do everything in our power to make sure our daughters and granddaughters don’t grow up thinking they can’t do math.

So with that, I would like to introduce you to Grow Your Garden, an app for the iPhone and iPad, that helps children develop their math and their critical thinking skills

Grow Your Garden, by the folks at Learning Yard, is a delightful game.  The player gets watering cans to water various types of gardens – a regular home garden, a desert garden, a tropical jungle garden, and a snow garden.

There are flowers trying to grow in a pot.  The flower needs watering.  You have watering cans and a well where you can fill up your watering can.  (See the picture below.)

See how the flower pot has ‘empty’ droplets of water on them? You have to count them up and determine how much water you need.  Then, you fill the appropriate bucket at the well by dragging it to the well.  Then, you drag the bucket over to the flower pot to water the flower.  When you have correctly ‘filled’ the water requirements, the flower blooms and you go to the next flower (math problem).

When you finished watering all of the flowers on a level, a flower ‘grows’ in your garden.  (See the picture below.)  And then you advance to the next level.

If you make a mistake, a frowny cloud floats over the flower pot and zaps a couple bolts of lightening.  Then you can try once again with the math problem.

Of course as you progress, the math problems get harder. And, you have to think more about how to solve it. The snow garden, which is the last level, requires some hefty thinking skills.

Children who know how to add and subtract can easily learn how to play the game.  But children starting in the third grade might be able to complete the higher levels of the game better than younger children.

I highly recommend this game — especially if you have granddaughters.  It only costs $0.99 and it is money well spent.  Since Christmas is just around the corner, buy it for a grandchild for Christmas — assuming your grandchild’s family has an iPhone or an iPad.  Buy it for your own iPhone or iPad so that when your grandchildren come for a visit, you can share it with them and help them develop their math skills.

I give this app 5 out of 5 stars.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this application. However, it did not influence my opinion of the product.