Play-doh Neopets

Grundo, Chia, Aisha, and Chia - by Spark

Marzipan sculptures

We have been reading about the Islamic invasion in Spain and how the Moors shaped Spain's culture. One of the things that they did was to introduce and plant almonds in Spain. Out of the almonds they created marzipan in the 11th century. None of us had tried marizpan before so we got a can at the store and the kids had a great time making little sculptures with it. What they made shows how very different our kids are. Dancer made a cute little penguin couple and some flowers. No surprises there, those are things I would expect her to think of and make. Spark on the other hand made in the front left a canister vacuum. I don't know where he has even seen a canister vacuum, are they even made anymore? On the front right he made his elephant Jeffery. No surprise there, he has Jeffery with him all the time. In the back left I told him I really liked his ghost. Nope, that is a woman with a hoop skirt. And on the right a smiling ball with a hat. Well, he is an out of the box thinker, I will give him that!

Impressed me, he did

Often when I read to the kids they pull out either paper and colored pencils or play doh so they can keep their hands busy and listen better. We were reading "Journeys with Elijah Eight Tales of the Prophet" by Barbara Diamond Goldin, a good book by the way, and I looked over at Spark and saw what he had created. This is what he had. The middle section is a dug up treasure with a piece of the treasure on top of it. This part went with the story, normally his creations are just random pieces of whatever. On each side he made a water vessel, one complete with a stopper. I was impressed with his undirected efforts and thought they were quite good for an eight year old.

Salt Dough and creations

The kids love working with play-doh. Today I made them salt dough so that they can paint and keep what they created.

It is made from 1 cup of salt, 1 cup warm water and two cups of flour. Combine the water and salt and allow to sit to let the salt dissolve. It doesn't completely dissolve but give it a minute or two. Add the flour and stir. We made ours in the Kitchen Aid mixer and mixed it until it was soft and no longer sticky. Keep covered until it is being used or it drys our quite quickly.

Work on a cookie sheet so that the sculptures don't have to be moved after they are created.

Big projects need crumpled up aluminum foil inside of them. These baked at 200 degrees for about four hours. Then the painting begins! Spark is painting a rainbow snowman.

All of their finished work. Dancer is going to make a heart mobile that is why there are so many hearts.

The boy is a monkey!

The play-doh is out a lot at our house. Rainy and cold day here today so it was the first thing they did this morning. The Girl made this monkey and it fit the Boy perfectly as he is always jumping around like a monkey. Maybe he is even more active than a monkey.