Solar Oven

This summer has been nice and warm with lots of great sunshine - a great opportunity to do a little "summer school" and build a solar oven. The kids are always asking how hot it is outside and I always say "hot enough to fry an egg" which they then give me a silly (yeah sure mom) look. So after doing a little googling and finding some great instructions and recipes we went about building our own solar oven. Instead of a pizza box we used a USPS priority box and just used one of the front openings to insert our cookie sheet with peanut butter cookie dough. Don't you just love the pink duct tape! The girls and Drew checked the solar cooker every 10 - 15 minutes to make sure the sunlight was properly reflected into our oven for maximum heat. After awhile (I lost track of the time!!) we brought in the solar oven and using an oven mitt extracted a tray full of solar baked peanut butter cookies! Since we propped up the solar oven in the beginning the cookies kind of ran together but they still tasted great! Here are some pics of our summer science experiment!

Sheep Shearing

This past Saturday we enjoyed a field trip with our great friends, the Allen's at Shady Side Farm in West Olive. I heard about the shearing day via the West Michigan Etsy Team of which the owner of Shady Side Farm (Lona) belongs. This is just one of the great opportunities I have come across while becoming an active member of this team! The kids were encouraged to use all of their senses to learn about the process of shearing sheep, feeding sheep, observing new lambs and experiencing the barn as well as learning what people do with the fleece after it has been taken from the sheep and cleaned. They just loved squishing and smelling the freshly sheared fleece and watching the newly sheared sheep leap up and run down the length of the barn back to the herd. They had to pay attention so that they weren't knocked over by any of the sheep! The baby lambs were absolutely adorable! The girls begged to take one home as a pet which I said when they grow up they can live on a sheep farm and have as many baby lambs as they want - Rian has already named her future lamb "Flower".

After the girls had enough time in the barn we headed across the farm to another building where fiber artists were hard at work showing off their beautiful items crafted with wool. The kids saw socks being hand cranked on an antique sock knitting machine as well as wool being felted by Barb of Pit Bull Lady Designs. Barb was so patient as she was practically attacked by 5 super excited and curious little girls all wanting to watch/touch/see her in action as well as look at her finished products. (Thanks Barb!!). The balls of colored roving were amazing! We all enjoyed feeling the soft colorful texture of the roving and the yarn. The girls also had an opportunity to learn how the roving was turned into usable yarn by watching three women expertly spin the roving with a spinning wheel. They even got a chance to "help" spin a little yarn themselves.

Gymnastics

The girls just completed a 5 week beginners gymnastics class that they took together. It was a great way for them to experience gymnastics without a lengthy commitment and have a whole lot of fun trying out the equipment! Here are some pictures from their class.

Heidi

The kids and I just recently finished reading the book Heidi which was part of Kami's school program. I promised them that once we finished we could watch the movie so they could really see the landscape of the Swiss Alps and mountain meadows. During our study of this book we discussed what the food must have been like for the characters in the book versus what they are used to. The kids asked if we could have a "Heidi" lunch on the day we watched the movie. Here is a picture of our homemade bread (ok - just half since it smelled so good we couldn't resist!). Heidi's grandfather served her melted cheese on thick slabs of bread with fresh milk. (Not sure if she had apples but we needed to add a little fruit to this lunch). Yummy!

Finger Painting Friday

I stumbled across a homemade recipe for finger paints and couldn't wait to try it with the kids. For those of you looking for a great rainy/snowy/sick day project this one is for you!! This is a super simple recipe and could be used for a variety of purposes - practicing cursive writing or printing letters, mixing primary colors to make endless other colors, opportunity for artistic expression (big title that means it is messy fun!). Here are some pictures of our finger paint Friday! (recipe for finger paint to follow pictures)

Finger Paint Recipe:
1/2 c. corn starch
4 Tbsp. sugar
2 c. water

pour all ingredients into medium size sauce pan and cook over medium heat stirring constantly. The mixture will thicken (takes about 10-15 minutes so be patient). Remove from heat and separate into smaller containers. Add food coloring and any "scents" such as kool-aid or vanilla extract and stir. I opted not to add "scent" or flavor since Drew was going to join us and I didn't want him to eat it. I used freezer paper for the kids to paint on since the backside of the freezer paper has a thin plastic lining and would prevent the paper from becoming too soggy.

History

Can you guess what we are studying in History? Take a look at these pictures (above).....If you guesses ancient Egypt and mummies you guessed right! All you need are a few rolls of toilet paper and a willing "mummy model" and you've created your very own mummy. Can you guess who the last picture is? Yep - it is me! The girls giggled the entire time they wrapped me up and then enjoyed taking pictures of their mummy/mommy. Isn't school fun!

Substitute Teacher

I'm a little behind with my blog postings but this one I thought needed to be done. In early November I had a wisdom tooth pulled out which required Gary to take a day off from work and stay home with the kids as well as be the teacher for the day. Before his first day of teaching school I made sure the kids' school work was in order and easy to follow as well as some science experiments. My kids just love doing science experiments - usually because they are messy and totally hands on! This would be no different. The object of this experiment was to show how some fairly "weak" materials, uncooked spaghetti noodles and marshmallows could be used to build a stable/strong structure. Here are the results and the scientists (prior to the demolition and eating of the marshmallows). Ok, well Drew had to be bribed with a few marshmallows before construction was completed hence the sticky face.