This Is What I Do

Lately my days have been filled with crafting, crafting, and more crafting!  From Save the Dates for our wedding, to numerous Preschool crafts, I have been a busy lady.

Speaking of Preschool crafts, I don't think I have talked much about what I do on a day to day basis.  I am full time student, hopefully graduating later this year.  My ultimate goal is to get my BS in Human Development, (my focus is Child Development), and to get licensed as a teacher in my state.  I want to be a kindergarten teacher.

Right now I also work part time at a "Playschool."  A playschool is just a cute name for a daycare that focuses a little on the actual academics of the children's education; mostly the children learn through play.  While I know play is a very important aspect of child development, (especially in the social and physical categories of development), I am convinced that our facility needs more structure. We, the "teachers", need more time to teach the children proper school etiquette, and basic material. I want to teach more lessons, and actually put lesson plans that I have had to create for my schooling, into practice. The problem is, there is a shortage of materials I can use to put lesson plans together at my work. This creates a lot of outside work for me, (and often a lot of extra expense), which I have to take care of in order to prepare the curriculum and activities.

Trips to the library, craft stores, internet and book research, preparing the outline for the lessons, prepping the activities, gathering supplies...it all takes so much time.  It is difficult for me to balance school and  be the best I can be at my job.

 

Regardless, I keep on trying to come up with a happy medium that works for me.  School always comes first, but if I only implement a few new ideas at my work a couple times a month, so be it, that's how it is going to be, and I am almost satisfied with that. I know an improvement, even if small or made slowly, is still an improvement.

This week a few nice things happened: I finished with one of my finals super early, and my tax returns came!  Because of this I was able to make a very in depth craft, that will help me create more structure during circle time, and foster more learning.

 My Circle Time Felt Weather Board

Learn the days of the week, notice the changing weather, and temperature recording! 

Happy Little Faces!

 

It is so neat that felt sticks to felt.

If you remove all the weather objects, you could tell fabric stories on the board too!

I Scream You Scream We All Scream For Ice Cream...and Updates!

Recipe Below :)

It's been far too long since my last post and so much has happened while I have been away! The planning for our Christmas themed wedding is underway, and we have started booking all sorts of wonderful arrangements for our special day. We have done everything from reserving our venue, selecting a photographer, deciding on the wedding cake design, and I have even found my dream wedding dress!  We are in the midst of finishing our Save the Dates, coordinating with musicians, and so much more.  I will have to backtrack to tell you all the details in future posts. 

*Tip: use an old ice cream container to store your homemade ice cream

Valentine's Day has come and gone, but this year I bought Jake(...well it was sort of for me too) an ice cream maker.  Dangerous, I know.   I like ice cream to be chock full of delicious bits and bobs, basically the longer the description of the ice cream, the better.  I created this recipe in hopes of concocting  the most delectable flavor, so I basically threw in all my favorites. If you have an electric ice cream maker, get ready for:

  Chocolate Caramel Cookie Custard Ice Cream...With Salted Peanuts 

Ingredients:



1 1/2 C organic whole milk

2 C organic whipping cream

1 ounce baker's baking chocolate (one square)

1 C evaporated cane juice (or other organic sugar)

1/4 C water

1 tbsp butter 

3 free range egg yolks

1/2 C salted peanuts

1 C organic "Oreos" (I like Newman-O's) with chocolate filling
*Optional: caramel sauce, chocolate sauce, chocolate caramel crumble candy (recipe below), extra peanuts

How To:

1. Stir milk and whipping cream together in a tall mixing bowl, put in refrigerator.

2. In a pot, on a low heat, melt the chocolate 

3. Pour in sugar, water, butter, and increase the heat, to medium/high, mix.

4. Continue to stir rapidly until the mixture has been bubbling for 3-5 minutes

5. Remove from heat and let cool 2 more minutes (do not let it cool all the way)

6. Stir in egg yolks

7. Remove the milk mixture from the refrigerator and pour in the warm chocolate mixture, whisk until the two are completely combined.

8. Put the bowl into the freezer for 1 hour

9. In a separate bowl, slightly crush the cookies, and stir in peanuts, put into the freezer, and wait to mix this into the ice cream batter

10. Set up your electric ice cream maker

11. Pour batter into mixer and churn according to your ice cream makers directions (before you do this you may need to strain your batter through a fine mesh strainer to avoid any egg white that may have made it into your ice cream)

12. During the last 5-10 minutes of churning pour in the prepared cookies and peanuts

13. Serve or freeze until ice cream is at the right constancy

*Tip* I save old ice cream containers so that I can save any extra ice cream I make. 

*Extra* If you have caramel or chocolate sauce handy (or you can make your own) you can mix this in at the end with the cookies and peanuts. I count the bubbling chocolate mixture as chocolate caramel. I also mixed in chocolate crumble candy to this batch. (Recipe below)

*For a 1 quart ice cream maker



 Bon Appetit!

I mixed in Chocolate Crumble Candy to this batch: 1/4 C whole milk, 3/4 C sugar, 1 tbsp butter, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/2 ounce baking chocolate. Stir constantly on medium high heat for about 10 minutes. Mixture should be bubbling for the last 5 minutes. Cool completely in a bowl, then crumble into finished ice cream.



When it comes to ice cream, small jars are a nice way to store the correct portion size Pin It Ya'll

Enjoy!