I believe, the hightlight of this week's school time was Andrew's 'crystal growing' experiment. He has been learning about ionic bonds in chemistry, and that they can be broken apart. We mixed baking soda with water making the baking soda dissolve or break apart in the water. As the solution was a mixture rather than a compound, we wanted to restore the baking soda and separate it from water. For that, we hung a string between jars of soda solutions and just waited for the soda-rich water to soak the string and evaporate leaving behind the soda crystals. It was fascinating to watch the crystals appear and grow from day to day.
Saara had her hands-on project in science as well this week. We finished reading Diary of an Early American Boy by Eric Sloane. The story line in the book revolved around seasons. I asked Saara to choose her favorite season and make a picture collage. Although Christmas is not part of the traditional four seasons, she chose to make her board about Christmas season. The collage turned out really beautiful and made us all long for the holidays.
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| Science. All ready for some home-grown crystals. |
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| After a few days. |
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| Science. Laying out pictures for her Christmas collage. |
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| LA. Never too old to have a simple spelling activity. |
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| Taekwondo. Working toward that white belt. |
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| Science. A TOPS activity had us searching for items around the house for testing conductivity. |
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| Volleyball. She is loving the game and making new friends in the process. |
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| Math and a snack always go together. |
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| Weekend warriors. Andrew and Saara used all sorts of scrap materials to build a 'scout tower' and a ladder to it. |
