Lots of updates

Well, we are rapidly approaching the end of our first week of homeschooling. So far it has been going so good! Really better than I expected. Alec is getting ready to take his first math quiz tomorrow. He has really been doing well with the Teaching Textbooks. He completed 7 lessons since Monday getting 80-100% on all the assignments. PE kinda took a hit for us, today was the first day we got to play tennis. We took walks Monday and Tuesday because a couple weeks ago he tore some muscles in his right arm (he is right handed) and it has still been bothering him. So we tried tennis today till his arm started hurting too much then gave it a rest. Tomorrow we are adding a little history to the mix. Alec has been asking to learn about WWII for a while. Derek has so many books and knows so much about WWII, it has sparked an interest in Alec. So we have some books, Derek recorded some shows from the history channel about it and I checked out from the library "The Diary of Anne Frank" and a short dvd about her life. I have not seen him this excited to learn about something in a long time. It makes me so happy.

The room is pretty much done, I'll try to get some pictures tomorrow. I found a comfortable reading chair for $12 from Goodwill. It's in decent shape, just needs to be re-upholstered (light purple doesn't go with the room) which will be a good project for us. Right now we have a black sheet covering it until we find some fabric we like.

So, the Valrhona class was amazing! So inspiring! I walked away with so many ideas and so much information.

Valrhona chocolate sponge cake layered with mango jelly and a hazelnut praline cremeux.


The chocolate curl is a caramel flavored milk chocolate, topped with (kinda hard to see since it melted a bit) a whipped chocolate ganache cremeux surrounded by rum scented banana caramel and topped with a slightly sweet pine nut cracker. It was PHENOMENAL!!!


These were so fun! Left to right: dark chocolate caramel candy "Bling" pop (actually a thin chocolate shell filled with an almost liquid caramel center painted with gold dust and a milk chocolate ice cream bombe' filled with a raspberry sorbet.
Amazing amazing amazing.

Well, I gotta finish the lesson plan for tomorrow and get in bed. Both boys are supposed to be in bed now, but Alec is still watching tv with Derek downstairs and I hear Cole still drawing in his room. Have a great night!