Nature Scavenger Hunt

We went for a walk on a trail near our house today, and did a scavenger hunt. 

We found:
smooth
green (too easy! haha!)
a seed (pine nuts)
a weed
a flower
edible (pine nuts)

 signs of erosion

signs of fall coming
a reflection in the water

 signs of animals being there (see the bird poop?)
I didn't take pictures of the trash that indicated people had been there.

We looked for something twisted, but didn't find that one.

 On the way home, we stopped at Walmart, so they could get a drink.  I had to stay outside with the dog, so E went in by herself to pay for the drink. 

A was on my back in the carrier the whole time, so I didn't get a picture of her.  Here's a picture of her at home.

Take that, Bill Nye

Something that happened at our home school group today made me think of Bill Nye's recent comment to a home schooling mom who asked him to create a science curriculum.

He responded:
"Use your judgment. The rest of us out here, want your kids to appreciate society and the importance of working together in school and in life. A person working alone will probably not build the future 797 airplane, for example. It takes people who can work with and around people. Carry on."

Today we had 13 kids playing outside together while us moms sat inside and talked and watched out the window.  The kids ranged from 2 to 13 years old.  They spent over an hour taking Interlocking Foam Floor Mats and building boxes and things to play in.  Then they worked together to use all the mats to create a  maze that they could crawl through, and organized games and races through the maze.  All cooperatively, with no arguing, with no parental input, big kids helping the little kids, and since this is a newly formed group, most of them haven't even known each other that long.

Mr. Nye, I happen to think that in 15 years or so, this group would have no problem building a 797 airplane.  Your arrogance and ignorance are astounding.   

Unfortunately, you're not alone.  We had to leave our home school group early so we could get to one of the kids' doctor's appointments, at which the doctor wanted to make sure my 3 year old was getting enough play with other kids since she doesn't attend preschool.  Does anyone see the irony there? 

Bacterial Cells

E's drawing of a bacterial cell

E stepped on a nail a few days ago, which prompted a discussion about Tetanus.  Since then, she's been asking a lot of questions about bacteria, so today I went online looking for something that would show her the structure of a bacterial cell.  We found some videos, including one that showed step by step how to draw one.  She followed along and drew the cell, and I labeled it for her.  Then we found a game where she had to match the label to the part, and then it did some fun graphics. 

I'd still like to find a more fun game about bacterial cells or cells in general, so if you know of one, send it my way! 

While looking for those videos and games, we found one that involved introducing herbivores to a grassy environment, and then introducing predators to the environment, and watching how the presence of the different types of animals influenced each other.  L really liked that game. 

Testing a Hypothesis

Yesterday E was playing with this slime we made, and she said that she was doing a test.  I asked her what she was testing, and she said that if she held the slime up and hit it with the knife, she wanted to see if it would go to the left or the right.  "Like on Mythbusters!  They test things."

I said that she was right.  They do experiments.  She said, "No they test things."  So I explained that is what an experiment is- testing a hypothesis.  I gave her some examples.

Then she said "My hypothesis is that if I hold the slime up, it will be easy to cut."  Then she did it and said, "And it's true!"

She did a few other tests to see of the slime would fall one way or the other, and if it was easier to cut with a steak knife or a butter knife. 

Inevitable Learning- Experiments

No longer Inevitable Mondays, because I rarely get around to recording what actually happens on Monday and I can just do Inevitable Learning posts any day of the week!

We usually go to the library story time on Wednesdays, but today I had one kid who didn't want to and one kid who did.  I didn't really want to go either, so I suggested that we read some books and do a craft at home instead.

Instead of a craft, I decided to look up a science experiment, because last night we were watching Mythbusters and E wanted to do experiments like them.  Most of their experiments involve blowing things up, however, and I doubt our mobile home park management would approve.  So I opted for making completely non-lethal tornadoes and freezing salt water.

The tornadoes connected back to an interest in tornadoes that came up a few weeks ago.  We used these instructions on youtube, but the only glitter we had is glitter glue.  So we tried it!  We ended up with globs of it that we pretended were houses and barns and things getting picked up by the tornado.  It's hard to see in the video, but it actually creates a tunnel effect.   




The freezing salt water experiment just sounded fun.  We put two cups of water in the freezer- one freshwater and one salt water. We'll take them out in a little while and see which one froze harder.