This "do-it-yourself" gingerbread house kit comes with gingerbread pieces, icing mix, candy, one decorating bag with easy-to-follow tip and full instructions. Though stonewallkitchen.com offer fully assembled gingerbread house which comes beautifully decorated with frosting and candy, I reckon "do-it-yourself" kit already fit the bill. At least, it is also a great way to get my daughter involved, we can just assemble the basic frame structure together using icing glue and watch her decorating with her favorite candies.
Apart from gingerbread house kit, I also searched for the homemade gingerbread house recipe online and found that homemade version is more economical. You can build basic gingerbread house structure from posterboard, prepare a base for your house using a piece of plywood covered with foil, a large heavy platter or baking tray, then apply the icing using a pastry bag and let sit for 30 minutes to set before actually assembling so as the pieces will adhere together well. And now it's the fun part, candy decorations! Let you kid's imagination and creativity sparks! You can pick assorted candies from local groceries or online stores. I chanced upon this Jelly Belly 20-flavor candies
which includes assorted flavors such as buttered popcorn, very cherry et cetera at a reasonable price of $8.99. To apply candy decorations, dab a small amount of icing to the underside of the candy and hold in place until set.
As I think that it's too early to send her to kindergarden at her age, I opted to resign from my industrial job to start homeschooling. From time to time, I will search for methods and materials and discovers what approaches work best for her. Then I stumbled upon ClickN KIDS online phonic reading and spelling program, one of the online resources for homeschooling
. This program include interactive learning to read where children demonstrate their learned skills. My daughter will definitely experience the joy of self achievement because answers are learned and not just given away. It helps to boost up her self esteem because she is learning phonics on her own. Like many other children, my daughter enjoys the challenge of responding correctly and this program patiently re-teaches until the correct response is learned. This differ from her other learning electronic devices which gives away the answer when she responds incorrectly. She'll advance through the lessons without demonstrating she has learned the skills and at the end, she lost interest and forgot what she has learned before. I think to help a child to develop a healthy dose of self-esteem, sometimes we have to let them call the shots. If we're always telling our child exactly what to do and when to do it, he or she won't learn how to take the initiative. So instead of unilaterally saying that "This toy suits you" or "Lets play this game", encourage them to decide for themself what activities (toys, games et cetera) they'd most like to do. This action will tell them that their opinion matters and we as parents will take it seriously. But always be clear that expressing their opinions or asking for things they want in a polite but assertive manner is the right way and not using manipulation or aggression to get their way. I'm sure most parents out there have many experiences to share with pertaining your child upbringing, what says you?
Go Back To My Homepage
