Oozing Pumpkin Experiment

As promised the Oozing Pumpkin Experiment! I just want to say that this was sooo much fun!

I actually saw this on another blog (I can't remember just where or I'd give them all the credit). It's a very simple experiment and most of the things you probably have around the house.

What's needed: 

• Hydrogen Peroxide - the 6% solution that you would find in a beauty supply store is said to work best but our regular household Hydrogen Peroxide did the trick.
• Dish Soap - Joy is supposed to work the best but our "from the dollar store" off-brand stuff worked just fine.
• Water - from the tap
• Dry Active Yeast - buy this in a three pack at any grocery store
• Food Coloring - optional
• Empty glass or plastic container to hold liquid
• Cups to "bloom" the yeast in

*These don't have to be contained in a pumpkin, I saw it elsewhere and thought that it was cool. Also if you look up Elephant Toothpaste experiment on the internet ... this is pretty much the same exact thing.

Step One: Gather your supplies and tell everyone what you're going to be doing.

 Step Two: Fill the glass containers until they're about half full with they Hydrogen Peroxide. *Depending on the age of you children you may want to do this.

 Step Three: Add between 1 and 3 teaspoons of dish liquid to the Hydrogen Peroxide. (I did this step too because I didn't want them to make a mess with my giant bottle of dish soap.)

Step Four: Add food coloring into you Hydrogen Peroxide/dish soap mixture. Let the kids add however much they want. (The Cracker Jack's both used their entire containers of food coloring, Peanut used half.)

Step Five: Mix the packet of yeast into the cup of warm water (a regular cup about half full works). Let it sit for a couple of minutes and then mix again.

Step Six: I highly recommend doing this part outside! Add your water/yeast mixture to the Hydrogen Peroxide/soap/coloring mixture and stand back. (Just because it's messy.)

These are pictures of what it looks like when it begins working...

And here's a picture of ECJ's first part because he was goofy and didn't listen to the directions. So he had simply put the yeast directly into the Hydrogen Peroxide mixture ... we had to fix it by adding some warm water to it.

I made this one smaller because his pumpkin was really moldy and looks yucky when blown up.

Within a short amount of time (less than two minutes) you have a large foamy mess lol.

The kids really enjoyed doing this experiment. There's a chemical reaction that happens and that's why you get the foamy stuff ... although I hear it is a bigger foamy mess with the stronger Hydrogen Peroxide. 

This is also safe for even little kids to do. I hope you enjoyed reading about this nearly as much as we enjoyed doing it. 

I'm very honored to have been nominated for the Best New Homeschool Blog category in this year's Homeschool Blog Awards. Voting is from now (back at Nov. 4) through Nov. 18. You can vote once a day in every category on each of your devices that can access the internet. Please use the link in this paragraph to go and vote, even if it's not for me ;-) .


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5 Reasons to Teach Kids About Voting

This week, just like the last several weeks, I am linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for List It! {Tuesday}. I chose to list five reasons to teach our children about our government, specifically voting this time. Why voting? Today was election day and although I didn't have anything around me to vote on  a good friend of mine (@ Learning Life with 3 Sons) brought up the fact to me that I could write at least five reasons why we should teach our kiddos to vote.

1. Voting is part of our civic duty. OK, so not all adults vote and not all adults vote on every issue they can vote on. But, the "big" elections most of us at least attempt to get to the polls. If we teach our children now about voting then they're more likely to vote as adults. The best way is to teach by example, but if you can't show them the real voting booths you can make your own.* (Idea for that detailed below.)
2. It's a chance to get them interested in the issues. OK, so some of our children are too young for the adult version of the news, or to understand debates, and the list goes on. However, if you can sit down with your children and say, "I'm voting for/against               and this is the reason why." Then you're setting the foundation. 
3. It brings civics alive. Most American children (and probably in other countries as well) are required by most state laws to learn about American History, Civics, and their state history. Let's face it most adults are bored by politics and government, to children it's possibly the worst subject to attempt to learn. Why? To most people it IS boring. You can make it an "event" by finding ways to bring their interests into it. "Little Johnny, how would you feel if they tried to make a law that actions figures are illegal? ... Well,             , thinks that            should be illegal. Do you think that's right?" (OK, not the best example ... but I think it's enough to get the idea juices flowing.)
4. You can tie Native American history to US history AND voting. The Iroquois Indians were the first people in the US to have a large group of people who voted on matters for the betterment of the people. That group was called the Iroquois Confederacy and during it's time the Iroquois experienced a long lasting peace between member tribes of the Confederacy. It is their structure that our own government structure was originally based on. (A good elementary level book for reading more about this is The Iroquois Indians by Victoria Sherrow and it's part of The Junior Library of American Indians ... found in most libraries.)
5. Because we want to raise our children into well rounded and informed adults. A child who is raised to learn about the issues and question what is going on is more likely to become an adult who learns about the issues at hand and questions what is going on. I'd rather have a child who doesn't agree with me on political issues than one who votes blindly just because their friends happen to like a certain person. 

** Making your own voting booth: An interesting way to bring a very real sense of voting into the home is to set up your own voting booth, spend a few days discussing issues (house rules, chores, etc.), make ballets, campaign even, and vote in the booth on those issues. Most of the materials that would be needed we either have around our homes or are easily bought for very cheap.

A poster board (the kind we all used in middle and high school) folded into 3's so that it will "stand" - you can get them at Dollar Tree

 

or

 

An old box that you "curtain" the front of to make a booth ... maybe your head just fits in but that's ok.

Paper and writing utensils

Honestly that's all you'd really need to pull it off. Spend a couple days on the "issues", talk about voting and how it is supposed to work, make ballets together, "build" the voting booth together, set a date to vote and when the booth will be open and go crazy. You can make this as simple or complex as you want ... you could pretend that you're different members of the Iroquois Nation, however you'd like to play it out.

I just wanted to add (for those of you who haven't heard yet) that I am a nominee for The Homeschool Blog Awards in their New Homeschool Blog category! If you want to vote for me you can go to the link in this paragraph and find me down on number 18. Simply click the little dot next to my blog's name and then click "vote" at the bottom of the page. You can do this once a day from any and all devices that you have that connect to the Internet. Voting runs from Nov. 4 - Nov. 18!

** And as always you can find us on Facebook here. 

Meet the Campers - Nature Loving Girl

This week's edition of Meet the Campers is all about Younger Cracker Jack!!

YCJ is my nature child. If you let her free to be outside she'll built, explore, and love on just about everything. The exception? BUGS! She'll look at ants or other bugs doing what they do and find it very interesting, but let one touch her (or LOOK like it's going to touch her) and it's over. She completely freaks out.

She's very intense when it comes to learning a new skill or piece of knowledge. Let alone when she's being artistic ... turn your head for one moment and this girl is creating something. It doesn't matter what she's making just that she is making something. Paper dolls, crochet items, friendship bracelets, painting, drawing, etc... the list goes on and on.

She doesn't like "orange ick"

 She is a fun goofy girl who can make even things she doesn't really want to do into a fun time. Spelling becomes silly singing lessons, messy craft projects (not her favorite) become story telling times, and moments in between activities are times for her to entertain her baby sister. She does all these things on her own even if she doesn't realize it (she often complains about having to entertain her sister, but most of the time she takes it upon herself to do this). 

 This wonderful girl doesn't care about her appearances or who knows that she's taking a day off from being busy. If she needs a "relax" day she'll plop herself down and ask Daddy to watch TV with her, or retreat to her room to read and crochet, I've even found her in the tub just soaking in a bubble bath. Did I mention that she's only 8? She's my fun in the sun girl and hibernate in the cold. The only season that she doesn't really like is winter ... it doesn't stop her from enjoying the snow she just doesn't enjoy it as much as she does leaves, flowers, gardens, woods, and the beach. And it's a little ironic because her favorite animal just happens to be penguins ... which live in some very cold places.

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Menu Plan - first week of November

Well, after having a disgusting problem with some packaged food (more in a second) we have decided to stick with the menu plans and NOT to forget anything at the store that we might need.

We're linking up again this week to Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday.

We'd planned on having some BBQ fish and veggie packets yesterday. Instead because I'd forgotten to take the fish out AND forgotten to buy the tin foil we ended up heating some pre-made Salisbury steak and some cheesy rice that you just buy and heat up at the store. We've had these items before and everyone seems to like them. It's cheap, it's easy, and it's fast. Last night however they were NASTY. The company had changed the recipe's. The meat was chewy and had a funny flavor, the gravy was greasy, and the cheesy rice wasn't much better. We ended up eating McDonald's (groan) instead because no one was willing to eat what had been "cooked".

Sooo, I sat down and wrote out a menu plan that I can't possibly forget anything on it (especially since I bought the tin foil today). 


Sunday - BBQ fish and veggie packets/Salisbury steak and cheesy rice/ McDonald's
Monday - homemade nachos with ground turkey
Tuesday - BBQ fish and veggie packets
Wednesday - "something" beef night
Thursday - tuna noodle casserole 
Friday - homemade perogies 
Saturday - Left over buffet

And because we still have about ten pounds of tomatoes we'll be eating tomatoes with everything again this week.

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Our Thankful November

I've decided to do a new thing this year and have the children make a paper leaf and write a thing that they are thankful for every weekday this month. I'll be saving them in a plastic bag to look at in later years. 

The plan is to cut out leaf shapes from different kinds of paper (this is great motor skills work for Peanut), have them write one or two words about what they're thankful for in marker, and tape them to our wall near the entrance of our house. 

Not only is this a tangible item for the children to see how much they have to be thankful for at the end of the month but it will help keep some fall decorations in our home while I remove the Halloween items and begin sneaking in Christmas decorations (I put our first one up today before I removed any of our Halloween stuff). 

Mommy will be adding in a few paper acorns with what I'm thankful for in our display, just to mix it up a bit. I'll be introducing this idea to the children in the morning, after our walk but before our lessons. I'm hoping that the quick art quality of this idea will help the children to attempt to get their lessons done quickly.

What are you thankful for this season? Do you plan to do anything to "help" your children to see all that they are thankful for?

Our Outside Time This Week

We spent a lot more time outside this week than we did last week now that most of us are feeling better. ECJ spent several hours working on taking apart that non-working riding mower (so proud of him), the kiddos all played outside this week for hours on end (when it wasn't raining), and then we spent an hour or so trick-or-treating in the rain. It being Saturday I'll just say that we did a lot of running today and it was rainy off and on, I didn't want the sniffles in the house so they visited with Grandma and Papa for a few hours before we finished our running.

Below are just a few random pictures from out outside time this week. I didn't take a great many of them outside this week because I was not out as much as they were. 

Weekly Total: 15.5
Year to Date Total: 106 hours outside so far! (I have 11 months left to get to the target of 1000 hours outside)

and just because I couldn't resist I decided to add pictures here of the last couple of Halloween's...

Halloween 2012

Halloween 2011
ECJ with a fellow Cub Scout

Halloween 2011
YCJ

Treats and Tiredness - Weekly Wrap-Up

Even though I am writing this on Thursday night after trick-or-treating in the rain I'll be posting this Monday morning and linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for their Weekly Wrap-Up.

This week there was no catechism class scheduled, so the only class we had outside of the house was swim. One of the campers (YCJ) learned how to swim this week!! Of course it was the time I forgot to bring my camera. But, there is two classes left to this session. We had a "quick" and "easy" school week because I knew that for the 31st all I wanted was for them to do a few worksheets and some arts and crafts before trick-or-treating (I learned from last year trying to teach anything new on Halloween was too much hair pulling and tears ... mine not theirs). They did have their full lessons Mon.-Wed. but we've pretty much got those down pat so that we're not doing book work for more than maybe three hours a day at the most. 

We changed Elder Cracker Jack's location this week because he has been having difficulty finishing his work. So, he's been moved back to his desk in his room for the time being. This might last two weeks or two months, it's totally up to him at this point. When he feels he can do work elsewhere we'll try it back out and see. We had to "close down" the art center in the sun room and will be doing very little school work outside because the weather has cooled considerably in the last couple of weeks and book work when it's under 60 degrees just doesn't work well. We'll still be spending time outside, but outside in motion is a lot different than outside and sitting still. The girls did most of their school work in Peanut's room this week (nope it's still not clean lol). YCJ really didn't like this set up too much, it actually stressed her out because of the mess ... but, not enough to clean the mess. 

 Other than our lessons (you know, the ones I write down in the curriculum planner?) we did a lot of home-ec this week. With each kiddo getting involved in the kitchen at some point each day all week long. Elder Cracker Jack spent about three hours early this week taking apart an old (non working) riding mower while his Dad kept a good eye on him. It's been a fun and exciting week just being a family.

 On Halloween each camper had three worksheets to complete; two for English and one of Math. We made leaf rubbings afterwards. This was Peanut's first year making any type of leaf rubbing. All three kiddos really enjoyed it.

Everyone goofed around after trick-or-treating. They made masks and ate a couple pieces of candy. We made the last of the Halloween sugar cookies and ate homemade chicken noodle soup (started on the stove and finished in the crock pot). It was a good ending to a chilly, rainy, Halloween night. YCJ was amazed at how much her hair curled in such a short amount of time. The girls are now bunked together in Peanut's room (not asleep yet) having a "sleep-over". They had shared a room since Peanut's birth five years ago and Peanut misses sleeping with her sister. They have a movie going and have eaten popcorn and are now snacking on pumpkin seeds. Sooner or later I'm sure Peanut will either want her sister out of her room or YCJ will sneak out after Peanut goes to sleep, but for now it brings back happy memories of a time that ended only about three months ago.

Tip of the week get hands on if it helps the kiddos learn! I shared my button solution with a lot of people this week and you can check it out here.

Tomorrow we have a scheduled day off. We may stop at a firehouse but more than likely we will postpone that until I can make an appointment. We'll have the rare treat of eating out twice this month (Nov.) thanks to Book It! and some Big Boy's coupons the kiddos either earned or got trick or treating. The weekend will be spent running the typical "beginning of the month" errands and visiting family briefly.

I hope your week went well and you have an enjoyable weekend!

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