FOREVER

Today's quote from Princess:  "Mommy, I want to keep you FOREVER."  

Yes, she melts my heart.  

LUNG & DIAPHRAGM EXPERIMENT

We finished out unit on the respiratory system today.  That means it was experiment time.  Yay!  This experiment showed us how the lung & diaphragm work together to both take in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide.  The boys really enjoyed seeing our experiment work.  

 I cut the bottom off of the bottle and then Bugs put the balloon on the top opening.

 Elvis cut the bottom off of another balloon and stretched it tightly over the bottom opening.

Then it was time to make it work.  And it did!  Very cool!

An up close look.

APPLES, BANANAS & VITAMINS.....OH MY! ~ NUTRITION CHAPTER

We stayed home with colds today.  Well, the girls & I did.  The boys were still full of energy.  I was determined not to lose another complete day of school as we did on Tuesday.  The boys & I managed to finish our science module and even had fun doing it.  Win-win.  They always love hands on learning and we inserted as much as possible into our reading today.

 First we read about proteins, bad fats, good fats, calories and energy.  Then we learned what that means in our every day lives.  The boys selected cans from the pantry and we talked about the nutrition labels.  They learned their importance and how to accurately read and understand them.  The second time around they went back to the pantry to select two new cans.  They had to guess which can had the most or least of specific categories without looking at the labels.  It was neat seeing how close they were in their guesses.

 We then went on to learn about different vitamins.  They have been taking extra Vitamin C lately and were curious about it.  This experiment caught their attention.  To illustrate the "powers" of Vitamin C we did these two experiments.  First we cut up and apple.  On one slice we poured lemon juice which was our Vitamin C.  The other apple we left alone.

 Here is Bugsy writing up the labels.

Next we sliced up part of a banana.  On 3 slices we sprinkled a crushed Vitamin C tablet.  The other slices were left plain.  We then waited to see what would happen to both our apples and our bananas.

 We noticed that right away the apple with no lemon juice started to turn brown.  We learned that it is because of the oxygen.  The lemon juice is an antioxidant.  It stops the oxidation process and helps to keep the cell walls from breaking down.  

The bananas did the same thing.  It was neat to see that the Vitamin C in both experiments, though in different forms, worked the same.  

Our next experiment will be to test foods for Vitamin C.  We will do that one as soon as I buy some Iodine.  We're all looking forward to it.  =)  What experiments have you enjoyed and learned from lately?

NORMAN ROCKWELL IN NASHVILLE

This was so exciting for us.  Norman Rockwell at The Frist in Nashville!  We used to live only minutes away from the Norman Rockwell Museum in the Berkshires.  And at one time we even lived in an apartment down the street from one of Rockwell's former studios.  I have been a fan of his since I was a teen.  My kids have grown to love his work as well.  It was like having an old, dear friend come to visit.  A couple of our friends joined us for our visit which made it even more fun!

 I wasn't able to take pictures in the gallery, of course, and I completely understand.  Take my word for it that it was incredible!  After touring the gallery we went to the children's hands on area.

 At first it was crowded as there were 2 school groups.  But soon they left for lunch and we only shared with a handful of other homeschoolers.  Perfect!

 The older girls sat down together to sketch.  They are both budding artists.

 They worked for quite awhile.  

 I believe this was Princess's favorite activity.

 This was Bugsy's and Elvis's favorite hands on activity.  You take pictures in still frames and then all of them are combined to make a short movie.  Such fun!

 Elvis making his movie.

 Still sketching!  =)

 Hee, hee, hee.

 Finished!  Didn't they do a wonderful job?

 It was pouring when we arrived but the rain had stopped by the time we were ready to leave.  I was very glad because I had really wanted a photo of the kids in front of the banner.  

 This sculpture was outside and made very odd noises.  The kids all had fun making up stories about what was really going on inside that thing. Hee, hee!

 When we arrived home they got to work on their booklets from the museum.  (Free)

 These are all our books.  I bought most of them at library sales when we lived in the Berkshires.  The kids had looked at them before our trip and recognized many of the paintings when we were in the gallery.

 Cheese!

This is the booklet.  It was neat to see it came from the museum in Stockbridge.

One of the things that is neat about The Frist is that they are very family friendly.  For our entire family to go see this exhibit only cost us $10 in admission and $4 to park.  For 7 people that is outstanding!

"GINGERBREAD" HOUSES

Our day started out pretty rotten. Originally we had a day packed with plans for fun with friends.  But due to sickness those plans fell through and we were left with tears and disappointment.  After a bit we dusted ourselves off and came up with new plans.  It was time to make gingerbread houses!  Thankfully, yesterday I had printed out plans and had asked Dave to pick up supplies for us.  I believe Someone knew we would need them today!  

 Our supplies + a very excited boy

 Cutting up a cereal box to put our house on.

 And covering it with foil.

 Instead of baking gingerbread or buying a kit we used a box for our form and covered it.

 She was memorizing all the flavors.

 The basic form of the house.

 These two enjoyed some breakfast while Boo and I worked on the houses.

 Boo's house.

 Time for Mama to have a waffle break!

 Next we covered our houses with graham crackers. 
 Cheaper than buying a kit and easier than baking gingerbread.  =)

 Mine is all done!

 Boo is finishing up hers too.

 Now for the fun part!  Decorating!

 Boo and Princess teamed up to decorate one house.

 And Bugsy and I teamed up to decorate the other house.

 We made our own bags to pipe the frosting.  It got a little messy but it was fun.  

 Our sick one, Elvis, came down to decorate for a few minutes.  Then he wanted to go back to rest and read.  We are going to do another later when he is feeling 100% again.

 Our final masterpiece!  This is the front of our house.

 Side view.

 The back.  (We were getting tired by then and running out of frosting.  Lol!)

 The front of Boo and Princess's house.

 The side view.

 The other side.

And the back.

These took a lot more time than I thought they would but I haven't made one with this process before.  Next time I will definitely not tell the kids until we are done constructing the houses.  Thankfully, they were entertained with waffles and a game which made the waiting easier.  From start to finish it took us about 3 hours.  It was lots of fun and this might very well become a tradition.  =)