Science Experiments: Density

Does anyone else have a tendency to think small for their children? Not that I don't want my children to do bigger, better and harder things, it's just that my brain thinks they're not old enough for things, subjects, etc... They're still little kids in my mind! lol

We've been working our way through the first module in Apologia General Science. I don't know why I thought dd would hate this or not comprehend. I need to think BIGGER for my children. She is loving it, and thriving. I thought I'd share a bit of step by step of the experiment we did yesterday, in picture form...

Density

The experiment calls for corn syrup, water and vegetable oil. Also a grape, a small rock, an ice cube and a piece of cork. We'll be learning about density and connectivity of atoms.

Pour oil in a glass, 1/4 full. Do the same with the water and then the corn syrup. You'll notice the corn syrup has atoms that are more tightly connected so it all sinks to the bottom, thereby passing through the atoms of the other substances. The water settles in the middle (atoms more tightly bound than oil, but less so than syrup) and oil at the top.

When we dropped the following items they did different things:

Grape - drops through oil and water and sits on surface of syrup.

Rock - drops through it all and lands on the bottom of syrup.

Ice Cube - floats in oil and/or settles on top of water but not in it.

Cork - floats on top of oil.

Daughter also wanted to see what a lava rock and a strawberry would do (lava rock hung out with the grape in the water on top of the corn syrup while the strawberry was only as dense as the oil. Go figure. I thought it would be like the grape!)

We learned which items have more density (corn syrup and rock) and which have less (oil and cork.)

I'll be sharing more experiments as we do them.  (For more tutorials, click on the page link at the top.)

*This homeschool post is linked to the Homeschool Mother's Journal.*

Planning, Boiling and Waiting...

HOMESCHOOL UPDATE:

Homeschool planning is in full swing. And to make matters more immediate, I decided to just jump in, without so much as planning one day. No really. The only reason I did this was because I was insane. Just kidding. But we have a friend whose daughter is beginning the Apologia General Science like we will be using this year and they started it last week. We thought it might be fun to try to keep pace and occasionally do experiments together. So this is why we find ourselves immersed in homeschooling. In July. In the middle of homeschool piles. In the middle of a heat wave. What was I thinking? Heat stroke probably.

Monday we had our first day. No problem on the science. Latin we reviewed since we haven't done any for months and we're in the middle of the Latin for Children book A. Math, we did review times table sheets and a Saxon Placement test to see what level we should be at. For English a friend loaned me a McDougal English program. Basically a public school's textbook. We jumped right in with minimal complaining. I also printed spelling lists from online although we didn't get to any of those.

Tuesday rolls around and I'm sick and we're both tired. Just great, on our 2nd day back to homeschool. So we read. All day. We started The Hobbit last fall but never finished it. I picked up The Lord of the Rings trilogy on tape and in 3 books at a garage sale so we plan to read those soon. Time to finish Hobbit first. And here is what I realized on our 2nd day of homeschooling. I don't want to shove textbooks at my child just to make sure we have 'something' to cover a subject. I don't want to have it all planned out. I want to be free to explore, to try out new things, to spend a whole day reading if I feel like it!  I like our science program, daughter needs experience with textbooks a bit if she is ever going to go to college (you know the backwards way they learn there, right?!) Latin is going okay, but its mostly chanting and fun things. I'm okay with that. I don't want to use a stale ole' English program or generic spelling lists from online. I realized while we were reading Hobbit, there were words we both didn't know. We started a list. Those definitions will have so much more meaning because we can apply them to what we've read. I like that. I have no plan for history yet. I keep looking at Sonlight's Core 100 just for the basic fact that it is all about reading, and is similar to a Charlotte Mason style of learning. We can do dictation and narration from the readings. We'll read up and discuss current events from magazines such as The Economist, Time and Newsweek. We don't have to be entrenched in boring ole' textbooks. Don't ask me what I'm planning on doing for math. Winging it???

Boy, oh boy. I can foresee an interesting year if I'm already feeling this way. Check back with me in a few months to make sure I haven't slipped back into textbook mode after I panic about whether we're learning enough or not. I'm praying that doesn't happen!  

* This homeschool update is linked to Back to (Home) School 2011. *

GARDEN UPDATE:

It's been 2 weeks of scorching hot heat. It's a miracle if I get out to water the garden and don't die from heat and mosquito bites. Basically it's so hot out, I'm surprised plants aren't boiling! But watering hasn't seemed to matter. Our wonderful plot of squash looks like a meteor landed in the middle of it. I guess it can't take the heat. It's still producing but it seems only a matter of time. 

We have, however had a few good points! The okra is FINALLY starting to bud! It is the slowest growing plant I've ever seen! But it's making up for lost time. See the adorable buds. I can't wait to have some!

The tomato plants look like Brer Rabbit's brer patch but they are still producing green tomatoes. This week I found one adorable red tomato! Yay! Finally. I'm counting on many more. I think they like this heat. I glad someone/thing does. All in all, the garden this year has been 'okay'. We've harvested some things but not as much as I had hoped. I have canning supplies all primed and ready but no use for them yet. We plan to do a fall planting soon. Maybe mid August? Need to read up on that. I also plan to Lasagna garden so the beds are ready for next year. All in all its been a good learning experience. I'm thinking we need to look into a watering system as well, maybe underground? We'll see...

*This garden update is linked to Tuesday Garden Party and Homeschool Village Garden Challenge. *

CHICKENS UPDATE:

We're in waiting mode. We're 13 days into the 21 days for our incubating eggs. So far so good. The temperature in our homemade incubator is doing pretty well. We've candled the eggs twice. First time we couldn't see anything, so hard with brown eggs. We candled on Monday as well and saw these. 

Don't know if they mean chicks or boiled eggs. We'll candle again on Monday August 1st, our 18th day and then we go into lockdown with hopeful hatchings on August 4th. Check back for an update!

Also, the other day we drove past a guy putting this at the end of his driveway.

We stopped and asked if it was trash, it was, so we excitedly offered to come back with a truck for it. FREE! Doesn't it look like a start to a great coop?! Our backyard is filled with scrap woods and paneling. Can't wait to get started creating a coop-de-ville!

This Week's Gardening...

Last week we only had one day that dipped below 95. This week the forecast is for 100's all week. Guess where I am? Yup. Inside. Guess where I'm not. Yup, the garden. I do go out and water, and the family picks various produce but we're just not spending the time outside, lest we be cooked to death. Our pledge/goal is to work outside a couple nights this week, ie: after 8 pm where hopefully God's fan will help us work cooler. We'll see.

(linked up to Tuesday Garden Party and Hip Homeschool Hop.)

In the mean time, we're growing sweet potatoes. Yes, I know they take 100 days (November 1st!) Yes, I know I'm behind and too late and foolish. I don't care.  Someone posted this video on Facebook last week and I couldn't quit thinking about it.

So when we stopped into Trader Joes this past weekend, I grabbed up a bag of organic sweet potatoes and I'm determined to make them my own! We'll grow them inside for a few weeks until they vine and then my goal is to plant them in 5 gallon white paint buckets. This way, when October rolls around and we can potentially have some freezes, I can pull all the buckets in the house, into the dining room to line the wall under the window for the last few weeks of growing. I'm determined. Can you tell?

I had the pre-teen watch the video and explained about pesticides and how they can harm us. She helped me fill jars (given to me for canning by hubby's boss. So thankful.) with water and stick toothpicks in the sides. I put them up on top of the hutch, hoping the cat doesn't find them. He's awfully curious and will want to pull them all out!

Chicken update: We've had a couple crackages. We're down to 10 eggs now. We tried candling on Sunday night but couldn't see anything. I think we'll wait until next Sunday (at 10 days) or maybe even the next Friday before we candle again. We're just nervous Nelllies, being that this is our first time hatching. Crossing fingers.

Okay, back to planning our homeschool. An update on that coming soon...