Having Fun in Science

How many of you enjoyed Science in school. I particularly don't remember Science in elementary school. I had some good teachers in High school but the teacher I had for Chemistry was a teacher that spoke in a thick accent. It was very hard to understand him and he never really taught to the class. He just enjoyed solving equations. So the year I had Chemistry are known as the Mad Scientist years and I always thought Chemistry was just too hard of a subject to understand.

Now that I am teaching the kids elementary Physics this year we are having a little dose of Chemistry in our books this year. I am trying to make it fun and creative for them to understand. Here is a fun activity to share with all of you that we did this week....

The study of an Atom and learning the Elements

Just to add we did these activities on Tuesday afternoon after we had read in our Science books on Monday.

First we talked about the Periodic Table of Elements and reviewed some of the more common ones that they may have heard before such as helium. I had the kids find items in our home or outside that were made up of elements and we located them on the periodic table. Then I had them recreate the element hydrogen by standing in a circle each kid was either a proton, neutron or an electron. Then I had the kids do a matching game that I found. They matched the element name with the abbreviation and matched it where it is found in the environment. For instance, Chlorine CL is found in swimming pools. Here is a picture to share.

Next, I had the kids work together to pick out 8 elements from the chart to find out how many protons, neutron and electrons that each of them had and to record them. After using the internet to find the information we made a sugar cookie of what each of them looks like. The kids had lots of fun with this one.

We used Reeses Pieces. The orange colored ones were the protons, neutrons were yellow and the electrons brown.

I encouraged the kids just to talk in Science terms to help them get acquainted with the new terms that we were learning.

It worked! Aside from the sugar high Science was fun and non intimidating and less boring.

Have some fun and bake up some Atom cookies they are yummy!!!

Girls just love Dolls

American Girl Place October 2008


Hi Everyone!

My daughter and I took our very first trip to the American Girl Place doll shop in Los Angeles this past weekend. My daughter worked so hard to save up for her second American Girl doll. The first one she received as a Christmas present last year and she has been hooked ever since.
She decided to purchase Kit. She fell in love with the books and the recent summer movie. Since this was our first trip there we were simply amazed with everything we saw. If you have never been there and you have a daughter who is American Girl doll lover at heart you are in for a real treat.
I will attempt to give you a quick over view of the store. When you walk in the bottom level features the current popular doll. Clothing and accessories to match for you and your doll. There is also a beauty salon for those dolls with nasty knots to have a new hair style for a fee. The second floor is a museum and store wrapped into one. Each doll have a cove of sorts that displays clothing, accessories, books, games, tapes and other items that feature that doll. Dancer took off for the Kirsten cove because this was her first American Girl doll. I treated her to a new outfit. She was so excited and had a difficult time trying to pick out just one.
After finally making our purchases we headed for the cafe area. We didn't have a reservation but checked to see if there was any cancellations . Luckily there was so we treated ourselves to a scrumptious lunch that was worth the fun and to see the priceless smile on my daughters' excited face. She wasn't expecting this treat at all. After the waitress seated us she handed us two doll highchairs for my daughter American dolls. Our lunch consisted of a first course of sweet and sticky cinnamon rolls. The second course was veggies and dip, tiny cheesy potato skins, and egg salad cherry filled tomatoes. The third course was our main course Dancer chose the Tic Tac Toe pizza (very large portion) and I chose the sun dried tomato quiche ( it came with a small herb salad). Our food was yummy! The grand finally was a small flower pot filled with chocolate moose, a sugar cookie and a small heart shaped butter cream cake. There were a couple of souvenirs to take home hair ties (napkin rings) and the daisy fake flowers that filled our moose flower pots.
My daughter had such a great time that she is already planning on her return visit once she saves enough money again to purchase her own new American doll.

Blessings,
Amy

Things the I have been up to Lately...

As always it has been very busy around here. I don't think there is ever a dull moment. I'm sure I will have plenty of these in my later years of my life but for now I'm enjoying every minute I have with my young kids.

I have been doing some redecorating in my living room. I became very inspired from reading the Nester blog. I went ahead and tried my hand at window mistreatments. They did not come out exactly how she suggested so I did do a little sewing to make them long lasting in the years to come. I also finally dragged out my fall decorations from the garage to get my home in gear for one of my favorite seasons. I just love fall and spring. Both are completely on the opposite spectrum. Here you have spring and new life is being created all around. Easter is a glorious celebration of the new life we receive in Christ once we accept him into our hearts. For fall it is the foliage. It is nature's last hurrah until winter approaches. Here in Southern California I can only dream what fall foliage really looks like as seen in pictures. With the warm temperatures our trees are still changing colors even in the winter. There have been many warm Christmas afternoons around here with highs in the upper 70's and fall leaves piled high.

I have added a few more subjects in our school time this year. Finally, I have been able to add Art appreciation and Music appreciation to the mix. We shall see if they will last after the holidays that is the true test. We are currently learning about Bach and just finished Mary Cassatt. Today I had the kids participate in Home Ec. After morning devotions we worked in the yard for an hour to clear our vegetable garden area in preparation for a winter garden. We just worked for an hour before running inside to escape the soon to be 100 degree temperatures. Later after the rest of our studies I had the kids copy a recipe and bake some yummy lemon bars. Daddy will just love today's Home Ec lesson.

We as a family have also been following the elections and the bail out debates. All of us have our many opinions mine is of prayer. This is a great opportunity to reach out to others to offer prayers and help when needed. Yes, we all depend on money but money can't buy you salvation and you can't take it with you when you die. If we put the Lord first in our lives every thing else falls into place.

I will try to post some pictures soon. My prayers are with all of you who read this blog regularly. May God grant you His everlasting Peace!!

Blessings,
Amy