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Thursday, September 27, 2012

Dessert Baking Contest

The older girls had an opportunity to participate in a Dessert Baking Contest this past week. They enjoyed thumbing through all the recipes I have found on my latest discovery....Pinterest .  There are more than enough ideas and recipes on there that I think we will never be bored again!

Laura chose to make Candy Corn Fudge

It turned out to be pretty easy and it also turned out delicious! I'm not sure if it was more of a mental thing, or not, but when we bit into it, it really did taste pretty true to the original candy corn taste! One minor mishap happened when somehow a bit of red food coloring made it into the bowl of yellow tinted fudge.... But we were able to fix it, after adding the rest of the bottle of yellow dye to balance things out!

Laura plated it on a cream-colored platter and decorated the platter with real candy corns and pumpkins.


Heather chose to make Cookie Dough Stuffed Cupcakes (Because cupcakes by themselves are not sweet enough??) It was a multi step process. First she made the cookie dough filling, rolled them into little balls and froze them. Next she made the cupcake batter, and then combined the two to bake. With the leftover cookie dough, she made tiny little cookies to use as garnishes. She tried out a few of her decorator tips to make some fancy frosting patterns, put a cookie on top, and voila! The finished product.

 
 
 
The girls had a lot of fun and we enjoyed lots of laughs together as they took over the kitchen.
 
We never did find out who won the baking contest, but creating an entry was a fun experience!
 


Sunday, September 23, 2012

Welcome to My Homeschool Blog

My Homeschooling History


I have been homeschooling for the last 13 years, enjoying the ups and downs, ins and outs, and triumphs that make homeschooling so unique. I have been mom, referee, nurse, teacher, student, stand-in principal, bus driver, chef..... basically an all purpose activities coordinator. I have taught my children everything from algebra to zoology, and learned a whole lot in the process.  I have shopped and scoured the internet at night, looking for interesting science projects, and an easy way to build an indian village!

Homeschooling is fun because it gives you the freedom to choose your own adventure. You can pursue the things that interest your family, while still making sure they learn the basics, and fulfill the requirements.

Though some homeschool moms won't care to admit it... we all have those days when it's 4:30, dinner is waiting to be made, and the house is a wreck....and school is STILL not done yet! I told my husband once that I can do an efficient school day, make a tasty and healthy dinner, and have all the laundry caught up....but I can only accomplish ONE of those tasks on any given day! With the dawning of high schoolers in my homeschool, that track record has improved. Now with laundry and cooking assistants, things are much better! That's the advice I like to share with moms of small children....they will grow up and it does get easier!

The Name of the Blog:

Be The One. My kids like to joke that they are at the top (and at the bottom) of their class. Each is a class of one. Yes, they have friends and fellow homeschoolers who share their grade, but every day...in their class....is ONE student. This school year, we have a senior in our homeschool! I asked her to pray about a theme for her senior year. The theme she chose, "Be the One", was inspired by a song we enjoy, asking "Will you be the one to answer God's call?" There are many verses and inspirational quotes about this topic. We decided that a virtue and character trait we would like to instill in our children is the desire to be the one to answer God's call, to stand for what's right even when those around you choose not to, and to be a volunteer. It's the way that David and I have lived our lives, and the way we want to teach our children to live.

A New Venture

I have decided that it would be fun to share some of the ideas and things that I have learned with some of the other homeschooling moms in my circle. Hopefully, if all goes well, this blog will be a fun place to share homeschool ideas and also give some encouragement.  One of my favorite things about being a homeschool mom is the "extras" that we get to do. The day to day "three R's" can get tedious, but I like to sprinkle fun stuff in to make life interesting. My kids can be pretty entertaining!

As I learn how to set up and post to this blog, I hope you will follow it and that it can be an entertaining source of ideas and inspiration to help you on your homeschooling journey! Please feel free to share feedback on the ideas and how you used them, or some topics you would like to see discussed!

Happy Homeschooling!
Erica