If it's Fourth Grade, It Must Be Time for Norse Myths

Today, Sonic and I started on some Norse myths.  I know everybody uses D'Aulaire's, but we're using a version written by Mary Pope Osborne of the Magic Treehouse series.

We're also continuing with A Child's History of the World which DS loves.

In English, just chugging away at Galore Park.  For science, same thing...almost done with Galore Park's Junior Science Book 1.  Plan is to finish book two of both in the spring.

Fondant Eid Sheep

So, going to veer a bit off-topic and talk about Eid-ul-Adha.  I had made my first batch ever of marshmallow cream fondant earlier this week so I could make daisies for my daughter's Girl Scout daisy troop. (On brownies...natch.)

They turned out 1000x better than I thought they would...as I'm not crafty, and my idea of decorating is to add sprinkles.

Thing is, even though I made a small batch using a 7 oz. jar of marshmallow cream, I still had a ton left over.

Enter the Eid-ul-Adha picnic.

I decided to make sheep for a cake.  Now, all over the internet it says how difficult it is to make black fondant.  Amazon could not get me some in time...so what to do.  Well, a year ago, my eldest had wanted a kitty litter cake...and one of the decorations for that involves nuking tootsie rolls until soft.  So, I decided to try and nuke some tootsie rolls to serve for the black part of the sheep.  It turned out really good.  Added bonus is that both the marshmallow fondant and the tootsie rolls are yummy...and gelatin free.

Score!

Here's the recipe I used for marshmallow fondant.

1 7 oz. jar of Marshmallow Fluff

1 lb. box of powdered sugar

1-2 tsp. vanilla extract  (optional)

butter or Crisco for your hands  

So I buttered a large bowl and my hands and plopped in the marshmallow cream.  Then I added the vanilla and about 1/2 the powdered sugar.  You knead like crazy (I did it in the bowl) until it resembles play dough and is not sticky.  I think I used about 3/4s of a box of powdered sugar.  Refrigerate it for a day or two until you need it.  I put mine in a buttered bowl with plastic wrap (sprayed with Pam) on top.

I Need a Daily Schedule

I think some Moms really like the general weekly guidelines of Oak Meadow.  I'm discovering that I probably would do better with a daily schedule.  Why?  I am so good in getting daily math done.  I know it needs to be done every day. I have a rough idea how much we need to do.  So we do it.  Not a problem.  For other stuff, I'm really sporadic.  While I had hoped we'd have certain Science days....certain Social Studies days...it just isn't happening.  So, hopefully over the weekend I'll be working on a more detailed schedule.

Math-wise, DS finished up chapter four of Math-in-Focus.  I then switched us to Math Mammoth 4A for now...as there are only two more chapters left in 4A.

English-wise, we're continuing with Galore Park Jr. 1.  We did our first BraveWriter Friday Freewrite today, and it went really well.

DS is reading "Harriet the Spy" and loving it.

We've continued with Galore Park Jr. Science, but I've been a total slacker on OM science and any sort of hands on.

We finished the Native American creation stories in OM3, and began to work on our report on the Calusa Native Americans.  We continued with this series. Most of them, our library had, but we had to buy this one from Amazon.  Honestly, I'm learning so much that I don't mind at all. :)

Found this great resource for drawing.  It is perfect for Native American studies.  We do the copywork in cursive...and in Waldorf-y colored pencils. :)  The Oak Meadow drawing lessons haven't really been working for us. I think we came too late...or just haven't spent the time on them.  As my goal is for my kids to just have an art-filled environment, this works just fine for now.