Baker's Half Dozen

Six Word Saturday time again. Here are mine:

Baked my first cake from scratch.

I am teaching a class in our home school co-op this semester called "Let's go to the store." It is a pre-school class featuring stories and crafts about groceries and grocery shopping.

Last week I took my students and their families on a field trip to Meijer. Why Meijer? They give out cookies to children 11 and under. Some call it bribery, I call it incentive to behave.

This coming Monday we will be talking about deserts. I decided that I would bake a cake for the class, and since the class is about shopping, I thought it would be good to talk about all the ingredients needed for a cake. I have been baking cakes using box mixes since I was in the single digits. I had never made a cake from scratch before.

So today at our test kitchen/house Lulu and I baked a cake from scratch. On Sunday we will bake one for the class. I used a recipe for chocolate cake I found at Suite 101.com.

I had hoped to include a full tutorial on how to make the cake but preparing a cake , shepherding a 4 year old and photographing each segment turned out to be too much for me.

Here are the few pictures I did take . . .

The ingredients.

Mixing.


























The cake turned out pretty well. Yes, I forgot to preheat the oven. Yes I accidentally turned the oven off when I was checking to see if it was done. I also had a few other kinks that I think we can work out on Sunday.

Here are a few reasons why baking a cake from scratch works for me:

1. Baking a cake from scratch is not difficult at all. I had to melt chocolate for ours, which I had never done. A lot of cakes take far less preparation than that.


2. Teaching my children how to make a cake from scratch is a useful educational tool. I would have never envisioned myself as a Home Ec. teacher. But as long as I wear the home school pants int he family, I guess that's what I'll be.


3. My 4 year old is an excellent helper. She often helps my wife mix biscuits and other things. She has been wanting to bake this cake for two weeks since I announced the idea to the class. She really did most of the work: beating the eggs, pouring the butter milk, measuring and sifting the dry ingredients, and decorating the cake.



So those are my six words and why baking a cake from scratch works for me.


For more Six Word Saturday head on over to Show my Face dot com. To see what works for others head over to We are That Family for more WFMW.


Next Time: A School by any other name.

An Open Letter to Michelle of Psalm 104:24

Dear Michelle,

A year or so ago I discovered your excellent blog. I am not quite sure how exactly, probably through WFMW but maybe by some other means. You had a nifty little thing going called Three Things This Thursday. You would tell 3 things going on with your life including a Lost update and then give others in the Blogoverse the opportunity to share. 3TTT had me at hello. I became a frequent contributor and this Fall, due to a series of circumstances, you handed over the torch of your great little idea to me.

And It just tanked! Well, that's not quite true. But I feel like under my watch, it did not blossom in the way, I hoped it would. So, this winter, I did some tweaking.


At the beginning of 2010 I changed the name from 3 Things This Thursday to Some Things This Thursday so people would not be limited to 3 things. That name didn't stick in my mind, So I have been calling it Things This Thursday. Over the past few months this feature, which was a great joy when you were doing it, has become increasingly burdensome to me. It seems each week I am up against a time constraint and it gets in the way of other blogging I want to do.

So, Michelle, I know you think you know what's coming that I'm saying goodbye to good old 3TTT. In a way, I am. I have decided to make a change that will allow me to continue giving random tidbits but not be tied into it on a weekly basis. I will be publishing my "things" on a biweekly basis. I am also making one more (hopefully final) name change. The new name? Things Fortnightly. Catchy, huh?

If you ever decide that you want 3TTT back you can have it and I will gladly continue TF on a day other than Thursday. In that case, I would probably link my things to yours as that was always my favorite part.

I hope you are doing well. I have a meme to continue so I will bring this fake letter to a close.

A Fellow Blogger in Christ,

Home School Dad.

And now here is the first edition of Things Fortnightly . . .

1. I love the word fortnightly.

Maybe it's the Jane Austen fan in me, but for whatever reason I love the concept of a fortnight. I used to be hyper vigilant on it's use (or in this case misuse). My SIL who is from a part of the world that fortnight is still in the vernacular once used fortnight to refer to something other than an exact 14 day period. I was quick to correct (incorrect) her and I don't think her Irish eyes were smiling when she informed me that a fortnight is generally used as a period of approximately two weeks not exactly a 336 hour event. Yes I know how many hours are in a two week period by rote. They don't call me, scary math guy for nothing.

So when I decided to do things every other week I jumped at the chance to use fortnightly in the title.

2. Lucyism

The other night Amy asked Lucy, What do you want to be when you grow up?
Lucy says: I don' t know, maybe a ballerina, or a teacher? I know, I want to be everything! Wait, I don't have the clothes for that...

3. Chuck Update

It is great when a television program hits it's stride. The action, direction and story telling all come together until it seems that each week the show is the best it's ever been. I have been watching Star Trek the Next Generation season 3 with my kids and season 3&4 is when that show hit it's stride. The British T.V. program Robin Hood hit it's stride for me in season 2. I remember watching episode after episode on d.v.d. and I would just shout out to the t.v. "This show is great!"

This past Monday night, Chuck hit it's stride. The Star of Chuck, Zach Levi, made his directorial debut in the episode Chuck Versus the Beard. If you have not seen it you can watch it free on Hulu. This episode has it all hilarity, secrets revealed, suspense, and action, action, and more action. It is easily the best Chuck episode I've ever scene and the ending gives me every reason to believe that the best can be improved on.

4. D.C. Talk -

Our trip to Washington D.C is inching closer and closer. We are getting excited. One thing we will be doing on the way there is making a side trip to the "Walton's Mountain" area where the writer of the book that inspired the Walton's grew up.

Today we are heading over to visit where our bunny will stay when we go on our trip. He will have another homeschooled boy bunny to hang out with, so that place will be hopping.

Those are all the thing's I've got going for this edition. Se you in 2 weeks for the next fun filled episode of Things Fortnightly.

Feel free to share some things of your own by linking your post below.

Next Time: Get thee to a Bakery

Hey! It looks the picture on the box!

For more Wordless Wednesday click here.

Next Time: An Open letter to Michelle of Psalm 104:24

And the Winner is.... Me. Again!

Last year I posted this blog about winning this . . . Well I am back to my winning ways. For those following this blog recently you know I was a last minute entrant in the One Million Arrows Blog Tour where bloggers wrote reviews of Julie Ferwerda's excellent tome, One Million Arrows. I was so last minute that I wrote the review without reading the entire book. This is because the tour was from March 1st to the 7th and I didn't start my post (and most of my reading) until the seventh. I only got as much done as I did because I was home sick that day instead of visiting family with my family. On Monday Julie had a random drawing and gave away fabulous prizes to some of the bloggers who participated in the tour. I was graciously (and undeservingly) one of the winners. I won two books and some Ugandan Beads. Julie compared my win to the wages of the workers who only worked at the end of the harvest in Jesus's parable. In my haste to get a review in, I didn't really do the book credit. To rectify that I am including an interview with the off. I want to clarify that I did not conduct the interview nor did I craft the questions. If I did the first one would have definitely been, Mrs. Ferwerda, I understand from one of the One Million Arrows (OMA) blog tour bloggers that you love the movie, What About Bob. With that in mind, how do you expect us to believe anything else you say? It's a good thing I didn't conduct the interview.

Here is the interview in it's entirety. One Million Arrows: Raising Your Children to Change the World Interview with author Julie Ferwerda

1. The title of your book is, One Million Arrows: What is that all about? The title originated with a man I met in India by the name of Dr. M.A. Thomas. He’s received many national awards in India such as the Mother Theresa Award and the Padma Shri for his humanitarian efforts, especially for his work with orphaned and abandoned children that he started in the 1970s. In the 90s, Dr. Thomas read a verse in the Bible that describes children as a gift and a reward, like sharp arrows in the hands of a mighty warrior (Psalm 127:3-5). He realized that all children, regardless of background and circumstances, should be seen as a gift and a legacy to society because they can make a significant and positive impact in the world if given the proper training and opportunities. India has as many as 80 million orphans so he set a goal of rescuing one million orphaned and abandoned children, sharpening them with love, education, and spiritual nurturing, and launching them back into society to bring positive change through the power of the Good News about Jesus. To date he has raised over 16,000 orphaned and abandoned children who have become doctors, nurses, teachers, politicians, missionaries, and leaders, and he has planted over 21,000 churches in India and South Asia. Relating to us…the arrow vision of raising children to be a gift and heritage to their society is for all parents, all countries. So many parents in our culture have lost their vision as to the incredible opportunity we’ve been given to shape—not just tomorrow’s leaders—but today’s leaders and shapers of their peer groups, schools, and communities. But this takes vision and deliberate investment and training. One Million Arrows casts a vision for parents to sharpen and launch our children right now to make a positive impact on society. 2. You mentioned the notion of parents investing in or training their children. Isn’t this what parents already do? Some parents do invest in and train their children to some degree, but there is also a lot of hands-off parenting in our society today, especially in training character development as well as teaching our children how to live for the big-picture—like what were they made to do in this world, what are their unique gifts and abilities, and how can they use them to make a difference now? We have to train our children to serve others—it doesn’t come naturally. But for many of us, once our kids head into kindergarten, it’s easier to let someone else take over a lot of the training, or to allow our kids to fade into their entertainment-driven culture in their spare time. We need to see parenting as a much bigger opportunity and invitation than that! I use an illustration in OMA from 9/11 about victims, bystanders, and firemen, the roles people take when lives are at stake. We must teach our children to see themselves as the firemen of this world…the heroes who are willing to set aside their own comforts in order to make a radical difference for others who are suffering or even in danger. There are so many in our world—whether the world around us or the world at large—who need our help and care in order to be saved from terrible circumstances. I am so encouraged to see a great movement of young people in our world right now who are joining God in His work, coming back to historic levels of competence, purpose, and service for their fellow man. OMA emphasizes helping your kids find what they are passionate about and then training them to use it to serve and positively impact others. 3. Can you give us an example of kids who are using their talents and passions to serve others? Many of these kinds of young people are featured in the book, such as Chloe who is currently majoring in filmmaking in order to positively impact her culture by communicating truths that will spur her peers to make positive choices in life. She’s already received Film Festival awards for her work on the film, “The Enemy God” by (10X Productions), Ivan uses his love for extreme sports to hold events worldwide for sports enthusiasts where he shares a bold Gospel message and then plugs youth into local churches. My oldest daughter Dani uses her love for music and working with kids to impact hundreds of kids during the summer as a Christian camp counselor. These are just a few of many inspiring examples! 4. You have an emphasis in OMA for families to invest in taking care of international orphaned and abandoned children through established organizations. Why is that? Investing in other children is one of the best ways to get your kids hearts interested and engaged in serving and helping others. Also, there are so many children worldwide who are the truest victims and have no means to get out of the gutters of life without help. As mentioned, these kids are currently being rescued and shaped to become spiritual leaders and contributing citizens of their own countries. Our family can make a true difference in the world by impacting lives of these children, which will in turn impact whole villages and cities as they grow up. What a great investment of our time, talents, and money! Many organizations will even allow you to visit the orphanages and ministries you help support. We love to make it known that all proceeds of OMA go to international orphan ministries. 5. Is this a “how to” parenting book? We do share many principles-based parenting tips from several successful arrow-raising families. But there are already many how-to books on the shelves and I’ve had publishers tell me that parents ask for them but then don’t buy them. That’s because parents need inspiration: “What’s possible through our family if I commit this kind of energy to deliberate parenting? Can our family make a true difference in the world?” The major emphasis in OMA is inspirational aspect of parenting—casting a vision of the exciting ways your family can plug in to make a difference. 6. Is there any place parents can go after reading the book for more inspiration and guidance? We are currently developing our website (OneMillionArrows.com) as a community where parents can share testimonies as well as spiritual training helps. We are also adding many resources on our site such as unique orphan ministries to consider getting involved in, suggested books and resources, daily spiritual training helps, and stories of young people around the world who are making a difference.

Thus concludeth the interview. Again for the third post in as many days, I heartily encourage you guys to get behind this book.

Next Time: Just Another Wordless Wednesday

Structured and Unstructured

Party! Party! Party! This weeks carnival of homeschooling is a party edition hosted by Misty at Home School Bytes.com. She has asked me to contribute an article, as I had submitted one last time she hosted.

I actually started this post yesterday, until I realized that it was my last day to blog about the book One Million Arrows (Which, by the way, tells some excellent stories about home schooled families.) That is what happens to the avid procrastinator, you put off Peter to meet Paul's deadline. Or in this case Peter is Misty and Paul is Julie. Well enough with the nonsense, let's get this party started.

I am constantly fighting between myself as to whether my home school personality/style should be structured or unstructured. I have always been a fly by the seat of my pants kind of guy. At times it has been a necessity. When I was a missionary in Russia, more than once I was asked to give remarks or a sermon 5 minutes before the service started. Doesn't the Bible say "always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you." (1 Peter 3:15 ESV)?

Ah! There's the key word, prepared! Often when I am unstructured, it is precisely because I am not prepared. I roll with the punches, rather than put a few jabs in of my own. Most people, like myself, who think they like getting things done at the very last minute are just fooling themselves. They like it because it's the only thing they've ever known.

Unstructured maybe a good style for some. but if unstructured is just a euphemism for lazy, then you have big trouble!

So here I am making a good argument to be structured. But here is the problem, when I try to be structured, I drive my kids and myself crazy. The problem is that when I structure myself, I am a very unforgiving master. If school is supposed to start at 9 and we don't start until 9:05 then the whole day is ruined! There are constant disruptions in our class day. It's the kind of thing you would expect when one of your students is nicknamed Destructo!

What I have been learning the hard way these past 2 years is that structure is good, but too much structure is suffocating. I think structured and unstructured can be on the same boat as Pete and Repeat, if you have good understanding of what structured and unstructured mean.

To me, structured means being prepared and unstructured means being flexible. This is problematic in our house as I have described my procrastination trouble in the past two posts and one of my student's has been telling me for years "I'm not flexible!". Problematic or not I see that I need to be prepared and flexible at the same time. Not unstructured because I wasn't prepared or structured because I'm inflexible.

I, like all of us, am a work in progress. On this past Friday, I got the idea for this post as I was both structured and unstructured at the same moment. On Friday, the last thing Emma does at the end of the school day is to work on her blog. The problem was she had just taken her spelling test and had not done as well as I would have wanted. We were running late (says the inflexible teacher), and I wanted her to move on to her blog, but I also wanted her to write sentences using the missed spellings words. That's when structured and unstructured were sitting in a tree s-c-h-ool-i-n-g. I told her to write a blog post using her missed spelling words.

Here is what my Bunny Girl came up with . . . (This is also available at her blog by clicking here)

I will create a story using these five words: allegiance, geometry, appearance, biennial, and disturbance. Get ready for a cool story about bunnies right now!

At school By Alice

Told by Jenny the Bunny

I was at school, during geometry when there was a sudden disturbance. "Jenny!" said my brother, Benny. " We just saw the appearance of Nero!" I whispered to him, " That cat is for show and tell. He is for the biennial of Whiskers!". Nero is my cat. He is a ancestor of Whiskers, the most famous cat in the B.S.B! I told Benny to bring me Nero after we pledge allegiance to the flag. Mrs. Honey told us to write a report of famous cat or the ancestor of a famous cat. She told us to bring a ancestor of a famous cat or draw one. After we pledged allegiance, Benny came in with a basket. A yowling basket! "Benny! What are you doing?!" I asked. Mrs. Honey asked me,"Will you please do show your show and tell please?" I looked in the basket, put it on the desk and said," Look in the basket. What do you see? The one in the middle is my pet cat, Nero. It looks like she just had kittens. Nero is related to Whiskers. And so are her baby kittens!"

The End.

By the way, B.S.B stands for the Bunny States of Bunny world. Good Bye!

So what do structured and unstructured mean to you? What other interior struggles does home education bring out in you? Please fell free to comment and let me know. Also hop on over to my daughter's bunny blog (pun intended) and let her know what you think of her story. Then do the hop back to the party at Homeschoolbytes for the rest of this weeks carnival.

Next Time: More about One Million Arrows