Marzipan Fruits

Lately L is getting into homemade sweets. We've had toffee and fudge; which were both delicious. This week she made marzipan from scratch and then shaped it into these fruits. Yum!

Cake Decorating

These school holidays the children took a cake decorating workshop. They made these fondant decorations and piped the icing.

Cooking Up a Storm - Wanneroo Show

This year the children entered some cakes and biscuits into Wanneroo show. L took 1st Prize for the afternoon tea-tray and R took 3rd.

L also won best exhibit in class for photography, 1st and 3rd for photographs and 1st for miniature novelty garden.

Perth Royal Show 2016

Last weekend we went to Perth Royal Show. We managed to avoid the overpriced rides and showbags and concentrated on the free stuff instead. The children attended a kids cooking workshop where they made healthy muffins and snack balls. We found out how to become a police officer (above). The children rolled oats and ground wheat to make flour and made fresh pasta from dough.

We found out about lots of crops and farm animals along with sustainable gardening and geology of WA.

Planting potatoes and digging them up again!

Panning for gold.

Investigating contour maps

Recycling

There was time for pretend shopping, climbing and the obstacle course.

We visited the heritage displays and the vintage machinery. The cat tent was popular as were the animal  petting pavilions. We also enjoyed the art and photography displays and live music.

We watched the grand parade, motorbike stunt team and fireworks.

11 hours later we were exhausted and bloated from the free tastings. Time to go home and we hadn't even seen everything!

Latest Creations

Here are the kids latest creations. Above are bread rolls by L. R made herb and cheese balls.

L has been on the sewing machine making a quilt for her soft toys.

We've been to a few workshops lately at Bunnings DIY store with our home education group. Last week the children made these hand-print mosaics.

By L

By R

Things We've Made Lately

Here are a few of the children's latest creations. Above is a bear by R made using pattern blocks.

L use Ello for her "fashion podium" creation.

They have both been cooking. L made muesli and R used a Roald Dhal cookbook to make "wasp stings on toast".

Cooking and Eating

The children have been doing a lot of cooking lately. L had a cake decorating book out from the library and wanted to make these owl brownies.

R made rocky road ice cream with home-made chocolate sauce.

They also cooked up this delicious dhal and nan bread.

And a winter salad that neither of them would try.

Sweet in the Heat

Today it was 42C outside so R decided to make us a banana split with home-made chocolate sauce. The ice-cream started melting straight away!

L added to the heat problem by deciding to bake shortbreads. They were lovely with cream and cherry sauce.

Baking

The kids have been cooking unhealthy stuff as usual! L made these sugar cookies whilst R made an apple pie; with pastry from scratch too!

Scones

This week the children made 2 types of scones; cheese and walnut. Delicious!

Materials

This week we have been investigating materials. What better way to investigate the property of insulation than to make a baked Alaska (above)!

The children also tested materials for their ability to conduct electricity, for magnetism and waterproof properties. We did an experiment to investigate which materials were the most stretchy.

The children also investigated materials used for packing sandwiches and designed their own sandwich boxes:

First they made a net for the box which we imported into the computer and cut out with our Inspiration cutter.

We needed to find out which sandwiches are most popular so the children composed an on-line survey on Survey Monkey.

They then used Word to design some labels for the sandwich boxes.

They then made some sandwiches and packaged them up.

You can view the scheme of work I used here.