Makiavelli's Masterpiece Edible Clay Recipe!

Here is the recipe to go along with the Masterpiece Maker post which I highly recommend reading {and watching} if you haven't already. :)

Make a Masterpiece Dough
1 (18 oz.) jar of peanut butter
6 tbsp.of honey
1/2 c. of dried milk
¼ cup corn starch

Mix the peanut butter and honey. Add the dried milk. Add the corn starch. Put this in the fridge until ready to use. As everyone uses the clay, you may want to have them brush their hands with cornstarch first. {FYI, you could use this clay recipe for a lesson on Noah's Ark, for creating molecules for a science lesson, for setting up a mini battle scene for history, etc.}

Assorted dried fruit—kiwis, apples, cherries, mangoes, etc. (I got a cool assortment from Costco.)
Nuts
Raisins
Baking chips—butterscotch, white chocolate, etc.
Coconut
Other random goodies

Put the above items in small bowls.

When it is time for the activity, put all the bowls on the table and give each person a portion of the dough. Little people get little portions.Everyone can create a fantastic treat from the materials provided. Have them think of a plan or design for a moment before beginning. Some people will form the dough into the shape of something recognizable like a tree, or an animal or building. Others may make a rather abstract design that looks quite nice. Still others may simply have the plan to cram as many of their favorite items into the dough as possible to create the most delicious flavor they can. There is no wrong way to create your masterpiece. Here are our creations...

Nanner clothed her creation in fruit and garnished it with nuts and seeds.

Bub created a chubby penguin. (It looked much cuter in real life. Pardon the lame photography.) The penguin is about to feast on a lovely dried fruit on a toothpick kebab.
Here is the back side of the penguin--you can see his kiwi "feathers".

Peanut's masterpiece required heavy concentration to get it just right. (He used to hold his tongue the same way when he was first learning how to use scissors. Glad I caught this one on film. :)Here is the result of his creative thinking. (Those of you who know us well may be wondering why there are chocolate chips on there--rest assured, it isn't chocolate. The "chocolate story" will have to be told on another day.)My efforts resulted in a fruit basket.Princess took her project seriously.She drew ideas from her own imagination, as well as borrowing a few thoughts from others. After several foiled attempts, Sticky decided that these flat faces were just right.

Kevin's contribution to the masterpiece fest was this inventive spaceship.

Our "newly acquired" member of the family, Carol, made this very cool new Star Wars creature! We highly recommend every family having a Carol. Carol's are very intelligent, super funny and lovable to boot. Carol graces us with her presence every Monday night for our Family Home Evening. Thanks Carol!

Every one of us is a unique individual with different gifts, likes, and skill sets. Have joy in the creating and making it the way you want it to be. We had fun. Hope you do too.

If you want the FHE lesson plan version, I'll put a link here as soon as I get it posted.

Ancient Art with Ms. Wise & Ms. Otherwise

We studied ancient Greek myths. Here is what Princess came up with for a Medusa mask. She says even Medusa's eyelashes are snakes! Here I found these "ancient" hieroglyphs on Nan's wall. Isn't decorating fun?

How about these African designs made by Peanut from self-hardening clay? Know what they are?

Ear bobs! Or rather, ear rings, take your pick. Wouldn't those make "your ears hang low" and "wobble to and fro"!

It is always fun to see what the kids come up with for art projects. Often they come up with their own unique twist to things.

Fit for 5? Now is a good time!

Cool Ideas

Here's a fun site if you want some tips for raising a musical child. The author of this site offers lesson plans, guess the instrument, musical crafts, what musical toys are good purchases and more. If you follow along with her, you can get some great ideas every day towards furthering your child's music education. It is mostly geared toward young children.

Also, today Peanut took an old poster board and created a stencil of a dragon. The stencil is kind of hard to tell how it works from the picture, but basically, you just cut some basic shapes out of the poster board. Then you put your homemade stencil on a fresh sheet of paper and trace the shapes, remove the stencil and color your picture as you would like. The fun thing about stencils is that you can create the exact same design but then choose different patterns and colors each time you use the stencil.

It turned out pretty cute for using very simple shapes in the stencil design. :)

Tonight for Family Home Evening, we sang a bunch of songs together and recorded several with the video camera. On the kid's suggestion, we incorporated actions to one of the songs. It turned out to be rather fun. We managed to roll the spiritual, the fun activity, the song, the together time and even a snack in one fell swoop. I'll post the videos on youtube soon. :)

Happy schooling!