The grin on Johnny’s face may reflect some excitement over the experiment, but I think it has a lot more to do with the fact that he grabbed and gobbled my first comparison gummy worm immediately before I snapped this photo.

This experiment is straight out of a science experiment book I picked up in the [...]]]>

The grin on Johnny’s face may reflect some excitement over the experiment, but I think it has a lot more to do with the fact that he grabbed and gobbled my first comparison gummy worm immediately before I snapped this photo.

This experiment is straight out of a science experiment book I picked up in the dollar bins at Target. It’s advertised for 2-3 grade, but the experiments are great for preschoolers too, with some accommodations.

The idea behind this particular experiment (not explained in the book beyond a brief reference to osmosis, much to my chagrin. Of course, the book also calls itself “Physics tricks”, while I would consider this a chemistry or biology experiment. It’s still a good buy, for $1) is that gummy candies are porous and can therefore absorb a lot of water – so much, in fact, that they grow quite dramatically. This Trolli gummy worm, for example, nearly doubled in size. As the candy expands, the bonds loosen, making it much more fragile – this worm broke just being tipped out of the container above.

As a further experiment, we also tried soaked an Austrian Haribo gummy bear, imported by my lovely parents. Austrian Haribo gummy bears taste much better than the American Haribo gummy bears, and they are also colored with natural dyes (I’m pretty sure the American version uses artificial dyes).

Which explains why, while the gummy worm kept the same vibrant colors, the Haribo bear’s colors appear fainter in the giant soaked bear. Which makes me think that those natural dyes really must be much healthier…

This experiment also explains my bloated stomach after eating an entire package of Austrian Haribo gummy bears once as a teenager. I was in Austria, and Austrian Haribo gummy bears are GOOD.

I’m linking this post up to Show and Tell at ABC and 123.

We spend a lot of time playing with math manipulatives in our house. Johnny uses them in fairly traditional ways: he sorts by color, shape, and size, counts them, and makes patterns.

Emma gets quite original in her math manipulative uses. Last week she told me she [...]]]>

We spend a lot of time playing with math manipulatives in our house. Johnny uses them in fairly traditional ways: he sorts by color, shape, and size, counts them, and makes patterns.

Emma gets quite original in her math manipulative uses. Last week she told me she “made Emma”. And here is what I found:

 

I think she was hoping to use all red blocks, but ran out. Not a traditional use of math manipulatives, but still an educational one! And there is some sorting in there: blocks for the E, triangles for the first M, then circles for the second M and the A.

I’m linking this post up to Math Monday at Joyful Learner.

  A friend of mine set up this simple lever activity for the science coop we created this summer. Each kid had a long piece of wood, some blocks, and a rock. They used the blocks to create their pivot point, and then learned how, the closer the rock was on the long piece of [...]]]>

 
A friend of mine set up this simple lever activity for the science coop we created this summer. Each kid had a long piece of wood, some blocks, and a rock. They used the blocks to create their pivot point, and then learned how, the closer the rock was on the long piece of wood to the pivot point (also called the fulcrum), the easier it was to lift the rock!

I’m linking this post up to Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom.

  Michael and the Cats is a great book [...]]]>
Manana Iguana is a fun re-telling of The Little Red Hen. We all enjoyed the goofy illustrations, my kids were happy to learn a couple of words in Spanish, and I especially liked the ending in this new version of a classic tale.

 
Michael and the Cats is a great book for kids who don’t have any pets themselves but are going to visit a house with animals. Little Michael becomes friends with two cats by learning what they like instead of trying to make them do things he enjoys.

Corduroy is a classic from my own childhood. Johnny LOVES bears of all kids, and I’m more than a little tempted to make him a Corduroy of his very own for Christmas (or his third birthday).

Poor bear sleeps through the party and then is awake after his friends fall asleep in Bear Snores On. I’m including this story in the list mainly because we all enjoyed the illustrations – and Johnny was thrilled to read another story about a bear! Any guesses as to what he’s dressing up as for Halloween this year?

I’m linking this post up to What My Child Is Reading at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

Tuesday I decided to take the kids raspberry picking. They were very excited, but when they saw that we would have to walk through some overgrown bushes to get to the raspberries they decided they were NOT interested. So, we bought some corn, peaches, and tomatoes, and opted to visit the farm animals instead. Emma [...]]]>

Tuesday I decided to take the kids raspberry picking. They were very excited, but when they saw that we would have to walk through some overgrown bushes to get to the raspberries they decided they were NOT interested. So, we bought some corn, peaches, and tomatoes, and opted to visit the farm animals instead. Emma and Johnny were especially impressed by this goat, who was about thirty feet up in the air. I was impressed that Emma managed to figure out that he got there by climbing a series of ramps.

 
Not the outing I planned, but still fun, memorable, and educational.

I can’t believe summer is nearly over! August was a month of celebration in our house – Lily and Mike’s birthdays, and the wedding of a dear friend. We also got to spend time with several relatives we rarely get to see. We went on an exciting road trip to Atlantic City and Philadelphia, [...]]]>

I can’t believe summer is nearly over! August was a month of celebration in our house – Lily and Mike’s birthdays, and the wedding of a dear friend. We also got to spend time with several relatives we rarely get to see. We went on an exciting road trip to Atlantic City and Philadelphia, with stops at the children’s museum in West Hartford (with many exciting animals on display), Cape May Zoo (adorable baby snow leopards, zebras, and a swimming bear were my kids’ favorites), the Atlantic City Aquarium (where there was a cool diver feeding show and touch tanks that my kids were too overwhelmed by crowds to enjoy, but where my admission fee was put to use via a couple hours of my children running gleefully in an empty room), and the Historic Village at Allaire (where the staff were very friendly and accommodating). We had a blast meeting up with cousins at the Allaire village, and we met up with my parents and a couple siblings at a bookstore in Delaware for a couple hours – midway between our respective locations, and the only opportunity to get together without crossing an ocean. And we stayed with more cousins in Philadelphia, where Mike, a cousin, and the kids thoroughly enjoyed the Please Touch Museum for a full six hours while I was busy with wedding rehearsals.

I gave a donation in exchange for admission to the Cape May Zoo, and I paid full admission to the Atlantic City Aquarium. The Historic Village at Allaire was free, and my Discovery Museums membership got us into all of the other museums!

The birthday celebrations and trip fulfilled two of my goals, and we played outside for at least part of every non-rainy day, so I think August was a success!

Autumn is my favorite season in New England, and I’m hoping to spend lost of time outside! In September, I hope to:

• Take the kids apple picking (with my Mother’s Club). Target Areas: health and education
• Play outside as much as possible. Target Areas: education, health, and peace
• Dry laundry outside as often as possible. Target Areas: education and gratitude
• Finish crocheting the bear I started sometime last year. Target Areas: education
• Sew something. Target Areas: education
• Pack up a fourth box of stuff for the donation pick-up I have scheduled (three are already packed). Target Areas: charity and gratitude
• Pick up a couple Simplicity patterns I’ve had my eyes on when they go on sale (starting September 9th, if I remember correctly). Target Area: education
• Try out a rotating cleaning schedule: My room Sunday, kitchen and laundry Monday, playroom Tuesday, Living room and dining room Wednesday, laundry room and garage Thursday, cabinets, counters, and bookshelves on Friday, and bathrooms and kids’ rooms on Saturday. Target Area: peace
• Measure Emma and (this is the bonus goal) try my hand at sloper drafting by following along with this tutorial. Target Area: education

I’m realizing that most of my goals are education-oriented; I guess I’m in back-to-school mode! I’m feeling ambitious, in part because September is my first month since May 2005 without a baby, either in my arms or in utero!

Blogging about goals this month? I’d love for you to add your post to the linky below, and include the button or a link back to this post! If you do link up, you can also claim an extra entry in my upcoming CSN Stores giveaway, the place you can find everything from shoes to a new dining table.

Emma and Johnny had a blast with this simple boat-building activity at the Acton Discovery Museums. They were each given a roughly 6-inch by 6-inch sheet of aluminum foil, which they shaped into a boat. Then they tested how many pennies their boats could hold, first in tap water and then in salt water. They [...]]]>

Emma and Johnny had a blast with this simple boat-building activity at the Acton Discovery Museums. They were each given a roughly 6-inch by 6-inch sheet of aluminum foil, which they shaped into a boat. Then they tested how many pennies their boats could hold, first in tap water and then in salt water. They learned that wider boats held more pennies than narrow ones, so long as the pennies were spread out evenly on the wide boats. They also discovered that their boats held more pennies in salt water – but only if they were careful to not let any water into the boats when they set them in the bin!

I’m linking this post up to Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom.

I’ve made file folder travel felt boards in the past, but for our most recent road trip I wanted a felt board that could take a beating. My very first blog post was a tutorial on how to use a foam core board to make a flannel/felt board. That foam core board is [...]]]>

I’ve made file folder travel felt boards in the past, but for our most recent road trip I wanted a felt board that could take a beating. My very first blog post was a tutorial on how to use a foam core board to make a flannel/felt board. That foam core board is still standing after nearly two years of being used by my children in all sorts of ways, so I decided to use foam core board for this project as well.

Foam core board comes in all sorts of sizes, but it’s cheapest as a simple poster board, so that’s what we bought. I used a kitchen knife (someday I will aquire an exacto knife) to cut it into six pieces, and then cut grey fleece into slightly larger pieces. Felt sticks to fleece nicely, and the stretchiness of fleece makes it an ideal board covering material.

I trimmed the corners, then folded the edges over and taped them down using duct tape:

I wasn’t striving for elegance, but you could actually make this look quite nice with a little care and fancy decorative duct tape. My kids are thrilled with their flannel boards; they particularly enjoy using them as beds (!) for their bears. Perhaps I should have titled this post “How to make a durable travel felt board/bear bed”?

I’m linking this post up to We Play at Childhood 101. I’m also linking up to A Present a Week at Works in Progress, as I’m making three more of these up to give as gifts!