Why Do Stars Twinkle? Scintillating Science For Kids.

We performed an experiment from Robert W. Wood's what? experiments for the young scientist, in preparation for staying up late with the stars on the 4th. I'm quite taken with the book, which is full of child friendly experiments, divided into six parts for engineering, astronomy, chemistry, meteorology, biology, and physics. Wood not only explains the science behind the experiments, but the scientists associated with them, too.

Some of the experiments are familiar to us already, like the pop bottle lung, or cloud in a jar, but others like this one from the astronomy section, meant to answer the question of why stars twinkle, are brand new to us.

The answer, in part at least, is that it is an optical illusion, caused by light passing through different densities of air in the atmosphere. This is only a partial answer, of course, or else the moon, and planets would also seem to twinkle, but it's a start.

To see the effect in action, we made some stars of our own, by poking holes, with a thumb tack, in a Pop Tart box (Wood calls for a cereal box, but we didn't have any empties).

Then, we placed a small flash light into the box, tilting it, so it would shine directly through some of the holes, and closed the top of the box.

Finally, we placed the box on one side of the stove, with a burner turned on, and looked at it, from the the other side.

As the light from our little stars passed through the heat rising from the burner, they did seem to shimmer, at least, if not twinkle.

Wood suggests placing a pencil in a glass of water, for further study of the light bending properties of density. And, he goes on to explain this is the same effect, that causes water mirages on the surface of a hot road.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

What My Child is Reading - July 3, 2010

The girl's bunny obsession continued this week, as they made several more trips to see their furry friends.



I was worried it was going to take quite a bit of searching to find good, age appropriate books about rabbits, and hares to answer the questions the girls had about the animals. It turned out, we had had an excellent book, right on our own bookshelf.

Sometime ago, I was talked into signing up for Scholastic's Getting to Know Nature's Children book club. It was one of those times when in order to get the salesman off the phone, I agreed to purchase a membership, figuring I could always cancel it later. In this case, what the salesman neglected to tell me, was that after the first couple of books arrived, the rest would all be sent together - making the return postage ridiculous. So, I bought the set. But, I don't speak to book salesmen anymore.

In this case, though the set isn't what I'd call inexpensive (each volume is only $8.98 including shipping, but there are 28 volumes in the set!), the books are at least worthwhile. Each book is really two in one, so for instance the volume above, contains Rabbits by Merebeth Switzer, and Deer by Laima Dingwall. They are child friendly, but packed with pictures, maps, and facts, aimed at 4-8 year olds, but interesting enough for adults. I have ours stored on a bookshelf in my oldest son's room, and he has read them all, on his own, without prompting.



If you're looking for an animal series for your children, I can recommend this set. You can still purchase it through Early Moments (once Scholastic). They even come with a free T-shirt. (And no, I'm not being paid by Early Moments).

As to our bunnies, we decided from the facts in Switzer's book, they are most likely a mix of Mountain Cottontail, and domestic rabbit.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

For more children's book reviews, and recommendations, check out this week's What My Child Is Reading blog hop, hosted by Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns.

Cake, Crochet, Murder, and a Review

Our dessert tonight was thanks to the recipe at the back of Betty Hechtman's Hooked on Murder, a Crochet Mystery. It's the first in the series featuring Molly Pink, a late 40's widow/ bookstore events coordinator/murder suspect, and my 9th entry in the 2010 Thriller and Suspense Reading Challenge, hosted by Book Chick City.

This particular series is set in Tarzana, California, surrounded by movie, and television stars, and including a handsome police detective, who also happens to be the boyfriend of the heroine, or at least he'd like to be. And, of course, as the title suggests, there's also a good deal of crochet going on, as Molly joins the crochet group, at the bookstore where she works, that was headed up by the woman she's suspected of killing.

I enjoyed the slightly more mature heroine. Her struggle between wanting to be in a relationship, and wanting to explore her new found independence as a widow, rang true to me. I watched my own mother sort through similar emotions, when she was widowed at 48. I also really liked the fact, that Molly struggles with real problems - trying to do well at work, trying to get along with coworkers, finding her place without her husband, and learning to make a granny square.

The writing is in an informal, first person tense, that puts you right inside the heroines head, with all her hopes, fears, insecurities, and short comings. I only noticed two typos in the book, which I'm beginning to think is good for the cozy mystery genre. As always with these books, there is a recipe at the back, for the pound cake, pictured above (there's also a recipe for butter cream frosting, but with a pound of butter, and a pound of sugar in the cake, I decided to pass), and a crochet pattern, for a granny square wash cloth.

The squares might not have been overly challenging, but the mystery was. Although I knew what the pivotal clue would be, I had no idea who the murderer was until very near to the end.

The only complaint I have, is that God's name was misused a number of times throughout the dialogue. Each time was an offensive slap in the face, that pretty well ruined, an otherwise pleasant story. It did seem to taper off in the later chapters, so I might give the second book in the series a chance, but given the setting of the stories, I don't hold out a lot of hope.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Shapes in the Sky, and Clouds in a Jar

I'm sure you've seen the old cloud-in-a-jar experiment before.

In case you haven't, you just place some ice cubes in a metal pan.

Place the pan on top of a jar, filled with an inch of warm water.

Take the jar, and pan to a dark room, and shine a flashlight through it, to see the cloud forming, and swirling.

It's a lot more spectacular than I thought it would be. I've seen the experiment on a number of blogs, but was moved to action, when we found it at the back of Josepha Sherman's Shapes in the Sky, A Book About Clouds.

Sherman's book starts out as a dreamy sort of story, watching shapes drift by in the sky. But, it quickly changes to a factual science book for younger children, detailing cumulus, cumulonimbus (can you even read that, without hearing the voice of the Russel from Up!?), stratus, and cirrus clouds, and their effects on the world.

As well as providing the cloud experiment at the back of the book, there is also a glossary of terms, some fun "fast facts", and a number of additional Internet, and library resources about clouds.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Linked with Feed Me Books Friday, at The Adventure of Motherhood.

I'm sure I'll laugh tomorrow...

We inherited the play house above from family members, last summer. As you can see from the toys (and kid planted flower pot), it's been getting a lot of play time this summer, especially from my middle two (9 year old A, and her 7 year old brother). They've spent many happy hours sweeping, and cleaning it out, and sitting it, imaging it was a real house.

Really, it's been kind of heart warming.

But, you know those times, when you notice something slightly odd, or out of place, and your momsense starts tingling?

The last week, or so, the kids have been restless, I'm guessing because of the warmer weather. They've been doing some crazy things. So, I really shouldn't have ignored the sticky red stuff on the front of the freezer in the garage. I figured the kids had probably been raiding the Popsicles, but I didn't follow up.

If I had, I probably would have opened the freezer, and found the tampered with container of frozen raspberries.

But, I got distracted, and forgot about it, instead.

I probably should have paid more attention to the amount of time my sweet little pair spent playing, quietly outside this morning, too. But, I was cleaning up crayon scrape art, and pop tart pieces from the kitchen, and was just happy they were spending some time out in the fresh air.

I really should have gone out to see what they were up to, instead of just calling out the window.

Again, something about their happy little, "we're in the play house, Mom." - had my momsense tingling, but I neglected to investigate.

A mother should never neglect to investigate, as I was reminded of again tonight, when I went out to pick up the stray toys, the children had left out in the yard. I was about to toss a couple of play food items into the play house through the open window, when the box of Froot Loops caught my eye.

I usually break down the empty boxes, and put them under the sink. And, the craft scissors were on the play house table, along with some bowls, and some mysterious crumbs.

Suddenly, all those mystery novels I've been reading lately, started coming to mind.

1. The little ones' missing tea things - check.


2. The missing craft scissors, for opening the not empty box of Froot Loops - check.


3. The bowl with a few old chocolate chips - check.


4. The closed box, which I opened to find...coconut - check.
   

But, and I'll admit the gears of my mind were turning somewhat slowly, there was something else. Something, not quite right...

...ah yes, the safety seal from a brand new jar of peanut butter - check.

Now, everything was becoming clear.

There was a hidden stash. They had been setting up a home of their own - for real.

You should really never, never ignore the tingly momsense! The poor Man of the House was rendered speechless (well, almost speechless). I really wasn't sure whether to yell, laugh, or cry. It wouldn't be so bad, but we just spent two hours buying groceries, meant to last two weeks, last night - not my husband's favorite chore. He wanted to try saving the food.

I didn't have the heart to show him where they've been doing their dishes.

There's no way I'm eating peanut butter, that's had one of those spoons dipped in it!

Canada Day Cookies, eh?

We had the maple leaf cookie cutter out for our Canadian flag collage already, when we saw this cute idea on Flickr.

I was going to make a batch for my neighbors to the north too, but then I realized I've let my passport expire, so I'd never get across the border with them.

Oh well, happy Canada Day, anyway - eh?

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Crayon Scratch Fireworks

My children have almost all, outgrown Don Freeman's Corduroy. So, we checked out Corduroy's 4th of July one last time, before they all pass him by.

It's a simple board book, but the illustrations are colorful, and innocent, and depict perfectly the Independence Day we're looking forward to - with picnics, lawn games, parades, squirt guns, and fireworks. We just can't wait!

To pass the time, we decided to do another firework craft. This time with crayon scratch.

First, we colored rainbow streaks across our papers. Thanks to Debbie at Children Grow, Children Explore, Children Lean, we knew to use the waxier crayons we got sometime back, with a restaurant coloring sheet, instead of our Crayola crayons, for the base colors.

We colored over our papers with black crayon.

Then, we used the back side of pens, to scratch the black away, in lines, revealing our fireworks.



For more story stretching arts, and crafts (and even another craft idea to go along with Corduroy's 4th of July), check out this week's stART (story + ART) link-up, at A Mommy's Adventures.

It's great to be a homeschooler.