Molasses-on-Snow Candy and Quantum Workshop

Didn't get a chance to update on Friday after everything else that went down that day. The kids had a good time at the Quantum workshop they did. I really wish I could have stayed and paid attention to it to get more details of what they did but I was busy chasing Nico at the park next door. From what I gathered when they came out, they set different kinds of salts on fire to see where they showed up on the light spectrum and how that corresponded to their place on the periodic table of elements. I'm hoping to get them to write a bit more details on their own blogs since after that, they were too into the idea of playing and then I was too involved in getting my keys back out of my locked vehicle to find out anything more.

Today we had my nieces over after therapy so things were a bit bonkers. It was lots of fun and I had saved one of our Prairie lessons from last week to do with them today. We read the chapter in Little House in the Big Woods about Christmas and then made our own Molasses-on-Snow candy like they did. Well, sort of.
First off, it's not snowing here right now. And the odds of it ever snowing here are slightly above that of me giving birth to a baby girl. As in, it isn't happening. So we had to figure out how to make our own snow. Ice meet Mr. Cuisinart! It sort of worked. LOL I would say that if you wish to try this in the future tho, run the ice through first and then stick it in the pans in the freezer while you make the candy. Trying to oversee the kids making snow while I was boiling the candy and trying not to burn it while 5 kids were arguing over who got to put the ice in and who got to push the button was not something I would care to repeat. Much better to oversee each one separately.
Once we had the candy and pans ready tho, it was easy to get them to settle down to make it. I don't think I had it at quite the right temperature and it was hard to work with, especially with 2 kids to a pan but they all seemed to have a good time and much laughter was heard from my living room.
It tasted okay too. Not my first choice in things to reach for but not bad either. And I think it was really good for the kids to hear about how the children in the story considered this such a treat and how for fun in the snow, they made pictures by falling off a stump and trying not to disturb the print they made of themselves as they got. How for Christmas, they were happy to get one piece of peppermint candy and a pair of new mittens in their stockings and it was a huge gift for Santa to leave a real dolly. So much different from the sense of entitlement so prevalent today.