21. March 2010 by Shannon.

On the website http://earthpro.info I was reading about global warming (a topic of dear interest to a friend of mine… I got there from another link I was on that suggested this site as further reading).  ANYHOW… on that earthpro site, there was a comment left by someone called PHD101 who included a rather interesting experiment to be performed to demonstrate the effects of CO2 on the planet’s overall temperature.

I just wanted to post it somewhere where I woudn’t lose it, since I’d be unlikely to find it again as a comment on a website, you know?  And then I thought that maybe there were some homeschoolers out there who might find the experiment interesting… so I am sharing it here.

PHD101, whoever you are, thank you for your comments and we look forward to trying this little experiment out sometime soon!

” ‘The Little Experiment…’ taking two bottles and filling them with equal parts of water. The one bottle I completely flooded with Co2 making in have an air volume of approx (92% Co2.
The other bottle is just plain air from an air compressor, the air we breath consists of 0.03 percent Co2.
heating up the bottles to the same temperatures. I took the read outs and both were the same. One read out with the Co2 should have been a higher temperature, according to what is the Co2 law… The other read out was read, after removing it from the heat. Same read-outs.
No accelerant an any way co2… Nor heat retention..?

The professor @ MIT of meteorology ,came up with theses theories, “to replace the argon gas in double pane widows, with CO2 if it retains heat so well”,.. if Co2 retains heat so well, than why not fill the Styrofoam types of installation that is used in house with Co2…

Needed supplies…

2 thermometers.
1 paper funnel.
3 2 liter empty soda bottles.
11/2 cup vinegar
3/4 cup baking soda
2 large sphere balloons , just the large enough balloons that will slip over the top opening of a 2 liter plastic soda bottle.
2 equal, identical in size thickness, 20 once cups.
2 twist-up tie off’s.
a large area that has full sun, and is free of debris that might cause shadows, will explain.

You have your (3) bottles, fill one with the 1 and 1/2 cup of vinegar. Make a small funnel out of paper, and pour the backing soda into the bottle of vinegar. This will cause a chain reaction; the vinegar and baking soda mixed, bubbling up “making Co2″… Just like in elementary school, with the toy volcano’s. Immediately place the balloon over the mouth of the two liter bottle, capturing the Co2. Let the balloon fill up. You are now making your own CO2

Let the bottle fill until there is no more Co2 to hold, and or risk of balloon ripping. Now use you tie/ twist tight the balloon. Fill the second 2 liter bottle with exactly 2 cups of water. Now once filled squeeze bottle expelling as much air as possible. Place the twist tied balloon that holds your Co2 over the bottle. squeezing the bottle flat, placing the balloon of Co2 over the bottle opening, and let the bottle fill up with the Co2 from the balloon. leave the balloon over the bottle, this will keep the Co2 form escaping, and will also keep anything else for getting inside. You now have your first controlled mini-environment #1 complete.

Now follow the same steps with the third and final faze, only exception is filling the balloon with plan air, perhaps from a air compressor. You now have your first controlled mini-environment #2 complete. Once finished you will have your #2nd controlled mini-environment. Place the two controlled mini-environment in (full) sun light, say from 10:00am to 4:00pm. allow it to be exposed to it at least 4 to 6 hours to the suns light heating the controlled mini-environments . Now take off the balloons pour the water from the bottles into the cups. Place in your thermometers in each cup taking the waters temperatures of each controlled environment 1 and 2.

Compare temp read outs… what are the temperatures.. Both read-outs came out to be the same temps…

The only thing I did not add was sea-salt to produce salt water; but I do not think it would change the out-come? just need to confirm out-comes… Repeat results to become conclusive…”

Blessings - and if you do this little experiment, please leave a comment to tell me how your results match up to PHD101’s results!

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18. March 2010 by Shannon.

I have to tell you about this product!!!!  I have just heard of (what I consider) one of the smartest, most needed products out there for families with children.  But first, I want to tell you a story.

Easter week, 1996.  Ev (who is now 16) was just under three years old.  He had some serious speech issues and most people, even in our own family, had a challending time understanding him.  We were visiting a local mall to “pet the animals” at their little Easter petting zoo display.  There were dozens of kids, some as old as 10-12, in this small area in the center of a crowded mall (okay, yes.. the obvious question is WHY did we go here??  Well, we had no car to visit the “real” countryside, so this was as close as he was going to get to farm animals as a city kid). 

I was sitting on the sidelines nursing a tiny 4-month old Kenzi, which my husband, Tony, took Ev to see the animals - firmly holding Ev’s little hand.  He decided to get some “animal feed” (kinda looked like guinea pig food), but the dial was stuck on the vending machine, so he LET GO of Ev’s hand just for three seconds to stabilize the machine while he turned the dial.  He looked back … NO EV.  Gone.  Just disappeared in a sea of big kids pushing and shoving.  He looked up at me (settled near the exit of the area, waiting for my men to come through the petting zoo) and mouthed, “where’s Ev?”… I scanned the area… no Ev! 

I delatched Kenzi, put “myself” away, placed her in the stroller, and went to meet Tony who was coming out the exit… with no Ev.  I asked him what happened while looking frantically EVERYWHERE for my precious little boy… and didn’t see him.  We walked quickly back to the entrance of the petting zoo (near where the information center was).. no Ev… so we decided to head to the information center directly… a few seconds later we spotted a crying Ev with a Very Kind Woman (but still … a stranger!) holding his hand asking him if he knew where his Mommy was (yes, of course, that’s why he’s standing crying with you???!!!  *rolling eyes*).  I left the stroller with Tony and ran to hug Ev the woman explained that he had just come wandering out the ENTRANCE to the petting zoo all alone and crying, but she couldn’t understand him at all, and she was just going to take him to the information center. 

It may have only been a minute or two, but it was a lifetime at the moment.. and if not for that angel of a woman… it might have been a lot worse..  I wish we’d had a way to let people know how to reach us… since there was no way Ev was understandable, speech issues and fear mixed together with tears do NOT make for a intelligible conversation.

I wish we’d had SafetyTats.  From their site:

“SafetyTat is a fun and colorful temporary safety child ID tattoo that’s uniquely offered either customized with your mobile phone number or blank so you can write in your cell phone number on them. When applied to the arm of your child or loved one, SafetyTat provides an immediate, highly visible form of child identification that stays in place even when wet!”

Not only for uses like my situation (and although we’re highly responsible people, we’ve also lost Kenzi on a couple of occasions, and even lost Chae once… Greys seems to be the only kid who likes to stick around! LOL!), but for any situation where your child may need something to speak for them.  What about non-verbal autistic children, or a deaf child who may not be understood by someone not familiar with sign language?  There are also tats for tweens and teens.  I know, someone said to me, “I think at 11, 14, or 16 they are old enough to TELL someone their parents’ contact information”… really?  Okay.. can I tell you another scenerio? 

Picture yourself at a public place… say, a waterslide park.  Your 16 year old decides that he doesn’t want to “hang” with Mom and the Littles.. so he goes off (with your permission) to enjoy something a little more challenging than the splash pad.  But after going down one of the slides, he’s walking back around and slips and hits his head.  Now.. he’s unconscious.  OBVIOUSLY the staff will contact 9-1-1, but this is a big park, and maybe you don’t know that an ambulance has been called to another section of the park.  Maybe they have no idea how to contact you and LET you know… because… well, your son isn’t TALKING right now.  Imagine now, a safetytat is stuck to his inner arm, something cool like a retro rock’n'roll guitar lookin’ tat has your cellphone number on it.  Now they have a way to reach you, to let you know that they are rushing your son to the hospital unconscious… and he never had to speak a word.  For that matter, even your spouse and you could have one on, with each other’s contact (or other ICE *in case of emergency* number on it), after all, he’s not invincible… even if he’d like to think he is! LOL!

When I told a friend about it, he said to me, “I think that it’s just so unlikely to happen, that I don’t see the need for something like this”.  Hmmm… so I told him, “okay.  Then, I guess following that logic, he won’t be taking out fire and break-in insurance out on his new house he’s building.. because after all, it’s VERY unlikely that his home will burn down or be broken into living way out in the country, right?” OF COURSE NOT… that’s what INSURANCE is… it’s for that rare time that it DOES happen.  Now I know nobody sets out to lose their kid while visiting the zoo, or museum, or even a crowded mall at Easter time… but it DOES happen.  Why not take out some “return” insurance on your kid?  Before you head into a crowded place, slap a tat on your kid and know that if it should be that your child gets separated from you, they don’t need to know your cell phone number or be able to talk, or even remember your name (you can have just your name put on, so should you not have a cellphone and you would like the information center to be able to at least page you by your name.  But never put your child’s name on a SafetyTat or anything visible on your child’s clothing!)  Hey… if we’re thinking insurance, would your child’s constant safety be worth a SafetyTat a week?  Once a week, slap a fresh tat on your kid so that you can go to even the “safe” places like the grocery store and local park with confidence that should your child be a “hider” (like Kenzi was) or a “wanderer” (like Ev was), someone will always be able to get in touch with you.  We put “if lost, please call” tags on our pets… why not on our most precious children??  It just makes sense to me!

As the Scouts say.. Be Prepared!  Get your SafetyTats today!!!

Blessings!

Posted in Great Finds | Print | 1 Comment »

10. March 2010 by Shannon.

Things have changed so much since I posted last, even being that it was in January and we’re only in March.  I’ve had a little bit of a homeschool mom nervous breakdown over … I’m not sure, just life in general I guess.  Anyhow, we had to change things up when the Bigs got back from England (in mid-February) so we did the Amanda Bennett unit on the Vancouver 2010 Olympics as a whole “little schoolhouse” group… Bigs and Littles (obviously working on different levels)… and it brought back some very good memories of unit studies of the past.  So, I decided that maybe I needed (for this season) to focus on the Unit Study approach. 

Now, I like Amanda Bennett’s studies, but I absolutely LOVE Brandenburg Studies… they are absolutely excellent… very rich and research oriented.  Totally adaptable to upper grades (just expect a little more, that’s all.. the research is so open-ended in layout).  I love that they come with a schedule that you can print for your older student which not only serves as a “keep on task list” for them, but an outline of what they’re learning about for Mom (or a curious Dad?).  So, with that in mind, here is a little update on what we’re up to in this thing called homeschooling.

The Bigs:

Math: Ev is doing Math-U-See Algebra 1 (yes, he’s behind in math, but it was because the program he was using wasn’t making the math “stick” in his brain the way it should have, so we switched to MUS mid-year), and Kenzi is doing MUS Pre-Algebra.

Science: right now we’re just starting a Brandenburg Studies on Cell Biology

History:  another Brandenburg Study on Robin Hood and the Crusades

Writing and grammar come into those units, as I assess the work that they do.

The Littles:

Math: Greyson is doing AOP’s Horizons math grade 1, and Chaeli is doing Kindergarten

Grammar: First Language Lessons (both together)

Penmanship: A Reason for Handwriting (G is on book A, Ch on book K)

Writing: Writing With Ease level 1 for both Littles)

Phonics: Explode the Code (G on book 2, Ch on book C)

Spelling (and phonics practice): All About Spelling level 1

Social Studies: Story of the World book 1 (Ancient Times) plus the activity guide for maps/colouring pages

It sounds like the Littles are doing much more than the Bigs, but the Bigs’ work takes much longer, and the Littles lessons are often really short and go rather quickly. 

So far things are working… next year I’ll be changing things for the Bigs… I’m considering switching to Switched on Schoolhouse by Alpha Omega for them both.  Not completely decided, but it’s looking good to me, it grades almost everything (except essay questions, but then gives me guidelines with which to grade).  It sounds too good to be true, but I do have a Very Good Friend who uses it with her two daughters and she loves it (and they don’t even mind school anymore!).  SO… we’ll have to see where this goes.

So that’s where we’re at… what are YOU up to?

Blessings!

Posted in Curriculum Choices, General Homeschool | Print | 2 Comments »