Filling Summer: Week 2

This past week was filled, the mornings at least, with vacation Bible school and the transporting to and from. It was fun for Ethan to participate and see old classmates, just a bit of a time commitment with the travel.

We were able to do some activities all together today which kept the boredom boogieman away. We have several science sources to choose from including a box of experiment cards, a book my mother sent the kids and an old MS Kids issue with "Kitchen Science" ideas.















It's not true science without a few duds. Our first project involved mixing yeast, sugar and warm water in a bottle and placing a grape in the mouth of the bottle. We waited...a LONG time. Nothing happened. Much, much later after the attention span of normal children and adults had expired, Keith reported seeing the grape pop up and settle back into the bottle. Not quite the excitement we had hoped for.















Next we tried one of the magazine suggestions. Fill a mason jar with water. Mix in separate container: one tablespoon of vegetable oil and several drops of food coloring. Pour the oil mix into water and watch the show.















Just like science class in school, I've forgotten the point of the whole thing but we did it over and over. It was fun to watch although the colors spread out faster than we thought they would.

Not to perpetuate a horrible myth about my science stupidity but, I learned about centrifugal force today. I did know what it was and in theory that it was supposed to work but I didn't quite believe in it. I was horrified that one of the experiments suggested you swing a bucket of beans around and around. Keith was equally horrified that I had never tried such a thing and quickly filled up a small bucket with water to show me.

"Not in the house!" I screamed. Not a drop was spilled of course. Not until Drew insisted on trying. Centrifugal force is no match for the motor skills of a three year old.