Who's cool?

Some of us....

 Are born Rock Stars.

 At any angle.

And some of us are Rock Stars 

AND 

Kung Fu Fighters.

Be jealous of the Awesomeness.

Say Cheese!

Hey kids- let me get your picture!

This might be as good as we get today.

Nice.

More Science with Water

After doing a hand full of absorption experiments (what will absorb the most water, a cotton ball or a typing paper? aluminum foil or a tissue?), we got into the habit of creating hypotheses.

(Which is really like betting against each other scientifically!)

 Reaching the conclusion was fun, but talking about WHY the it happened was not as interesting.

I seem to remember liking the why better than the experiments when I was in school.

"Just tell me the answer already and I'll figure out why!"

Ugh- science labs, thanks for the bad memories Mr. O.

Oh, and I quickly removed my computer from the situation!

 For our 2nd experiment, we covered 4 cups with different materials to see what would absorb more 

and weaken after adding water.

 We used a cloth, coffee filter, baby wipe, and a napkin.

The kids had to write their hypotheses and later the conclusions in their journals.

 It was down to the baby wipe and napkin because they showed signs of sagging.  

Each kid took turns adding coins and water to the load.

 It took a LOT of coins and water for the tissue to finally break!

Way to go Puffs!  I had no idea they were so strong.

 Then we moved on to a color test.

 On strips of coffee filters we colored little dots with markers and dipped them into a bowl of water.

 This works best if the color dot is higher than the water line.

The kids got to see the colors separating and moving up the filter.

Here you can see yellow and blue from the green dot, and some red and blue in the purple.

This was more my style.

All in all, I'm glad my kids love science days.

Why does it take me so long?

Forgive me if you know this already.  I'm a bit slow some days.

It took many a stinky-cabbage-cooking days to finally learn to freeze and thaw out cabbage to make galobki.  (Thank you Kasia!)

And last week I realized how to cut off the thick spine of the leaf easily!

 Because the leaf is curved, it sits nicely in the edge of the counter.  The spine is exposed and can be cut off without putting holes in the leaf.

 See, even when I'm one handed taking a picture, it is easy!

Now we have a flat, more flexible leaf ready to roll up some yumminess!

I don't do anything small

Even my calendar is big.  

So big, I need to make it with poster board!

 I just can't work with a tiny calendar on my phone or even my computer.  I need to see months at a time, even if we don't have anything planned.

 Or maybe I just like to smell Sharpies.

Here is my new calendar next to the last of the old one.  I'm almost finished.

So I buy a chart with lines from the teacher store and add another column to the side.  It then gives me enough room to make 2 months at a time, going across.

I label Sunday through Sat on the top- twice. (check)

I divide the two columns of months down the middle with a darker line. (check)

I like to read the months going down so the days keep rolling.  I just darken the line that separates the months and Add the month name to the first day.  

Then fill in all the dates. (in process)

This calendar will take me from the middle of Oct to the first week of June.  I hang it on the basement door that is in our kitchen because it is too wide for the fridge (side by side) doors.  I just clip invitations, notices, and such to the side as we need additional info for an event. 

The only thing bad about the big calendar is it's permanent home.  I'm that pain-in-the-rear friend who says "I'll get back to you after I check my calendar," because I can't carry it with me.  When my iphone can project a giant 8-12 month calendar in front of my face and let me fill it in with sweet smelling Sharpie, then maybe I'll switch.

What's a Pully Bone?

When we were reading Misty of Chincoteague, we came to the part about the pully bone.  

The kids had no idea what a pully bone was, but I was prepared.

 It is a wishbone!

Well, the kids have pulled a wishbone before so mystery solved.

We decided to act out the part of the brother and sister in the book.

As I was reading, they pulled at the same time the characters pulled and what do you know?

The bone broke the same way as the story!

They won't forget that part, I'm sure.

An apple a day.

We like fruit.  

If we eat dinner early, the munchkins usually want a snack before bed. 

I can't blame them, so do I.

Apples are the kid's first choice most of the time.

When it is apple season, we pick as much we can carry.

This year was 92 bls.

(they are canned or eaten already!)

Pumpkins weren't ready, so when we go back for them, we will probably get more apples.

Lorh's orchard is our favorite, hidden, little orchard for strawberries in the Spring and apples/pumpkins in the Fall.