Slime Monsters!

My post today on "In the TJED Trenches":

I forgot I was supposed to post today...hee hee!

One of our favorite science experiments turned into a slime contest to see who could formulate the best slime.

The contest was for each child to research different recipes they could find for polymer solutions to make Gak, Slime, Flubber, or Silly Putty. They could then experiment with the different recipes in order to determine which recipe was the best. I encouraged them to come up with variations of their own based upon the recipes they tried. Chris really got into the slime making, as you can see here, and decided that combining Silly Putty and Slime recipes turned out the best. I was going to post the recipe and then realized it might be better to let you find out through your own slime contest....learning through experimentation really does work!

P.S. As I'm typing this my daughter, Marly, walked up to read what I was typing and said, "That was really good slime, too."

Science, Slime, and the Human Body - 2009 - Week 8

I don't think reading a basic run down of every chapter we did in math and worksheets we used is fun to read....so we are going to focus on more what our real day looks like.

Science Fun
Human Body - Skin, Hair, and Nails Unit
On Thursday we started this very interesting- and a little gross - unit! In true Leadership Ed. (TJED) fashion I allowed the kids to take this lab to where their interests led them and then we looked up more with our books and the Internet. We have an awesome microscope that we bought at Amazon.com and slides (Kit A and Kit B) from the 4-Year Plan. Plus we made our own slides.

Here are the things we looked at:

• Dead skin from our own hands/arms.
• Hair from each of us and the dog.
• A dog eye booger. (eeewwww! not my idea)
• Saliva - Chris' to be exact.
  
• Prepared slide - Human Skin Cross-section - this shows the hair and how it grows out of the skin. We could also see the sweat pores.
• Prepared slide - Mouth Swab - the inside of our cheek skin.
• Prepared slide - Human Blood.

Book Resources:

• Usborne Science Encyclopedia - pgs.368-369
• How the Body Works - pgs. 31-41

Slime Lab
On Thursday thru Friday my kids wanted another lab day and so we went on a quest to find the BEST slime recipe. We tried several recipes and decided the best is to combine a Silly Putty and Slime recipe to get a nice, bouncy slime. The kids also discovered that if you put the concoction in the refrigerator over night it makes a better bouncy slime.

Read Together - We finished Little House in the Big Woods and started Farmer Boy.

Socialization Activities - Principles of Leadership Class

Marly - Projects - Loom Knitting & sewing balls for the Humanitarian Center. Reading - Diary of a Whimpy Kid: The Last Straw, Dairy of a Whimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, Guy Time, Regular Guy, The Diamond of Darkhold.

Chris - Projects - Leatherworking. Reading - Redwall series, Diary of a Whimpy Kid: The Last Straw, Dairy of a Whimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules.

Mom - Many of my projects are on hold. My work has graciously given me more hours, to which I am grateful. However, I'm very exhausted! Reading - The Love Dare and Leven Thumps and the Gateway of Foo.