Science

One subject I've struggled to teach well at home is science.  I want the boys to have a very solid science education, and they seem to have a natural interest in all science subjects.  The problem arises with follow through.  Every year I've planned out books to use, experiments to try, reports for Kyle to write, and many other good intentions.  But often we get busy,  we don't have the right supplies for the experiment I planned, and somehow science gets left off the schedule for the day.

In order to combat this problem, I have started scheduling science for Monday and Wednesday, instead of later in the week.  I plan on Sundays, so we usually start off the week motivated and with lots of fun things planned.  It is helping a lot and we have successfully completed our science plans both weeks this month.   This week we are working on learning the main parts of animal cells.  During nap time yesterday, Kyle, Luke, and I peeled off a very thin slice of onion skin.  Kyle prepared the slide and we all looked at it under the microscope to see the small onion cells.  I pointed out the cell membrane that we had discussed earlier.  Then to demonstrate osmosis through the cell membrane, Kyle added a drop of salt water to the onion slide, and we all watched the cells shrink as the fluid passed through.

Then I decided that it would be easier to see the cells if we used the blue stain included with the slide kit.  The word stain in the name should have been enough for me to stop there, but I was in science teacher mode!   The blue stain bottle was being difficult, and Kyle couldn't get any to come out.  I'm impatient, so I said I would do it for him.  It splattered out all at once!  I've been finding blue stain all over since then.  Somehow it got on Luke's foot, Kyle's elbow, and then on my foot this morning after I guess I stepped on another spot that we missed yesterday.  I hope it is all gone now, but I'm sure I'll find some more specks somewhere this week.

At least we finished science!