Summer Science Experiments

Today the kids and I did a couple of science experiments.  The first one was for the big kids and it will take a day or two to complete.  We place a raw egg in a jar with vinegar in it.  The idea here is to let the egg sit in the vinegar and the shell will dissolve leaving you with a "rubber" egg.  This site has some ideas to take the "rubber" egg a step further.  We will be trying those steps this week as well.  :)

With my little kids I poured some baking soda on a sheet pan.  I then gave them medicine droppers and a cup of vinegar.  I let them drip and drop the vinegar all over the baking soda and let them watch the reaction.  They LOVED it and it was an easy (and CHEAP!) experiment.  :)  When they were tired of the droppers I said, "What do you think would happen if we dumped the rest of the vinegar on the baking soda?"  And of course they wanted to try it.  So they did and they had the best reaction (as did the baking soda and vinegar) of all.  :)

For the big kids, as they are doing experiments I am having them write down what experiment we are doing, what they see and what they think will happen.  It is very interesting to see what they think.  They will get to compare and contrast what they think will happen and what actually happens.

Here are some pictures of the littles and their experiment.  :)

Here is the first picture of the egg experiment as well. 

Hope you are all having a great start to summer!  

<3 Alison

It is time!

It is time that I pick this blog up again and dust it off.  In November I just kind of ran out of time and since then life has continued to be busy.  However, life is not slowing down but I am needing an outlet...and this blog has been that for me in the past.  So, here I am again, ready to tell you all about the things we are doing.

We are getting ready for the summer by planting our gardens, to which we are adding two beds.  I have already planted 2 beds of tomatoes, one of which I need to replant because I purchased poor plants.  :(  As soon as the 5th and 6th beds are done I will be planting peppers, squash, peas, beans, lettuce and carrots.  We also started some aspargus and rhubarb plants this year.  We hope that they will become fruitful in the coming years.

This year we are also planting 7 trees in our yard.  4 dwarf junipers, 1 weeping willow and 2 apple trees.  We have all but the apple trees which we will be getting here in the next couple of weeks.  We are also doing a patio in our backyard complete with a firepit.  :D

I will take pictures as we do all of these updates to show you our progress.

I hope to see you all soon!