Friday, April 5, 2019

Studying World War 2, South Africa, New Chemistry textbook and the Cage Classic



We started our week off with an impromptu sleepover.  The girls had their cousin and another friend from our science club stay over.  Monday was National Waffle Day, so I got up and made gluten-free waffles for them.


Monday brought us Science and Geography Club.  We started the second textbook in our Chemistry book series.  This week we looked at Gallium, Oxygen and Magnesium (powdered).  The first experiment was to see if gallium would eat the surface of an aluminum lock.




We also started an aluminum soda can.


Gallium was very hard when it's cold.  But we got it gradually melting after holding it in our hands.  It was a cold day, so this took a while.



We resorted to using a space heater to keep the gallium from hardening.


The aluminum can began to melt after an hour!


I put the plate on the oven to keep it warm.  You can see that the gallium is starting to eat through the locks surface.

After about 4 hours, Joe helped the kids snap the lock apart using a screwdriver.







Now it obviously wouldn't be a great way for a their to break a lock..lol.  Took too long.

Then we tried the gallium beating heart.




It wasn't a dramatic beat.  But we could see a slight beat.


We compared calcium and magnesium reactions to water.


And also made elephant toothpaste.


This week we learned about South Africa.  I made Bunny Chow, a popular street food for them to eat.  Some liked it more than others.  It was like a chili curry with chick peas.




Our Science/Geography Club got the opportunity to take a special art class together this week.  It was on how to create optic art.  Even the moms got to do it also!






It was very fun to see all the kids interpretation.  Lydia hasn't stopped line drawing since then!

Some videos Brayden watched this week.  He finished his Human Science book, so I found that at the library for him.  I'll be honest, I was exhausted.  Didn't have his lessons planned out well.  This really worked for him.


 This week we started our study of World War 2.  Caty reminded me that we studied this two years ago, but I reminded her that each time we learns a bit more.  Each study is a little deeper into things....lol.  She gave.  She has decided that history is her new favorite subject.  She decided that next week we need to live like we have war rations for food.  We'll see how she likes that!

She spent a day making a depression era War Cake




She added some powdered sugar on top.  Just a little bit.



One day I made potato cheesy rarebit that I found the recipe online for.  It's a version of a Welsh dish that did not include meat.  The kids actually liked it.  But the cook books we researched really showed that creativity was needed for cooks in order to use their rations wisely.


We also did this activity, which showed us how hard it was to feed a family with ration stamps.  Our current society would struggle horribly in this area.


We watched this series to create our timeline of the war.

Countdown to Victory: World War II - on Amazon Prime


We attended an online Webinar put on by the National World War 2 museum in New Orleans.  It was very interesting about the recovery of art.  The girls and I also watched the movie Monument Men.


(My house was such a wreck that day.)

We also watched this National Geographic show.



We also used the Simple History video series on Youtube.

A little bit of exercise.....



And Lydia got the excellent news that she was accepted in the ZOOteen program!


Joey and Lydia had the privilege of representing Henry County Special Olympics at a local fundraiser.  Joey was even featured in the Newspaper!




They were in the newspaper insert.





A friend of ours came over on Saturday and got our kitchen ceiling fan installed!!  I'm in love!  It's going to be great when it starts getting warmer.


I finally got Joey's graduation announcements in the mail.  It seemed to take me forever.


We crammed grammar, literature, and math in around everything we were doing.  It's been a whirlwind of busy the last few weeks.  I'm hoping for some rest soon, but it may be too much to ask...lol.

Hope everyone had a great week!

Linking up with other moms at Homeschool Coffee Break...

Homeschool Coffee Break



1 comment:

  1. Sounds like a fabulous week! I love those science experiments and I must thank you for all the movie suggestions! we mostly cover history with movies and I was running out of ideas. I just requested one from our library and added the other to our Amazon watchlist!

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