Sunday, May 1, 2011

Real Life Science


We have 4 hens in our backyard (well in a makeshift pen). We had been given about 6 fertilized eggs by a friend several weeks back and one of our hens named Charlie took immediately to sitting on them. They take approximately 21 days to hatch (which was roughly Friday), but one by one we'd find an egg separated from the others Charlie was sitting on. Each was the one that Charlie discarded knowing (somehow) that a chicken was not developing. Each time we'd crack open the discarded egg to see if a chicken had been developing, but there were never any signs of a chicken. Just a bad egg. We were down to one final egg and found it discarded this morning (unfortunately). We figured the eggs either weren't fertilized or something else happened to them. So we figured this would be the case with this final egg too, but to our amazement this little egg had a fully formed baby chicken inside when I cracked it open. It had obviously been discarded because it was already dead. What's amazing is that it had taken the entire space of the egg (and it's a wonder these little creatures can even maneuver to peck their way out). So, no little chicken, but we were close. We'll have to try again.

The Egg Drop Experiment


Xander (9 years old) had a Cub Scout Day Camp last week which culminated in Friday night's Egg Drop event / family picnic / Ella's B-day dinner. Basically each Cub Scout gets to "protect" an egg within certain criteria and then it is dropped from an 80' crane to see if it cracks. Xander was successful in protecting his egg last year, but his egg didn't survive this year. This year he put his egg inside a balloon and then stuffed newspaper around the egg inside the balloon. Then he saran wrapped the egg, stuffed it into a "Mr. Potato Head" toy, attached a parachute and voila... a protected egg. Or not so much (as it turned out)!!! At least it was fun seeing Mr. Potato Head parachuting from 80'!!!

Ella's 3rd Birthday




Ella's birthday was this past week (Friday, April 29th). She is now 3 years (stubbornly) old!!! Grandpa & Grandma Olson sent her some new outfuts and her stubbornness shown threw immediately. I asked her if she wanted to try on a few of these items and she immediately said, "NO!!!" She always has to be in charge, so she decided what she wanted to wear (and when she decided to wear it), which was a blue outfit with bows and polka dots. Her wearing this outfit is a big deal... she usually (at least for the last 4 weeks) only wears one of two skirts and a multi-colored or pink stripped shirt. We have to pry them off to wash them every night (lucky for her I am doing plenty of laundry these days).

Discipline, Education or Both?

Choosing to homeschool our children is always an adventure. Stan and I especially feel the need to allow our children to be children and then expect that as young adults they will act the part; responsible, interested, and engaged (and not like most "teen-agers" we know)... because our children will have truly had a childhood and be ready for the responsibilites young adulthood.

With that brief philisophical introduction, we don't compel daily practice writing, the children write as needed and it may not be comparable to children their age at this point. Having said this...

Xander and Niko got into trouble this week by climbing into the neighbors yard. This neighbor is extremely kind...but they have 3 pitbuls in the back yard... needless to say, even though the dogs LOVE the kids... at any point they could become frightened and harm the kids... and then the dogs would need to be put down (killed). Both consequences would of course be detrimental.

Knowing that they were in BIG trouble, the boys offered many options of punishment, banishment to their room, cleaning all the bathrooms in the house, mopping the whole house (about 2000 sf of marble flooring)... you get the idea. But I thought they should have an opportunity to practice writing. A punishment they gladly accepted with no complaint. Xander wrote, "I will not go into the neighbors backyard" twenty-five times, Niko, ten times, and then the finale was writing a letter to the neighbor apologizing for the trespass and delivering it in person. After nearly 2.5 hours of writing, gigling and more writing, the task was complete... or so we thought.

Stan, in his infinite wisdom, confirmed with the boys that they personally delivered the letter, and mentioned that he would speak with our neighbor the next day.... suddenly Xander paused, "had to get something from the garage" and left the room quick as lightening. We of course knew that the letter had been detoured on the way to the neighbors.

In the end, the letter was hand delivered, the apology was given and the childrens' handwriting is much improved. (You wouldn't believe how much improved... all in one sitting. Now that's what I call home education.)