Cork Stamping

Quick, fun and easy!  Parent/s take a box cutter type of knife and cut into the cork tops or bottoms to make the shape you want.  I used a pen to draw a few of the shapes and then just cut along those lines.  Work slowly and preferably with out distraction (aka when the kids are not around.)  Want to keep those fingers injury free!  Make sure you put that sharp knife out of the kids' reach once your done.

Once your shapes are cut out your children can do all sorts of activities with them.  I wrote out a simple pattern and had my 5 year old stamp the appropriate shape in the columns.  She worked on reading, math and fine motor skills.  On separate cards I wrote a number and had them stamp that many shapes on the card.  You could incorporate addition, subtraction, sorting, and of course, just plain old art fun!

Share other ideas you have.  I'm always looking for new ones!

Why High Rising?

Here's the gist of it:

1. Teaching children is about helping them grow and develop, in essence rising up.  
2. Part of why we chose to homeschool is to teach and lead our children towards God.  We want them (all of us really) to strive, reach, rise up to him in all we say and do.
3. We live in a high rise building!!!  Yes, for the current time we live in an apartment building with 21 floors.  I put all these things together and came up with High Rising Homeschool!!  Works for  us.

Sugar Free Granola

A few months back we started making our own granola.  I found a recipe for it in a book we checked out at the library.  I can't recall the exact name of the book.  The recipe was great and we loved the results but over the past few weeks I've been thinking a lot about our sugar intake.  While I think it's a little less than the typical family it is still probably too high.  So I'm taking deliberate steps to cut back on the sweet stuff.  The original recipe called for 1/4 cup of brown sugar, as well as honey.  For the first time today I omitted the sugar and increased the honey to see how it would turn out and we love it!!  Yes, it's noticeably not as sweet as before but still pretty sweet thanks to the increase in honey.  Here's my modified recipe.  Oh, I also added a little wheat germ, which I try to put into practically everything!

Sugar Free Granola

Dry Ingredients:

3 c. rolled oats

1 c. sliced almonds or other nuts

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

1 tsp wheat germ

Liquid Ingredients:

1/3 c vegetable oil

½ c honey

1 tsp vanilla

½ cup raisins (or other dried fruit)

Kitchen Supplies:

Large mixing bowl

Small mixing bowl

Jellyroll pan (or cookie sheet)

·      Heat oven to 300 degrees F.

·      In a large bowl combine dry ingredients: rolled oats, nuts, cinnamon, nutmeg and wheat germ.  Mix well.

·      In a small bowl combine liquid ingredients: vegetable oil, honey and vanilla.  Stir to combine.

·      Pour liquid ingredient mixture into the dry ingredients.  Stir until well coated. 

·      Spread the mixture on a cookie sheet.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.  Every 5 minutes or so, carefully slide sheet out of oven and stir the mixture, to ensure even baking.  Make sure to wear your oven mitts.

·      Allow mixture to cool on sheet and add dried fruit.  Store in a sealable container.  

TIPS:

·      Watch the color of your mixture as it bakes.  Once it starts to turn slightly brown it will become golden very quickly and then burned if you wait too long.  The 20-25 baking time is only a guideline.  I find that my gas oven seems to be hotter so I generally pull the granola out a little shy of 20 minutes. 

·      I’m not a raisin fan but my kids are so I omit the raisins until it comes to serving time.  I like to set out a variety of dried or dehydrated fruit so everyone gets a little of what they like.

·      We usually eat this granola by the handful as snack or with milk/yogurt for breakfast.