Lionden Landing

Flavor Question: Can I make the peach flavor stronger by simmering the peaches on the stove? Texture Question: How can we make the edges less brown and still keep it cooked inside? Flavor Hypothesis - If I simmer the peaches on the stove, the peach flavor will get concentrated because we simmer off the water. Texture Hypothesis -If I bake the bread for one hour at 325 instead of 350, the inside will be done and the edges will not be crispy yet Experiment  Summary -We simmered the frozen peaches on the stove top between medium and medium-high until they thawed.  We then pureed them and the heat down to low.  We had the peaches on the heat for approximately half an hour. The flavor is definitely more intense. The peaches were hot so we had to be careful not to cook our eggs when we poured the peaches in. We mixed the dry goods into the rest for 40 seconds this time. We then separated the batter into two loaf pans evenly by weighing each pan as we added the batter....

Flavor Question: Can I make the flavor more even by pureeing the peaches and evening out the fruit (putting in more cherries and less peaches)? Texture Question: How can we make the edges less brown and still keep it cooked inside? Flavor Hypothesis -  If I Puree the peaches and divide the fruit in half I will make a more even flavor in the bread. Texture Hypothesis - If I bake it at the same temperature for only 50 min the insides will be done and the edges will not be burned yet Experiment  Summary - When making the bread this time, we used 1 cup of sweet cherries instead of1/2 cup of  tart cherries.  The peaches were pureed and measured 1 cup. I forgot to put in the nutmeg with the other spices, but luckily I remembered just before we mixed so we were able to fix it.  We mixed for for 35 seconds this time. We wrote down the empty bowl bowl weight wrong and accidentally put too much in one loaf pan.  The loaves were baked for 50 minutes at the sam...

Froggy and I are working on a really neat project while we are trapped inside this winter.  She and I are going to write our own cookbook.  The plan is that it will be a deliciously educational way to teach scientific method, math, writing, and practical life skills. We are going to work on  one recipe at time using the scientific method to analyze the changes we make as we  tweak and perfect the recipe.  The math will come in part as we change quanities and make conversions and weigh all the ingredients.  And the writing will be the best part as Froggy writes the scientific reports and as well as the recipe reviews. Stay tuned next week as we tackle our first recipe, breakfast loaf. We are starting with a very generic loaf so that Froggy can use her creativity and develop her own unique flavor profile.

Froggy and her friend, M decided to compare the soils in their gardens.  These contraptions simulate the rainfall while catching the runoff.  The shorter container is from Froggy's garden with potting soil while the taller container is from M's backyard where she uses plain dirt. You can see how much more erosion there was from the potting soil. Froggy finally understood why we have to keep refilling the pots.

  Doesn't that headline sound awesome?  Don't they look like fun?  Froggy and I certainly thought so.  We had all the requisite supplies so we jumped in.  .    We have made lots and lots of batches of slime. And this looked and felt identical. Tons of fun but not what we expected. The only difference between their "recipe" and standard slime is the addition of cornstarch. It is supposed to make the slime dry enough make a good firm ball. The slime did dry out some after we refrigerated it but it still went splat rather than bounced Linking to All Things Beautiful Science Sunday Meme

We are getting close to the end of our anatomy study.  We have been examining the skin in detail.  Today we took the opportunity to play forensics and examine our fingerprints in depth. We left latent fingerprints on a couple of surfaces.  First we tried our plexiglass tabletopper but it was too large and cumbersome to "dust" well so we switched to a small piece of glass.     We "dusted" for prints using flour and my small sifter.   We lifted the prints using packing tape and kept them for prosperity by placing them on piece of dark construction paper.  This made it much easier to compare prints. 

We are working on senses this week for science.  Froggy is used to all sorts of the standard vision games and activities due to the problems with her eyes.  So we wanted to do experiment with color vision.  We had a friend over and we all took turns trying to distinguish colors in a dimly lit room.     We used just a standard box of colored pencils and wrote with that pencil the color we thought it was.   These are our results.

After learning about the composition of the blood, Froggy followed it on its path through the heart.  She investigated the valves and looked at the differences in the muscles. 

As we continued our anatomy study, we moved from breathing to blood.  Froggy built this model of blood as a method of telling back but also an opportunity for Froggy to teach her friend J.(roughly the same age) in a way both of them enjoyed. Our model only had four ingredients like blood only has four main components.  The plasma is made from corn syrup.  We used about a cup.  The color is similar to plasma.  It took some convincing before J would believe that the majority of blood is really that color. We used red hots for the red blood cells.  As you can see in the picture they share their color with the entire mixture as real red blood cells do. White jelly beans represented the white blood cells and gave the children a chance to see the relative proportions.  Sprinkles were added for the platelets.  Ours were bigger than they really should have been but close enough.  Froggy even demonstrated how they work by mashing t...

 Our anatomy book is very very detailed provided more information than many middle school texts.  I don't know if it is Froggy's interest, the way the book presents the material or what but Froggy is thrilled with this book. Friday was supposed to be a "vacation" day with no "school work"  Froggy was thrilled and decreed "it can be free play as soon as we do Parsha and Anatomy" You know something is working right when the kid asks for a given subject on their day off.  This week in our anatomy work we looked at the respiratory system.  We discussed the structure of the respiratory system and Froggy drew her impression of what it looks like.   She calls them upside down trees. Then we built a model of the lung with a working diaphragm.   The bottle is the chest cavity and blue balloon is the diaphragm.   The red balloon is the lung itself.  It actually inflates when the diaphragm is pulled.    

We are having so much fun with our anatomy study.  We are not doing all of the experiments listed but we are doing some of them.  This one was tons of fun.  We looked at how soda effects tooth enamel. The basic experiment suggested placing a hard boiled egg in cola to see what happens since the shell of an egg is very similar to the enamel on our teeth.  We went farther. We wanted to see specifically what in the soda might be hurting the enamel, the sugar, the carbonation or the carmel coloring. We put one egg each in regular Coke, Diet coke, and seltzer. We watched them and tested them every few days over the course of two weeks.  The final results were very surprising.  The cola colored the eggs as expected but the seltzer totally ate through the shell.  So the results showed Froggy that even without sugar or carmel coloring, carbonation is bad for your teeth.

We took a field trip to the Natural History Museum with another homeschooling family.  Since we were with friends, we visited rooms we would not have otherwise namely the rock and mineral collection.  Our two little princesses were immediately captivated by the tiaras.  The other jewelry was intriguing as well.  The girls took pictures on their own in additions to the ones by the grown ups.   They even chose to stand in line to view the Hope diamond.  Eventually we made it through the gems to minerals.  This fuzzy one was a favorite with the little people  Personally my favorite was the rainbow of minerals.  I love how it shows the beautiful variety of HaShem's creation.  Purple is a favorite color with both girls and they asked for this picture especially.  There were even a few specimens that the kids could touch.     And then we moved into plate tectonics.  We looked at the Ring of ...

While we are still using Ambleside for the majority of our secular subjects, we chose Human Anatomy over their science this year.  We purchased the accompanying notebook and Froggy is using that for guide for her narrations.  Our first topic was cellular anatomy.  Froggy illustrated the structure of the cell as we read about it. She is so thrilled with the science that we actually struggle to contain the excitement enough that I can read the information to her.  The best part in her opinion is the projects that are included in the book.  This week's project was making an edible cell to demonstrate cellular anatomy.  Yellow jello formed the cytoplasm    Froggy added all of the organelles following the key I provided.  She had a blast deciding how many of each organelle and where they should be placed.     This is what it looked like when she finished adding the organelles  . And here is the unmo...

Our family volunteers extensively with the Children's Science Center .  This endeavor holds a special place in our hearts.  These are the people who provide the Mobile Science Nights I have talked about before.   Today, Froggy was able to participate officially for the first time.  She was a Youth Ambassador for the Founders Society Fundraising Event .  She greeted the guests as they arrived and then pass out the presents during the reception.  I was so proud of her.  She bounced all week in preparation.  She does not look like a little girl anymore particularly when she gets dressed up for events like this.  I was so proud of her.  She was so mature and responsible.  She used polite manners and actually talked to strangers in an audible voice while greeting them.  My only regret is that I did not take any pictures.  I am hoping the CSC posts some so I can share them as well.

This semester Froggy is participating in some new homeschool classes on a school campus.  Several friends have strongly recommended this program.  But it is expensive and did not fit our schedule in the past so we have been reluctant. But we finally bit the bullet and registered.  Yesterday was the first day. Her first class is Beginning Chess.  These are drop off classes so I don't get to see what goes on inside and only get Froggy's recap as my information source.  She was so eager going in. Her second class is "Space Adventures"  According to the syllabus , much of the information covered will be review for Froggy but I think the experiments will be fun for her and a good learning experience. I did not hear anything about either class during the afternoon, only about the kids  in class with her.  But when Abba came home she could not stop bouncing with excitement.  Apparently she wanted to tell us together.  She gave the most...

Many of Froggy's friends have rejected the Burgess Animal Book as being too boring and "teachy".  Given that the premise of the book is Old Mother Nature is teaching the little creatures about their relatives and friends. Froggy, on the other hand, loves this book. She cannot get enough of it.  We finished all of Order Rodentia and started meeting some new friends.  Last week, we met the Order Insectivore which consists of shrews and moles.  This week, we met Flitter, the Red Bat and his cousins.  Froggy found them fascinating.  Here is her narration of the chapter.  "Flitter the Bat has three really long fingers, as long, as his forearm.  He is super fast and a reddish brown color.  he has three to four babies at a time.  He can't even find where is wife and babies are.  But the babies are find because they are with the mommy who takes good care of them.  He is also called the tree bat because he lives in the tree ra...

Today is Rosh Chodesh Tevet. To me the Rosh Chodesh during Hanukkah is extra festive.  Last night even more so. During the dark of winter, the dark of moon may seem even darker, but last night the sky was lit up with meteors.   We are not night owls but still took the time to go out and watch for a bit.  It was a beautiful.  Hopefully tonight will be even better.

We went on a fieldtrip to the "Dinosaur Museum" aka the Natural History Museum .  Most of the time we go on a fieldtrip of any sort I am content to just let the learning happen.  This time I took the opportunity to encourage a bit.  We have been learning tons about Order Rodentia in our Burgess Book .  So I suggested we start our adventures in the Mammal room where they have some exhibits on various rodents.   We s   Rodents are an evolutionary success story .   This is probably what Johnny Chuck looks like when he sleeps the ":big sleep"    "Who is he?  I bet he is a close cousin to Peter Rabbit."  Thanks to my new start point,we got to see other new exhibits including an origins of Man exhibit with cave paintings.  But soon everyone was clamoring for "whales" and we headed over to the Ocean exhibit.  Our friends took us to their favorite exhibit, a new one for Froggy who never makes it o...

As you may recall, we are reading The Burgess Animal Book for Children as part of our science studies.  In this week's chapter, Old Mother Nature explains the larger relationships that bring all gnawers (rodents) together. Froggy and I have never done any animal classification before at all.   It was fun building the chart with her.  It was amazing how much she remembered.  After filling out our tiny snippet of a chart, we looked online to see the larger scope and the proper names for the various levels.  We also played an amazingly fun game that shows the different classifications of chordates. Froggy loved it so much she begged to play it over and over again even days later. 

It seems that every time, we visit Boston the kids' favorite thing to do is visit the Science Museum.  Before we headed in,  we warned the children that it would be a particularly short trip since we needed to leave before lunch The first thing, they wanted to do was an old favorite, the forces room.    Froggy had tons of fun with centrifugal force.  She has played on this one before but this was the first time she actually got the idea and made it work right.    Our little friend S. (age 3) is finally old enough to explore on his own and not run amok.  He had fun trying out the balance.  Next stop was fluid dynamics.  Everyone wanted to play with the water at first.  But Froggy stayed long after everyone else lost interest.  This neat table is supposed to help you test your peripheral vision but S. just wanted to make the lever arm swing.  The best part in my opinion of the whole event was the ...