Apple Tree Handprint Keepsake

Now, I am not a big fan of having lots of paper crafts lying around **I’ve got too many kids for that and keep the ones I want to keep in shirt boxes**. So, I thought it would be cute to paint it on this piece of wood. I have literally had this wooden plaque lying around my house for YEARS!! I have finally put it to good use, and it will be nice to hang it in my future schoolroom or in the kitchen during fall/apple season. So grab your tools. You will need acrylic paint, paint brushes, a painter’s cup of water, paper towels, a painting surface **you could use paper, wood, a t-shirt or even a brown paper gift bag**, an apple sliced in half in its upright position, and your child.

During nap time mommy time I painted this tree. I mixed my brown and black paint to get the varying shades of brown. If you have an older child, appoint this task to them. You could even claim it as a nature study, send them outside and have them paint a real tree.

My Painted Tree Trunk

Once the tree dried, I painted each child’s hand with the green acrylic and let them print the tree. Note: Acrylic paint is permanent! Make sure they are wearing paint worthy clothing! We started with the larger/oldest child’s hand in the middle and worked our way to the outside.

Be sure to allow each handprint to dry for ten minutes before moving on to the next one. This will make for a clearer and cleaner print. Once all of the prints have been painted on. Let your child paint their apple half with a color of their choice, and stamp it on the coordinating handprint.

Apple Stamping!

Once this is dry feel free to name and date your apples! I had great luck and more definition with a thin Sharpie marker. Allow to sit overnight and then cover with a clear coat of water based poly. I went to poly mine tonight and realized it hadn’t been open in four years and was full of rust. But knowing me, it will probably be another four years before I get around to buying another can of polyurethane. Once this is finished it will be a treasure and something that everyone can be proud of!

Kathryn-Grace at Breeden's Orchard fall of 2008

All through the month of September they allow families **Yep, that means kiddos too!** to saddle up a wagon and pick a bushel of this favorite American fruit!

Pickin' apples with Daddy!

Apples provide excellent nutritional benefits. We’ve all heard “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” During recent years this old english saying has proved more true than not. Studies have shown apples can aid in natural prevention of osteoporosis, help prevent asmtha flair ups, assist in the natural treatment of Alzheimer’s, help lower cholesterol, fight multiple types of cancer and much more. True, they are healthy and beautiful. Who doesn’t appreciate a nice apple center piece.

But here in the soup bowl, we just like to eat them.

Liam, taking a bite!

I hope y’all enjoy our upcoming apple week. Feel free to comment and leave us many new, wonderfully applicious ideas for next year. We love to learn from you!

Our Florida house has consistently been on and off the market since we moved back. We are coming close to our second anniversary of trying to sell our house and I am amazed at how God continues to see us through. There have been times of plenty and then there are those other times. We are in one of those other times right now.

Obviously God is showing us where we need to rely on Him. I have a small very small inheritance check that comes in the mail every month. We have been waiting on it for almost a week.  A week is not a long time, until you need something…. or at least you think you need something. It is amazing to me how we I have allowed myself to be fooled by our culture. Underwear, I need. A trendy cardigan with a great belt, I don’t. Sure our family needs to eat. But, do we need to eat the American way? The rest of the world doesn’t and they are probably all the better for it.

Every Monday I teach our children a bible verse set to a melody I make up on the spot. This morning’s verse was a no brainer…

Matt 6:25-34

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in a barn, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?”

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father know that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

Ingredients

1 8oz package of cream cheese

1 cup of butter

1/4 cup of fresh pureed strawberries

2lbs or 8 cups of powdered sugar

2 tablespoons of coconut milk

1/2 cup coconut

(Do not add coconut if you are using this frosting as a crumb coat under fondant)

Preparation

1. Cream cream cheese and butter on medium speed.

2. Add pureed strawberries

3. Sift powdered sugar and add to mixing bowl a cup at a time.

4. Mix well for four minutes scraping the sides and bottom as needed.

5. Add coconut milk until desired consistency is reached.

Note: Cream cheese frosting is not a decorator frosting. To crumb coat smooth under fondant place in fridge for 10 minute increments.

Disney Princess Castle Cake with Gum Paste Princesses

The cake tiers themselves are two 6in and 10in rounds. It was a butter pound cake with my new Strawberry Coconut Cream Cheese frosting and a custard filling! I covered the stacked and filled cakes with a thin layer of fondant and formed the cobblestone exterior by hand. I didn’t want any plastic on the cake itself, so I used the plastic door and windows that came with the Wilton’s Romantic Castle Cake Set as a fondant mold. I then adhered the pieces to the cake with a brush stroke of water.

Gum Paste Cinderella in front of molded door

Once the cake was covered and the windows attached, I dry dusted the cake with a silk white luster dust to give it a fairytale sparkle. I placed three large plastic hollow dowels, in a triangular shape, in the bottom tier to hold the weight of the top tier. The top 6in tier was placed on a 6in cake board before I crumb coated and covered it in fondant. Place the board directly over the dowels. This cake was stacked a little off center to give it a more realistic look. Once the cakes were stacked I covered the towers in a thin layer of powder blue fondant.

Cutting the fondant to cover the towers

I carefully wrapped each piece around the plastic tower and smoothed the seam with a dab of Crisco. I then dry brushed the towers with the same white silk luster dust I used for the cake. When ever dry dusting a cake, be sure and use a large food only make-up brush. I like to use a blush brush and brush in round strokes for a smooth and even coverage!

Wrapping the tower in fondant

It was my intention to cover the whole turret in fondant. However, I do have five children and time wasn’t on my side. I used a power blue royal icing to trace around the windows on the turrets and the door on the cake. I also gave all three hundred pink flowers yellow and white royal icing center and glued them on to the turrets and cake.

Castle Towers, Windows and the Back of My Gum Paste Belle

I then used royal icing to adhere the tops of the towers to the turrets themselves and also place the turrets on the cake. Due to a poor design plan the turrets have solid bottoms, leaving them much less sturdy than desirable. So my husband happily drilled a 1/4 in hole in the bottom of each turret. My husband is happy anytime he has an excuse to pull out his tools! This enabled me to place a 1/4 in wooden dowel rod in each turret and secure it into the cake. We cut each dowel rod in half leaving us with 3in inside the turret and 3in inside the cake itself. These I also secured with royal icing.

Gum Paste Belle and Sleeping Beauty adorn their Castle

Once assembled, I doused the castle with a nice layer of edible pixie dust and then since it was 4am, I crashed. This was again, another nice reminder of why I only make cakes for special occasions!

Thanks to both family and friends the party was a huge success and we were able to celebrate another God given year with our princesses!

Princess Kathryn-Grace admiring her candy princesses!

Princess Julia, taking in her birthday celebration!

Disney Princess Castle Cake: Day 1

Disney Princess Castle Cake: Day 2

Gum Paste Disney Princesses

This was my third attempt at modeling gum paste figures. The first was Princess Lollipop, for my Candy Land cake and the second was Raggedy Ann and Andy. The key is finding the foundation of your figure; what part of the body is going to hold the most weight. Find it, and then build around it. Think of each part of the body as a separate unit. Because of its size the skirts are the foundation of my princesses. I then added the bodice and chest area to support the arms and head.

Shaping Cinderella's Skirt

Since gum paste, modeling chocolate, and fondant are all sugar based. You can adhere the pieces by brushing on a bit of water with a food only paint brush. This breaks down the sugar just enough to allow it to stick together. I use watercolor brushes and keep them clean in between use with a little bit of Dawn.

Keep cornstarch on hand to prevent the gum paste from sticking to your fingers. Each of the small body parts are made out of a separate piece of gum paste. For example, there are four different colored gum paste parts for the head in the picture below. Ivory for the face, yellow for the hair, and two shades of blue for the hair band and earrings.

Gum paste Cinderella in pieces

Before… and After!

Finished Gum Paste Cinderella

If you are new to modeling gum paste people, then I suggest starting with a modeling chocolate and fondant mix. I prefer equal parts of both. There is a greater drying time allowance. If you don’t need the figure to be extra sturdy go ahead and use fondant. The sky is the limit. Here is a great and easy white modeling chocolate recipe that anyone can make in their own home! Enjoy!

For those of you want to try this at home, I am using Wilton’s Romantic Castle Cake Set. Sure, I could have handmade the turrets using rice crispy treats, dirty iced them and covered them in modeling chocolate…. but I have five kids. So for now I think I will stick to the plastic, covered in fondant of course! The first thing on the agenda is flowers. Three hundred fondant flowers and three hundred leaves. Although painstaking, I find this kind of work somehow meditating and oh so beautiful!

A sea of fondant flowers and leaves

Wash and dry your work station thoroughly, you don’t want your fondant to pick up dust. Start by dusting your work station with a light dusting of corn starch or confectioner’s sugar. I prefer corn starch, it has a better texture to it, but either works fine.  Roll your fondant 1/8 of an inch thick and use a flower cut-out of your choice. I used both a forget me not and a small leaf from Wilton’s Floral Garland Ejector Set. I place each flower on a nice thick piece of foam. I like to be able to make many flowers at a time and have plenty of space, so I use a clean piece of soft packing foam. With my small ball tool, I gently press the center of the flower cut-out and work my way outwards. Do the same with the leaves.

Using my small ball tool to form a fondant flower

Whenever I want to use the same color flower for the whole cake I vary the shades. Naturally for this cake I chose pink. But I hand mixed three shades of a blossom pink and two shades of a leaf green. This will give both dimension and a realistic look to your flowers. Remember there are no two flowers alike, be sure to make each one individual. This is particularly important if you are making more realistic flowers like gum paste roses or carnations. In this case I spent extra time on the leaves, both veining and shaping them.

Veining my leaves

You can give each leaf its own unique shape by twisting, turning, folding, tearing or leaving it flat. I like to see both the front and back sides of my leaf. Think about how things look in nature and try to emulate it.

Twisting a Leaf

Place smaller flowers like these on a parchment covered jelly roll pan and allow at least 24 hours for drying time. When you are finished bask in the rows of finished flowers.

Fondant flowers placed to dry

The sweetest flowers are the kind you can eat. Please be sure to join us for Day 2 where we will be making Disney princess figurines. I can’t wait and hopefully, neither can you!

My Wedding Cake

…If only I had the photo of my first cake, a Noah’s Ark to scale. I wonder if I can get my Mom to dig it up for me? Mom if you are reading this you know what to do…

Hard at work.

As promised here is a short line-up of our chosen Kindergarten curriculum for the 2010/11 school year. We hope this is helpful for those of you who are beginners like us and aren’t sure where to start. After all it is Kindergarten, so we started with the three r’s. Here they are…

Reading

Alpha-Phonics

My family was raised on Alpha-Phonics. We love it! It works for almost all children and is a tried and true fantastic curriculum. It’s on Cathy Duffy’s Top 100 list and right now there really wasn’t a better choice for our family.

Writing

A Beka Books K Cursive

You may notice that this A Beka book says cursive. Cursive for Kindergarten? Yes! There are many advocates for skipping manuscript altogether. My boys are doing great with this already and if your curiosity gets the best of you go ahead and click on this link.

Arithmetic

Earlybird Kindergarten Mathematics

After the strong recommendation from many homeschooling parents, we chose Singapore Math. It answers the fundamental questions of mathematics based on logistics. It follows a child’s development starting with concrete concepts and moving to abstract. In the public school world Singapore is known for achieving high test scores.

For our history we are reading from Sonlight’s book list, as well as Ambleside Online. Ambleside is a free Charlotte Mason based curriculum and a wealth of knowledge for free resources. It is here where I learned that there is a whole first year of spanish for elementary ages on youtube. My children love spanish!

In Kindergarten science can be anything, it’s life. It can be cooking, playing outside, nature journals, building with Daddy in the garage. We read aloud a series called Nature Readers and use Creepy Crawlies and the Scientific Method as a supplements. It has great experiments and teaches young children the scientific method of learning. If you don’t mind having live bugs in the house, that is.

The most challenging part so far has been managing both toddlers and school age together. But, slowly we will get it. During handwriting our three year old practices writing her letters and her name. And our boys are happy to teach their sisters their letters while the others need one on one attention. I’m sure a natural flow to our day will come with time, but one thing is for sure. With this many underfoot I can’t get through my day without coffee….and by the looks of things Julia can’t either!

Julia, sampling a little bit of Mommy's ambition!

]]> http://duckducksoupermom.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/our-kindergarten-homeschool-curriculum/feed/ 4 Danielle Kyle 100_6930 0941995003.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_ 47236 EBSTDTA-2 100_6929 http://duckducksoupermom.wordpress.com/2010/09/06/to-homeschool-or-not-to-homeschool/ http://duckducksoupermom.wordpress.com/2010/09/06/to-homeschool-or-not-to-homeschool/#comments Mon, 06 Sep 2010 06:11:37 +0000 Danielle Kyle http://duckducksoupermom.wordpress.com/?p=424 Continue reading →]]> …that is the question.

This September officially marks the beginning of our homeschooling careers. Our twin boys started Kindergarten a few weeks ago and we made the huge decision to teach them at home. Although this is a “huge” decision, it was an easy one for us. After spending almost two years weighing both the pros and cons, the pros easily won out in the end. And so we begin our journey into curriculum fairs, chalk boards, pencil shavings and the world of Classical Education and Charlotte Mason.

Recently both my husband Jeron and I have had people ask us how and why we homeschool. What books do we use? How young are they when we start teaching them? Please let me go out of my way here to state that we are beginners. This time in our lives is just starting for us and there is a world of homeschooling knowledge that we know nothing about. But, that is part of the beauty of homeschooling. We can learn along with our children. If you are struggling with this question yourself, then please allow me to encourage you to look for the tell-tale signs and symptoms of a future homeschool parent.

Homeschooling may be apart of your future if …

You have seriously considered it or even half heartedly bounced the idea around in your head. If the thought is there then maybe there is a reason and it is one worth pursuing.

You do not have full and complete confidence in the local public/private school your child would otherwise be attending. Our country is blessed to have free schooling for all classes, races, faiths, etc… but the reality is that not every public/private school in all areas are going to equip your child with the best education. Some public and private schools are better than others.

Your spouse has expressed an interest in homeschooling. We are not encouraging you to feel forced into homeschooling, but if this is something your husband/wife has suggested to you then maybe it would be worth a discussion. The same goes the other way. Women if you are feeling as though you are pushing your husband into this decision then stop. Allow him time to think about it and if it is truly the desire of your heart than pray that the God will change his heart.

Your child’s learning style does not mesh well with the typical classroom setting. Everyone is unique and different. There is no way for us all to learn the same way. It is easily possible for a child to be comfortable reading at one grade level and performing math skills on another and vice versa. At home we can allow a child to thrive in the learning environment that is best suited for their needs.

Your local school like many others across the country, may have cut school funding. At home we have the ability to make sure our children are learning art, music, foreign language, physical education and so forth everyday. Lack of government funding does not affect the quality of education that my child is receiving.

You want to be the biggest influence in your child’s life. We prefer to have our children, who are  still so very young and impressionable, around things and people who will build them up spiritually. Not, tear them down or expose them to unnecessary negative influences. If they are at home with us then we have the opportunity to savor more fleeting moments of their quickly passing childhood.

You want to choose your own curriculum. There are many learning styles and methods to choose from. You have the ability to decide the type of education your child is going to receive. Gone are the days of a public Classical Education. It is your decision if you want to teach them latin, greek and history through art and literature or underwater basket weaving for that matter. My boys are learning cursive in Kindergarten. At home the abnormal can become normal and be better for it.

You are overloaded with homework. The reality is most of the time in your child’s seven hour school day is not spent doing book work and very little of it is spent outside where they can release their energy and create a healthy lifestyle. In a typical school environment, homework is a necessity. If you are feeling like this is creating more work for you and leaving you picking up the pieces then maybe homeschooling is right for you.

You fear for your child’s safety at school. Tragically in the last ten years, schools have become a battleground. Hundreds of families across our country can bare witness to that fact. Even our local metro schools here are subject to yearly stabbings and shootings. If you do feel your child is in danger at his/her school, then please act on that feeling and remove them from the situation.

Hopefully, this list has been helpful in making this decision easier for you. If you do feel like you are coming down with these “not so abnormal” symptoms then we encourage you to pray, learn, and talk about it together. On my next blog I will cover our chosen Kindergarten curriculum and other free learning sources you can take advantage of. If you have any questions or valuable information you would like to share then please feel free to leave a comment. We love to learn from you.