Nolan and His Science Experiments

Despite the fact that Nolan tells me constantly that he doesn't like science, he certainly loves "doing 'periments!"  (I won't tell him that he is actually doing SCIENCE experiments since that might ruin it for him")  LOL

Last week we were learning about mixtures and why some liquids mix together while others will just sit on top of each other.  We started by mixing milk and grape juice together.  That did mix and ended up with a purple milk which we dumped out after a few minutes.  Then because he wanted to do it again, I mixed white milk with pepsi.  Once again, that mixed together to make a darker cloudy milk. I turned my back for just one minute and the boy was drinking it down!!  He said it was delicious and that I should let him have more of it for lunch.  LOL

Then we started mixing other liquids together.  First we added honey to the bottom and then we poured blue water on top of the honey followed by liquid dish soap and then milk.  There were four very distinct layers.  We talked about the science behind that and then I instructed him NOT to drink that one while I cleaned up a few other things in the kitchen!

He had so much fun working with that one that he asked if we could do another project so this time we poured vinegar (which is a liquid) into the bottom of a bottle.  Then we added baking soda (which is the solid) to a balloon which we then stretched over the top of the bottle.  Finally, he very slowly poured the baking soda from the balloon into the bottle making a chemical reaction and turning the baking soda into carbon dioxide (the gas) and causing the balloon to inflate.

Nolan loved the reaction once he knew that nothing bad was going to happen.  At first he ran across the room shouting "I don't trust you, I don't trust you!"  LOL  I guess he remembers when the girls were homeschooling science and some of our projects didn't turn out quite so well!

Can't wait to see what we do next week!!

A Hard Week...

This week has been a hard week.
And nothing like I had planned out on Monday morning.  And the things I was going to share with you no longer seem important or worth talking about so I'll just keep them to myself for now.

Instead, I'll just share some pictures from last week when our dear friend was still alive and our hearts weren't as heavy and Nolan enjoyed another lazy morning with "friends" at the park.  I wish we could all just run and pretend we are Ninja Warriors every day and be oblivious to the hurts of so many around us.  Wouldn't that be grand?

He learned how to pump his legs last week too!

The poor unsuspecting seagulls.  

If only they knew what this little boy had planned for them!

A Day at the Museum

On Monday I needed to drive up to the Garrett Art Museum to pick up my photography exhibits that have been on display there.  Since the kids were going to be with me when I went there, I decided to find out if there were any museums or points of interest in the area that we could also see while we all out and about.  As it turns out, there are about seven museums of different kinds within 15 minutes so I decided that we could visit a World War II "Victory Museum" located in Auburn.  When I made the announcement to the kids, I got mixed reviews.  The older two homeschooled girls begged me to find something else to do (like a playground or even shopping) and Melayna begged me to let her stay home from her school so that she could come with us.  I just can't win!!  

As it turns out, the older two survived the museum (and maybe even enjoyed a small bit of it) and Melayna went to school and enjoyed her own Science Club.  Maybe I did win after all.

Anyway, back to the museum.  As it turns out, it was two museums in one building - and a hodge podge of exhibits located in each one.  I'm not sure I've ever been in a museum like this one before.  We started off going into the War Museum.  From the title of the museum, I thought it was about WWII but it turns out that they had exhibits from the Revolutionary War all the way through the Vietnam War.  When we entered the front, they had these figures from various wars standing at attention.  That got Nolan's attention right away!!  He kept staring at them and checking to see if they were "real" people.  We kept telling him that they were just statues and finally he seemed to relax.

They also had the Ten Commandments on display.  They said that the community had asked them to be removed from the courthouse lawn so the owner of the museum brought them to be on display here at the museum.

"Is that guy a statue?  He looks mean, Mommy!!"

We had to weave our way through two hallways of just framed newspaper articles while the girls made comments about how this was going to be the most boring place in the entire world.  I was secretly hoping that there was more myself.  We were all relieved to come around the corner and see some classic cars on display.  Although I'm not sure how they fit in with the war displays that were on the sides, it was fun to see the cars.

I actually had a cavalier convertible just like this one when I was in college.  And to think it's considered a "classic" now!!  LOL

Marissa and Nolan enjoyed looking inside the cars.  One had a shifter on the steering column which they obviously had never seen before.  Some had doors that opened up "backwards".  And they were totally blown away when they found out that you use to have to roll your own window down without pushing a button!!  LOL

Morgan didn't want to get inside the old cars.  She said that we "probably aren't suppose to" and didn't want to come close to breaking any rules.  She chose to push the stroller instead.

I love it when they make these miniature displays.  I always think about the hundreds of hours that it would have taken somewhere to place people where they are suppose to go to re-enact a battle scene or something.  

I made the mistake of saying that the displays came alive at night to fight for real.  (Referencing the movie "Night at the Museum")  The girls knew what I was talking about and laughed but poor Nolan got stuck on the idea that they really came alive at night and then he would ask that about all of the other statues and displays.  "Did that one come alive at night too, Mommy?"

We finally hit the WWII displays, which the girls enjoyed most.

"What about him, Mommy?  Does he come alive too?"

I asked Marissa if she would take a picture of me with the gun.  She took this and started laughing!  'Not exactly what I had in mind...

At least she took a better picture of Nolan.

I think the gun weighed more than he does!!

After this display, we left through the gift shop which was full of baseball and Nascar memorabilia.  (I told you, this may have been one of the strangest museums I've been in when it comes to random items on display...)  We wandered back out to the main area of the museum (where they play BINGO in the evenings no less) and sat down to eat some snacks before we went to the other end and through the second museum.  Since there was only one other gentleman in the museum, it was really quiet and easy to just talk and enjoy our lunch.

The second side was the Kruse Automobile and Carriage Museum.  I was excited about seeing all sorts of classic cars once again but this is what we saw when we first went in....

I'm not sure what any of that had to do with automobiles, but it was still neat to see all of the animals that someone had hunted.  (Except that this part really made Nolan nervous so we kept walking)!

Finally we came around a corner and they everything from the very first mail carriage and stage coach to the latest Monster truck and race cars.  Nolan instantly perked up and we walked around each and every car there, I think!!

(No wonder people are so scared of clowns!!)

"Whoa!  I want to drive one of THOSE Mommy!!"

These two were taken for Noel's benefit since the kids have no idea why they were in a museum!!

And of course, what's a car museum without the best race car ever?

After we finished off the second museum, I still had about an hour before I could get into the Art Museum to pick up my pictures.  My original plan was to fill in extra time at a local park, but it had started raining at some point so we decided to grab some free Frosty's and go window shopping instead.  All in all, it was a fun day.

Maker Projects

I checked out a book recently that had a lot of "Maker Projects" in it.  I'm not necessarily good with science experiments but I was hoping that we could handle building a few things instead.  I'm happy to report that most of the things we worked on the past two weeks did turn out pretty well.

Since we're learning about the different kinds of energy in Science, we used the book to help build a wind turbine out of paper cups.  We also built a water turbine out of a two liter but I didn't get a picture of that.

This past week we built "Super Speakers" out of paper towel rolls and paper cups.  It really did distribute the sound and made it louder.

Because we were talking about "Heat Transfer" another day, we made "Baked Alaskas".  I had never heard of a Baked Alaska before but it sounded interesting because we were suppose to cook ice cream in the oven for three minutes without it melting.  (Copying the concept of igloos in winter).  The girls really wanted to try this one for two reasons.  First, they like ice cream so it would be great to eat our science project and second, they weren't sure it would work and they both wanted to watch me clean the entire oven when the ice cream melted all over it.  

Anyway, Marissa made the cakes the day before and let them cool.  We also put ice cream into bowls and then let them re-freeze into molds.  Then on Friday, the girls made the meringue that goes on top of the ice cream.  The cake and meringue would be the "insulator" that would absorb the heat rather than it going to the ice cream.

They cut out their cakes and put the ice cream molds on top of the cake.  Then they smothered their meringue on top of the cake and we baked it at 450 degrees for three minutes.

Sooooooo..... the meringue didn't quite set up the way it's suppose to and it ran all over my oven, but the ice cream was still hard and cold.  Amazing, right?!

And then we ate a yummy snack!!

We also take part in "maker days" at our local library.  It's something new they just started recently in support of our homeschool community and it's been a nice addition to our schooling.  One of the children's librarians puts together projects once a month and then it's a come and go type thing.  

This month they had bracelets to make.  Since Marissa and Morgan both own their own looms and tons of rubber bands, this was a well enjoyed project.

They also had a center where you could make your own marble run maze out of paper plates and strips of paper.  

Even Nolan made a small bracelet before losing interest and running into the toddler room to play.

I just might have been the only adult to make a craft!!  :-)