Pioneer

We finished our pioneer study this last week.  We had a couple of things we didn't get done, but I'm sure we will study this time period again sometime!  We covered a lot of material in 10 weeks,  had many good discussions about slavery, what it would have been like to live as a pioneer, and live thru the civil war.
People we read about:
                        Robert E. Lee
                        Abraham Lincoln
                        Ulysses S. Grant (whose real name was Hyrim Ulysses, did you know that?!?!?) 
                        Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson
                        Frederick Douglass
                        Harriet Tubman
                        John Brown
                        Jefferson Davis
Topics we read about:
                                  Slavery
                                  Underground Railroad
                                  Civil War
                                  Stagecoaches/frontier women
  We also read a couple of pioneer themed books,and of course Little House on the Prairie! 

In Little House on the Prairie they made molasses candy for Christmas.  Brie has been waiting for snow so we could try it too. Brie was elated when it snowed so we could finally try the candy!.  So after looking around a little bit I found a recipe that looked great!  It's from the Little House cookbook, so I assumed it was pretty accurate!


Here is what it looks like.  I didn't take any pictures of it off of the snow. 

The first step is to take some pans outside and gather some clean snow.  I trusted Brie and Zeke to do this step.  I gave them some spoons and told them to just take the top off.  I didn't see any dirt in it. Plus a little dirt never hurt anybody, right!  =)

While they were outside getting the snow, I measured out my molasses and brown sugar and brought it up to boiling.  (I made a half recipe, and it was plenty for us!) It needed to come to 145 degrees.  I don't have a candy thermometer so I just used my digital meat thermometer.  It worked fine! After it's up to the correct temperature, you want to put it into a pitcher. (the blog where I got the recipe recommends using a creamer, so that is what I did.) 
It is a very sticky candy, and if you don't like molasses this won't be your favorite!
*Make sure to caution your kids that it is very very hot. 
The next step is to pour it onto the snow carefully.

We had some leftover snow, so we decided to make some snow ice cream!  We used this recipe.  It was pretty good.  We decided that it was a pretty awesome day.  Before we started school we ate ice cream and molasses candy!  You know it's going to be a wonderful day if you get to start it out with candy and ice cream!!