Dandelion Jelly

We made dandelion jelly today! The weather finally cleared up and it was a beautiful day so we decided it was time to get a batch made up. The kids loved running around outside picking dandelion flowers. The only problem is:



Even after you wash your hands two times, they are still yellow!

Nick decided he was going to help me make the jelly. He brought in my huge canning pot, boy, did that make him proud, the pot is half his size, but it's very light. Once we had the pot in, I put him to work taking the lids off the jelly jars and dividing the lids, rings, and jars.



Next he poured the dandelions into the pot:


Then the water:


Nick thought that the jar rings made an excellent bracelet.


All done :)

Return of the Dinosaurs

We've actually officially reached the point where we are learning about dinosaurs now. We've watched some videos, read tons of books, and now Nick has decided it's time to resume painting his t-rex that he dug out of the sand back in September or October. So yesterday we finished up the red layer of paint. Tomorrow we'll work on the next layer and i'll try to get some photos up.

An Interesting Conversation To Have With A 5 Year Old

I was sitting on the couch working the other night, and Nick and Erik were watching a science documentary on TV. Nick runs up to me, very excited (this is obviously not word for word):
Nick: Mom do you know how big a neutrino is?
Me: No, I don't, how big is a neutrino?
Nick (emphatically): Very small, it's even smaller than an atom.
Me: Do you know how big an atom is?
Nick: An Atom is so tiny you can't even see it! It's really, really, really tiny.
Me: And a neutrino is even smaller than that?
Nick: Yes, it's smaller than an atom, is super tiny.

So... my 5 year old son now knows about neutrinos. You'd have thought he was discussing dinosaurs he was so excited. Somehow I don't think teaching him science is going to be difficult.

Utah Natural History Museum

Sorry it has been so long since I've updated. I'm going to try to get you caught up most of the way today. A few weeks ago, we took a trip down to Salt Lake. Erik was finally feeling a bit better from his cold and had a touch of spring fever, so we needed to get out and do something fun.

The museum is on the campus of the University down there, so parking was very interesting to say the least. We spent 20 minutes circling around trying to find a spot to park that would give us long enough to visit the museum. The museum itself only has 5 parking spots and most of the other spots in that area have a 30 minute limit. We finally got one of the museum spots, only to find out they weren't enforcing parking that day (despite the signs everywhere that say they enforce 24/7).

Anyways, it was a great trip. We drove down and stopped at Jason's deli for lunch. When I lived in Oklahoma Jason's was one of my favorite restaurants, so it is a nice treat when we get it. We only discovered the Salt Lake Jasons in January, so this is only the 2nd time I've had it in more than 10 years :) Anyways, went to Jason's and my sandwich had some olive pits in it. I couldn't believe it, I almost broke a tooth! Thankfully I didn't though, and we all had a very yummy lunch topped with their free ice cream, and I got to bring home yummy left overs too!

Then we stopped off at the chocolate factory, where you can watch them make their chocolates. Unfortunately, it turns out that they do not make chocolate on the weekend LOL... Still we all had fun looking around.

Next it was off to the museum! I was really surprised by the size and quality of the museum. I was a little nervous when I found out it was on a college campus, but they use every inch of space and use it well. We were there for a few hours.

When you first get inside, they have this really cool dinosaur. Nick absolutely loved it.

The kids can "feed" it (money) and it talks to them. Nick thought that was great, then he had some fun feeding it his arm!

Nick had been talking a lot about totem poles lately, an interest that seemed to show up from nowhere, although I'm sure it must have come up in a book or TV show. You can imagine his delight when we saw this:

It was the first totem pole he's seen in person, and he was really excited.

And then of course... what good is a natural history museum without a spot to dig for dinosaur "bones" like an archaeologist?


After the museum Nick asked us if we could move, apparently there aren't enough museums in Idaho Falls. I'm so glad he enjoys museums, we love them and it's so nice to be able to share that time together.

Vibrating Marbles and Fire Stations

Today was a fun day. We started

Right now in math we're working on a review test to make sure he has retained the information from this section. We only do a few questions a day or it is too much for him, but I was really impressed today when he did his questions. The first question was to write 4 addition equations that equal 5. He was able to do it very quickly and his printing of his numbers was great! Then he had to do 4 equations that equal 6, I thought that might catch him up a bit more, since he's not been practicing the 6's for as long, but he got them no problem. I'm so proud of how he's doing with it.

In science we've been studying sound. So today we did a demonstration with marbles that shows how a molecule bumps into another which then bumps into another and so on carrying the sound to your ear. He understands the concept. I'm not sure if he got the connection between it and the marbles, but he had fun doing it.




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This afternoon we got to go to the firestation for a field trip. The kids had lots of fun. Nick especially liked the ambulance, more so than the fire truck. Here are a few pictures for our trip.


Nick explaining the uniforms to B.


Talking with the fireman.


Sitting on the firetruck listening to fire safety.


Sitting on the firetruck in a different spot.


Looking into the ambulance - Nick's favorite part.


Learning not be afraid of the fireman with all of his masks on.


Watching the fireman come down the pole.


Nick's turn! (No, they didn't let him come down the pole, but he sure had fun posing with it.)


Group photo (kinda fuzzy). Nick's at the back between the fireman and the lady with the baby.

Reading

Here's a fun video of Nick reading "The Big Log". This book is a lot harder than the last book we taped him reading, but he's doing fantastic! There are 2 videos because the battery died part way through. Sorry they're sideways!





If you can't see them, you can view them here
http://s37.photobucket.com/albums/e75/socksinfox/?action=view¤t=100_5636.flv

and

http://s37.photobucket.com/albums/e75/socksinfox/?action=view¤t=100_5637.flv

Cambrian Period

In history we're continuing to study the earliest time period and we're currently learning about the Cambrian Period. One of the important things about the Cambrian period is that it is the first period of time that showed some animals with shells. So, we decided to make a shell fossil today.



First we mixed up the plaster of paris in a paper cup, and then put the shell in it (we covered the shell with vaseline before putting it into the plaster to help with removal).





After the plaster dried for an hour, we removed the shell and there's our fossil. Tomorrow we'll be filling the cast with colored plaster to create another type of fossil. More about that tomorrow.