New School Year

Well, here we go again! Everyone advances to the next grade.

With my web design business keeping me busy, and making sure that our boys get a proper education, blogging has not been the first thing on my mind.

However, since I am pushing my boys to blog as a daily routine, I figure I should do a little too.

This year I have a 9th grader and a 7th grader. Yikes! They grow up so fast. Do you ever do the "Remember when..." stories? Do you sit looking at your children and remember when they were little tiny poop machines? What a trip!

So, this year we have subjects like Algebra 2, Biology, Literature, Social Studies, Creative Writing, General Science, & Pre Algebra (Algebra 1/2) for my youngest. I think this year has started out well. At least now I have their interests.

Well, back to work I go...

More later.

Fighting the Bug

This past week has been a struggle for the whole family. The latter part of last week brought on a couple of snow days. The weekend was supposed to be Boy Scout Klondike… but we’ve had a lot of snow. We have almost two feet of snow in our yard.

On Thursday night, our oldest started feeling sick. By Friday morning, his temperature spiked 102 degrees. By Friday night, maybe Saturday morning, it’s all a blur, I got sick and so did my youngest… Then by Saturday night, Sunday morning, my husband was hit with the same thing. Since then, we are all trying to help each other recover.

So here we are snowed in and sick!

Well, I think we’re getting back on track. The boys will go to their band classes tomorrow and I will “attempt” to restart school for them. They aren’t real thrilled with that.

Matthew told me tonight on his way to bed… “You know mom, it has been great having sick days off from school, not that I liked being sick, but I loved having the time to play my games!” He then continued to beg me to go easy on school. He didn’t want to hit “the Wall.”

“The Wall” is how my children view school when we start all subjects in the same day. They prefer to start with one subject, then the next day, two subjects, and so on.. Although, I must say, this is tempting; it is just not the way school is run. I had to tell my son to “man up.”

Sometimes it bugs me to see how lazy my kids are. Neither likes to play outside like normal kids. We get their whiny undertones whenever we lay the law down. “Oh do we have to?” It is really pathetic. Well, I guess that’s a blog for another day.

So, Lord willing, tomorrow we'll hit the books again.

More later…

Syrupy Mess!

There is nothing like going to bed hoping to sleep for 8 hours only to awaken 4 hours later with an explosive sound and cussing in the kitchen. I jump out of bed all blurry eyed, run to the kitchen, only to find a puddle Maple Syrup on the floor.

All hell seemed to break out… not only from the person who caused the catastrophe, but from me because I know my 8 hours is interrupted indefinitely while I get to clean up the mess! It took 2 hours to get a cursory clean up done… Syrup was everywhere.

You see, last night I put a half-gallon container of Maple Syrup in the refrigerator. I just bought the stuff at Costco and paid nearly $20 for this wonderful nectar! I was in a hurry to go to bed, so I wedged it in between the Orange Juice and the wall of the refrigerator. It never occurred to me that someone would reach in to grab the OJ and without looking, just pull it out with such vigor. I guess I am the only one who notices when two containers are coming out at the same time when I only want the one. Go figure. I knew there was something wrong with me!

Apparently, the Maple Syrup was wedged in there pretty well because it sprang out, dropped to the floor, launching Maple Syrup back up to the ceiling. With this explosive action, it shocked the one pulling the OJ out for a drink.

The first thing after the surprise was the culprit looking at me asking what should be done. He leaps for a bath towel (you see they absorb a lot, right?). All I can envision is every bath towel in my linen closet covered in syrup! I grab one, already gently used bath towel from the back porch and tell him to get the towel covered in hot water… So, he does. But he forgot to wring it out! Now I have a trail of water from the bathroom to the syrupy mess… he lays the towel across the mess and watches the water flow from the towel down hill (You see, my house is 106 years old and had to be raised to put a foundation under it. Once the house settled… well you can imagine.) “I don’t see what good this is going to do!” he says, as he attempts to wrap the towel around the sticky mess. He picks it up and carts it across my kitchen to the sink. Now I have a trail of hot water and syrup across the kitchen.

Argh!! I am livid at this point… Seething might be a better word!

I finally have to get on my hands and knees to sop up this mess… Yes, you read that correctly… I did it. The person who made the mess resigned to the living room to eat his food and drink his Orange Juice.

There is syrup on the wall, syrup on the ceiling, syrup in the refrigerator, syrup now in my hair, and on my clothes…not to mention in the dog food, on my bare feet, and up to my elbows!

I think I’ll be cleaning syrup for the next week! No matter how meticulous I am about cleaning it out of all the nooks and crannies, I still find it oozing out onto the floor!

Well, back to the mess…

Drummin' for fun!

Last year and again this year our boys have been enrolled in a public school band. They also take private lessons for the instruments they play.

In September, my oldest was a part of a Scottish Pipes & Drums band for one concert. He was so excited to have played in that band. He is hoping that the band will invite him again to play in January. For this concert, Matthew played the floor tom and large djembe. You can see him in the corner.

What I hope to do here is to put this video here...



More later!

Heidi

Science Experiment 4.1

Today, my son and I tried something different in his science experiment. We decided to video record it. He was so thrilled to get the attention... He performed well... Hopefully you will think so too.

You might say this was an experiment on more than one level... you see, I had to record it and put it together.

We had some goofy moments while working on this project...but I think I edited enough of them out so you won't get bored.

More later...

Heidi

Atmospheric Pressure Science Experiment

First let me say that this blog is not just for science experiments. However, we have had so much fun with these experiments that I wanted to write about them.

On this experiment, we were to learn about atmospheric pressure. My son grabbed two soda cans and put just a little water into them both... Only enough to cover the bottoms. Then heated them both up on the stove. Now, one thing that is VERY important on this experiment... You must get the water to boiling temperature. In our first attempt, we failed to get the temp high enough. The instructions said to heat up the cans until steam came out of the cans... but that really isn't enough.

So, we finally got the water to boiling and then put each can directly into ice cold water. The first can went into the water with the open on the top and the second with the can upside down.

The first can didn't do anything exciting except just sit there cooling down... However, the second can, as it cooled sucked up all the water that was in the bowl and proceeded to crush the can.

What we were able to see was that the first can, which was upright in the ice water had air inside. The air that was inside the can pushed against the pressure from the atmosphere, so there was no force on the sides of the can... However, with the second can, which was "upside down" in the ice water, it had very little air inside. Because of this, there was very little to push against the pressure from the outside of the can... so the atmosphere on the outside crushed the can.

We were very impressed with the outcome on this experiment. It really helped us to understand barometric pressure.

We have so much fun learning science! It's a blast.

More later!


Heidi

Oxygen & Fire -- Experiment 2.2

Scary thought was my first impression... teach an 8th grader how to make fire... Hmm...

Actually, we had fun with this one... in the end.

The purpose of this test was to show the effect of adding and removing oxygen from fire. We're hoping that we'll understand how to quench or feed fire. Simple, right?

HAHA!

First off, teach your student to read through the instructions before proceeding with the experiment. Make sure you have plenty of supplies. This didn't happen with us. I only wish I had photographs to show this experiment.

Here's what you need... You need 2-cups of Hydrogen Peroxide, and 1-teaspoon of bakers yeast (you know, the stuff you use to make bread... yeah, I had to remember that one). You also need a 1-liter plastic soda bottle, a candle, a jar to fit over the candle (heat resistant is best), and a balloon.

First off my son measures the 2-cups of Hydrogen Peroxide pours it into the bottle and adds 1-teaspoon of yeast. My job is to put the balloon over the mouth of the bottle. Easy enough... Oxygen begins to sneak out of the balloon... But now I have to shake the bottle. You know, I am already feeling warmth on the bottle, I'm worried that the bottle will melt or break, and they want mix it more? It doesn't take much, and within minutes I have a balloon full of oxygen... Now what do I do? My son tells me to take the balloon off and tie the end... Ok.. Balloon is tied... there ain't anything getting out of this balloon...

Meanwhile we're instructed to light the candle and put the jar over the top... Ok, can do. So we sit and watch the candle... of course, it goes out. No we need to relight... The next step says, now place the jar over the candle and carefully release the contents of the balloon into the jar. Say WHAT?

My youngest begins to laugh and my oldest looks at me with a sheepish look... My youngest say, "Well, you can poke a hole in it, Mommy." Yeah right! Try that will trying to "carefully" release contents... Nope... not me. Of course you can't untie the balloon... it was damaged coming off the bottle mouth. "Well, Mommy," says my oldest, "you can cut the knot off..." I can't believe I took it, hook, line, & sinker. When you cut the knot, you have nothing to hold onto... the yeast, after bubbling in the peroxide makes it all slimy so you can't hold it. I finally let go... experiment failed.

This is where I find out we don't have enough supplies to do it again... Yeah, I run off the store to buy more Hydrogen Peroxide... I think I bought the store out...Before I left, I insisted that my son REREAD the whole experiment. Make sure he understands what has to happen.

Upon my return, we start the experiment all over again. It was exciting to see how the oxygen from the balloon causes the candle to glow very brightly. When you take the balloon away, the bright light lingers a bit, then fades away. Add more oxygen and right away it brightens.

Even though this experiment was exciting and fun, one thing to remember is to read through the entire experiment first... Secondly, make sure you have enough supplies for two experiments... You never know if you'll need a do over.

More later,

Heidi