Red Cabbage pH Indicator

The kids are fascinated with chemistry! We're still studying acids and bases, doing a lot of playing and demonstrating while reinforcing the concepts (mental note: I NEED to figure out a good, buildable molecular modeling system ASAP), and so the other week Syd and I made red cabbage pH indicator for us to play with:

(Don't you just love our manky kitchen? The top of the microwave is the official place to cram all the dish towels, and yes, our countertops are made out of genuine plywood, but not the kind that leaches chemicals into your food. I think...)

Red cabbage pH indicator is the BEST thing to make! It's super easy and super fun to play with, and the vividness of the reactions makes them really satisfying. And unlike a lot of what we've been doing for chemistry so far, we don't know what most of these reactions will be in advance, which makes this an actual experiment, not a demonstration--yay!

So grab a liquid from wherever, pour a little bit into a test tube, add a little red cabbage pH indicator, agitate, and observe. Did the liquid turn a shade of beautiful pink?

You've got an acid!

Did your liquid turn gorgeous blue?

It's a base!

Can you actually not figure out what it's doing?

Yeah, that happens, too.

See, who ever said that organic chem was nothing but a weed-out class, anyway?

The kids had a marvelous time collecting various reactions-- 

--so much so that they *almost* didn't mind me making them write down all their observations, scientific-like.

And when they were thoroughly done playing, we still had over a pint of red cabbage pH indicator left to put in the refrigerator for later play:

Although how we could forget about that when we were dissecting batteries yesterday, I do not know. Bummer!

There are still a few activities that we could do for further study of acids and bases:

• Acids are the electrolytes in batteries--build a penny battery and a lemon battery. 
• The acid+base chemical reaction can carbonate beverages--make carbonated water and chocolate soda.
• Acids can clean metal and dissolve rock. 

We almost need to do a unit on atoms and molecules, though, before really proceeding much further, since I know the kiddos aren't understanding my explanations of hydrogen and hydroxide and why they want to be given up and re-combined, and Will's been getting very interested in the periodic table of elements lately, so it's possible that we'll switch instead from straight chemistry to a unit study on the elements that encompasses chemistry and other scientific and historical concepts...

Isn't science so exciting? 

P.S. If you've know of a good, buildable molecular modeling system, hit me up with it! I *want* the Zometool Molecular Mania Science Kit, since I already have a billion other Zometools, but I'm wondering if I could just spray paint the spheres in the kit that I already have to be the correct colors and score a bootleg copy of the instructions, instead. Or I could use gumdrops and toothpicks, but I'd end up eating the gumdrops. Hmmm...

My Latest over at Crafting a Green World: Free Chocolate and Disaster Preparedness

a write-up of the Make Your own Chocolate Kit from Glee Gum

a re-post of a colleague's round-up of DIY prepper projects

and a giveaway of your choice of your very own Make Your own Candy Kit from Glee Gum

The giveaway, in particular, is something that I am SUPER excited about. I want you to go over to CAGW right now and enter it, because I really, really, really want you to win, and then I want you to come back and tell me which candy kit you chose and how yummy it was.

Because it's going to be so yummy!

Fire Requires Oxygen

The premise of this demonstration is the knowledge that a chemical reaction of an acid and a base produces carbon dioxide and a salt, so it's a good one to conduct after you've been studying acids and bases for a bit.

You know, make the volcano, mix citric acid and baking soda and then add water, play with litmus paper, make red cabbage pH indicator solution, and THEN light things on fire!

NOTE: I bought some long-handled matches just for the kids, because yep, I let them play with matches.

First, have the kiddos stick a match into an empty test tube, just to prove that putting a match into the test tube won't necessarily cause it to go out.

Next, put a teensy scoop of baking soda in the bottom of a test tube. Punch a hole in a piece of paper, then syringe up a teensy bit of vinegar into an eyedropper and poke the eyedropper through the hole in the paper.

Set the paper on top of the test tube, so that the gasses formed by the chemical reaction won't be able to completely escape, and drop a couple of drops of vinegar into the test tube. You should see the chemical reaction when the acid and base mix.

Light another match, then remove the paper from the test tube but tip it, so that the gasses still can't escape. Just as you did before, stick a match into the empty test tube:

This demonstrates two facts: fire can't exist in all gasses, and the result of the vinegar and baking soda reaction is one of those gasses in which fire can't exist. The textbooks tell us that this particular gas is carbon dioxide--on another day, we can do more playing to try to prove or disprove this claim.

After the kiddos finished writing up and illustrating their demonstration and its results, Will enjoyed trapping the smoke from lit matches in an overturned test tube and observing it--

--and Syd and I later went out onto the driveway so that she could light some small fires while I put branches through the wood chipper:

Frankly, most of our science classes end with starting fires.

And that's okay by me!

One Spoiled Cat

This is the kind of stuff that Syd does to sleepy cats:

On the one hand, Syd is an inveterate cat pesterer, but on the other hand...

Gracie DOES look comfy, doesn't she?

Seven Photos from Christmas

Because seven photos are all I took. Seriously, my kids took more photos than me (with Polaroid film so they're even MORE awesome).

What I did not take photos of:

• The Hodos' amazing Christmas display. If you've never seen one of those houses that do Christmas lights on a major scale, you're missing out.
• Every time we went to Wal-mart. It's like some unwritten rule--every single time we visit my family in Arkansas, we end up at Wal-mart every. Single. Day. Once we bought hot chocolate mix there. Once we bought batteries. We bought me a knit cap, because I forgot mine in Indiana. We bought a flask for my kid cousin, before I double-checked and realized that he's actually TWENTY, not twenty-one (We gave it to him anyway, but NOT filled with hard liquor as in the original plan. Next year, Slick!).
• The gallows. Also required visiting in Ft. Smith. I have photos of me and my friends at the gallows on my wedding day. I'm not in my wedding dress, though... although in retrospect, I totally should have been!
• Pie. Matt, the girls, and I may have accidentally eaten an entire pumpkin pie before Christmas. Once I learned that Papa had made TWO pumpkin pies this year... well, it was inevitable.
• Christmas Eve pizza dinner. We got take-out from a different place this year, a place that clearly did not get the memo that in Arkansas, Hawaiian Delight pizza has maraschino cherries on it! HELLLLLOOO! Also, my baby cousin still eats Parmesan cheese straight, just like she did as a toddler.
• Santa stomping across the roof for the kids to hear. I've mentioned before that in previous years this event has driven Syd to hysterical tears, and frankly, it IS terrifying--Santa sounds like he's an inch over your head and is about to fall on top of you and kill you dead--but this year Syd was more than half asleep by the time Santa arrived, and as we hear the tremendous noise, and I brace myself for what seems like the inevitable fall and many broken bones, all she says is, "Be more quiet, Santa, please. Thank you," as if she was correcting her noisy sister, who, incidentally, was already asleep. A few minutes later, when Santa departs with much jingling, Will, too, is momentarily awakened. I hear her exclaim, "Sleigh bells!", and then she's back asleep, too.
• Syd finding a fallen sleigh bell on the sidewalk the next morning. She put it on the collar of her favorite stuffed animal and carries it nearly everywhere, which is weird, since it's clearly broken--I can't hear it make a sound.
• Will's brand-new stunt pogo stick. It's big enough for me to ride. I'm learning to pogo, y'all!
• My Aunt Pam's serious Christmas dinner spread, particularly the epic highlights of that dinner: cranberry salad and deviled eggs. 
• Me watching the Doctor Who Christmas Special that evening (my Papa has cable!), wearing jammy pants and my new Doctor Who T-shirt (from the kids), eating leftover cranberry salad and deviled eggs. Food of the gods, I tell you.
• Riding the Christmas train at the local park. It's a miniature train, my friends. A TRAIN! Textbook magical.

What I did take photos of:

 Pre-Christmas chatting with Santa. These kids rolled a +12 Innocence and Childhood Wonder and Sweetness that day. Ever since I took this photo, I've been looking at it whenever the kids pull their usual crap to remind me that they're actually adorable quite often. Just not when they're pulling their usual crap.

 Christmas morning. I was *trying* to get a photo of that sweet mixture of excitement and nervous anticipation on Will's face as we get ready to go see what Santa left them, but Syd's also behind her pulling her usual crap. Just remember that picture with Santa, Julie!

 Giant set of Darda racetracks. This was a freakin' Christmas win!!! The kid have played with this thing more hours than not since Christmas morning.

 Syd's face as she watches Matt open his present from her, a scarf that she and her sister sewed for him themselves. I guess I'll keep her, even though she does throw those rabbit ears around when I'm trying to take pictures.

 Two new Girl Scouts! And yes, it's clear that Syd has no idea what a Girl Scout is. Or does. Or whether or not she salutes her mother.

 Will chose a remote-controlled snake for her sister's present. Syd adores it. It gives me the willies.

Matt's Christmas sweater. My mama gave this sweater to Matt for Christmas the year before she died. Bless her heart, who knows what she was thinking--Deer? Really?--but Matt beamed when he opened it, told her he loved it, wore it the entire day (in that over-heated Arkansas house, no less), and has worn it all day, Christmas day, every Christmas since. I see my Mama in that ugly sweater every Christmas, and I see that good man I married, who's happy to wear an ugly sweater in her memory.

We are deep in the land of Staycation this week--my favorite place! There's a lot of hot chocolate with Bailey's here in this land, a lot of swimming in the YMCA's indoor pool, a lot of playing video games, a LOT of novel reading, a lot of baking of delicious things.

A lot lot LOT of happiness here, too, of course, but I bet you could have guessed that. 

California Field Trip #8: Bean Hollow State Beach

Everybody has a favorite beach. Bean Hollow State Beach is ours.

 

Work Plans for the Week of December 16: It's Almost Christmas!!!

NOTE: I don't know if you'll actually be able to see the above files--Box apparently updated to a new version in the past week,  and it's acting really glitchy for me; sometimes the files will show correctly, and sometimes they want to require some sort of (non-functioning) interactive feature to make them show. I'm assuming that at some point Box will figure out the glitch, and then the embeds will self-correct.

Anyway... It's the last week before Christmas break!!! We're going to take another week and a half to two weeks off for break (depending on whether the kids drive me nuts after Matt goes back to work on January 2 and I want to put THEM to work, too, or if they play happily with their new stuff and are a pleasure to be around, etc.), so I want to get all our work done in good time this week so that we can enjoy our holiday.

MONDAY: This Christmas craft gig has been going great! So far, the kids have done Christmas cards, ornaments, painted shirts, and letters to Santa, and this week I'm hoping for present making and wrapping and another ornament or two--see how I sneak in that useful stuff that I actually NEED to get done? Mwa-ha-ha!

We've got another non-typical schedule this week in that along with that Christmas craft spot, I'm ditching other requirements (I miss you, Latin and art!) so that the kids can do chemistry every day. One of the books that we read last week for chemistry--Acids and Bases (Why Chemistry Matters)--was AMAZING; totally inspired the kids, and had ideas for tons more expansion activities, so that's what we're doing this week! The pH indicators have been super fun, but I think the kids are really, really going to love mixing stuff in search of reactions on Thursday's schedule, and dissecting a battery...carefully... on Friday's schedule. There are other books in this Why Chemistry Matters series that I've requested from the library. If they're as good as this one, we'll be including them in our science unit, too.

We're still using Communicating Mathematics with Pattern Blocks for Monday's hands-on math, and I was rushed for time last weekend--350 birthday candles to pack and ship, among other chores--so I put it again in Friday's hands-on math spot. I normally try to be very thoughtful about their hands-on enrichment, but I LIKE the ability to just plug something in that's easy to set up and easy to do!

TUESDAY: I've FINALLY got both kids going on First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind: Level 3, and we like it so far! Syd's finding the dictation work a real stretch (since we totally skipped Level 2, and therefore she's technically a year too young for this level), but the grammar is spot-on for her, so we'll stick with it, and she'll see herself improving over time. I'm hoping to keep with two lessons a week, and keep the girls together, but if needed, I can keep Will at two lessons a week, and put Syd at one lesson plus one enrichment activity.

Will's been attending a math enrichment class on Tuesdays, while I stay home with Syd, but I think that in the new year I'm going to start sending both of them. I haven't been taking math off of the Tuesday schedule even with the class, but I think that I'll start doing that, too--a shortened schedule AND extra free time for me?!? Tuesday in 2014 is going to be a GOOD day!

WEDNESDAY: Today is usually our free day, but we've decided to take Friday off to go to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis and visit Santa, so we're working today, instead. I have no idea if we're going to just do Friday's work today, or Thursday's and part of Friday's--right now, the girls are working on their Christmas present to Matt, so that could be either day's Christmas craft--so I think we'll just wing it!

THURSDAY: Super short work day today, since we're going ice skating with our homeschool group, and then the girls are having a friend over for the rest of the afternoon and evening. If nobody throws a fit over their math packet (I've finally found a place in the curriculum where Will's being challenged, and she does NOT like it that she's no longer breezing through the material!), we should be able to easily get our work completed that morning. If not, I'm betting that their buddy would LOVE to help them mix chemicals and look for observable reactions!

FRIDAY: We didn't get to that papyrus papermaking kit last week, but I'm hoping that we will this week, because I'd like to move on with history in the new year, and that means more mummies and monuments, not cuneiform and papyrus.

And yeah... battery dissection. Don't ask me, because I don't know how this is going to go. I just know that Will's been asking to do it, we've seen a few tutorials, we have a book, we have old batteries, we have goggles and gloves...

... and we live pretty close to a great hospital with a great emergency room?

My Latest over at Crafting a Green World: Christmas Prep

a tutorial for kid-friendly filled ornaments

and a tutorial for a kid-painted Christmas tree shirt

We've been having a great school week so far, filled with Christmas crafts, math, spelling, and science. I tried to upload our work plans today, but the host that I use is giving me issues, so since I can't turn it off and then back on (A buddy of mine at college had a job supervising the photocopying and microfilm stations at our university library. Whenever people would come to him fussing about how the photocopiers or microfilm readers weren't working, he'd sigh, stand up, walk over to the machine, turn it off, count to ten, turn it back on, huff "There!" at them, walk back to his chair, and sit down), I'm just going to leave it alone for a day and try again tomorrow.

So my thoughts on the chemistry of acids and bases are just going to have to wait, I guess...