Nutrition Study: Testing Fat in Foods

We have been studying nutrition for part of our science & last week we did an experiment to test the fat content in foods.  My son was surprised at what foods had the highest fat content.  This is something fun & simple for your kids to do.

First get a brown paper bag & cut out 5 two inch squares.  Have your kids choose 5 different foods around the house that they would like to experiment with.  We chose mayo, peanut butter, canned chocolate icing, hot dog, & 1/3 less fat cream cheese.  You can also use cookies, cereal, yogurt....just whatever you have around the house.

Next cut or scoop out a marble size piece of the food you want to test.  Make sure you get the same amount for each food so you get a fair result.  Next rub the food on the brown paper for 20 seconds & then let it sit there for 2 hours.  My son had fun rubbing the chocolate icing & licking his fingers afterwards!

Study of the Digestive System: Stomach & Small Intestine

For anatomy today we did a couple of quick activities to go along with our study of the digestive system.  We have been studying about the stomach & how it turns food into chyme in our Apologia course Exploring Creation Human Anatomy.   Now it takes the stomach 3 to 4 hours to turn food into chyme & this activity gives your kids a visual idea of how it works.

Put a piece of bread inside a Ziploc baggie & fill it with water (enough to cover the bread).  Then place that baggie inside another one to help prevent leakage.  Have your child squish & squeeze the bag like their stomach would do.  Let them see what happens to the bread & explain that this is how the stomach churns the food that they eat.

After the food leaves the stomach it goes into the small intestine & is processed another 3 hours.  That is really quick because the small intestine measures 20 feet!  So the food moves pretty quickly during this process.  

For an activity get a measuring tape & have your child measure out 20 feet.  This gives them a great visual of how long the small intestine is & they will be amazed that something that long is inside their bodies!

Another great tool in teaching digestion is Bill Nye The Science Guy: Digestion Classroom Edition.

Robert Toombs & Civil War Recipe

A couple of years ago we went on a business trip with my husband to Washington, Georgia.  While we were there we took a day to visit the Robert Toombs house & made it part of our history study.  His home has been turned into a museum for the public to view. 

Robert Toombs was an attorney & was instrumental in helping the South secede from the Union during the Civil War.  He became Secretary of State for the Confederacy, however, he really wanted to become president.  When Jefferson Davis was chosen for that position Toombs was not happy.  He eventually resigned & lived out the remainder of the war at his home in Washington.

While we were there I picked up a recipe that was made by Mrs. Toombs.  If you are doing a Civil War study this might be a neat project to do with your kids. 

Saliva & Digestion

This year we are doing a human anatomy & physiology course which is really interesting.  Right now we are studying the digestive system & learned that saliva starts digesting your food before it gets to your stomach.  In the saliva is an enzyme called amylase & it breaks down starches. 

We did an experiment to show how amylase works on starches & it is so easy to do you can try this with your kids.   Put a piece of saltine cracker on your tongue but DO NOT CHEW....that is the hard part.  Leave it on your tongue & see what happens.  You should soon start tasting a sweet taste because the amylase breaks down the starch into sugar. 

Now do the same thing with a piece of cheese.  You will see that nothing happens because there is no starch in the cheese for the saliva to break down.  The process of breaking down starch is the beginning of chemical digestion.

 Did you also know that without saliva your taste buds won't work at all?   So try this experiment with your kids or try it yourself (I did),  & be thankful for your wonderful spit!

Writing a Story with Dialogue

Today in school we had to start the process of writing a story with dialogue.  My son hates writing a paragraph much less a story from his imagination....with characters in conversation!  So again we are taking it step by step.

First we are coming up with "seed ideas", using things around us to come up with a plot for his story.  We made a folder out of construction paper to hold all of his "ideas" & then started looking through newspaper, magazines, etc.

I told him to cut out anything that was interesting for a setting....where would the story take place?  Photos of cities, houses, woods, mountains, beaches, etc.   Then I asked him to cut out photos of people that would make interesting "characters".  Old, young, anyone with a different look, etc.   The third thing I wanted him to look for was clothing...what would your characters be wearing?

Writing Reports

I hope everyone had a great Easter break!  We had our spring break this past week after Easter so just started back to school today.  We did not have any plans to go out of town but ended going to Florida for a few days for a friends funeral.  It was sad but also great to see old friends. We also stayed with my sister & mother while we were there so it was nice to spend time with them as well.

This past weekend I let my son have a sleep over both Friday & Saturday night with two different groups of friends.  There was Star Wars Monopoly Clone Wars, sword fighting in the dark, & slidding down the stairs in sleeping bags.   During the day they played in the creek & explored the woods behind our house.   So after two days of a house full of boys I was happy to take my nap last night ...woke up in time to watch Amazing Race.

Today it is back to school work & writing reports.  If you have ever read my other posts, or have a child who struggles to do any type of creative writing, you understand why I hate teaching on days like this.  This time hasn't been as bad because we have broken it down into bite size pieces.

First he decided what his topic would be.  He chose two different topics & then made two lists for each topic...what did he know about them & what did he want to learn about them.   His two topics were Mythological Creatures & the Alamo.  He decided he could find out more information specifically for the Alamo whereas mythological creatures may be to broad of a subject.

Science Fair for Homeschoolers

We went this morning to our homeschool groups "class day".  We did art & a Think It class, ate lunch with the group & came home.  We had been doing science fair classes at the beginning of the year, then realized that we really couldn't do justice to the projects with the time alloted, so those classes were cancelled. 

I am always looking for things that interest my son & science is one of those areas he really enjoys.  When we arrived home I checked my emails & saw the notification for CurrClick's science fair & thought I would share it with you.   Enjoy!
Sign up for CurrClick's Earth Day Science Fair! Live coaching sessions, teamwork, prizes and loads of fun. 6 individual contestants will win a "My First Lab Duo-Scope Microscope." Click the title above for more information or to join a team. (Hurry, teams are filling up fast!)

For information on science fair projects & to get ideas for different age groups go to http://www.all-science-fair-projects.com/     Even if you decide not to do a group project online these would be great to try at home on your own or with your homeschool group.

Science: Study of Water in the Foods We Eat

In science this week we have been studying water & how it is needed by all living things.  It keeps plants, animals, & people alive.  We also discussed the amount of water in the things we eat.  Not surprising to me was that watermelon is nine-tenths water.  However, what did surprise me was the following statistics.

Milk is nine-tenths water, apples eight-tenths, eggs seven-tenths, peaches nine-tenths, & potatoes eight-tenths.  Wait...potatoes?  So we did a little experiment to prove this point.  First we sliced a baking potato & weighed a couple of the slices on our food scale.  The two slices together weighed 1 ounce.

We then placed the slices on a paper towel & left them in the window to dry for three days.  After drying for a few days we weighed them again & I was shocked....one-fourth ounce!  Three-fourths the weight had evaporated away.

Even then all the water was not removed.  It would have taken several days drying in an oven to remove all the water.  So if you are looking for an easy experiment to show your kids how much water is actually in the foods we eat & how important water is to us, try this experiment.  It is quick & easy to do.

Homeschool Classes

Today was our Monday for homeschool classes with our homeschool group.  For art they did a quick study of Picasso & then had to paint a self-portrait of themselves.  First they sketched it out in pencil, traced it with a sharpie & then painted it with Tempura paints.  I must say I don't think there are any budding artists in the group from what I could see, but it was fun for them.

Next was the "Think It" class.  They discussed solid shapes, like cube, pyramid, etc...then had to try & build a solid shape with nothing but straws & paper clips.  It had to be thigh-high in height & be able to stand on its own...and had to be done in 20 minutes.  I wanted to jump in ofcourse & try to give ideas on how to make it a free standing 3-dimensional object, but us parents had to leave it up to the kids to figure out.

  Our high school group was successful in doing a pyramid & the 1st graders would have done a great cube if they had not run out of time.  The rest of the kids had ideas but just couldn't figure out how to implement them...but it was a fun challange.  Afterwards we discussed with them why their design did not work & what they could do next time to make it better.

After a quick lunch we continued with our "Mystery Powders" class.  We had small groups work on seven different kinds of powders (Sugar, Salt, Cornstarch, Wheat Flour, Plaster of Paris, Baking Soda, & Quartz Sand).  We treated each powder with Water, Vinegar, & Iodine to see what kind of chemical reaction would occur if any.  We also had them do a heat test over an open flame to see if heat changed the powder or reacted in anyway.

Lastly we had the group divide into teams so that they could start working on their science fair projects.  My son's team will be working on rockets...should be interesting.  They have all year to work on them & then will have a chance to show their work at the end of the year celebration.

If you are not in a homeschool group & live in the Paulding County, Georgia area...check out Home Learners Alliance.  You can find them online. Otherwise check out different sites online for groups in your area where you live to get your kids connected to different activities that you may not be able to do on your own.   It is a great way to make new friends!

Ocean Box: Sponges

If you are looking for a great science course on the ocean check out, "Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day".  This is a course that we completed last year. At the end of each section we made a creature for our ocean box to commemorate the completion of that study.  In the last section one of the creatures we studied was the sponge.  So today I want to talk a little about sponges.

There are thousands of different species in the ocean.  Not all sponges are soft, some are hard & prickly. They come in all shapes & some are as tiny as your finger or as large as a shower stall.   They all look like they are plants instead of animals.

Although it is an animal it has no eyes, ears, brain, nerves, heart, or blood.  Sponges attach themselves to a rock and are "sessile", which means they never move from that spot.  What makes them an animal & not a plant is the fact that they are consumers...they eat food.

Free Atom's Class

I have found a really neat website that provides online classes for all different ages & in all different subjects. Most have a VERY reasonable cost while others are totally free. One that I have signed up for my son to do is a science class on "Atoms". This class is FREE & comes with a downloadable PDF file for your study. This class will be held on September 15th at 11am. To sign up & to view other classes you may find interesting, go to http://www.currclick.com/index.php?affiliate_id=72839

Japan: Make Your Own Origami

We have been studying Japan for Social Studies, so today we did an origami project. At first my son moaned about doing it...he is 11 after all! But I know he loves doing art projects & this would be right up his alley.

We found a great website with tons of patterns & animated videos that take you through each step. They also have their patterns categorized from easy to difficult so you can chose a pattern that suits your skill level.

My son chose 3 different ones: A cat, a penguin (his favorite animal), & a snake. All of these were from the easy level & took less than 15 minutes to make each one. We used construction paper that we had on hand & then he finished off the details with markers.

After you have finished you can display them by hanging them from the ceiling of your school room. So if you are looking for a project to do with your study of Japan, try this & get in some art at the same time. Their website is http://www.origami-club.com/en/

Make Your Own Catapult

Today for science I wanted to do an activity to finish off our study of machines. So I looked at putting together models of complex machines (cars, planes, etc.), or at putting together our own working machine...the catapult.

We decided on a catapult that was easy to put together & only required items that we could find around the house. Any project that doesn't cost money is fine by me! So I found a design that uses office supplies & within 30 minutes we had a working catapult.

All you need for this are pencils, rubber bands, tape & a bottle cap (from bottled water). For more information on how to make this & other cool projects, go to http://www.stormthecastle.com/

From their homepage look on the left hand side under "Projects" & you will see a link for "Make a catapult".

Machine Chart: Complex Machines

We have now completed our "Machine Chart" of simple machines. The last column however is for Complex Machines. Complex machines are simply any machine with two or more simple machines combined.

They do not have to be big to be complex. For example, the axe is a complex machine because the handle works as a lever & the cutting edge is a wedge. So the two simple machines working together make this a complex machine.

There are many complex machines around you that are used in your home & yard. Some examples are the lawn mower, washing machine, & vacuum cleaner. They are also used in your community: like machines in factories used to make things or the trucks that carry food to the grocery store.

In your final column on your chart list a variety of complex machines. Look all around you to find as many as you can. Think of forms of transportation, what keeps your house cool in the summer or warm in the winter, & what machines are used on a construction site, etc. While you are searching for complex machines, keep your eyes open for more simple machines that you may have missed & add them to your other columns.

This ends our "Machine Chart" project. I hope you learned about machines & how useful they are!

Simple Machines: Pulleys!

On to the last column of our simple machines: Pulleys! My son said, "I love pulleys, I don't know why." Maybe it is because pulleys are fun! When you see a flag raised up the flagpole it is being pulled up with pulleys.

A pulley is a wheel with a groove in its edge. A rope fits into the groove. When the rope is pulled, the wheel turns. Anything attached to the end of the rope (the load) is moved. There are two kinds of pulleys: a fixed pulley & a block and tackle.

A fixed pulley is attached (like the flag pole) & can only be moved in one direction...as in up & down. In the block & tackle there are two or more pulleys...one is fixed & the other is attached to the load (or the item being moved). These pulleys are the block & the ropes that connect them is called the tackle. The more ropes & pulleys used the easier the job will be.

Sometimes it is hard to recognize pulleys around you. Here are some other examples that maybe you have not thought of. Curtain rods, tow trucks, mini-blinds, & cranes. Draw or cut out photos to paste to your chart. Look around & list as many as you can on your chart.

As you see on your chart there is one last column left empty. We will be working on that later but as for now we are done with our columns of the six simple machines. I hope you had fun...check back to finish the last column.

Simple Machines: Wheel and Axle

Next column on our Machine Chart is the Wheel & Axle. We just talked about screws in our last column, but what would a screw be without a screwdriver? That's right...a screwdriver is a type of wheel & axle. The axle (rod) fits into the head of the screw & the handle serves as the wheel as it turns. Your hand supplies the force.

The wheel by itself is just a roller. It is useful because it can help do work with less friction, but it is not until you connect it to an axle does it really become a useful machine. Of course we automatically think of cars when we think of the wheel & axle...what others can you think of?

How about a doorknob? The rod through the door is the axle & the knob is the wheel. Once again your hand supplies the force & they all work together to move the latch. Wheel & axles move things easily & help make work easier to do.

Some other objects that fall under this category are gears. Gears are sets of wheels that work together. One wheel can work another wheel if they are notched together. When my son was little our McDonalds had a play table with legos & gear style building pieces. He & the other kids would put together elaborate sculptures & then they would turn one wheel which was connected to all the others & soon the whole thing had dozens of spinning wheels going at once. It was awesome! Sometimes us parents would jump in on the fun.

Bicycles work by one wheel turning the other one as well. This time a chain is used to connect the two. The larger wheel is connected to the pedals & then the chain connects the larger wheel to the smaller one on the front.

If you have a bicycle turn it upside down. Push the pedal slowly around with your hand. Watch the two wheels...one spins faster than the other, which one? The smaller one does. The larger wheel is connected to it making it move...it supplies the force. The speed of your bicycle is determined by how fast the front little wheel spins...the back wheel pushes the bicycle forward.

Can you find other wheels, axles, & gears around your home? How about an old egg beater (turned by hand), the inside of a watch (gears), a wagon, & a pencil sharpener (turned by hand). Remember to add photos to your chart & add any other items that you think of.

Simple Machines: Screws

We haven't worked to much on school work since it is summer after all, but we did get in some work this week & did some extra work on our Machine Chart for simple machines. The last column we worked on was for Wedges, so this week we continued with Screws.

Screws are a special kind of inclined plane...really, you say? Yes, the threads of the screw go around & around on an incline. Because of these threads, a screw will hold items more firmly than a nail. Try this experiment to see for yourself:

Place a thin piece of wood on top of a thicker piece of wood, then using a hammer, nail the two pieces together. Take two more similar pieces of wood & screw them together with a wood screw. Now try to pull the two pieces apart. You'll find that the screwed pieces are harder to pull apart. It takes longer to screw pieces together than it is to nail, but it is worth the effort.

Screws can also lift & lower things, such as in a piano seat. Spiral staircases are a type of inclined plane called a screw. Screws can make work easier by increasing the amount of work with less force.

Some other objects with screws that you can see added to our chart are: The mason jar, lids, a vise, bolts, drills & corkscrews. Look around your home to see if you can find more examples of the screw.

Science Project: Machine Chart...Wedges

This is the continuation of the Machine Chart that we have been working on. So far we have introduced the Lever & Incline Plane...today we will be discussing the Wedge. The wedge is a special kind of incline plane. There are several things that we use on a daily basis that are considered wedges.

One example is an axe head. It has two sloping sides that meet together at a sharp point. A wedge increases force. When you use an axe head the sharp side goes into the wood & the sloping sides follow causing the wood to split...by the force you use.

Other examples of wedges are a chisel, kitchen knife, pins & needles. The wedge on all of these tools make your job easier to do. One of our early American presidents used a wedge when he split rails in his earlier life....do you know who that was? Abraham Lincoln!

Even some animals have built in wedges that God has given them to make their life easier...can you name any of them? We have one animal in our yard that sometimes tries to drill a hole in our siding...it sounds like a jack hammer! It is the woodpecker. Look in your nature books to see if you can find other animals with wedges.

For our chart we labeled the third column "Wedge". We then listed some wedges....Chisel, Axe, Knife, Needle, Bird's Beak, Nail, & Teeth. Yes, teeth! Feel your two front teeth. The edge is sharp & then the sides slope wider. The sharp edge enters the food & then the "force" of your bite splits the food into pieces.

List as many wedges as you can think of on your chart & add drawings & photos if you wish. Later this week we will be working on another simple machine...the screw. So check back for our chart information & experiment that we will be doing on that.

Science Project: Machine Chart...Inclined Planes

In case you haven't read my earlier blogs, my son went to public school part of this year but decided that he wanted to come back to homeschool. He made the all A's Honor Roll while he was there because a lot of the work he was doing he had already learned at home, so he was ahead of the other kids. When he came back home I just picked up where we had left off in our Alpha Omega curriculum, so I am trying to catch him up by doing some extra work during the summer...just enough to keep him busy without making him feel like he has no time off.


Today we continued working on a Machine chart that we had started which deals with simple machines. On our last lesson we worked on Levers, today we worked on Incline Planes. We first did an experiment where we created an incline plane by stacking 4 books on top of each other & then we placed one end of a board on them & the other end on the floor.


We then took one of his toy trucks & we were supposed to attach a spring scale to the front of it & lift it straight up in the air to measure the force it took to do so. Then you are supposed to again attach the spring scale to the front & pull it up the incline plane to the same height & again measure the force. However, we did not have a spring scale so I made him pay close attention to which was easier as he lifted with his own hand.


The lesson is that raising the load over a sloping distance is easier than lifting it straight up. The advantage of the inclined plane is that a man uses less force to do his work by increasing the distance he moves his load.


We then worked on our Machine chart, (see earlier posts on how to make your own). Last time we had worked on the column for "Levers". Today we marked the second column "Inclined Plane". He then drew an example of an inclined plane, the ramp, & then listed a steep road as another example. We then glued a photo of a roller coaster & labeled that.

Unfortunately, he spelled roller coaster wrong & I didn't see it before he went over it in marker...oh well!

Tomorrow we will do our final day of school for the week & will be discussing Wedges if you want to check back & work on your own Machine chart.

Science Project: Machine Chart...Levers

Here is the continuation of the Machine Chart that we started for Science last week. The first column is being used for Lever's. We discussed different levers that you see in daily life.....see-saws, etc. We discussed the 3 different parts to a lever: load, fulcrum & force. We also did a mini-experiment with a hammer & nail.

Have your child hammer a nail half-way into a piece of wood. Then let your child try to pull it out with their bare hands...they should not be able to do it. Then using the claw on the hammer to pull it out you can teach them about leverage. The nail is the load (the object being moved), the hammer is the force (being made by pushing down on it), & the fulcrum is where the hammer rests on the piece of wood as you pull out the nail. The hammer should always have contact with the wood as you put force on it...which makes it easier to do. Just a quick example of a lever for your kids.

If you are following along with your own chart write Lever at the top of the first column. Have your child draw a picture of a simple lever (we did the see-saw). Then list anything you see around your home that falls into the Lever category. We listed the hammer & nail, and an arm. An arm uses Lever movements...when you pick up something your elbow acts as the Fulcrum as you pick up your Load.

Then cut out any photos that show Levers & attach to your chart in the Lever column. (Seesaws, hammer & nail, rowboat with oars, arm picking up something).

As you continue your study & discover other Levers, add them to your list & add more photos until your column is full.

Join us next week as we continue our study of simple machines & add new ones to our chart.