Young Scientists at Play: Polymer Play with Water Beads

Continuing our fun with polymers, I thought I would introduce the little ones to a very different type of polymer – the water bead.  These are basically polymers which when in their dried state will absorb copious amounts of water and swell from the size of a tiny bead to the size of a marble.  I ordered mine off Amazon for 99p:

They start out as hard beads until watered and then they expand to marble size soft balls

As usual I organised a tray each for the girls, ensuring they could do everything independently.  I popped the desiccated water beads into a beaker and filled the conical flask full of water.  I had some more water on stand by just in case we needed it:

Ready for hydration

We needed to leave the balls over night, and when they came down the next morning this is what they saw:

A much expanded medium to play with

I let them play with them for as long as they wanted:

They filled containers

Sometimes one ball at a time

Poured them…

Sieved them…

Spooned them…

Shook them..

Shook them some more…

A4, after separating them into blues and greens, even tried to syringe them!!

After they were all played out we used them to create a pond sensory box for this week’s BFIAR book ‘Play with Me’:

Their sensory box

Hours of fun had by all!

Nature Study: Our One Year Pond Study Week 11: Preparing to map the pond

Our gorgeous pond

Welcome to week 11 of our one year pond study.  For the rest of the posts in this series please see here.

Here is the story of our pond this week:

The water flowers had come out in full force and were now in flower

And a close up

Across the pond from a different view

The ducks had remained in their pairs, but there are no signs of nesting yet

The moor hens are nesting right now, with one sitting…

..and the other busy searching for food

I think we had a new visitor. This heron just didn’t look like the one we have seen around the pond of late

He looks an older bird and I checked through our photos of the other Heron and his markings around the face are slightly different

We also found some fungi growing

One of my goals by the end of the year is to do one of our papier-mache maps of the pond, which all of us really enjoy making (any excuse!)  To do this accurately, the children and I needed to identify some of the plant and tree species growing around the pond.

In a quest to discover some more the children chose one tree each (ensuring they were different from the others) and completed the tasks I had typed up:

• Do a bark rubbing of a tree, place in the Ziploc
• Pick a few leaves off the tree and place in Ziploc
• If possible break a small twig (with the tree’s blossom or buds) off the tree and place in Ziploc
• Wander around the circumference of the pond noting on the map where any others of the same species are situated
• Once home do a print of the leaf by hammering it onto a piece of paper
• Attempt to identify the chosen tree

And all our bounty:

By accident L10 and T11 had chosen the same tree!

C10′s twig

Their bark rubbings

L10 hammering her leaf

The leaf hammerings!

The maps with the position of the trees

Between us, using this key, we managed to identify the trees as a willow and we think a cherry plum blossom, although I reserve judgement on this one, as it has not flowers or fruit yet and so it was hard to tell.

We then made a mini book containing all we had collected.  This will be placed in our journal page at the end of May.

The Angelicscalliwags Challenge

Be still my beating heart.

Sorry, snapped that photo yesterday and I couldn’t resist.   The children are so blessed to have Gary as their father.

For the rest of the posts in this series see here

So the angelicscalliwag challenge is to pay off our mortgage early.  Why on earth is this on a home school blog?  There is a reason I have chosen to include this on my blog, which will become clearer as the months pass.  Without giving away too many specifics, here are our goals and a few figures (but not too many!)

Primary Goal: To pay off our mortgage by the end of 2017

Whopping, great unrealistic, but might happen if we throw heart and soul into it goal: To pay off our mortgage by the end of 2015 (the year Gary turns 40.  I turn 40 the year before so that wasn’t really an option!)

Short term goal to help bring about longer term goals: To pay off an additional £3000 ($4500) by the end of 2013.  For some this may seem like nothing.  For us it is enormous.  In order to do it we need to find about £100 per week.  Gasp!  We are already paying back double the amount we were paying before Christmas, and that has been hard.  Finding any extra money will be tricky.

Which leads us to…

Very short term goal in order to bring about short term goal: Save £100 per week in real money, which on a Friday we transfer to our mortgage account

Being of the personality who can get overwhelmed by the big picture, my whole life is reduced to a series of small pictures.  Far more manageable!  My very short term goal is my small picture.  Each week I will only concentrate on that, and how much I managed to put into the account that particular week.  I will also share tips on how I managed it.  Once a month I will number crunch and allow myself (and you) a peek at the bigger picture.

What we have been doing this week

• Setting up our tithe by direct debit so we are not tempted to forgo it.
• Setting aside an amount for giving to others to bless them.  This sounds very sweet of us, yes?  But we do it, in fact, for less selfless reasons.  When we are sticking to a close budget (which we have needed to in the past when we were in Ireland)  we know from experience that sometimes the budget can start to matter more than the people.  This is squewed thinking on our behalf!  So putting this blessing money aside at the beginning of each month will prevent history repeating itself.
• Ensure any small individual debts are paid.  I can think of one very small one.  We want to start this owing no one but the bank.

Yes but Claire, have you actually saved any money?  Well, yes we have.  We put £100 towards our mortgage yesterday.  This is how we did it this week:

• I saved £85 on groceries and shopped my pantry.  We’re all out now so I’ll need to think of something new next week! Money saved: £85
• Cutting down miscellaneous expenses.  These are things we buy, which whilst nice are not necessary.  Money saved: £15

Because of the extremely low grocery budget, only made possible by a few stock piled items, this week has been quite simple.  We have little food in our pantry and our fridge and freezer are almost empty!  Next week will be a little harder, I’m sure.

Yes, my cupboard is very nearly bare!

And my fridge freezer is almost empty and currently being defrosted

Plans for next week

• This week I want to reduce our grocery budget by £30.  Our grocery shop includes food for 7 people (one a growing boy who eats as if there is no bottom to his stomach, and Gary, who works at a fairly heavy manual job and requires large meals, and me.  I just eat a lot!); food and bedding for 2 cats, 1 dog, 2 rabbits and 2 fish; and all our cleaning and beauty products.  This is where the bulk of our savings will be made, but gradually. Possible savings: £30
• Since the cancer, Gary and I decided to have a baby sitter in order for us to spend a bit more time with each other.  We both feel it is a luxury we can easily do without and in many ways prefer being snuggled up at home.  Baby sitter cost: £15  Cost of date: £20  Possible savings: £35
• Miscellaneous items bought throughout the week.  Basic plan is to have at least three no spend days, when no money will even leave the house let alone our hands!  Possible savings £35

What are the children doing this week?

As you know the children are on board with all of this and have come up with fantastic ways to contribute to paying off our mortgage.  I’m so pleased we included them because it truly wouldn’t be so much fun without them.  (note: I’m thinking Gary might protest at my use of the word ‘fun’.  I’m not certain he thinks it’s fun exactly!  He will, give him time!).  The children however are having a ball:

• They plan to make up a sealed jar to put all our pennies in, which we will open at the end of the year to help reach our £3000 goal
• The girls want to start a scrap book to contain ideas for a treat for all of us if we manage to get it paid off early.  Everyone has voted on a trip around the Mediterranean!
• Each child has come up with one very doable thing to contribute financially to our family mortgage pot, which I will share next week.

What am I reading?

The Money Secret by Rob Parsons is the book I recommend to anybody who might need a bit of financial guidance.  We read this as we were moving to Ireland and Gary was on 50% less salary.  It helped us to  not just survive but to thrive.  Simple but powerful.  And has the added bonus of being easy to read because it is in story form.  The children are going to read it next and I know they will enjoy it as much as me!

I am also browsing through this website.  A very, very frugal British woman, who has paid off tens of thousands of pounds worth of personal debt and is now making headway with her mortgage.  Full of (sometimes blunt-you have been warned!) wisdom and insights.

Frugal Tip #1

This is one of those tips I have been doing for years but for some reason unbeknown to me stopped doing last year.  It is a tip some might question if it is worth it.  I’ll show you it is.

Our family gets through one hand wash (250ml), one shower gel (250ml) and a third of a bubble bath bottle(750ml)  each week.  Each bottle costs £1.49.  They are all from the same range, it is a supermarket’s own brand and I buy it because it’s quality is very good and I love it.  Plus the fact it is olive green in colour and matches our towels (but that’s a whole different story!).  Each week this would cost us about £3.50.  However, I buy one 750ml bottle of bubble bath and decant 250ml into the old hand wash bottle and shower gel bottle, leaving me with the 250ml of bubble bath.  I spend about £1.50, saving £2.00.  Every three months or so it is on offer for £1, increasing the saving to £2.50.  Needless to say I stock up!  Again, is this worth it?  At £2.50 per week, that is £130 per year.  Over three years that is £390 and over five years it is £650.  The bubble bath we use for our hands and shower works just the same, smells heavenly and is the product we would choose to use even if we had lots of money.  We are therefore saving £650 over the five years effortlessly, and decreasing the rubbish we throw out.  To me that makes it worth it!

Impossibilities are merely things which we have not yet mastered

Charles Chesnutt

Young Explorers at Play: Polymer Play – Discovering Polymer Properties

Thank you for all your well wishes yesterday.  The girls are on the mend!  They were well enough yesterday to get out our pink slime with the purpose of discovering it’s rather unusual properties.

I popped a few tools onto the table with the slime and let them explore:

A4 tried to flatten it with a rolling pin…

…but found it wouldn’t work!

She then tried flattening with her hands….

…and found that worked marginally better!

A2 tried to cut a shape with cookie cutters…

…which she found possible but much harder than play dough!

She also tried to push some into a mold…

…she didn’t think it would work as the slime wasn’t being very cooperative. After leaving it to settle for a while (read: discarding it after getting frustrated at it not doing want she wanted!) she found it worked a treat!

A4 tried to roll it into a ball…

..with limited success!

Both girls cut it using a pair of scissors…

…and found that worked a treat!

After they had cut it all into tiny pieces I asked them to leave it alone and see if it changed at all…

..a couple of minutes later..

…and five minutes later!

Ah, the joy of slime, I mean polymer, play!

Young Scientists at Play: Polymer Play – Making Slime

My two little girls aren’t very well this week, so we abandoned BFIAR and I let them lollop and cuddle all week long!  This is an activity we did in our science on Monday morning before illness struck. As always, much fun (and mess) was had!

After the utter joy of bouncy ball making, I thought probably slime would be a hit also.  I gathered a solution of 1 cup water with a tsp of borax dissolved in it.  I placed that in one container in their tray.  Another container I filled with half cup of white glue and half cup of water, to which I added food colouring, gave it a good mix and placed it in the tray also.   I assembled the mini scientists to the table:

Very excited. They LOVE science!

They poured the glue mixture into their tray

Followed by the Borax solution

Gave it a good stir

As the Borax solution polymerised the glue mixture, they removed it from the water tray and started kneading it on the table

And proceeded to have lots of fun playing with it!

After they had finished I gathered it all into a Ziplock bag and popped it in the fridge for their discovery time later on in the week.  I’ll be posting about that tomorrow.

Ancient China: Shang Dynasty and Writing Systems

Although historians can’t be sure there was ever a Xia dynasty, early writings have proven that the Shang Dynasty did indeed exist. I photocopied the children some information on the Shang Dynasty, asked them to do a key word outline and write a short paragraph:

L10′s note page

The belief system which pervaded the Shang Dynasty was called ancestor worship.  The children knew about this from the last time we studied ancient China and watched Mulan!  I photocopied some information about Ancestor worship and oracle bones and made up some questions to go with it.  Whilst I don’t do this often, occasionally I like the children to have a non-verbal comprehension exercise to complete.  T11 finds it hard to articulate answers, so I think practice in this skill is important.  However, I usually do it verbally, which he has always prefered.  They completed this during their independent study time:

T11′s questions and answer sheet

The oracle bones brought us nicely onto the main topic of the week which was the ancient forms of Chinese writing.  See here for some pictures of the earliest forms of writing found in China on oracle bones.  I thought it might be fun to make some of our own oracle bones using the simplest Ancient China pictograms.  The children formed plasticene into some sort of bone shape.  Using a toothpick and a list of pictographs from  Marie’s Pastiche they made Chinese pictographs on their ‘bone’.  Marie is spending a year learning about China, virtually!  She is incredibly thorough and her blog is well worth browsing.  Our resulting oracle bones:

We used this website and the book below to explore a little more about the Ancient Chinese writing system:

My goal was for the children to understand the underlying principles of this system, which is so very different from our own.  Marie has made some wonderful pictograph cards to use as a useful memory game.  We made full use of these, as well as the sheets provided in the book above and this challenge to help the children memorise some of the characters.

We all had a go at actually doing some writing.  Chinese writing was traditionally done using brushes and paint.  After reading the above book, which teaches very simply the hows of the strokes, we started practising.

Tin of Chinese brushes, Chinese ink and practice sheets

Practicing the characters with an ink pen

The resulting sheets

C10 doing her calligraphy with the brushes and ink

And her resulting work

We had a look at how the Ancient Chinese people used writing.  This page allows the reader to click on different items that writing was used for.  We had already made an oracle bone, so decided to also make a wooden strip which were used for  ‘writing literary or philosophical works, information about medicine, divination and military strategy.’ (from website)  I thought it might be fun to make one and cover it with cord and wet clay to make it private.  Another early form of an envelope!  (We had learnt about a clay wrapper used by the Babylonians in the 2000 B.C.)  I have absolutely no idea if this actually looks even remotely authentic as it was a made up project, but the children will probably never forget the earliest form of a Chinese envelope!  And here it is, in all it’s glory:

A piece of scrap wood from the garden, which between all of us we covered in pictographs

We then covered it in rope

All ready for delivery!

Another form of printing used for more official marks was known as the Chinese chop.  Again I will direct you to Marie’s blog for a full explanation, but basically it was used as a seal to officially sign documents or art.  I kind of stole Marie’s idea here, because although we have made seals before (from clay during our Mesopotamia studies) the simplicity of Marie’s design appealed and I just had to try it out!  For full instructions nip over to Marie’s!

The Styrofoam,  stuck onto building blocks, and carved with a Chinese character

Inked with a sheet of paper to show their stamp.

Last but not least I decided that although this was a quick look into Chinese calligraphy, I would have the children do a page of practice using a calligraphy pen (the practice sheet we used at this point were too small for a brush).  We will soon be studying the Limbourg brother’s illuminations and any calligraphy knowledge, I felt, would help them with their projects.  The practice pages we used were from a little book we bought at the Louvre whilst we were in Paris:

The final invention we learnt about was the chop sticks, which came into use during the Shang Dynasty.  It is my plan to serve up one Chinese dish a week for the children to try out, on the understanding – they must eat with their chop sticks!

This week was chicken and vegetables with yellow bean sauce:

Next week we will be studying the Chou dynasty.  Loving this!

   

Nature Study: Our One Year Pond Study Week 10: Beginning a bird study

Can you see the difference just from last week? Everything has burst into bloom. Look at those colours!

Here are a few pictures from this week:

Buds are budding

Trees are sprouting

Flowers are flowering

Petals are even falling off trees

Our treat, however, was spying a nest at the beginning of the week:

It was empty and with no birds nearby we wondered who it belonged to.

By the end of the week we found out:

It was the moor hens!

We also managed to get a rare good picture of her mate swimming about:

Busy looking for food?

Our Heron also arrived whilst we were there.  We have recently discovered it is a Grey Heron.  I have to be honest- before this pond study I had always thought it a rather unattractive bird.  No more however!  Doing concentrated nature study has allowed me to see rather than simply look.  I have fallen in love!  I think it is one of the most beautiful birds I have ever encountered, and I want to learn more!

Our Grey Heron

Ritsumei of ritsumeithoughts left me a message last week about Cornell lab’s live camera feed to a Great Blue Heron.  As we have our very own Grey Heron we all agreed that this would be fascinating to keep an eye on.  Although the two birds look so alike, in the UK it is very rare to see a Great Blue Heron.  Cornell also have a great information page about Herons.

I also managed to capture the Mandarin duck looking a little clownish, out of the water. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it walking before.  I had a little smile on my face as I snapped away:

Just love this duck!

And finally our pair of Canada geese.

I don’t know if you can see but one of the geese is banded where as the other is not. Curious!

Beautiful

At the beginning of our pond study, I had decided we would focus on one tree for the whole year.  I’m so pleased we did.  Already we know more about the Ash tree than any other, and there is still stacks to learn.  Depth rather than breadth has always appealed to me, and this pond study is no exception.  I got me thinking.  Each week we watch and take lots of photos of all the birds we see around the pond, and yet we have learnt more about our one little tree than about all the birds put together.  So I thought maybe we could do a bird study, focusing on one bird.  T11 suggested that instead of just one bird, how about we are more intentional with all the birds.  I liked that.  To be honest, concentrating on just one bird would have meant we may have missed out on the other ones.  I’m completely fascinated by the birds (as you can probably tell from the copious number of photos).  Also the girls were having trouble picking one.  You see, these birds have become our friends and to pick only one inevitably meant leaving another out, ‘who might then feel hurt, mummy!’

Our intention is, therefore, to read up about the birds we have on our pond and then look out and try to capture all the things we have learnt in picture form.  Ooooh, another little project.  I must give up projects for Lent one day…..

And just because I can’t resist:

L10 and A4

C10 and B2

Looong happy sigh…just gorgeous!