test tube mosquito

I loved this experiment.

Son wants to do it again.

We learned about air pressure.

Here we have a test tube mosquito.

We are boiling the water...creating the pressure.

Though it has one wing (a second holder was to be it's second wing) it worked great.

Sucking the "blood" (ours is alien blood...all I had was green).

Can you see the squirt?

 Before we heated the water it wouldn't/couldn't suck anything up.

Gotta love science!

Not mosquitoes!

Catching Up

Does anyone have time they could loan me?

We have been very busy.

Here's some science we did a few weeks ago.

Experimental Epidemic

Focus: Disease Transmission

Objective: To explore how disease can spread so fast and far.

Overview: Diseases sometimes spread rapidly across vast areas. 

We have also started Passport to India through Sonlight.  I am sure you all could join too.
We are on day 2.
We visited a fisherman slum neighborhood. 

Gotta run!  Have a great day!

Blood, Cartilage and Cardboard?

Red blood cells, plasma and white blood cells.

Does your back hurt?

Don't worry...

It all came together.

We were a few short.  Your real spine has 33 vertebraes.

Peanuts and Elevators

Life Science

Science you can eat, burn, ferment.

Food energy and nutrients.

(Tuttle, the failed {sort of} experiment was supposed to be: Respiration.  To explore how seeds use energy and oxygen.)  A few of the seeds started to open, but that was that.  It ended up stinking.

Elevators- A Writing Lesson

The kids are having a hard time with the Creative Expression in the Sonlight.

So, I came up with this for now.

I picked the topic Elevators.

Day one: Describe what youe elevator is like.  Smells, looks, feels, sounds, etc.

Day two: What is going on inside your elevator?  Outside? 

This is what we have so far.  These are just sketches, therefore sloppiness is allowed! :)

Day three:  I will think about that tonight in bed!

Why I Love Homeschooling

Somedays I would rather be by myself or just not have school, but then our son does this and reminds me of why I homeschool and love it.

He rounded up some scrap wood that was in the yard and put together this scooter.

He was getting rid of his skateboard.

He used the wheels for his scooter. 

(My idea...I earned some "Cool" mom points there!)

Science offers some fun photo opportunities.

Here the kids are learning about camoflouge (sp?) and animals use it to save them from getting eaten.

We use a Reason for Science and really like it.  I had to bring DD in a lower grade. 

So DS and DD use the same book.

They had to color toothpicks.

Then throw them in the yard and try to find them.

Can you see it?  It a green one.

Here they are looking for some more.  I think they found them all.

Notice the slippers...one reason DD loves homeschool!

Decomposition-This is a Bit Gross

In our science we had to do a couple of experiments with bananas.

Each experiment had two bags each. 

The first had bananas with nothing, and then bananas with yeast.

After a week the bananas with the yeast were REALLY mushing and well, yucky.

The second had bananas with again nothing and then salt.

The salt acted as a perservative.  The salt sucked the water out of the bananas really fast. 

Brings to mind what it does to our bodies after a bowl of chips.

Pass the tea!!

Egg Drop

You've probably seen this done before. We tried the famous egg drop experiment. Each kid got two eggs to wrap as they wanted. The idea was to see if the wrapping would protect the egg from breaking when dropped.#1 tissue and medical tape

#2 duck tape, duck tape and more duck tape

#3 attempted rubber band wrap.

#4 newspaper and yes, duck tape

#5 stuffing

Boy, very excited about dropping the eggs.

None of the eggs made it. The duck taped one cracked the least.

Fun Science

In C's physical science we did a cool experiment. This is just water and a LOT of corn starch.

I have two incase you want to see it twice! LOL! We left it in the pan all day. You could pick up the dish and act like you were going to pour it but it would move but a bit! Pretty fun!

Science Takes Patience

You may not be able to see it all here in the photo. This is one of C's science experiments today. We have boiling salt water...

A lid with a bag of ice on the top...

And a bowl to catch the dripping (NOT) condensation.

Let me tell you, some of these experiments have taken a long time and have resulted in patience!

Can you see all of the white spots on the stove and the pan? That's the salt! Still need to wipe it down!

Physical Science 101

DD is in 8th/9th grade Apologia Physical Science. We have done three experiment so far this week. Here's number three on Concentration.

She filled each glass with 1 c, 1/2c, 1/4c of vinegar added a Rolaid to each cup. We watched them dissolve.

Dumped those out, then added varying amounts of vinegar and water to equal 2 cups. Rolaids dissolved faster in the water that had more vinegar.

Science Experiment

DD had to do a science experiment on a classmate. Since we have two "students" Dear Brother got to be the guinea pig! He was very willing though. You had to hold your nose while tasting different foods and see if could tell what you were eating while your holding your nose. DD didn't really explain the whole nose thing to son. So he'd hold his nose for awhile then let it go. He'd tell us what he was eating after letting his nose go.

So I stepped in and let the poor guy breathe some!

Out of apples, cornbread and two different crackers, he was only fooled by the cornbread. He thought it was broccoli. This boy knows his food.

A Few Projects to Do!

We are still here! I haven't forgot about you. I wanted to show you a few projects that the kids just did. The first one is a homemade Planetarium. It was for C's science but J wanted to make one too. Here's what you need:
Empty/clean salt carton or hot cocoa can, etc.
Nails of different sizes
marker
Hammer
Flashlight

Draw the constellations, stars (dots) on the bottom of can. (If using salt carton, you'll have to cut one end off.)
Use hammer and nails to make the hole for the stars.
When you're done shine the flashlight into the can. If using metal can you'll need to shine the light to the side of the can.

Was great fun. We're going to save it for a show and tell with other homeschoolers.

Next is a writing game.
It's called Word by Word. I got the idea from a library book.
Here's how it works. This is only to encourage kids to write so don't correct the spelling.

Works best with small group.

You'll need:
Writing paper
Pencil
Die

You start off by picking your title. Helps keep you focused on what to write about.
Each person takes turns rolling the die.
Whatever number you get is the number of words you can write.
So, J rolls a four, he writes four words. C rolls a one she adds one word. Then I roll a six and a write six words. Clear as mud?

It took us two days to write our story...The Mad Scientist Strikes Again. J had great fun and rolled right along with it. C who is 12 wanted to write her own thing. So she had a bit of trouble with being limited to what and how much she could write.

And last but not least is Solomon's Temple, made only as a ten year old will, with LEGOS!! What else is there?! This was for history. Picture by J too.

Oh, C made a very yummy cake (milk and honey) for her history project. I need to take a picture for you before we eat it all!