Magic and Mayhem

…that we’ve done, seen, learned recently:

1.  The Penny Experiment

We put 10 dirty pennies in 10 cups of various liquids and left them for 2 days.  We talked about acidity and how Coke is supposed to eat the rust off of things because of how acidic it is.  We had cups of things like homemade pickle brine, salt water, mustard, baking soda and water, baking soda and vinegar, soapy water and plain water.  Then we cleaned them off and decided which liquids cleaned best.  The winners were mustard, brine, Diet Coke and milk (which was a big surprise to the kids).  The only one to get really dirtier was the plain water one, which got nearly black.  Salt water also got worse.  The rest all got at least a little bit cleaner.

The Diet Coke one evaporated and the middle of the penny ended up out of the liquid.  The penny ended up very clean with a round dirty spot right in the middle. 

Our next experiment will be trying to duplicate our results and get rid of any variables that may have altered the results.  For instance, the mustard dried and had to be scrubbed off.  We were in disagreement about whether the scrubbing actually helped make that penny one of the cleanest.  We also want to see what happens if they’re just in the liquids for a couple of hours, plus cover one penny all the way in Diet Coke this time.

2.  A Trip to the Fair

We all headed to the tiny county fair on Friday.  We ran into friends, gathered information about everything from fish to marijuana (note to sheriff’s office: it may not be the wisest deterrent to list “a feeling of extreme relaxation and happiness” as a sign of marijuana use!) and checked out lots of fun critters.

This is why I’m a vegetarian. 

3.  Skink Tails!

When Daryl and some of the kids got to the camping site on Monday, they found what they thought was a snake.  Daryl gently stepped on its tail to keep it from getting away so they could look at it, and it broke its tail right off and slithered away!  They were left with a little gray tail that kept wiggling for several minutes.

After a little researched, Daryl found out that they had caught a skink.  Herpnet had an interesting page all about them, including:

Skinks look like small snakes slithering through the brush as they move their bodies in a very serpentine way when they run. One must use caution when trying to capture skinks. Often one will end up with nothing but a wriggling tail as the lizard scoots off to safety. Skinks may break their tails off by themselves by pushing it against a solid structure.

4.  Speckled Fawns & Other Wildlife

We have seen several fawns over the past few days, including this sweet little guy who sat and chewed grass while we talked to him for several minutes.

We’ve also had close encounters with grown up deer, red tailed hawks, dozens of shed cicada skins that the kids collected and a great big katydid that went for several rides on shirts and hands before finally taking off.

5.  Kindergarten

Jack is my little slavedriver when it comes to homeschooling.  Several times a day he reminds me that we need to do more kindergarten.  We read piles of books, we do crafts, we experiment, we make books, you name it.

Right now we’re making an alphabet book so he can practice writing words and letters.  We did the letter P with split peas last week and yesterday we did the letter W with word stickers.  He wanted to write a poem with the word stickers and he happily took the page around having every member of the family read his poem.

He’s also making his sisters do kindergarten with him.  :)  Speaking of which, I have to get going on finding stuff for today.  Have a great day!