Surviving Summer - Week 4

This week we learned about

SCIENCE

I was really excited about this week. I had a ton of things to learn about and do, and we only got about half of them done. We might have to have a second edition of science week in the near future.

First off, when introducing our new theme, we discussed what "science" means.

To us, it means learning how things work.

It led to some awesome discussions, and got my kids thinking about the whys and wherefores of the world. (Which really mean the same thing, did you know that?) It also led to lots of googling. Because I've taught my children well: that the internet knows all.

We learned about our solar system. There's some great interactive websites out there (my kids liked this one) and I quizzed them on astronomy facts all week. They all like Mars. It's red, you know.

(Observed at the neighborhood pool: Little Prince to stranger kid: "Did you know the sun is actually a star?) Awesome.

We built our own little solar system, and hung it above the kitchen sink. It looks like a deranged spider. (Though I love Saturn's rings.)

And you'll observe that Pluto is there. It's still on the website, and therefore must be included.

(Little Prince to My Man: Yeah, the science people got together and said Pluto couldn't be a planet anymore. We don't know why.)

Poor Pluto.

We also built a crystal garden - a kit from Grandma. So cool. You could actually watch the crystals grow.

My favorite was building a volcano. Mason jar. Cardboard. Paper mache.

Little Prince didn't think it looked much like a volcano at first.

And I would prove to you with a picture that it did INDEED look like a volcano when we were done, but when it came time to explode it, I couldn't find the camera. Turns out it was actually PUT AWAY, not on the computer desk, my bedside stand, or on the kitchen counter where it USUALLY is.

Anyway, the kids loooooooooved exploding the volcano (red food dye, lemon juice and baking soda) and we went through an entire box of baking soda in one day. They kept exploding it over and over again for their friends.

We're so cool.

We also went to the Science Musuem in Phoenix, which was completely crowded and gave me a pretty nasty anxiety attack the whole time. I wrote my phone number on all my children's arms.

Still, they had fun -



The NBC just chilled. He's really good at that.