Making a Volacano

In our home school we have been reading about Volcano's and decided to make one out of plaster of Paris from a kit I purchased from ALDI.

Sir N and our kit.

Contents of our kit. Great easy to follow instructions.

Putting the elastics on to hold the pieces together.

Plaster of Paris ready to mix.

Poured the mixture into the mold.

I got a little bit of a start as it started pouring out the sides but no fear there was enough and it soon stopped oozing.  I am grateful Paul was home when we did this as I would have waited too long before pouring the mix into the mold.  If you wait too long then you get a lot of bubbles in the mix you can't get out, it needs to be runny when you pour it in.  I also thought I had used too much water but that was not the case. We left it on the bench for about four hours and then ....

One volcano we had!

We waited for about a week before we attempted to paint it. This step was more time consuming than I had anticipated so I helped Sir N.  I think in hind sight I should have taken out the poster paint and thicker brushes.  Older sister came to the rescue and provided us with glitter glue pens which Sir N thoroughly enjoyed applying to this volcano.

The instructions say to mix paint, vinegar and dish liquid for red coloured eruption.  I was disappointed with the chemical reaction this had. (I have since learned that you need to mix food colouring, dish liquid and baking soda then add vinegar for a red eruption, we had mixed the paint, dish liquid and vinegar) So we tried again this time with baking soda and vinegar and that was much better. You could hear the bubbles forming and popping.  It was so much fun.

Baking Soda, poster paint (it's better to use food colouring)
dish liquid and vinegar.

Sir N's volcano and city.

Adding vinegar to the baking soda.

1*2*3 Success

We had lots of fun doing this.  You do not need a kit to do the same with your children.  You can accomplish the same thing using a water tight jar of some kind (plastic, metal or glass).  Put it down build up some soil around it, make your city etc then add baking soda, food colouring and dish liquid and mix in the jar.  Slowly add vinegar and watch the eruption. 

Blessings

Tuesdays Treasure - 14

This week at the Plaza I noticed that they started putting out the Christmas decorations (a little early to my way of thinking!) which got me thinking that I wanted to share with you some of the books we use at Advent with our family in case you wanted to purchase them to bless your family before Advent begins on 27 November 2011.

Personally I love Advent as it is an opportunity to take all the commercialism out of the Christmas Season and a time to build family traditions and memories.  I love that it is an opportunity to pass on traditions to my children and to create traditions using the colours of Advent.  More on this next month ........

Jotham's Journey

• Author: Arnold Ytreeide
• Format: Paperback
• Number of Pages: 168
• Vendor: Kregel Kidzone
• Publication Date: 2008
• Dimensions: 9.25 X 8.50 (inches)
• ISBN: 0825441749
• ISBN-13: 9780825441745
• Ages: 8-12
• Series: Family Story for Advent

About 11 years ago I first read about Jotham's Journey on the Sonlight Forum in the lead up to Christmas.  I was looking for something different to do that would enrich our family.  There were a few positive comments and some negative but I decided to take the plunge and purchase a copy (which is now falling apart with use) I must confess this is by far the BEST advent story book I have ever purchased.  Every year we talk about it and we read it for a couple of years in a row until I purchased the next two books in the trilogy: Bartholomew's Passage and Tabitha's Travels. We now read one of the books each year starting at Advent.  I love Advent Wreathes and Jesse Tree's and look forward to sharing our stories with you this coming November and December.

A few of the book sites have listed this book for 4-8 year olds and I disagree with this evaluation as the story is quite in depth and needs children to be older for them to appreciate the content.  There are quite a few frightening happenings that young children should not go to bed thinking about (such as when Jotham's is kidnapped by .... (better not let the cat out the bag here LOL)) We tried reading Jotham's Journey with Sir N last year but he was too little to understand.

To obtain the full pleasure of the trilogy you need to read Jotham's Journey first.  The other two books can be read in any order. Each book comes with a chapter explaining Advent Wreathes and traditions.  The back of the book has a calendar giving the dates of Advent for the next 10+ years.  Each evening you light the candle on the Advent Wreath and then read the story.  (We share out a holiday lollie that we only eat at Advent) At the end of each chapter there is a focus on Jesus page with scripture and a prayer.

I found some great information on how and why Jotham's Journey was written. 

Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 168
Vendor: Kregel Kidzone
Publication Date: 2009
Dimensions: 9.25 X 8.50 (inches)
ISBN: 0825441730
ISBN-13: 9780825441738
Ages: 8-12

Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 160
Vendor: Kregel Publications
Publication Date: 2010
Dimensions: 9.25 X 8.50 (inches)
ISBN: 0825441722
ISBN-13: 9780825441721
Ages:8-12

These books are currently on sale at Christian Book.com and they are also available at Amazon.com where you can take a sneak peek inside as well as from The Book Depository and in Australia from Koorong.




Which are some of your favourite books for Advent ?

Blessings

Edited 12/10/2011

Thank you Erin from Seven Little Australians who recommended I take a look at Aussie Book Threads where she has a special section of  Advent / Christmas list of picture books and chapter books. Take a look and see if you can find something for Advent that would suite your children's ages.

This post is linked to Favourite Resources Link Up Party over at  Learning All The Time

Our Alfalfa Sprout Head

Last month we attended the local Sustainability Expo where Bunnings had a craft table for little people so they could make a Alfalfa sprout head to take home. 

This is the process we followed:

Each child was given a small plastic cup to decorate.

Sir N used pva glue with a brush, glitter, pompoms, wiggly eyes, pipe cleaner and foam cut outs.

Next we took our little Alfalfa pottle to the lady who added one teaspoon of Water Storage Crystals to the cup and filled it up with water.  She then asked Sir N to stir and see what happens.  His face was priceless!  Once the crystals were fully hydrated another lady sprinkled the Alfalfa sprout seeds over the top.

We took our Alfalfa head home and put him onto the window sill to watch and grow.

Beginning to germinate.  Look carefully and you can see little roots ...

Next day and we can see the beginnings of leaves

Sprouting forth and leaves still encased in seed covers.

There we go our first two leaves open !

1-2-3 Success !

We are planning on growing Alfalfa sprouts this summer to have in our salads.  There are many health benefits and they are easy to grow in a jar.

The seeds did not all sprout together and we ended up with only a few germinating at a time.  From the reading I have since done you need to soak the seeds over night in water before spreading them over the top of the gel to grow.  I am planning on growing some beans and sunflower seeds this spring with Sir N.

What have you grown with your children in the past ?

Blessings