Betta Version 1.0 : Unschooling Fish

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Homeschooling Daughters

Raising Arrows has a lot of wonderful posts on her homeschooling blog. I've really enjoyed reading her posts about Homeschooling Daughters, and thought I'd share those links here.

Homeschooling Daughters Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Easy recipe for a personal-size chocolate cake!

I came across this cool recipe while blog hopping and am definitely going to test it out. Sometimes I have a craving for chocolate cake, but don't feel like making a whole cake. Heather over at Want What You Have shared this recipe from another blog she came across, and I'm passing it on to you! I think this would make a great project for young children learning how to cook.


Ingredients
4 Tbsp self-rising flour (NOTE: If you don't have self-rising flour, you can easily make your own by mixing 1 cup all-purpose flour with 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt).
4 Tbsp sugar
4 Tbsp cocoa
1 egg
3 Tbsp milk
3 Tbsp oil
3 Tbsp semi-sweet chocolate chips (if desired)
A splash of vanilla extract
1 large coffee cup

Add all dry ingredients, except chocolate chips, to the cup and mix well. Add the egg, milk, oil & vanilla extract and mix very well. Fold in chocolate chips, if desired. Put cup in the center of your microwave and cook for 3 minutes on high (1000 watts). The cake will rise over the cup a bit, but thats normal.

Top with icing or coolwhip! Btw, make sure your coffee cup can be microwaved. Some cannot! (I use to have some that couldn't be microwaved. I ended up donating them to Goodwill, because, well, I always forget about my coffee and need to microwave it!)

Feel free to share this on your blog. If you test it out, let me know how it worked for you!

Edit:
The first time I tried this, I did it in a large "soup" mug (which is wide, not tall). The cake was a little dry, and I wished it was a little sweeter. It definitely does make one large serving! It'd be perfect for making one of those small personal birthday cakes for babies to chow down on.

Anyway, I decided to try it again. This time, I added another tablespoon of sugar. I also added a couple squirts of chocolate syrup and mixed it all in. I divided the cake mixture into two regular sized coffee cups (which I greased first). I put a little squirt of chocolate syrup on the top of each cup after filling them with mixture, then microwaved for ONE minute.

The cakes were very moist, and just the perfect amount of sweetness. (And, splitting the cake mix into two mugs made the perfect serving size!)

I have pictures to post later! :)

Blogger Awards!

It's that time of year! Go nominate your favorite blogs for awards!
(In case you're wondering, The Precious Mind would fit into "Best Crafts, Plans & Projects Blog". Yanno, just in case you'd like to nominate us!)

The Precious Mind is looking for homeschooling mothers, fathers, or students to write articles, reviews, and share their homeschooling stories here at TPM. You may also submit pictures to be displayed on the TPM site.

If you're interested, please email Mandy @ contact (at) mandymom (dot) com

Native American themed crafts

My friend Courtney is doing a unit study on American Indians. She came up with some unique ideas to make Indian corn necklaces and cornhusk dolls. It reminded me of a craft my dad use to do with us. (Maybe sometime I'll find a picture of my brother and I dressed up in our creations to post.)

Find a paper bag from the grocery store. Usually, they have print on the outside, so you might want to flip it inside out before you get started. So, first step- you have your brown paper bag. Secondly, you cut down the middle of one side, and continue cutting into the bottom of the bag. Cut out a circle in the bottom of the bag (step 3). This will now be the top where a little head will be poking through. Next you need to cut out arm holes on each side (step 4). Cut them high up on the sides and make them large enough for some flexibility. Cut fringe (step 5) along the bottom of the bag (which was once the top, remember). Then decorate!

You might want to make an Indian headband (as shown in the drawing) to go along with the vest. If you do this project, post it on your blog and send me the link, or send me a picture link to post here.

When I was a kid, one of my favorite books was The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush (Tomie dePaola). I loved to paint then just as much as I do now. This book spurred me to look into the old-fashioned ways of making paint colors.

Another good book (also by Tomie dePaola) is The Legend of the Bluebonnet (my state's flower, and also my favorite!). The illustrations are so beautiful. I'm one of those people who never outgrew children's books because I love the art!

Enchanted Learning has a bunch of neat Native American crafts, like paper towel totem poles, dream catchers, and rain sticks!

I also found this link, which has pretty cool ideas as well. The Indian Leather Painting (also using a brown paper bag) is really cool. I did that when I was a kid as well!

Crafts from every day items

Last spring, our family went to Baton Rouge to celebrate Easter with our friends. That weekend, we went to a children's museum. They had a little section full of items like toilet paper rolls, fabric, egg cartons, and more for children (and their parents) to make anything they could think up. I took pictures of some of the things they have displayed. There were loads of cute creations- which inspired me to hold on to the items that I'd normally toss (egg cartons, jugs, newspaper, etc). My son likes to use the fridge boxes colas come in to make "robot arms". Toilet paper rolls become binoculars. They enjoy playing with these things more than they do those pricey toys!

If you have posted a picture about using everyday items for toys and art, please, leave a link to your post in a comment! I'd love to see it!

Days of the Week: Praise Him! (mp3)

Hey y'all,

After a few requests (okay, a couple- just two), I decided to record myself singing Praise Him: The Days of the Week song which I made up (using the tune from The Grumblers). Feel free to share it with your children and sing it with your family. We usually dance around the house singing it. Please, don't make fun of my voice. I had to redo it a couple times because I realized how hick I sounded. Ha! I'm not a professional singer (as you can tell), but I did my best. (And, as I tell my children- that's what counts!)

Praise God: Days o...