Fun finds – Page 11 – Letters from Home

Transpiration

There is a little water droplet on the tip of each blade of grass.

These make me happy.

Transpiration is the process where plants lose water through pores called stomata. This allows for exchange of gasses needed for photosynthesis and allows water to flow through the plant to distribute nutrients.

Surprises in the backyard

I love the ingenuity that Daniel brings to outdoor play. The lizard in the background is not real, but there are many small lizards in our yard. They provide a lot of entertainment as we try to catch them.

It takes two years for an iris to blossom after you transplant. These were a gift from a good friend. A few weeks ago I had a dream that my irises were blossoming ( I also dreamed that Barbra Streisand was my nosy neighbor, looking over the fence at me as I swung around from a vine like Tarzan’s Jane). Today my dream is coming true. The iris part, that is.

Have you been watching The Owl Box? Some folks in San Marcos, CA have placed an owl box in their yard and some owls have nested there. They have a camera on the nest and several eggs have hatched. There is an egg about ready to hatch. It’s like The Truman Show with owls.

Chickie says hello

“Markie loves Chickie,” says Mark.

Mark took this picture and asked me to put it on the blog with the word, Tweet! for hello.

And now, a word from Mark:

guyvugvbfgudyvubgfubvgubdfuvbygibvdfvibgbbfbgvd

The Cranberry Ladies

I bought our own copy of this little series on DVD. We have all laughed and mourned and learned to love the characters of Elizabeth Gaskell.

Missionaries for Grandma

We made some missionary scenes for Grandma with our legos. This is scene #1.

Tomorrow’s church service will basically be the Ross Family variety show. We’re doing the speaking and the music. Paige, Richard, and I are speaking and Daniel is playing Families Can Be Together Forever on the piano.

Sometimes it’s best not to ask

We’ve had some big adventures with the homeschool club this year. During the first semester, we made ice cream, did a leaf chromatography experiment, performed many light experiments, built a hovercraft, taught many robotics classes, and today we made flashlights, batteries, and built circuits. Richard and I (and the other parents who help out) are really exercising our science-teaching muscles.

Do you want to know the favorite activity, according to one of the students?

Bubbles.

(We did this just for fun while the kids waited for turns to ride the hovercraft.)

Here’s a good recipe for homemade bubble solution. Ask your pharmacist for the glycerine.

2/3 c Dawn dish soap
3 tsp. glycerine
1 gal. distilled water

Mix all ingredients and allow to sit uncovered for four days. It just gets better with time. While you’re at it, you should try making your own bubble wand out of a hanger. Bend it into a circle and wrap cotton yarn around it so it will soak up bubble solution. You can make huge bubbles with this.

Here’s another solution we tried, but it didn’t work as well as the first:

2 c Dawn dish soap
6 c water
3/4 c Karo syrup (corn syrup)

*Photo by my friend, Monica.

Nativity Puppets

Using my Aunt Kate’s concept from the nativity blocks she gave our family about 14 years ago, I occasionally make these felt nativity pieces for friends. This time, my friend was looking for something she could use for a puppet show on Christmas Eve, so I glued craft sticks to the backs. I think they are cute. The little ones love to hold them, crookedly and charmingly.

Physics Fun

Today was the day we finished making our own hovercraft. I’ve been holding on to this idea since college.

Here are some photos of our process today. We tried all of this yesterday but it failed. Today was try #2 so we were professionals (and true scientists).

hovercraft 001