Science - Arches

The strength of an arch was proven in our science experiment today.  We carefully cracked four eggs at one end and  poured them into a bowl to scramble and eat for lunch.

Then we stuck tape around the center of each egg and carefully cracked the open end off until we reached the tape. This allowed the eggs to sit on their own with the arch side up.

Next, we place all four egg shells on the counter and placed books on them until the eggs completely cracked.

Our eggs held over 9 1/2 pounds of books!

Canada Highlights

We have left Canada and entered Brazil.  But I wanted to take a few moments to highlight some of our Canadian adventure.  Until our recent studies, I never desired to visit Canada.  Now, I think it would be really neat to see the Inuits that I grew up to know as Eskimos.  And to see the Northern Lights would just be phenomenal!  We learned that the Aurora Borealis shows a display at least once a week, which is quite often, but the Canadians never tire of seeing it.  They say it's never the same, so it's always amazing.

We made soap sculptures similar to how the Inuits carve into soapstone, which is how many of them make a living.

And some of them really do live in igloos! So, we made our own igloos from sugar cubes. I got to the igloo a little late with my camera and it was already falling apart by the time I snapped the picture! Nonetheless, they were fun to make!

We found many great books at the library on Canada - some we read, others we looked through.  I think I had about 100 books checked out at one point (for both kids)!

At the end of our last week in Canada (Friday night), we popped some popcorn, nestled under blankets on the couch and had a girl movie night while Daddy worked.  We watched Anne of Green Gables since it was made in Canada on Prince Edward Island.  I wasn't sure how my girls would like it, but they both loved it.  I even overheard my youngest talking to her friend about it the next day!  The book would have been a great read, but it's quite long and too much for either of my girls.  I did check it out anyway, hoping to read it myself, and to show them that the movie was made from the book.  Yes, I admit, I've never read this book!  Add it to the list of books I've never read but always wanted to!

One other fascination with Canada was Niagra Falls.  Emily really wants to go there now.  What a fun trip that would be!

Even though Canada wasn't quite as "festive" as Mexico, I think we learned more on this trip because we didn't know as much about the people, provinces, and territories; and we had fun doing it!

Celery Experiment Photo

The xylem tubes were removed from the stalk on the right yesterday, and it's already wilting!  And as you can see, the undisturbed stalk on the left is flourishing.

ECC Celery Experiment TIP

Peeling the strings off celery takes a while, so we peeled some by hand and then used a vegetable peeler to finish the job.  This was much faster and had the same end result. 

I recommend doing this experiment, although it's optional in the curriculum.  My daughter grasped the concept pretty quickly and using the vegetable peeler makes it fast and easy.

Science Experiment

Our experiment today involved ice cubes. We were to put ice cubes in two separate baggies, bury one in the dirt and leave the other in the sun. It would have worked great if we had dug the one up sooner! So, we did the same thing inside, only this time we put ice cubes in two bowls and place one inside the cabinet (shade) and one on the sunny windowsill. Success! The cube in the sun melted quicker.