Two sweet things: Cupcakes and World Vision

One of the things I love about homeschooling is teaching the practical subjects in addition to academics. In this vein, we are starting a unit study on cooking. After all, a man proficient in cooking is worth far more than rubies. Am I right, ladies? (If you’d like to read the actual verse that I hijacked to suit my own purposes, it’s Proverbs 31:16.)
As a project, the boys are going to sell cupcakes they’ve cooked. The money they raise will purchase items from the World Vision Gift Catalog.

This brings me to another thing I really, really like. World Vision's gift catalog is a great way to involve kids in giving. They can pick various items that, when purchased by your family, go to a need family. This has been really effective for my kids. They like the concrete idea of giving an animal, like chickens, that provides for specific needs instead of just “giving to missions.” Plus, World Vision is a great, trustworthy organization.

The big boys chose one gift each from the catalog. Our ten-year-old picked a share of a deep well. (The well will provide 2,800 gallons of clean water a day to benefit as many as 300 people!) Our eight-year-old selected a goat and two chickens. (The goat provides milk for yogurt and cheese. The chickens provide eggs and more chickens, of course. Any extras can be sold by the family.)

Our goal is to raise $200 (the cost of these particular two gifts) by Thanksgiving. If you’d like to help us, there are a couple of ways to do it. You can contact me about buying cupcakes. (We’ll be selling them one day in October and one day in November.) You can also visit our fundraising website at www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/cupcakes4kids.