Le Chef Petite: Double Chocolate Cherry Brownies!

Miss A recently wrote down in her kindergarten memory book that she wants to be a baker when she grows up.  The idea of making super fancy cakes and cookies and so forth, seemed to appeal to her.
Soooo, being a mommy, I decided to help her with her career decision.

This past Friday was our dessert night, and I decided to let her make dessert all by herself.  She was thrilled!  All I did was prep the items (open things, spray the pan, etc.).  Then she poured the ingredients in a bowl, mixed everything, and put it in the greased pan which I then put in the oven for her.

This recipe only contains THREE ingredients and the original recipe only contained TWO ingredients (my own addition was a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips - thus the "double chocolate" part of the name.  These are great with or without the chips)! For directions on making this amazing dessert, see this wonderful post here!  :)

If you have a super easy recipe, homeschooling post or tip, kid/infant related party you would like to share - please send me an e-mail at michelle.natureofgrace@gmail.com.  I'd love to feature some of my readers if the post is appropriate!


If you have a kid/infant or homeschool product you would like me to review, or if you would like me to host a giveaway - please contact me at the above e-mail address.  :)


Linking to:
www.makingtheworldcuter.com
www.delicateconstruction.com
http://www.creatingreallyawesomefreethings.com/
www.sumossweetstuff.com
www.diyhshp.blogspot.com
www.abcand123learning.com
www.gingersnapcrafts.com
www.cleanandscentsible.blogspot.com/

Le Chef Petite - Ocean Pie!

Got the summer blues?  Hmmm, probably not - at least not yet.  BUT if you do - then sit down, close your eyes, dream of the beach, and let your kids make you a dessert that will be almost as good as digging your toes in the warm sand while a balmy breeze kisses your face.  :)  Did I mention that your kids can make it?  (Depending on their ages though, you will want to step in on the hot water part, AND it would be most wise of you to keep at least one eye open, watching the process in the kitchen so that most of the "ocean" does not end up on your floor or in someone's tummy).  See below for the recipe!  :)

Ingredients:
1 small box of blue Jello (3 oz.)

1 container of Cool Whip (16 oz.)

1 graham cracker pie crust (or crushed graham crackers)

Strawberries and kiwis for ocean plants (or some other type of fruit)

Swedish fish or gummy fish or gummy eels (a.ka. worms), etc.  - basically, anything ocean creature like.

Optional: blue food color, large glass bowl or container

Directions:

1.  Mix the entire box of blue jello into 2/3 cup boiling or very hot water until Jello is dissolved.

2.  Add 1 cup of ice water (or part water with ice mixed in) to the jello mixture and stir.

3.  While the dissolved jello mixture cools a bit, slice strawberries and kiwis (use child friendly knives - see below for some suggestions).

4.  Once the jello mixture has cooled to a lukewarm temperature, carefully add the mixture to about 12 ounces of Cool Whip and stir until well combined.

5.  Place sliced fruit on top of the prepared graham cracker crust OR crushed graham crackers in a glass container (we used a large glass container so you could see through the sides, and we just broke up the crust and smashed it into the bottom of the bowl.  Then we placed some of the slices up against the glass so you could see the colorful ocean "plants").

6.  Carefully pour the jello and Cool Whip mixture over the graham crust and fruit until the container is full (if you have extra - freeze it as well and save it for eating later on).

7.  Push your Swedish fish or other gummy ocean creatures into the "ocean" mixture until submerged (or you may want to have a few peeking up from the ocean depths). 

8.  Optional:  dip a knife in blue food color and swirl through the mixture and against the sides of the container you are using.

9.  Dot the top of the "ocean" with any extra Cool Whip to simulate frothy waves.

10. Place your pie in the freezer for 4-6 hours and serve up your own piece of the ocean!  :)

COMING UP LATER IN THE WEEK:  A Homeschool Kinder Graduation - Fancy Style!


NOTE:  I'd love to feature some of my readers!!  If you have an infant or child related post or party you would like to share, please send me a link at michelle.natureofgrace@gmail.com and I will take a look.  :)



Linking to:
www.sumossweetstuff.com
www.makingtheworldcuter.com
www.diyhshp.blogspot.com
www.printabelle.com

"Ocean View" Snack

Here's a snack from our "Oceans and Beaches" theme last week.  Check back later this week to see a post full of activities and fun related to the theme as well!  :)

Snack details:

Blue jello ocean with graham cracker crumb "sand", kiwi and strawberry "coral", apple starfish, strawberry fish with a chocolate chip eye, and goldfish (parmesan).  The hairy looking "urchins" are actually rambutan shell pieces and not really edible (although the inside part is) but they looked sooo much like something one would find in the ocean that I decided to include them.  

Muffin cup #1:  Apple starfish for more decorating.

Muffin cup #2:  Kiwi slices for more decorating.

Muffin cup #3:  More parmesan goldfish.

Muffin cup #4:  Real seaweed salad.

Garnish:  Cheerios

See amazing snacks by other moms here:  www.meetthedubiens.com, http://michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com/

Would you like to be featured or mentioned on "The Nature of Grace" blog?  See here for details!

Linking up here:
http://michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com/
www.makingtheworldcuter.com

Homeschool Theme of the Week: Spring!

True to spring style - we have been busy little bees in homeschool!  See some of our fun activities below...

A fun spring snack!
Snack Details:
Muffin Cup Flowers:  strawberries with a blackberry center.  Green apple stems and leaves.
Muffin Cup Cloud:  marshmallow cream for dipping fruit.
Garnishes:  peanut butter soil with organic cheddar bunnies.  Hershey hugs flower buds with green apple leaves and a carrot caterpillar (details on face drawn with food safe markers - see link below).

Welcome to our Learning Garden!  Consider making one yourself and enjoy celebrating all of the things your child has been learning this year (great for review of past or current concepts).  This could easily be adapted to make a larger family or class garden where each child is given a "plot" to share what they have been learning.

I made two seed packet envelopes and would place a "seed" in each with a description of what Miss A should be doing for a particular plant or flower written on the seed.  The packets also contained the petals and items she would need for the flower.  Then it was just a matter of following the directions on the seed (glue the seed to the base of the plant) and building one or two flowers for the day (we only made one or two per day)!  :)

We made our own flower print book as well, picking different household objects to experiment with for making flower prints on each page.  We used items such as a toy tractor (wheels), corrugated cardboard, etc.

It seemed a shame to put away old winter shoes and this was an extra pair given to us, soooooo I decided to repurpose them into something Miss A could use for dramatic play.  AND since we had just finished a St. Patrick's Day unit where we learned that leprechauns are shoemakers for fairies, we decided to to make our own fairy shoes.  See the tutorial here.

After we finished the shoes, my daughter completed a writing activity where she pretended to be a master leprechaun shoemaker telling a younger apprentice leprechaun how to make fairy shoes (using the story sequencing: First, Next, Last).

In our family, we have our egg hunt on the first day of spring.  So this week seemed the perfect time to follow that fun activity up with a pattern block book for spring which also focused on number order, number words, and position words!  :)  I made our own pattern block pieces from different craft papers and then we added some fun details (I think the pom pom bunny tail was one of my favorites).

And what did we use for the eggs in the story?  Why thumbprints, of course (which Miss A then drew designs on)!  :)  If you would like to make your own pre- or post egg hunt book, you can download the book here for only $1.50!

Hatch a story - really easy and fun!  Want to hatch your own stories?  Simply fill each egg with a word (you can also do this labeling certain colors as nouns, others as verbs, adjectives, etc.) and have your children pick one of each color.  They open the eggs and try to come up with (and write down) a story using all of the words. For really tiny children, just have them tell you a story or sentence using the words.  :)

Tell it to Mr. Long Ears.  We have a Mr. Long Ears in our house and fortunately for us, he just happens to love listening to stories!  We also just happen to have a bunch of books about spring right now.  :)

Miss A would read a book and try to re-tell it to Mr. Long Ears.  Do you have a creature in your house that looooves listening to stories?  If so, make sure you put it to good use!  :)

While in a craft store one day, my daughter found a sheet of craft paper covered with many different Easter egg prints.  I purchased the paper, cut some of the eggs out and made up some sorting and graphing activities to go along with the eggs.  :)

And of course, we read many books together...

Linking to:
www.mushkiloves.blogspot.com
www.diyhshp.blogspot.com
www.michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com
www.delicateconstruction.com
http:\\makingtheworldcuter.com
www.singingthreelittlebirds.blogspot.com
www.ourdelightfulhome.blogspot.com
www.funkypolkadotgiraffe.blogspot.com
www.tipjunkie.com
www.abcand123learning.com
www.cleanandscentsible.blogspot.com
www.gingersnapcrafts.com
www.bearrabbitbear.com
www.enchantinghomeschoolingmom.blogspot.com
www.handsonaswegrow.com
www.momontimeout.com
www.houseofhepworths.com
www.whipperberry.com
www.toysinthedryer.com
www.kitchenfunwithmy3sons.blogspot.com
www.homeschoolcreations.net
www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com

Homeschool Theme of the Week: St. Patrick's Day!

Happy early St. Patrick's Day!  Here are a few fun activities from our week so far...

A lucky snack!  The pot in the middle is full of yellow jello - GOLD - surrounded by a rainbow of fruit (think pot of gold at the end of the rainbow).  The muffin cups are filled with "clouds" of greek yogurt and shredded coconut.  No, Miss A did not eat all of this herself - this was a huge snack for sharing with little brother and Mommy.  

Hide the Leprechaun Activity:  print a picture of a leprechaun, buy some stickers or use some shamrock cut outs, roll two dice, add the numbers together and add that many stickers to the leprechaun.  The goal is to help the leprechaun by eventually "hiding" him under the shamrock stickers.  For younger kids, just roll one die and add that many stickers to "hide" the leprechaun - for older kids, use two dice and multiply, etc.

We've been practicing the numbers 1-100 in school this year so I wrote some of these numbers on slips of paper.  I purchased some pretend gold coins and piled them on the table.  Miss A and I pretended to be leprechauns and the goal was to see who was the luckiest leprechaun.  

We each took turns drawing a number - the one with the largest number won a gold coin.  At the end of the game, we compared our gold stashes and the one with the most was the luckiest leprechaun!  But the fun didn't end there.  The luckiest leprechaun then had to jump up and do a little leprechaun dance!  :)

This activity was based on a short story I wrote for Miss A titled:  Magical Shamrocks!  The basic idea of the story was that Miss A overheard two leprechauns talking about magical shamrocks.  When gold was placed inside the leaves of a magical shamrock and the shamrock was closed, one would find the gold had doubled when the shamrock was opened back up.

After we read the short story, my daughter took some yellow paint and a cotton swab and put dots of yellow inside one half of each of the paper shamrocks I had given her.  We then closed each "magical" shamrock briefly and when we opened each one again - we found that the "gold" had indeed doubled!  Then she wrote number sentences corresponding to each magical shamrock.  

NOTE:  You may want to put a limit on how many "gold coins" your younger child can add to the shamrock if you are wanting him/her to be able to count the final results well or make simple number sentences, etc.

I had seen this idea on Pinterest before - a writing activity asking children what they would do if they found a pot of gold.  I just added a leprechaun to the mix because chances are that is how you would find said pot of gold on St. Patrick's Day, right?  :)

This was a rhyming rainbow Miss A made.  I had seen the idea before using math facts, and thought this twist would be fun too!  

I wrote some words on a large sheet of white paper in rainbow band arcs.  Then I wrote a word that rhymed with each on pieces of colored paper.  Miss A had to match the words up and glue the colored word on top of the word it rhymed with.  Thus - a rhyming rainbow!

More fun with shamrocks!  Miss A would pick a shamrock, turn it over, and then had to come up with a number sentence that would equal the number on the shamrock.  THEN, if the shamrock happened to be a glittery one (she loved those the best), she had to write the number word next to the number sentence as well.

Of course we have had some visits from our house leprechaun, doling out plenty of green mischief this week!  We've been victims of the traditional turn-the-milk-green caper and the not-so-traditional trick of putting green grapes in the bottoms of socks and leaving stickers (very lightly so they could be easily shaken off) stuck to our dog!  

My daughter has been thinking of a way to trap the little fellow so stay tuned - come Saturday morning, we hope to be the proud recipients of a pot of gold!  :)

And should you need to leave a few books out for your own little house leprechauns to read (might keep them from mischief if they have a good book in hand to distract), here are a few that graced our shelves this week:

Linking up to:
www.whipperberry.com
www.kitchenfunwithmy3sons.blogspot.com
www.homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com
www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com
www.tatertotsandjello.com
http://michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com/
www.threesinginglittlebirds.blogspot.com
www.delicateconstruction.com
www.diyhshp.blogspot.com
www.hiphomeschoolmoms.com
www.tipjunkie.com
www.gingersnapcrafts.com
www.cleanandscentsible.blogspot.com
www.enchantedhomeschoolingmom.blogspot.com
www.bearrabbitbear.com
www.momontimeout.com
www.handsonaswegrow.com
www.houseofhepworths.com

Homeschool Theme of the Day: Dr. Seuss!

NOTE:  I am participating in the Circle of Moms Top 25 Creative Moms and would loooove a vote.  You don't need to be a member and it only takes a few seconds.  Simply click the badge on the sidebar, find my name on the list (I am currently in the #60's area) and click on the vote hand.  Thanks for your support!  :)

Now on to what you really wanted to see....

A very happy Dr. Seuss birthday!  :)

Here's our fun snack and snack details:

Hat:  peanut butter sandwich with marshmallow cream and strawberries.

Muffin cups 1 & 3:  colored goldfish (think One Fish, Two Fish...) and Cheez-it letters for making up wacky words.

Muffin cup 2:  "Green eggs" made of cheese and an M&M center.

Details:  Nutella lettering and blue M&M's.

And a fun activity of course!  So easy - just let your kids design their own Seuss-like creature!

My daughter's finished product.  Kind of hard to see the creature, but it IS there.  :)

If you are needing a Dr. Suess "fix" for the day, you might want to check out this site:  http://www.seussville.com/

Linking up to:

http://www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com/

http://www.sunscholars.blogspot.com/

http://kitchenfunwithmy3sons.blogspot.com/

http://www.homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/

http://www.toysinthedryer.com/

www.tatertotsandjello.com

www.michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com

http://diyhshp.blogspot.com

www.abcand123learning.com

www.gingersnapcrafts.com

www.cleanandscentsible.blogspot.com

www.enchantedhomeschoolingmom.blogspot.com

www.momontimeout.com

www.bearrabbitbear.com

http://www.betweenuandme.com

www.houseofhepworths.com

Homeschool Theme of the Week: Valentine's Day!

As you can see, I am still running a bit behind on the posting - but better late than never, right?
Here's the fun Valentine snack my daughter enjoyed recently!

Snack details:

Nutella and strawberries in heart cookie cutters.

Red muffin cup 1:  vanilla yogurt with heart sprinkles.

Pink muffin cups 2 and 4: raspberries and dried cranberries mixed together.

Red muffin cup 3:  yogurt covered raisins and heart sprinkles.

Garnishes:  candied hearts and heart sprinkles.  

Our Valentine's Store was a sweet success!  My daughter thoroughly enjoyed selling and even purchasing Valentine packages for members of the household.  People would come to her and tell her what they wanted to send and dictate a message.  She would add up the cost on her little receipt form, give it to them, check the payment or help them come up with the correct amount, and then we would package it all up and set it on the shelf to await delivery for Valentine's Day.  Oh what bliss when the heart-filled event finally rolled around, and she delivered all of the packages!!!  It was fun for her as well as for the rest of us, AND it gave her practice with life skills, money, and writing (the dictated messages).  

To download your own deluxe store setup (there are two designs in the deluxe version as well as some fun extras not available in the free version) for only $1.50, head over here (I also have a smaller free version in my TPT store)!

Window clings are so much fun - but I wanted to do something extra with them so I glued some rhyming words to a few of the hearts and cut them apart.  My daughter then had to match the pairs that rhymed.

We were also working on compound words a bit this week, so I wrote some compound words on heart doilies, cut them apart, and let her match them up correctly.  Unfortunately I seem to have lost the photos of this activity.  :(

This was a fun matching symmetry lesson using mittens.  I saw this idea on Pinterest and decided it would make a cute winter or Valentine activity.   I drew a design on each of three mittens and then my daughter had to try to copy the design on another mitten to make a matching set.

For some handwriting practice, I had my daughter complete each "You are" sentence with the words from a candy message heart she randomly picked from a small bunch I had given her.  She would then write the words on the line to complete the sentences.

We graphed some candy hearts by color and.....

by message.  

And I leave you with a fun craft that is a great companion to the book "Guess How Much I Love You!"  I think these pictures show what we did better than I could tell in a bunch of words.
My daughter decorated this to look like herself.  We glued traced cutouts of her hands to the accordian fold sentence strip arms.  I wanted to make handprints and cut those out instead to attach, but it didn't happen.

She brainstormed her own way to say how much she loves mommy and daddy ("as fast as I can twirl"), and we wrote that inside the paper.  I loved her response  - it just sounds so much like her.  :)

BTW: I am participating in a blog contest for the top 25 creative mom blogs and would LOVE it if you would cast a vote for me!  :)  The button is on the sidebar and you don't have to be a member or sign up or anything to vote - just click the button which takes you to the site and cast your vote.  You can vote once a day so if you feel extra generous and want to cast a vote on another day - I would LOOOOVVVVEEEE it if you would!  Thanks so much!
(Note:  Since I posted this, I have been informed by some that they are unable to cast their votes for some reason - I contacted someone from that particular site, and they suggested trying a different browser which seemed to do the trick for at least one person that I am aware of.  Sooo, if you attempt to vote and it will not allow you to do so, it could be a browser issue.  Thanks so much to those who have tried and let me know!)

Linking up to:
http://www.whipperberry.com/
http://www.homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/
http://www.fingerprintsonthefridge.com/
http://www.toysinthedryer.com/
http://www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com/
http://www.kitchenfunwithmy3sons.blogspot.com/
http://www.tatertotsandjello.com/
http://www.singingthreelittlebirds.blogspot.com/
http://www.diyhshp.blogspot.com/
http://www.michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com/
http://www.makingtheworldcuter.com/
http://www.tipjunkie.com/
http://www.hiphomeschoolmoms.com/
http://www.abcand123learning.com/
http://www.cleanandscentsible.blogspot.com/
http://www.gingersnapcrafts.com/
http://www.polkadotsonparade.blogspot.com/
http://www.houseofhepworths.com/
http://www.bearrabbitbear.com/
http://www.momontimeout.com/

Homeschool Theme of the Week(s): Winter!

I have not been posting as much lately, but I hope to catch up and get back into a routine soon!  Here's some of what we've been up to over the past few weeks with winter being our main theme...

A fun winter themed snack!

Snowman face:  peanut butter and marshmallow creme sandwich with a carrot nose, raisin eyes, and chocolate chip smile.  The scarf was made of kiwi and mini tomato slices.

Muffin cups 1 and 3 (sides of plate):  yogurt covered raisin "snowballs".

Muffin cup 2 (top):  vanilla yogurt "snow" with a dried cranberry snowflake design.

Muffin cup 4 (bottom):  More kiwi slices and dried cranberries for decorating the snowman further as desired.

Garnish: gumdrops.

One of our activities consisted of playing roll a blizzard!  To do this with your own child, have him/her draw a snow scene (or any sort of outdoor scene).  Throw two dice and add the numbers together to see how many snowflakes you will add to the picture.  Keep going until the picture is covered in snowflakes!  For younger children learning to count or learning about numbers, you may just want to roll one die.

For our blizzard picture, we used snowflake stamps and silver ink but using foam snowflakes, snowflake stickers, etc. would be other great options as well.

We also enjoyed some hot chocolate math with real marshmallows - I saw this idea on Pinterest (here is a link)!  To play this game, simply roll a die or draw from a stack of numbers to determine how many marshmallows you may add to your cup.  Then do it again and write a number sentence to show the problem and the solution.  (Optional:  eat one of your marshmallows after you finish each problem).

You can't go wrong with a classic, right?  I think the same holds true for classic school activities like practicing one's spelling in shaving cream "snow". 

Speaking of snow, we explored real snow (saved in our deep freezer from the last big snow) and made a miniature snowman indoors.

We also attempted to make an igloo out of ice cubes and snow outdoors (attempted being a key word).

At least if one does not do so well in the igloo building department, one can always explore one's strengths in other areas such as baking and decorating cookies.  These little snowman cookie faces (more on what we did with those later on a Friendly Friday post) were "snow" fun to make!  ;)

Snowball fight anyone?  Too cold to go outdoors?  Wellllll, then why not have one inside instead!  Simply gather up all your white socks, roll into balls, aim, and fire!

Needing a little winding down activity?  Try a crayon resist painting!  My daughter drew her snow scene with a white crayon on white paper and then painted over it with blue watercolor.  It was neat seeing the white snow scene pop out suddenly on the paper when blue was added!

One of my daughter's favorite activities for this theme was to open her own hot chocolate shop!  Great for reviewing money, practicing interpersonal skills, dramatic play and more - a pretend and play store is a wonderful hands on learning experience.  Sandwich shops, beauty salons, pet stores, mechanic shops, etc. - the sky is the limit for the different kinds of stores your child can own and practice running.  :)  I know our  family members were very willing to visit my daughter's store and to participate, purchasing their hot chocolate drink of choice and enjoying each sip.

And speaking of shops, here is a sneak preview of one activity we have planned for Valentine's week - a Sweet Shop where family members can come and secretly order some sweets for someone else and/or send a message or purchase a coupon for helping someone in the family (doing dishes for one night, etc.).  My daughter will help keep track of the orders and will be in charge of delivery on Valentine's Day.  Judging from the success of her hot chocolate shop, I think she will really enjoy this new venture!

Love this idea and want to make a Sweet Shop of your own?  I have posted a very simple version for FREE on my Teachers Pay Teachers website here.  The free set includes a customizable wording sign and matching write-in price tags.  A deluxe version is available here for $1.50 which includes TWO designs (hearts and one with dots which is more general for everyday use) and items such as sale signs, frequent shopper cards, receipts, and coupons (heart design only for the coupons), etc.  I hope that one of these sets (free or deluxe) will provide hours of fun and learning for you and your child!

So what do YOU have planned for Valentine's?

Linking up to:
http://www.houseofhepworths.com/
http://www.bearrabbitbear.com/
http://www.momontimeout.com/
www.handsonaswegrow.com
www.whipperberry.com
kitchenfunwithmy3sons.blogspot.com
www.tatertotsandjello.com
http://www.livinglifeintentionally.blogspot.com
http://michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com/