Kid's Center

Yesterday afternoon for one of Luke's Boy Scout requirements he picked out a place to go, found it on the map, gave me directions on how to get there and then at the end calculated how much the fuel cost for the trip...$1.25 by the way.  He picked a toy store called Kid's Center.  This particular toy store is as educational as Mrs. Tiggy Winkle's is artful.

Hazel pushing her baby monkey.

This store has books, collectibles, puzzles, science kits, dress ups, thinking games, you name it.

We found an M.C. Escher puzzle grandpa Oldham would love to help us with.

On the way home we happened to go through a Taco Bell drive through.  While waiting for our food, Sylvia looked at the sixteen year old Taco Bell employee and said, "He's cute.  I want to marry him if he doesn't already have a wife."  Do you think I should be a little worried?

Water Tension Magic

Both Luke and Isabel started a new lesson in their math today and got two worksheets each finished. We read our BOM story and practiced our Articles of Faith. We use our primary songs CD. It has all of the Articles of Faith songs on it and music always helps when trying to memorize. They are up to number four now. We then did a water tension science experiment. We had a bowl of water, Isabel shook pepper in it. The pepper floats. We talked about how some bugs can stand on water because of the water tension. I then had Luke squeeze a drop of liquid dish soap in the middle. The pepper quickly moves away from the middle where the soap dropped and to the sides of the bowl. As a jaded overstimulated adult, I just thought, lame. It was so fun to see Luke's reaction. He thought it was so neat and laughed, "WHOA!" when all of the pepper moved. He then just sat and watched (or should I scientifically say, observed) the pepper, water, soap bowl for a while afterward. I guess the reason why it does that is because the soap breaks the water tension. I read and explained it to Luke and Isabel, but I don't think I get it yet. All science is just magic to me.

Isabel then worked in her writing book while Luke read his new book from the library, Golden and Grey by Louise Arnold while I made some quesedillas for the pot luck lunch at the park. For all of you in cold weather now, be very jealous, it was great, kind of hot even. We brought Luke's friend Aden, who is on track break, home from the park with us. So of course on the drive home, I had to cruise by the elementary school so that we could taunt out the window, "WE'RE NOT IN SCHOOL!" Unfortunately for us, at that moment all of the kids at the school were out on the field flying kites, playing games and having a grand time. But of course we decided we are having much more fun than they are.

Our Artificial Stomachs

Today we each got a stomach (plastic sandwich bag) put some acid and juices in them (water with green food coloring.) We then chewed up a saltine cracker (smashed it in our hands) and swallowed (jammed it down a funnel.) Sometimes we had to make sure we had enough saliva (water) to get the crackers down our throats (the dry crumbles of crackers would get stuck in the funnel.) We then used our hands to help our stomachs churn the bolus (chunks of food) into chyme (mashed up food and stomach juices.) Afterward they colored a paper stomach and glued it onto their paper bodies.

Isabel wanted to "throw up" in the sink, but I was not in the mood to be that much fun.

Luke and I did some Mad Libs together while Isabel practiced writing the letter "G." They then did their math worksheets and now Isabel and I are having reading time. We will watch the movie Planet Earth later this afternoon.