Protons, Neutrons, Electrons and more...Fun with Atoms!

This year we're once again doing our Classically Catholic Memory program.  Last year it was all about earth science and astronomy.  This year we get to delve into the exciting study of chemistry and physics.  We've done some chemistry in the past using Real Science 4 Kids, and really enjoyed it.  We'll be using some of those studies again this year, and adding in lots more. 

Week 1 of our memory work focuses on atoms.  We spent the first two days reading about atoms in our Real Science 4 Kids, Pre-Level 1, and Level 1 books, Fizz, Bubble & Flash chemistry book, and the Usborne Encyclopedia of Science book. On Wednesday and Thursday I decided to do something more interesting and fun.  So, after scouring the internet for resources, here are a few of the fun ones we did.  First and foremost, Bill Nye The Science Guy has a segment on atoms!



Next, we made models of atoms using Play-doh. Adam chose to make a carbon atom. I was seriously amazed at how much he retained from the books we read. He used the Periodic Table of Elements to determine that his atom needed to have 6 protons, which he made out of purple Play-doh. Then, since all elements must have the same number of electrons as protons, he made 6 small balls of light brown Play-doh to zoom around the nucleus of his atom. He then determined that carbon has an atomic weight of 12.011, which allowed him to figure out that he needed 6 neutrons as well. He used mint green Play-doh for this. By the way, he remembered (all by himself), that you take the atomic weight of the element you wanted to make, and subtract the number of protons it has,and you'll know how many neutrons it has. Pretty cool, huh? Why is it that he gets this so easily while Haley and I had to re-read everything multiple times to make sense of it? So not fair!

Lastly, I found a cute little song that is sung to the tune of The Addams Family theme song.  I'm dating myself here...  My kids had no idea who the Addam's were, so that led to another search to give them little background info.  It really helps if you listen to the original theme song first to get an idea of how to sing this. 


Now that you know the tune, plug in these lyrics and have some fun! Hope your week was as fun as ours!

They're tiny and they're teeny 
Much smaller than a beany,
They never can be seeny,  
The Atoms Family.
 
They are so small. (snap,snap)
They're round like a ball. (snap,snap)
They make up the air.
They're everywhere.  
Can't see them all. (snap,snap)
 
Together they make gases,
And liquids like molasses,
And all the solid masses,  
The Atoms Family
 
They are so small. (snap,snap)
They're round like a ball. (snap,snap)
They make up the air.
They're everywhere.
Can't see them all. (snap,snap)

Neutrons can be found,
Where protons hang around;
Electrons they surround  
The Atoms Family
 
They are so small. (snap,snap)
They're round like a ball. (snap,snap)
They make up the air.
They're everywhere.
Can't see them all. (snap,snap)

What is it with bees and pools?

I wish somebody would please explain to me why it is that I have literally hundreds of honey bees at my pool every day?  We have a beekeeper about 1/4 of a mile from our house and apparently their favorite watering hole is our pool.  I've heard that its the chlorine.  At first, the kids were terrified of being stung.  However, after explaining that honey bees are generally very unlikely to sting unless threatened, they've gotten used to them.  Haley even goes so far as to let them land on her hand!  Their favorite landing spot is my float.  You can generally find around 25 bees on it at any given time.

Having them so close and in such great numbers does allow us to study them.  We have enjoyed many days sitting really still in the pool watching a bee slurp up pool water.  Unfortunately, some of the bees fall in and drown.  I do my best to rescue as many as I can, but inevitably I miss a few.  Why all this talk of bees...maybe because we haven't done much else of interest over the past few days.  Here's a closeup of one of our "pool bees".  Cool huh?

P.S.  Haley says to be sure to look for the hair on her eyeball.

Garden Fun with Loofahs!

We've had a raised bed garden in our backyard for several years now.  Earlier this spring we had several varieties of lettuce, a few strawberry plants, and 4 tomato plants.  One of our dogs seemed to think the garden soil was the very best place in our entire yard to sleep.  He ruined two of the tomato plants, dug up my spinach and lettuce, and basically ruined the garden.  So, I finally convinced my husband to build a fence around the garden to keep him out.  At this point it was late in the season, and we only had two tomato plants and one strawberry plant left.  So, I decided to just do something for fun in the garden this year.  When I was a child, my German grandmother had loofah vines growing on a fence in her backyard.  I have vivid memories of picking the loofahs, taking them home, and using the loofah sponges in the bath.  In discussing loofahs with friends lately, I'm amazed at how few people seem to know what I'm talking about.  Surely you've seen or used a loofah at some point in your life?

We ordered seeds online and in just a few weeks we had vines growing up our fence.  It took quite some time, but we finally were rewarded with big yellow flowers about two weeks ago.  Kinda pretty, aren't they?

So we've watched and waited to see our first loofah gourd appear.  On Monday I finally found one!  In looking more closely, we actually have about four loofahs already.  They are growing like crazy and get bigger every day.

We have enjoyed watching the vines twist and climb on anything and everything around.  Good thing the birds are done with the house for the season...I think the loofah vine is going to overtake it soon!

As I mentioned earlier, we also have two tomato plants that survived the dog.  Nobody in our family actually eats tomatoes except my husband.  We just grow them for fun.  We haven't had much luck with them this year though.  Could be because the kids keep picking the green ones before they're ripe.  While I was out admiring our loofah gourds this week I found this interesting looking caterpillar on one of the tomato plants.  In looking closer, it seems he had a friend with him, as there were actually two on one of the plants.

After taking his picture and showing the kids, we scoured our Field Guide to Butterflies to figure out what he was.  Turns out he's not exactly considered a good type of caterpillar.  He's a tomato hornworm.  They are actually garden pests.  He and his buddy will most likely devour every green leaf on the tomato.  Oh well...at least somebody will enjoy them.  They don't even turn into a pretty butterfly.  They end up as a somewhat nondescript moth.  Bummer...

Making Muscadine Jelly

Before you get the wrong idea, I'm not exactly known for my domestic skills.  However, when we bought our house many years ago, we were blessed to have a rather large muscadine vine right in our backyard.  It has grown progressively bigger and bigger each year.

 
Two years ago I had the bright idea to make muscadine jelly.  That's about as far as I got...thinking about it.  So, this year after watching the muscadine's once again turn from tiny green berries into large, plump dark purple grapes, and smelling them day after day from pretty much anywhere in my back yard, I decided to finally give it my best.  Saturday morning, Glen, the boys and I went out and picked as many of the ripened grapes as we could find.  For some reason Haley had no interest whatsoever in our muscadine project.

We ended up with about 3 1/2 pounds of muscadines.  There are still tons of them on the vine that aren't quite ripe yet. Here's our haul all nice and clean and ready to be turned into jelly.

Adam and Ryan wanted to do all the mashing themselves.  Ryan got to do more because Adam accidentally squished a grape too hard, spewing boiling hot grape juice on his finger.  Can I just say that my house smelled heavenly while these babies were cooking.  While the boys were stirring and mashing, I was sterilizing jars and lids.

Here's what you get after cooking and squishing for about 15 minutes or so.  The boys decided it looked like barf.  Nice...  Regardless, we strained the mucadines through a sieve to remove the skins and seeds, and ended up with a nice juice that looked and smelled similar to grape juice.

Next it was back on the stove for more cooking, adding the sugar and pectin, and finally, putting the finished jelly into jars.  We ended up with 8 jars total.  You should have seen the boys licking the pan and spoons.  YUMMY!!  Can you guess what we had for breakfast Sunday morning?

 If you'd like to try this yourself, I highly recommend it.  It wasn't all that difficult and the finished product is really good.  My jelly isn't as jelled as a commercial jelly, but very similar to all the other homemade jellies I've eaten.  Search the internet for recipes and you're sure to find plenty of inspiration.   Best of all, this jelly takes only 3 basic ingredients...the muscadine juice, sugar and pectin. 

Busy Days...

Well, if you've read my blog for any time at all, you'll have realized that keeping up with posting is not my strong suit.  Lately we've been so busy trying to keep up with our new school year, chores, a busy home business, and a multitude of other things that I simply haven't taken the time.  However, here's a run down and pictures to update you on what we've been up to.

First, we've been enjoying the beautiful warm weather to do some fun family stuff.  Daddy's favorite past time is fishing, and seeing as the rest of us just don't find it near as exciting, we rarely all go together.  However, we've found a spot where we can all have fun...Camp Columbus!  We joined earlier in the summer and have enjoyed swimming, fishing, having picnics, and studying nature together.  Here's how we spent Father's Day this year.

We've also fostered 7 kittens over the summer for a local animal rescue center that we volunteer at.  It was a great experience and my kids loved watching the kittens grow up.  We finally got them all back to the shelter and the kids got their bathroom back.  Is there anything sweeter than adorable fuzzy kittens?

The kids were all froglets in a local theater production of Honk, the musical version of The Ugly Duckling.  It was lots of fun and they all did great.  Then we used our Read to Succeed tickets and spent a fun filled day at Six Flags theme park.  Adam was brave and rode his first coaster.  He and I rode Mindbender together.  The look on his face was priceless!  He was so scared, but he did it and says he'll go again next year.  We've also been enjoying the hummingbirds that visit our feeder throughout the day.  They are so fun to watch!  I had to be patient, but I got some good close up shots of one of the girls.

 There was also the kids birthday party to get through.  We had postponed Haley's from June, and the boys missed there's in July, so in early August we finally got to it.  No idea why I thought having all three kid's friends here at the same time was a good idea.  We had a house full of kids!  They had fun though, and that's what counts.  I was lazy this year and just made cupcakes rather than themed cakes.

  We've also been busy doing some home improvements.  We finally got a new roof this week.  I'm so thrilled!!  Sad that I get so excited as something as basic and necessary as a roof, but I really do.  If you'd seen what it looked like before, you might understand.  Here's our new improved roof.  Isn't it pretty?  So that's pretty much the highlights of our summer to date.  What have you been up to?

Back to School

Where has the summer gone?  It seems like just yesterday we were finishing up last year.  Now we're gearing up for the new school year.  I have several friends that have already started back!  The stores are filled with pencils, crayons, glue sticks and more, and back to school sales are in full swing.

I have big plans for this year.  I really felt like last year was a bad school year for us.  We were involved in a co-op for the first time, and although my kids learned lots and we enjoyed the other families, I feel like we had one of the worst years school wise that we've ever had.  Obviously, having somebody else dictate what and when we're doing doesn't work for me.  I'm the type that needs everything to be cohesive, and when things aren't, I get messed up.  It could have also been the fact that I was involved in WAY too many things.  I was so busy and stressed throughout the year that I let some of my favorite activities go.  We didn't get together with friends like we normally do, or do any of the super fun things we've done in year's past.

So, in planning for next year, I'm staying home and getting back to the things that make homeschooling fun for all of us.  I'm reorganizing the school room, breaking out the work boxes again, and planning ahead for a great year.  I'll be posting shortly on our curriculum choices so stay tuned!

Getting Healthy...

Several years ago I lost quite a bit of weight. About 45 pounds to be exact. Unfortunately, I eventually went back to my old habit of eating whatever appeals, and not exercising enough to compensate. I started back on my healthy lifestyle choices last August, and lost 8 pounds. Then, late the night before we went on vacation to Florida, while carrying bags to the car, I fell down the stairs. After spending hours in the emergency room, I found that I had sprained my left ankle, and tore the ligament in my right. No broken bones though. Its been a VERY long recovery, and my ankle still bothers me daily. But, I'm finally getting back in the healthy groove.

So, here's my goal, and here's how I plan to accomplish it. I want to lose at least 50 pounds by my 43rd birthday in October. I've done the math and at a rate of 2 pounds per week, I could actually lose more like 60 in that time, but I'm allowing for the fact that I might not always lose those weekly 2 pounds. Besides, I'm realistic and don't honestly expect to ever reach my perfect body weight. I would be happy, no, make that ecstatic, to lose 50. So far, I've given up all carbonated sodas, made a point to drink mostly water, cut my portions, added lots of fresh fruit and veggies to my diet, walk on the treadmill at least 5 days a week, bike ride with my son, Adam, who is absolutely the best at begging me to ride our 3 mile neighborhood loop, and act like an idiot trying to follow along with my Zumba for Wii game. My kids get a big kick out of that last one, let me tell you!

So, I've told my family, my friends, and all of you out there in cyber world. I'm going to do it! I don't want to be fat anymore! Do me a favor and pray for my continued motivation and success.