Monday, February 27, 2012

Edible Earth

I've decided to come out of blog hiding. Mostly because I want to start documenting our life again.
I feel like I've come out of a haze. That would be pregnancy, in itself; in general.
Our homeschooling is going really great right now. Like, the best its been in the 5 years that we've been homeschooling. Everything is flowing so smoothly. Maybe I shouldn't breath so I don't mess that up.....
But, I feel so much more productive.
On the note of being productive I've started making a schedule for us every day. I'm adding in tiny details. Like, cut up the carrots and put them in the crockpot.
Because, if I didn't, it probably wouldn't get done. And, then, at 4:30 I would realize I never put the carrots in the crockpot. And, thats no bueno.


Back to homeschooling-and the point of this blog post.
We are doing Apologia Astronomy this year. And we're all- yes I said all, including me- loving it! We're currently on the planet Earth. So, today we made an edible Earth. We learned all the reason why the Earth is the only- and perfect- planet for human existence. We also learned the layers of the Earth.
And here is what they are-

The M&M represented the inner core (chocolate middle) and outer core (candy coating)
We then surrounded the M&M with Rice Crispy Treats to represent the mantle layer. (The rice crispies reinforce the molten rock and all...just kidding I didn't realize that until it was too late)


We formed the Rice Crispy (with the M&M inside) into a sphere
Like the Earth...ha, get it?


Next we dipped the Rice Crispy Treat Sphere into melted almond bark. 
This represented the crust. 
Once it was hardened it made much more sense. :)


Here is a plate of edible Earths. As they were hardening some of them started to lose their shape. I'm guessing due to the weight of the hardening almond bark vs the not yet hardened rice crispy treat.


My plan was too color some almond bark green and blue- you know, for the water and land. I did actually color two bowls of those colors but the colors never actually ever made it to the Earths. Doing this project with a 4 yr old, 2 yr old and 4 month old (along with the 2 big kids) we were lucky to get as far as we did before the Rice Crispies hardened without being shaped and the almond bark hardened without anything being dipped in it!


All in all this was a super fun project that the kids loved! And I really think creating the edible layers and talking about them as we went along will help stick the actual Earth layers into their minds. 


These times make me really thank the Lord that He is allowing me this privilege of being able to stay home and homeschool my kiddos.  
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