Science Fair

It has been rather whirlwind the last few days because the older three kids were putting together science project displays for their science fair. This entailed some help from Mom on the computer helping with formatting and printing of summary information for their display boards.

The eldest only decided to do a project three days before the fair. So, while her display was impressive, it was done in 48 hours. Here are your summaries:

Child #1 decided to see which mixture of sugar (half brown/half white, all white, or all brown) makes the “best” chocolate chip cookies as defined by her ideal rating of five characteristics (color, crunchiness, feeling in your mouth/teeth, chocolateness, and sweetness). She thought the half-brown, half-white would be “the best.” (She forgot to ask people to rate which one they liked best on her survey, so she had to modify her hypothesis a bit.) The all-white sugar cookie was the one that was closest to four of her five characteristics, so her hypothesis was proven wrong.

Child #2 decided to just take what she has been doing in science class with her. So, Mom transcribed her science notebook (badly spelled) notes into legible summaries to paste on her display board. She brought her four petri dishes with bacteria (which turned out to be a huge No-No) and her science notebook. The toilet lid was the nastiest looking petri dish. The one from her hand sample turned out to not have a whole lot of bacteria growing on it.

Child #3 brought her results from putting two Christmas gifts into water to see how much they would grow. She measured them (almost) daily for over two weeks while they grew & then shrunk (once taken out of the water). She had two graphs (one for each water toy). I found it interesting that out the three claims on the package, two of them were proven wrong by her data. (She didn’t notice this, by the way. She only noticed that her clam didn’t grow as much as her little brother’s alligator.) Now, it is over. I’m tired. The kids are snacking on leftover cookies and I’m going to go take a nap while they watch a movie.

Summer Project – Part 2

The kids excitedly watched the two chicks who hatched. None of the others hatched and per the directions, we disposed of the rest of the eggs. We cleaned the incubator and returned it.

We could have returned the chicks, too, but it was also acceptable to send them to a farm where they could be cared for and sometimes visited. The children had made arrangements with a family they are friends with who already have chickens. So, we were able to keep the chicks and watch them grow for several more weeks.

The children developed quite an attachment to the chicks – “Flower” and “Shocked Face.” They never tired of playing with them although they sometimes grumbled about changing the water and bedding. We fed them cornmeal and oatmeal per the instructions we were given with the project.

It was soon time to send them to their new home. The night before we were to take them to our friend’s farm, Child #1 cried about the possibility that Shocked Face would forget her or that we wouldn’t be able to tell our chicks from the other chickens on the farm.

As it turned out, we were not able to drop them off the next day. And that night, Shocked Face grew ill and died. We don’t know why. The children were in tears and the ‘funeral’ was very sad. I wrote a poem as the children were afraid we would forget him.

The worst part was that Flower showed signs that she would not make it through the next day. She huddled in one spot and would not eat or drink. We took turns holding her, petting her, assuring her of our love, and dipping her beak into water. At midnight, I checked on her and found her drinking water on her own. She improved from that point on. We gradually switched her over to “chick food” and dropped her off at her new home over a week ago. We haven’t gone back to see her, but reports from our friends say she is doing well.

The children have learned a lot. This was more than just learning about eggs and chickens. (They have asked me to never have them raise chickens from eggs again.) They learned that not all life makes it beyond the ‘incubation’ stage and the ones who ‘hatch’ don’t always make it to ‘adulthood.’

They have learned what it is like to love and then lose the one they love. It is a harsh life lesson, but one I was glad to be there to share with them.

In Remembrance

His wing emerged. Slowly, we watched him hatch.

Flower came first. There were two in his batch.

Bright eyes. Big mouth. Black with small yellow spots.

He became our “Shocked Face.” We liked him lots.

Sometimes bullied. With sis he loved to play.

Peep. Peck. Perch. Jump. He brightened up our day.

Keep always in your mind – our chick, our joy.

Smart. Nice. Sweet. Tweet. Never forget our boy.

Two weeks he lived. Good care of him we took.

Of a farm home, he had just a quick look.

Hatched on Monday. Dispatched late Thursday night.

His eyes: the light went out; no longer bright.

Buried with love. We will remember well:

Ever a chick – strutting on Heaven’s dell.

Summer Project – Part 1

This summer I thought it would be nice for the kids to hatch some chicks from eggs. It is a 4-H project available to anyone through an extension office in the big city about an hour away. I sent in the paperwork and checks required right away and received an email a couple weeks later stating that we were picked to participate.

We picked up the incubator, a dozen eggs, and our notebook full of instructions in mid-June. The instructions said to mark our eggs in pencil with an X on one side and an O (circle) on the opposite so we would know when we “turned” them. We were supposed to turn them either twice or three times a day, depending on if you followed the notebook’s instructions or the instructions given us orally when we picked up the materials.

Instead of staid X/O, we drew pictures. One egg had a rose on it, another a horse. There was a dress, a face with a shocked look on it, another face with a happy smile, and a third face looking sad. We referred to the eggs by their picture description as we turned them. I joked to the kids that I thought “shocked face” would be the first one hatched.

We set up the incubator in a closet away from the A/C registers and the crawling baby’s inquisitive hands. The older two girls took turns turning eggs, putting more water in the bottom of the incubator, and learning about the development of chick embryos.

The children were excited and amazed to find one chick almost out of its shell one morning. They were able to watch another make its way out. In the end, however, only those two hatched out of twelve. Dismal odds, I know, but we found out later that most “first timers” don’t do very well and even the veterans only achieve about 50% hatch. (At least two of our eggs were not fertilized and I didn’t check them all, so it is possible that more were like that.)

We named the yellow chick after its “flower” picture and the black one “shocked face.” Shocked Face was the second one out, so although I was correct that he would hatch, I was wrong that he would be the first.

To be continued….

Snow Days

Within the last few weeks, we’ve had several days of ice & snow that have caused the local schools to shut down. In fact, there was one week when we had mail delivery only three days out of six.

We continued to have school here on all those days. We had to reschedule a field trip because the place we were planning on going was closed due to the weather. So, we did a complete day of school that day, too.

We’re doing half-days this week and next (not including Christmas Eve, Christmas, and New Years). Math is every other day. Spelling is every day, although a shorter lesson each day. Science is every day (since we need to get through more lessons in that than any other subject).

Speaking of Science, we’ve had some fun experiments lately in our God’s Design for Chemistry book. We made whipped cream and butter one day when we were studying milk. We dissolved LifeSavers (TM) yesterday (cold water vs. room temperature water vs. hot water, crushed vs. whole, and still/moving tongue around in our mouths) as part of our lesson on ‘solutions.’ We made mayonnaise today as part of our lesson on ‘suspensions.’

The two kids took a quiz on Monday on mixtures, elements, and compounds. After they tried it by themselves, we used it as a review activity instead of a ‘grading opportunity.’ So they both got all the questions correct after going over everything three times.

The kids have gotten plenty of opportunity to go outside to play in the snow. They climb snowdrifts, throw snowballs, slide down various hills, play with the neighbor kids (who are out of school either on a snow day or for Christmas break), and get themselves cold & wet on a regular basis.

I found some snow pants for the older two at a local resale shop and had some just the right size for Child #3 already. Only Child #4 lacks them although he tends to stay out just as long no matter how cold & wet he is. The only time he comes to complain is if he lost a glove. It appears to be his Achilles ‘hand’ (so to speak).

“Why did the Sun Explode?”

We started Apologia’s Astronomy book this week and made it through the first chapter, complete with a planet model using balloons as the first project. To add to the fun, we used a later chapter’s guide to how far away to space the “planet” balloons from the sun. (Using this extremely scaled down guide, the planets would be much, much larger than they really are compared to the distance they are from the sun. But all models have their weaknesses.)

[Updated with photo of the Sun and first four planets. The first planet, Mercury, can't be seen in this view because of the blinds.]

Anyway, I had purchased some really, really big balloons so that I could make the “Sun” very large. I blew that yellow balloon up as far as I could while still being able to tie it off. I was in the process of hanging up Uranus when there was a large explosion that nearly made me fall off the couch. (I was setting a very bad example by standing on the top of the couch to hang the planets.) Child #2 turned to me with really large eyes and asked, “Mommy, why did the sun explode?”

Sure enough, the yellow balloon had popped with no children within five feet of it. I selected another one and blew it up – but not nearly as big as the last time. The children all implored me not to make this sun explode as well.

All the children were amazed at how far away the “planets” got from the sun. When we were hanging “Pluto” up in the hallway, a long distance from our “sun,” Child #2 again turned to me with big eyes.

“Mommy, we have to move the Sun. Pluto is COLD!”

(And yes, we are aware of the fact that Pluto is no longer considered a planet. We just choose to continue to include it in our study of the planets. We will explain the discussion surrounding it when we get to that chapter.)