Beautiful Finds

William has been enjoying the time he and Alice (his new-ish puppy) spend going for walks together and today when they came back he had a beautiful little find with him.  He and Charlie spent a fair bit of time sitting at the kitchen table checking out this moth, looking it up in the field guides, noticing how 'furry' it is, and just admiring its beauty.  Whenever something like this happens I am reminded of a study I once heard / saw (can't remember where or who it was by) noting that most people can easily identify over 100 common brands, but cannot identify even 10 species of trees that grow in their own neighborhoods. I am trying to shift that focus a little bit for our family.  How beautiful our world is, if only we take the time to look at it.

Kitchen scale...

Apparently this is what happens when you leave a scale out around my house...

 

All life is an experiment.  The more experiments you make, the better.

                    ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Turtle Tally Volunteer Appreciation Day!

The boys and I have taken part in Turtle Tally for the past few years.  It is a research program through the Toronto Zoo aimed at gathering information to help preserve and protect native species of Ontario turtles.  (They also run Frog Watch).  Basically, every time you see a turtle, you log into their web site and record where and when you saw the turtle, what it was doing, photos if you were able to get them, etc.  When you register they send you some great identification sheets to help you figure out what kind of turtle you are seeing, and you can access their data on line as well.  The boys have loved being involved in 'real science', and have definitely developed a love of turtles.

Today Turtle Tally hosted their annual appreciation day at the Toronto Zoo.  We heard all about the results of the data gathered this year, saw some great photos, and learned a lot about he wild life that you can still find in our part of the province.

Optical Illusions

Our little local museum has been getting a make-over recently, including a move to a new (and bigger) location and an overall face-lift.  As they are putting the final finishing touches on everything, they have invited people in to explore it free of charge, up until the official grand re-opening.

We headed over today and really enjoyed a great exhibit on optical illusions.  The kids were a bit freaked out by some of the tricks, especially the painting whose eyes followed you around the room.  It was great to see all of the tricks that our eyes and brains can play on us, and even better to learn a bit about how they actually work.

Honey Bees

Today we visited a honey bee research lab at the local university. This was by far one of my favorite trips that we have been on lately. We learned all about honey bees, and got to explore the many hives that they have on site. The kids were all fabulously still and quite when the hive was opened up, and got to see the bees up close. The best part was tasting fresh honey right out of the hive - as in move the bees aside, push through the comb, and fill your finger with golden honey still warm from the bees and the sun. YUM!! We all came home with some honey for our tea and toast, and not a single sting for anyone.

Cold, wet fingers, but happy smiley faces. The errosion table made it through the winter!!

Science co-op - Dirty Water

This week at science co-op, we played with dirty water!! The talk was all about pollution, and all of the many ways our lakes, rivers and streams are contaminated every day. They made a filter out of their own bodies, and learned about particulate, filtrates, and residue, and then built their own filters to try and clean out the debris.




The water was still a rather un-natural blue when it came out of their filters, but was looking a whole lot better than when it went in!

Ontario Science Center

I admit it - homeschooling has ruined me for ever. I have absolutely no tolerance left in me for crowds. Museums? Great - on a Tuesday. Water parks? The best place to be on a Thursday morning. Saturday and Sunday? Why, those are home days, don't you know. Still, my sister convinced us to join them on a trip to the science centre today - on the last day of March Break!!! It was crazy-busy, and I was a little less than joyful and calm by the end of it, but the kids had a great time.

Science Co-op - Mixed Fun!

I can't honestly remember what the theme was for today's science co-op, but it was a lot of fun, anyway. The kids experimented with making square bubbles, caught round ones on gloved hands (so that the oils from their skin didn't pop them), made some neat foam out of soap, food coloring, hydrogen peroxide and a few more things that I forget, and did a great experiment by adding drops of food coloring to a saucer of milk, and then using a Q-tip dipped in soap to scatter the coloring and make great patterns.

Science Co-op - sorting marbles

Today's science co-op had the kids building machines that would sort out marbles into three different cups based on size. There were some great ideas among the different groups...platforms with different sized holes cut in the bottom, a sort of maze where the kids manipulated the marbles with Popsicle sticks,and our teams tower - three Styrofoam cups with Popsicle sticks punched through the sides to trap the different sizes.

All in all it was a fun experiment, but a little frustrating for some of the kids. Best advice for doing this at home - enjoy making the machines, but don't turn it into a race. The kids had the most fun in the building and only became frustrated when it was turned into a competition.

Animal Groups

We have been a little lacking in our 'field trips' lately since I have been working so much, but the boys and I all loved visiting the local butterfly conservatory for one of their homeschooling days today. There was a short lesson about animal classifications, and then a chance to explore the conservatory and see how many kinds of animals we could find....




The boys found fish...

birds...

reptiles...

arthropods...

and of course mammals (no amphibians, but a good lesson regardless!!)

Penny Science

When my little ones and I are feeling bored, nothing cures the winter blahhs faster than some kitchen table science. Often this means the boys raiding the fridge and cupboards scrounging for the 'secret ingredients' needed for their potions and magic tonics. Today things became (ever so slightly) more formal with an easy kitchen experiment. The boys found 2 very dirty pennies, and put one each into test tubes of water and lemon juice. A half hour later, voila! One still very dirty penny, and one that was shiny clean. This was certainly not complex, but they now know a bit about what acids can do. And after all ...anything that involves test tubes and pinchers just has to be educational - don't you think?