Egg-stra Special Science

Last week I picked up Janice VanCleave's Biology For Every Kid. We've been lacking in the Science department. A little studying here and there (beavers, fish/seas/Jacque Cousteau, magnetism, laws of motion, circuits) but no real structure to our learning. Anyway, I know how the little one loves doing experiments and I thought we could at least find a few in here.

We decided to try out the Naked Egg and the Shrinking Egg experiments.

NAKED EGG EXPERIMENT:

Ingredients:

2 jars (preferably with lids, because this house is full of spillers)

vinegar

corn syrup

1 egg

measuring tape

6 days time

1. Take one jar and fill it with about 2 inches of vinegar.

2. Measure the length (and circumference if you want) of the egg . Write them on an observation chart you make up on paper. We didn't do this part, we were lazy but it sure would have been nice to compare sizes at various times.

3. Carefully slide the egg into the vinegar jar. Check to make sure the vinegar is deep enough for the egg to be covered. Our egg sank to the bottom. Add more vinegar if necessary to cover egg.

4. We then labeled the jar with a day and time we should finish the experiment, 72 hours later.

* Check your experiment every day and note any changes on your chart. *

* You'll note that bubbles immediately begin forming on the egg. Over the next couple days those will multiple and the egg will be covered. *

72 hours (3 days) later:

SCIENCE INFO:  The bubbles seen throughout the 3 days are carbon dioxide gas. Vinegar is an acid, the shell of the egg is carbon carbonate. The carbonate and the acid react and you get carbon dioxide gas. You'll notice the egg has taken on a yellowish look, no more bubbles really and no real shell left. The vinegar reacted with and dissolved it away.  It has the feel of a water balloon. Some of the vinegar sneaked in through the cells' membranes and made the egg bigger. This is called Osmosis.

 1. Carefully take the egg out, sit it on the lid while you measure its length and CAREFULLY measure circumference, noting on your chart again. You'll determine the egg has grown exponentially in size.

2. Use same egg for the Shrinking Egg experiment.

SHRINKING EGG EXPERIMENT:

1. Pour 2" of corn syrup into the 2nd jar. 

2. Slip the bloated egg carefully into the corn syrup. Put on the lid. Add more corn syrup if necessary to cover egg.

* You'll note that unlike the shelled version of this egg, the bloated one floats. More buoyant. (Here you'll see we did the experiment a 2nd time, to show the difference in the eggs, side by side.)

72 hours (3 days) later:

*You'll note, as you probably have if you've been watching your experiment everyday (and i would recommend that you check it every day around the same time, noting changes) that the egg has lost a lot of its bloatedness. According to the experiment it was supposed to shrink up like a shriveled raisin, but it didn't really get that small.*

SCIENCE INFO: This is once again a case of Osmosis. The water (and some vinegar) moves where there is no water, in this case into the corn syrup. The corn syrup can not get into the egg so the egg takes on a shriveled appearance.

Great, easy learning experience for the whole family. DH enjoyed getting involved as well (note his finger putting the egg in the corn syrup. :) ) We picked out a few experiments to do in the coming days. The little one read many of the experiments and the science behind them and I heard her telling her dad all about different things. So even if you can't get to all the experiments in a book, make sure you let the little ones read through it as they 'pick' which ones they want to do. They'll learn a whole ton of information from this book. I know I did!

Scripture In Pictures

 (Psalm 100: 1-3)

This week we've been experimenting with how we learn scripture. I'm sure we've tried memorizing things before but with this year being our first year using Charlotte Mason methods, we're memorizing scripture. We started our homeschool year memorizing the Lord's Prayer. I thought that was an easy one to start with since the little one had heard it and probably tried saying it  a few times in church. So memorizing that one went pretty well.

Then we moved on to Psalm 23. What a soothing, comforting passage! The little one took right to it and we had no problems memorizing it. I think because its kind of like a story. I used this scripture passage to teach inflection in speech. The little one has a habit of just running through the sentences as fast as she can remember them but I had her learn it like she was giving a speech. So others could understand what she was saying. I've also told her how excited her grandma is going to be when she tells the learned scriptures to her. This added incentive creates more pride in the learning and speaking.

After that we tried memorizing Psalm 100. Something about that scripture was hard! A lot of praising, gladness, joy and faithfulness. Don't get me wrong, wonderful words of wisdom. But words that don't  conjure up immediate pictures in your head. So, after several frustrating days of not getting anywhere, we turned to picture-grams. This took the fun of learning up a notch and made us forget the drudgery of repetition (that my children seem to hate with a passion.)

(Psalm 100: 4-5)

We took liberties with some of the words (one of my favs is dd's interpretation  of 'good' as a thumbs up! lol) We used a face to indicate 'his, him or he' and an up arrow to mean 'Lord'. I think my daughter got more out of the experience than trying to memorize a scripture by rote.

We have some ambitious scriptures passages coming up I'm hoping we are able to get through:

1 Corinthians 13

Romans 12

Deuteronomy 5: 6-21  (Ten Commandments)

Matthew 5: 1-12 (The Beatitudes)

Luke 2: 1-20 (birth of Jesus)

Proverbs 31: 7-31

How do you learn scripture? What passages do you learn?

(Sorry about the picture quality, taken with the cell phone and written on a white board.)

Frustration

So today I'm blogging my frustration. I'm at the end of my rope. My wits are fried. The devil has ahold of my day and I don't know how to take it back. All of my frustrations are bubbling to the surface and I feel like crying. How do I go on from here? 

The child is a walking contradiction today. Everything is making her upset, every subject is the one she hates 'the most'. I'll explain what to do and she'll say 'what? I don't know what you mean?' or 'I didn't hear you." when I clearly know she did. She is trying to make me insane. It is definitely a test of wills.

It's at these moments I don't know what to do. My tendency is to talk to her about her attitude, which she resists. I then assign a punishment for the continued problem (ie: extra chores, grounding) and I try to move on. I finally gave up today and said school was done until she got up and did all her chores. And maybe the chores would work the attitude right out of her. Then she is like 'okay, I'll do them.' I don't know how to respond to that. She is talking in a manner of 'no problem, I don't care what you say, you're not upsetting me with chores.' You know the attitude. UGH. She wasn't saying 'okay' because she was happy.

Every time she has a problem with her schooling and attitude I'm at a loss. I feel like stopping the subject she doesn't want to work on is like affirming her attitude as a good thing. Like I'm approving of it. Yet pushing on through the subject is torture at its best. And before someone tells me its the subject and maybe i need to change up what we do in it; It's not. She is having attitude about every thing.

I'm going to go ball up in a corner to cry and pray. Where is my chocolate?