Yesterday the boys and I did a fun activity tying into our learnings about the human body: we made a model of our blood, based on this activity an acquaintance of mine did with her daughter. I began by asking the boys, “What is blood?” and we attempted to find a reasonable model for it. [...]
Today the boys and I started our Human Body learning, the main science topic they asked to do this year. In my usual style of creating a “unit study” (I am so NOT a planner in this way), we dropped by the library last night and I cleared them out of a shelf of books [...]
The other day Gareth came up with an experiment he wanted to try, involving tearing paper. He gave each of us a sheet of paper, and asked us to fold it up as many times as possible. Gareth then put his folded sheet into a large bowl of water, let it soak for a minute, [...]
Late last week we plunged back into –20C territory, and I remembered a science experiment someone had told me about ages ago. Take two cups of water—one regular, cold-from-the-tap water, and one boiling water. Throw them in really cold outdoor temperatures. Any guesses as to what will happen? I started by getting the boys outside. [...]
A few days ago the Jim and the boys made their own fossils using plastic dino skeletons, sand, and plaster of Paris. Over the weekend we finished the project, removing the sand to reveal the fossil impressions. Jim began by carefully sliding the fossil “cake” out of the bowl, supporting it with his hand as [...]
Daegan found this video recently: He’s watched it several times, and wanted to try it at home. He drew the instructions, and made a list of supplies to get (plaster of Paris from Michaels, and play sand from Canadian Tire; we had everything else): They began by putting sand in a large plastic bowl, [...]
This afternoon the boys and I attended another Mad Science workshop organized by a homeschooling Mom, as we so enjoyed the one on dry ice and the states of matter a few months back. This time the topic was polymers. Here’s the pictorial diary of events (hover mouse over pics for details): The instructor began [...]
My friend Sarah sent me this simple science video: The boys and I gave it a whirl today, with a few variations. If you try this at home, we found it worked better if you put the food colouring closer together, overlapping or even on top of one another. I didn’t do this. Now, add [...]
For a couple weeks now the boys have been expressing an interest in Ancient Egypt, our first foray into people history, rather than that of dinosaurs and animals. Yay! Admittedly, it was Daegan who first brought up the topic, after Jim mentioned a show about dinosaur finds in Egypt, and got the companion book for [...]
Jim did a couple of really simple science activities with the boys on the weekend, using just ice cubes, salt, and string. He emptied an ice cube tray into a large bowl, and then put one cube in each of the boys’ blue bowls, along with a piece of string, asking: “How can I use [...]