Review: Mercy, The Incredible Story of Henry Bergh

I have to admit that I am not a fan of the animal rights movement. BUT this story of Henry Bergh was quite interesting and eye-opening.   Horses, pigeons, cows, dogs, bears and more.   Henry Bergh took abuse upon abuse in order to work for the lives of those ill-treated.   Mercy, the incredible story of Henry Bergh is aptly named... one who shows mercy to animals.

Anyone who has read Black Beauty is aware of the plight of carriage and work horses...how easy it was to abuse these horses, and then to replace them.    Dead horses hauled out of the city daily.   Horses beaten and forced to pull loads too heavy for them to bear.

I wasn't aware of stray dogs being captured for a days work.
I wasn't aware of how folks thought they went made in the summer, so hundreds upon hundreds of dogs were destroyed over people's lack of knowledge.
The information about the dairy industry horrified.

I grew up on a farm.
Raised in a God-fearing household where one learned that God gave us dominion over the earth, which comes with a great deal responsibility to care well for the world we live in.. including caring for the animals that surround our lives.

Henry Bergh stood for showing kindness of animals.   That was it.  That's ALL it was.  BE KIND to animals.He didn't turn the ASPCA into the PETA driven movement it is today.   He wanted the animals that are part of our society cared for and railed against unwarranted abuses.

He understood the practicality of working animals, but he didn't want them to suffer unkindness when they were working for us.

He was eventually convinced to turn this helping animals into also helping the children.   He considered them to be little animals.

This book is filled with colour plates.    And I have to admit, it was rather neat seeing some of these old cartoons.  He really was vilified throughout his life.    But interestingly enough, when he died he was revered for his concern for the animals.

It also does cut outs to information mentioned in the book.   Like Louisa May Alcott.

It was a decent read.   Not sure that I would have children read it (as sensitive readers may be horrified by some of the scenes), but if you were wanting to do a unit of study on the ASPCA, it would be a good book to read to help prepare you.

Product Details
 Received: Advance reviewers copy
Title: Mercy, The Incredible Story of Henry Bergh, Founder of the ASPCA and Friend to Animals.
Author: Nancy Furstinger
Pages: 175
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

The Land Of Story-books

Today my son and I enjoyed this poem. After I finished reading it I said to my lad "boy this poem makes me think of you."
He laughed and said "I know mom.   And it makes me think of you too!".

I laughed too.

It's good to laugh with a boy over good poetry isn't it?

I could have gone into the form and structure of the poem, but for today.. it was just good to laugh with a boy child.  :)

The Land of Story-books
by Robert Louis Stevenson
 At evening when the lamp is lit,
Around the fire my parents sit;
They sit at home and talk and sing,
And do not play at anything.

Now, with my little gun, I crawl
All in the dark along the wall,
And follow round the forest track
Away behind the sofa back.

There, in the night, where none can spy,
All in my hunter's camp I lie,
And play at books that I have read
Till it is time to go to bed.

These are the hills, these are the woods,
These are my starry solitudes;
And there the river by whose brink
The roaring lions come to drink.

I see the others far away
As if in firelit camp they lay,
And I, like to an Indian scout,
Around their party prowled about.

So when my nurse comes in for me,
Home I return across the sea,
And go to bed with backward looks
At my dear land of Story-books.

Recent Posts March 28-April 3, 2016

Since I'm moving from one blog to the other and trying make the transition smooth.. I thought I'd start a weekly feature where I list the posts that I've written over here.  :)

I reviewed a book that my son totally loved.  SuperHeroes don't eat Veggie Burgers.

Figured out my curriculum for Grade six, and learned today I should have his writing program covered for next year as well (if it all works out as it should).

Reviewed an animal bok called Bridge to the Wild.  This was an interesting read I am glad I persisted in reading.

I participated in a five day blog hop on Tips for homeschooling parents.

day one:The Importance of family.
day two: Working and the Homeschool Life.
day three: Tips: Knowing when to take a break.
day four: Tips: Handling Curve Balls
day five: Knowing you have to decide.












Two reviews for early readers.  Paul Meets Jesus and Elijah, God's Mighty Prophet.

Hymn Study on Low, in the Grave he lay.   This hymn is also called "Christ Arose" and was written by Rev. Lowry from the USA.

The Language Arts program I'll be using next year called Logic of English.   This I will use for grammar, spelling etc.   While I will hopefully be using Virtual Education Systems for a writing program.

I did a first last week.. made my first printable!   Marsupial Gliders. 

It was a rather busy week.  :)   It was fun though and gave me something to do while recovering from this frustrating cold I am enduring.

Review:Ghost in the Key of A

I rarely review books for Ascot Media... the titles rarely resonate with me, but  Ghost in the Key of A intrigued me.    AND I was right to be intrigued, T. Katz wrote a book that immediately grabbed my interest and had me saying "I want to read this book with my boy!"

Book Synopsis:
Ghost in the Key of A: Pythagoras follows Pricilla, a budding young pianist whose piano is plagued by a quirky ghost after she discovers a sticky "A” key. The ghost teaches her some of the most fascinating things about music history.  She soon finds synergies in these lessons and her own life.  Readers will find Ghost in the Key of A: Pythagoras engaging and inspirational.    

My Thoughts: 
What a neat book.  I loved it.   Priscilla, living in a family where a mom encourages artistic expression and a father who well.... just doesn't get it.   Priscilla is floundering, not knowing how to fit in with her father, how to do her music when she wants to play with friends, and how to show her dad she can study the subjects important to him as well.

It's just so hard for her to focus on her music at times, it all seems like such a drudgery. Enter Pythagoras.  He's the ghost who lives in the Key of A. Pythagoras brings a new air of interest to Priscilla as she practices her music. He teaches her various aspects of music and musical terms, and her confidence increases.    

This book could easily be used for a beginning music theory class.  :)

It's an interesting book with small illustrations scattered throughout that expand the knowledge base of the reader.     Good book.  

Product Details:
Received: Softcover Book
Title: Ghost in the Key of A
Author: T. Katz
Pages: 79
Publisher: LuLu.com    
Price: $3.98 (ebook), $9.25 (book)
Reviewed for: Ascot Media 

One Dress, One Year, a Review

 One Dress, One Year is a book written by Susanna Foth Aughtmon about a 16 year old girl with a desire to make a difference.   Her heart lies with those caught up in human trafficking.  Her goal: wear the same dress for one year to raise money to fight human trafficking.   This is her story.

Book Synopsis:
When sixteen-year-old Bethany Winz learned about the millions of men, women, and children around the world trapped in slavery, her stomach churned. How can anyone do that to another human being? she wondered. And why aren't we doing something?

This is the story of Bethany's "something."

Journey with her as she wears the same black dress every day for a year to focus attention on the lack of choices people in modern-day slavery face and raise money to help end human trafficking. As Bethany works to bring freedom to people worldwide, she'll discover how much she too needs freedom. You'll be inspired not only to change the world in your own way but also to experience the life-changing freedom of God's irrepressible love.

My Thoughts: 
I find this a challenging book to review.   

I felt this girls heart.  Her strong desire to be of use by the Lord for something bigger than herself.   I so felt her heart.    It brings me back to when I was 16 and went on a mission trip because I wanted to make a difference, to be used of the Lord for something beyond myself.

At the same time I found myself skipping sections, looking for something to draw me into the world of those who struggled with human trafficking.  To see the people involved.    I kept running into "this is what I was going through, and this is what I struggled with".

I saw the statistics that she posted, the money raised, the struggles she went through, but I didn't see the stories.  I didn't see websites to help me learn more about human trafficking.

So I left this book thinking well.. she learned a lot.   She influenced some people.   She did what God called her to.   BUT... "I" don't feel called to it.  I sit here thinking.. Good for her but that's as far as it goes and I want a book like this to draw me into her focus, into her dream and life and desires for change and feel none of that.

In essence, I'm wanting more than her story, I am wanting the stories of those she is fighting for.

Is it worth reading?  Yes.
Is it worth putting into a church library?   Yes.
Is it a great book that I'll be recommending others read?   That I am not so sure of.   Just left me wanting more.. depth, stories, call to action, more something.

Product Details: 
Received: Softcover Book
Title: One Dress, One Year
Author: Bethany Winz with Susanna Foth Aughtmon
Publisher: BakerBooks 
Pages: 149
Reviewed for: Nuts About Books 

A Giveaway and Review for FishFlix.com

I recently watched this movie and wrote up a review at my other blog.   Check it out here.   But wanted to let you know about a giveaway the FishFlix.com is hosting.    Sign up on their email list and have a chance to win $80 in movies.

You can sign up HERE.

Review: 5 Minutes with Jesus: Peace for Today

I would like to take a moment to tell you about a wonderful little devotional I am reading through lately.   It's called 5 Minutes with Jesus, Peace for Today.  It is written by Sheila Walsh.

Book Synopsis:
Brief and profound, these daily readings from Sheila Walsh will help busy women draw close to Jesus and walk in His peace throughout the day. It will become clear that even in the midst of a busy lifestyle, every minute we spend in the powerful presence of Jesus makes a difference in our lives!

My Thoughts:
I have to admit that I am not a big devotional fan.  I find many of them rather poorly written and with scripture verses chosen that seem to have nothing to do with what they are talking about in the devotion.  I find that VERY aggravating.   Not saying the devotion isn't good or anything, but if you read a verse and think about what it means and then the devotion seems to have nothing to do with the verse it just feels like a waste of time or like the writer is merely trying to convey a thought and the scripture was tossed in as an after thought.

In this book by Sheila Walsh she starts off with a devotion

 

 

 No scripture readings at this point.  Just a 2-3 pages of text.   

The writing is easy.   

There are a minimum of 30 devotions to read (if not more, I honestly haven't counted them all)











Then you will get this blue box with a question or a thought displayed to ponder on.

 



 After this blue box some scripture verses are written down along with what translation they are from.   
Usually three to five verses are given. 

Verses from the NLT, NIV, and the ESV bible translations.

 Written in italics to help them stand out.  This is God's word written down for you.   

Using different translations sometimes aids in the understanding.




I cannot say that I have read through the whole devotional at this point.   I find they take me much less than five minutes to read through which leaves me time to ponder the verses.   I cannot say that every verse seems really well connected with the devotion, or that some aren't taken out of context, but I much prefer this set up.   To be able to leave a devotion with God's word on my heart rather than a pithy devotion that seems disconnected from the bible verse.

I like this book and can see myself finishing it when I am done this review period.

 
 Product Details:

Received: hardcover book
Title: 5 Minutes with Jesus: Peace for Today
Author: Sheila Walsh
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Pages: 188
Type: Devotional
Reviewed for: BookLookBloggers

Family Literacy Program from HSBC

Check it out folks.. HSBC has pulled together some literacy materials.

a quote:

HSBC Family Literacy First offers independent learning modules each with a story and various activities, designed to bring families together to celebrate and practice their literacy skills. Modules are available in four languages: English, French, Simplified Chinese and Tagalog with more languages to be added in the coming years. Once you have registered, simply sign in, download and print the modules!

 Registration process is easy enough.  :)

I pulled out a couple of different stories and thought they would work well for a literacy/discussion time.

So go on..  check them out.   They are free!

You will also find them linked on my language arts freebies site.

Remember I've moved

Please do me a favour and move over to my new website.

Please sign up on my linky there so you can more easily follow my blog.

Thanks!

My blog is A Net In Time.

Helping a friend, learning with friends

Yesterday the lad and I went over to visit a friend. We spend most of the day there. Life has been a challenge for this friend lately so it was good to spend some time to assist in bringing some sanity to life again. :) 

I had told her that I needed to do some schooling with the lad, and I've be enlisting the aid of her children.

We did a drawing from "imagine a day" and then we put some daises into coloured water.   The pics don't show the results well, but I hope you can see some of the tinges that were occurring by the time we had to go home.

After we finished our schooling time the children played and my friend and I were able to chat a bit.

She lives on a farm so I was able to pick some grass for my rabbits and on the way home a ladybug found it's way out of the grasses I had picked much to my son's delight.  it was captured and is currently munching on aphids in a bug jar.

It was a good schooling and living day.  :)

Tonight's Poem: A was an Apple Pie

Out of the mother goose nursery rhymes book we read a poem called

a was an apple pie.

I wanted to know more about it so I did some googling and found out that the original name to the poem was read is this: the tragical death of A, apple pye who was cut in pieces and eat by twenty-five gentlemen with whom all little people ought to be very well acquainted with.

A was an apple pie
B bit it
C cut it
D dealt it
E eats it
F fought for it
G got it
H had it
I inspected it
J jumped for it
K kept it
L longed for it
M mourned for it
N nodded at it
O opened it
P peeped in it
Q quartered it
R ran for it
S stole it
T took it
U upset it
V viewed it
W wanted it
X, Y and Z (and amperse-sand) all wished for and had a piece in hand.

NOTE: the italics were added in the version that I read, but were not in the version found on-line.

Wikipedia gives more detail on this poem.

I just want to say how much the lad enjoyed listening to his poem and his reaction was just priceless.

I stopped reading.

He turned and extremely excitedly said... Mommy... that was a pie and all the letters ate it and put it into pieces and just like their names are!!!!!  Mommy!!!   Read it again!!!!

He loved it.
I will probably read it again, and possibly if he's up for it, get him to memorize it.  :)   Time will tell.  :)

Night Time Reading

At night I make a point of not just reading story books with my son.   I do read story books, but I also make a point of reading different types of literature.

We read: a bible story, a chapter book, a primer, a fun book, a library book, and a story book.   I also read a biography of some sort.  we've done the rounds of missionary stories, the autobiographies I had in the house, some Canadian stories we found at the library and such forth.

Currently we are reading the following.

We just finished reading Billy Mink.   This is part of The Dover Children's Thrift Classics.



and have JUST started the adventures of chatterer the red squirrel


these books are just fun.  They incorporate factual information so children learn, but they learn in such a way that it is just fun to read.   The chapters are short and sweet making it really easy to stop.  the lad needs to remember what happened the night before.

happy birthday bad kitty.

Just a fun read. my son loves this series of books.

Two books that I can't find in amazon.
Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes.  I had originally wanted to make this book part of our morning reading books, but it just didn't fit and was often left out.  Adding it at night means we'll read it.   and the lad is enjoying listening to the short poems.

Windows to the world is the primer that we are using currently.  It is from the ABEKA line of readers.   it's a good book. Meant for older students, which makes it a great just listening to book.  Some of the stories cause the lad to ask questions and sometimes he adds elements of them to his stories/pictures.

The great escape by farenhorst

this is our 'true' story book for this go round.  We've read a variety of missionary stories, autobiographies, heroes of the faith type books.  This one is a bit different as some are heroes-type stories, but many are just life stories that have a biblical truth in them.  I am very much enjoying it, and it's good to expose the lad to ideas bigger than himself and to give him ideas to ponder.

update in where I will post information

The sheer amount of frustration with facebook not allowing me to post my blog to it, annoys. so many of my posts will now be at my website http://anetintimeschooling.weebly.com/

I will still post things here, but more often will post at the website.

Black Holes and Gardening and whatever

Today we started off our homeschooling day by looking up black holes.  This site was sent to us by clickschooling.

This is the write up sent to us by diane flynn keith

Age Range: 9 and up (approximately, with parental supervision; non-readers will need assistance)
The Space Telescope Science Institute offers this terrific website that allows you to engage in a multi-media, in-depth inquiry into the astronomy and physics of black holes through animations and interactive experiments. Explore light, gravity, and the scale of our universe.

When you get to the site, watch a brief, narrated animation that provides information on how black holes are formed. Then, begin your virtual journey to a black hole through three interactive modules that include:

*Finding the Invisible — Loc ate and identify various objects in the universe such as a binary star, the Cygnus galaxy, the Andromeda spiral galaxy, the sun, the moon, the Milky Way, a quasar, a red giant, Saturn, the crab nebula and more. As each object comes into view, read more about it on the sidebar and by clicking on the "Learn More" button.   

*The Voyage — Learn about scales and distances by taking a virtual trip to a black hole. Find out about the objects you pass on your trip through space. Measure your speed and distance traveled. Get explanations of the concepts of lightspeed and lightyear. When you reach your destination, mouse over the black hole to learn about its features.

*Up Close and Personal — Orbit a black hole and learn all about it. Try some interactive experiments and answer related questions. Get the latest scoop from notable scientists.

You can also explore the "Black Hole Encyclopedia" and "Glossary" to learn even more.

We found it be quite interesting.  I can't say my six year old understood everything, but he was able to pull information out of this site to go with other things he's learned about black holes.  It was quite interesting and answered some of his questions.   We did not read through the whole site but I imagine it will be one that we come back to.

We then went out to finish the gardening that we started yesterday.

The lad wants to have his own garden this year so He's going to share daddy's "pepper" garden.  Daddy likes hot peppers and I like bell peppers and having them in their own "bed" means they don't get crowded out by other plants so it should work well for the lad to have his carrots, lettuce and corn in the same bed (at least we hope so).  :)

Water Clock

Doesn't this sound like something fun to try?  
I need a stop watch first though....

GIVE IT A TRY #1: WATER CLOCK

The ancient Babylonians were some of the first people to keep time. Sundials and water clocks were frequently used to keep up with the time of day. We know this from information that archaeologists have learned from clay tablets found in the area. The water clock allowed people to know how much time had passed even in the middle of the night. You can make your own water clock to get an understanding of how ancient people knew what the time was.

Items Needed:

• Medium to large glass jar
• Paper or plastic cup
• Embroidery needle or stick pen
• Permanent black marker
• Stopwatch

Directions:

First, use the stick pen to poke a small hole in the bottom of the cup. After this, fill the cup with water, and make sure that the water drips out at a steady rate. With the marker, make a fill line inside the cup so that you have a measured amount of water each time.

Next, place the cup into the mouth of the jar. Fill the cup with water to the fill line and immediately start your stopwatch. Make lines with the marker on the jar at predetermined intervals. Note that the water will drip more quickly at first due to water pressure; therefore, your lines should get closer together as more time passes. Remember not to let the water in the cup run out.

By looking at the jar of water and seeing how much water has dripped into it, you can tell how much time has passed. Enjoy this old way of telling time!

Practical homeshooling and it's results

We learned about gardening....from a very practical standpoint.

We learned that maple tree saplings need to be removed from gardens.

We learned how to trim a bush so it doesn't go over the doorstep.

We learned about killing ant hills that are too close to the house.

We learned about watering plants when you transplant them.

We learned about using maple branches as a fan and that giving them to bunnies is perhaps NOT a good idea (said bunnies will say LUNCH!).

We had fun going to the store and finding presents for daddy when he goes away next week.

We had fun handling chickies and baby ducks at the feed store.

I was very proud of my helpful boy child and his ability to prune a bush by himself, and pleased to honour his request to not throw out those particular branches until he was ALL done with them.

I was pleased with his willingness to help and to learn.

I was filled with joy at his ability to chat with complete strangers even as I wish he was chatting about something OTHER THAN mommy's thing for chickens. :)

My lad was pleased at his own efforts.
He was disappointed we couldn't find any black bugs.
He was angry at bunnies making lunch of his maple leaf fan.
He was happy he was able to do good work with mommy.
He was uncertain about using poison to keep ants out of our house...but happy he was able to help daddy find where the ant hills were.

It was a good day.  :)

variety in homeschooling

dominoes and physics. this led of course to our own experiments, and learning about energy. :)

The lad worked on math reflex while I got the dishes all caught up.

then we laughed at some pandas

then since the lad was having a difficult day (tonsils are swollen and sore again) we decided to pursue a passion.

we studied spiders by playing around on the web.

we learned that they have three sub-orders

• Araneomorphae - most spiders

• Mesothelae - primitive spiders

• Mygalomorphae - tarantulas 

Then we looked a whole ton of pictures and selected a few to find out where they come from giving us a chance to use our mapping skills.  

 We watched some you tube videos.

this is one with a bunch of pictures of mygalomorphs.

 

and then we headed off to do some reading.  :)   Always good to read.  

"Mommy!   Can we learn about a snake today?" was the plea.

"Sure" I replied.. so we learned about the ring-necked snake. 

 See here for the source.

We started off our story reading from 50 magical stories.  The story today was called The half-chick.   It was a funny story and "explains" why chickens are used as weather vanes.  It just made us laugh.

From there we moved on to Classical animal stories"   The Death of Gellert was a very sad story that immediately had my son thinking up a different ending to it.





From our world history book we have started to learn about the different types of weapons people have used throughout history.   Today we learned about how weapons can be made from stone.. especially from Flint which is a hard stone that is easily chipped away at to make a pointed stone.  

 

 

Cats are not easy homeschoolers :)

 while doing our "imagine a place"

 Everyone involved had a different interpretation

 and some well....imagined while ON someone else's work

and caused grins and distractions

impromptu learning

one of the reasons I choose to homeschool is I simply enjoy having my boy around.  :)   I like sharing his excitement in what he learns.

Yesterday while I was out doing some gardening I kept being interrupted by "mommy, come see this!"   So I'd trundle over to see what the lad had learned, done, accomplished, discovered and such forth.  Mind, I'd interrupt his play with "lad, can you come help me with...." and he'd come and help.  So turn about is fair play.

He was busy with a tub he's put together that is half water, and part sand and dirt.   He worked quite hard at dividing it up so that water stayed on one side, and the dirt on another.

First he discovered what a water table is. 

he dug down into various parts of his dirt section and learned that in most areas the dirt was damp but there was no water, but the closer he got to the water the more water there would be in the bottom of his hole.

Second he learned that doodle bugs (pill bugs) can float on a boat!     This made for marvellous story telling and laughter as we guessed what the pill bug thought of it all.

Then came the experiments with the pill bugs themselves.  

If he made an island would they stay on it?

Can they swim?

What happens if you roll them into a ball and drop them in?

What happens if they land on their backs?

We discovered they can swim for short sections of time.

They float really well.

They can not climb when they are in the water.

The big ones are smarter than the little ones, and the middle sized ones just bolt without looking and land up in the water ALL THE TIME (the little ones moved more slowly and the big ones tested things out first).   It was actually quite interesting watching the big ones.  They'd move to various parts of the island and lean WAY down and take a good look at the water, and then come back up and trundle to a different section and test it out to.   BUT once they fell in, they would do it all the time so I"m not sure what was up with that.

The small ones and big ones stayed on the island the longest, and only the small ones would stay on the boat for any length of time.

 this picture came from this site.

no pill bugs were harmed in these experiments.  :)

Learning by reading and games.

We started off our day playing bucking buckaroo a game we picked up at the yard sales on Saturday.

Then we read from a chapter out of black beauty.   The lad asked a TON of questions about what was going on and it was good to talk about standards of care, and how God wants us to take care of the animals around us.

We learned about the common loon in   the ultimate guide to wildlife of North America.    we've seen loons before so it was good to learn more about them.  One of the things we learned was there aren't as many as there used to be since people are destroying their habitats.

we started off with 50 magical stories.  The story today is called The Frog.   It was a story about a mom who wanted her son's to get the best wife.

in response to the story the lad said "I liked it!"   When asked why he liked it I got the response of "I liked it, mommy, I liked that the good witches were good and they helped the frog".   And yes, for those concerned .. he knows that we don't believe in witches, that witches don't love God and therefore are something we need to be wary of.

Then we finished off  pirates in our world history book.

He finished off both of the  Pirates sticker books.

When I asked if he was pleased with how we did the pirate work and how the books turned out he said yes.  When we talked about the pirates today we learned that there are still pirates today, but the pirates in the past were beaten because the navy built better ships.  Only the young ones (those up to 16 years old) weren't executed for being bad pirates.

we did another page in the "imagine a place" book

This has been such a fun book to use as a art book.  We read the poem and then draw a picture.  When we are all done with it, then we look at what the artist came up with and discuss it.   Today we needed to imagine  place were music sings where one dances all night on a summer night in a breeze (that wasn't how the poem went but something like it).   This sparked good conversation about what it means that music can sing, and what it means to dance, and I even needed to demonstrate what a waltz was. :)

We learned about bugs today.  We played another game, this one also purchased while yard saling.. called Go, Bugs.  You play it similarly to Go, Fish.  the object of the game is to build a four piece bug.  We didn't follow the rules since some games are difficult to play with just two people.  But we had fun and we learned about different types of bugs.  

The Gummy Experiment Part Two

Today we had time to pull out our gummi experiment

It was interesting.
your average gummy bear is 1 x 2 cm.

• in milk 2 x3 felt solid
• in plain water and sugar water  2.5 x 4 
• in lemon juice 2 x 3 felt mushy AND the colour was faded
• in splenda water x x 3 but much bigger (bulkier)
• in salt water he was 16 mm x 8 mm
• olive oil and corn syrup didn't change the size but change the texture and shape.  the lad said "mom, they are HARD" and the olive oil one had a misshaped head.
• Vinegar was fascinating.  we didn't try to measure it because he was all mushy.. "feels like Pee!"   It was "GROSS"     Much and many exclamations about it.  "disgusting!"   and the colour was a very pale yellow.
• Jam - feels like a gummy, was very sticky so difficult to measure .. we think he was 2.5 x 2 cm
• cranberry juice - "he got darker"  measured 2.5 x 3 and was bigger.

when we cut them it was intriguing

We could not (without effort) cut the oil and corn syrup ones.

the vinegar one fell apart on us

everything else sliced and stood evenly.

Then we put our tongues on them.

Jam and cranberry and lemon juice tasted like what they were put into.

The splenda, sugar and plain water just tasted more gummy... with more sugar in it (for the sweet water ones)

the salt one... EW.. BLECH MOMMY!!!!

The lemonade one tasted like a sweet gummy that was odd... this one had the lad confused until I gave him three options of what it could be...and then he said "OH>> lemonade!!!"

We did not try the corn syrup, olive oil, vinegar or milk ones.  

This is a GOOD experiment to do with a budding scientist. :)

London Tree Trunk Tour

I'd like to see these in person.

London Tree Trunk Tour.

Science, math, and more...

Tonight we looked up, but didn't find, our monarch numbered NAW 325

looked him up in the database but didn't locate  him on there.  

Had a decent day today. 

the lad worked on reflex math this morning.   We did an experiment using gummi bears and various liquidy things, and also made ice cream cookies.  :)

 doing tests with gummi bears.   We immersed them in splenda water, plain water, milk, lemonade, sugar water, salt water, lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil, cranberry juice, jam and corn syrup.   We watched them throughout the day.  The lad was quite intrigued by the vinegar washing out the colour, the corn syrup one seeming to slow disappear, the salt one getting smaller, most of the others grew but with various side affects.   We will pull them out tomorrow and see what changes we observe.

On to the ice cream sandwiches.  First we made chocolate chip cookies.  No, we didn't make them from scratch...cookie dough was on sale!  :)

 These are good mommy!

 Don't they look good?

Mmmm... they ARE Good.  :)

Part of the afternoon was spent in catching two moths and one spider.  The spider was a teeny tiny one we found in the rhubarb patch.

OOH OOH.. and before I forget.  Our robin who is nesting outside the upstairs bathroom window has TWO eggs in her nest now!  :)