Pinterest - Great ideas, very little follow through

As I was cruising Pinterest tonight and re-organizing my boards I realized I have yet to actually used any of the ideas I have pinned. So I have decided to pick one or two recipes per week and at least one homeschool activity and one craft and do them. First up:

Corn According to this blog post you can throw corn in the oven at 350* for 25-30 minutes STILL IN THE HUSK and it will cook perfectly. Better yet the husk and silk will peel off easily. The corn in our garden is just now getting ripe. The kids and I spent several hours yesterday shucking corn, cutting it off the cob, and freezing it. I still have corn silk all over the house.

Second recipe: Potatoes I love, love, love potatoes. But I get tired of doing the same thing over and over. We'll see how this recipe turns out.

Craft idea for this week: Soap! Matthew bought several bars of soap so that he could carve them. He ended up with a whole bowl of soap slivers and wanted to melt them together so that he could have another bar of soap. I thought this idea would be fun to do instead.

Homeschool idea for this week: This game is called Flip Ten. You use Uno cards and try to make a match that adds up to 10. I've been wanted to work with Abby to get her to rely more on memory and less on counting with her fingers and this looks like a good place to start.

My kids' favorite syrup

In our family we try to stay away from processed foods, especially HFCS.  This means making most of our food from scratch and eating foods that are as close to their natural form as possible.  My kids love pancakes and it is a cheap and easy breakfast.  However, they really miss their Aunt Jemima.  They don't care for the stronger flavor of real maple syrup and frankly, as much as we eat pancakes, I can't afford to buy it either.  I found a recipe online for homemade buttermilk syrup a couple years ago that the kids love, but ever since we started milking our own cows I never have real buttermilk on hand.  The other day it occurred to me that yogurt would make a good substitute for the buttermilk.  The kids love it!  It will still just be a treat that I only make occasionally as it does contain a lot of sugar, but I feel more comfortable feed this to them than the store bought junk.

Homemade Yogurt Syrup

1/2 c butter
1 cup yogurt
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda

melt butter, yogurt, & sugar together in a medium saucepan.  (Do NOT use a small saucepan, you will be sorry.)

Bring to a boil an let boil for 7-8 minutes.  Stir constantly or you will have a big mess as it tends to boil over easily.

Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and baking soda.  This is where you are going to be sorry if you didn't use a big enough saucepan.  The baking soda will bubble up like you mixed it with vinegar!  Stir with a wire wisk until it quits foaming as much.

I usually try to pour it on the kids' pancakes right away while it is still foam.  It goes a lot further that way.  This syrup is really runny and super sweet, so it really doesn't take a lot.   If it's still foamy when I pour it on the kids' pancakes they think they are getting a lot, but they really aren't.  If you actually happen to have leftovers stick it in the fridge and use it for apple dip later.  Good stuff!

Time4Learning Review coming soon...

We have been officially homeschooling for one year now.  It has been a journey to say the least.  This year really has been a learning experience for all of us.  We have learned what works and what doesn't.  Originally I wanted to teach all three older kids together as much as possible. Over the course of three curriculum changes I have discovered that it just isn't going to work that way with my children.  Everything we have gone over together has been review for Jacob and he seems to just skate by doing the bare minimum just because he can.  Despite their age difference, Abby and Matthew are at about the same grade level.  Instead of using the competition to motivate Matthew to work harder he has a tendency to give up when it looks like she's getting close to catching up to him.  They really need their own space to work separately.    


On top of everything, I've been so busy lately with the cows, 4H projects, the garden, work, and just general household demands that getting schoolwork done is pushed lower and lower on the list.  We get math & spelling done everyday because it is computer based, and the kids can do it without a lot of undivided attention from me. But history, language arts, and science are suffering because I just haven't had the time to sit down for a couple hours everyday with them to get it done.  When we do get it done, I'm really bad about not checking their work because I'm rushing to get chores done before I have to go to work or take the kids to their various activities.  I need to start working with Sam on a regular basis, but I just haven't had the time to do that.  When I found out about Time4Learning I thought maybe this is what we need as it looks like it will help solve several of these issues.   We shall see....

Disclosure:  I've been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. Time4Learning can be used as a homeschool curriculum, for afterschool enrichmentand for summer skill sharpening. Find out how to write your own curriculum review for Time4Learning.