Homeschool Activities

 The past few months between science and nature study, we've been doing some fun experiments and observations.

In science, the big girls dissected a flower, but we enjoyed the others from the bouquet in our vase.

My Grandma sent us a packet of souvenirs from Ireland that we enjoyed with our lessons on St. Patrick's Day.

We have had an uptick in doctor's visits since March, it seems.  Since I knew we would be rushed one of our days, I took some pictures of tree stumps while I was walking around a park during William's karate.  Their favorite was the heart shaped one, though we had to use a rounder one to follow the guide.  

Another project was to grow some mushrooms.  They required daily watering and then they just exploded in size! We put the decaying project near and old stump in our backyard, maybe they'll be able to expand into a new home. = )

For yet another project, we had to collect pond water.  The day we went there was a layer of ice on top of the pond that we had to break through just to get the water from below.  Once it melted, we were able to start our experiment.

From the literature that we read, we expected the bone meal to explode, and the rest to be hampered, but we think Alice added a little too much, so it didn't grow and it started to smell like rotten fish. = (  

The vinegar, soap and detergent all killed off anything that might have grown, so our control actually did the best.

We've since moved the bone meal outside, and are watching as small organisms are appearing in our control.  Also, we got to use some of the control water for another experiment during which we put a drop and viewed it through a microscope. = )

Yet another experiment was to grow bacteria.  We were unable to maintain as warm enough environment as the directions indicated, but we still had some gross growth!  Emily's purple popper had the fastest growth, so you'd better believe we sprayed that thing down with lysol as soon as we saw the strongest of the bacteria appear.

8ish days in:

2ish weeks in:

We threw them all away after we took this picture, because it was just too gross.

With only 7 weeks left in our school year, we still have a few more projects to which we are looking foward.

And I want to record that we've decided that the three little ones will return to public school in the fall.  It will be William's final year at the elementary school, and we don't want him to be thrown into middle school before reestablishing some of his friendships.  The big girls will continue to be homeschooled for the time being.

later days

Crafts and Experiments

 We read that you could fit an entire cup of popcorn into a cup of milk.  So, we tried it.

It worked!  So, we tired water and popcorn, which worked too.  Water and rice did not, so we did not attempt milk and rice.

Emily spied an American Girl doll backpack at the store one day.  While she was admiring it, I thought to myself "I could make that."  So, when I had a bit of time to spare, I cut a template for the front and back out of some scratch paper, then pieced the pockets together from there.

I loved the big zipper pull that i had in my stash.  The heavy decorative pull will be appreciated by Emily I think.

All done.  There are a few things I would change, but I hope she will enjoy playing with her Coral and Coral's new backpack on her birthday.

I also found the motivation to finish the 2 almost finished projects that had been on my sewing desk for months (a pair of oven mitts and a small zipper pouch.) 

Since they were not for anyone special, it was really hard to find the motivation to finish them.

Grace really wanted to pass out mustache lollipops to her enrichment day friends.  I didn't have any black card stock, and ended up fighting colored paper, which was brutal.  Luckily, she only needed 20. They were so funny, I took one of the less than perfect ones for myself.  Juliet opted for lips, and I had plenty of cardstock for that.

I'm rereading some Agatha Christie novels which led to my decision to make Yorkshire pudding.  It was so good.  Since many in my crew opted against them, I ended up getting them for 3 lunches during the week!!

We were poised to do a bacteria experiment, but the dishes are supposed to be kept between 85-100F and there is just nowhere in our house that warm in February.  We'll have to try again once we are truly warm.

It's been a busy, fun kind of few months.

later days

A Snow filled January and February

We got some substantial snow the first two days of 2022.

Jan 1st:

Jan 2nd:

Alice attempted to make some maple syrup candy in the snow, but the snow was too fluffy, and the syrup melted straight through. = (

For a while, we got just little dusting or a couple of inches here and there...

...but once February arrived, it came all at once.  It came from a system that stretched all the way from here to Texas!  Alice and I shovelled the front walk and driveways 3 times in 24 hours!!  During our third clearing, one of our sweet, retired neighbors came by, snowplow on the front of his truck and cleared it for us! The piles that we had cleared the past two times were over my waist, making it harder to get the thick muck at the end of the driveway.  It certainly felt like an answered prayer.

The picture absolutely cannot capture the brilliance of the sparkling snow!

Since we had so much snow, we decided to conduct an experiment. We gathered 11inches of snow, to see if the 1ft=1in snow in our book was correct.  The first attempt we made, we stuffed the snow in really tight.

That gave us over 4 inches of water!!

For our second attempt, we gently scooped up some snow, and did not force it down.

We still ended up with over 2 inches of water.

Since the book gave no instructions on their methods, we stopped there, and decided that the book needed to give clarification.

We are expecting another round of snow tonight, but not as much (and there is a chance it will miss us altogether!) I took a picture yesterday, and today, while our temperatures were above freezing, so that I could compare to what snow we do get.

Feb. 17:

Feb 18:

I guess the snow has technically already started, but it is still "warm" enough out that it will turn to water. I'll for sure post an update if we get the snow they are predicting.

later days