Exploding bags

This one is a ton of fun - especially if you have boys (How they LOVE to destroy things!) It's our version of the baking soda and vinegar volcano that you get to watch working, make a pop, and without all that red dye. Once we got this one started, we had to do it about 8 times, so you may want to make extra!

Put a couple of tablespoons of baking soda in 1/4 of a paper towel.

Fold the corners into the center of the baking soda and tuck in the edges.

Pour about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of white vinegar into a zip top sandwich bag.

Add your baking soda packet, zip it up, and lie it on the ground.

The bag begins to expand.

This is the exciting part! It pops and spills the fizz.

Baking soda and vinegar react this way because the acetic acid in the vinegar reacts with the sodium bicarbonate in the baking soda to form carbonic acid. Carbonic acid falls apart into carbon dioxide and water. The bubbles coming from the escaping carbon dioxide cause the fizzy reaction.

Pollock Painting

Did anybody else see that tumbleweed rolling through this blog? Yep. It's time to get those swept out. We love, love, the series Getting to know the world's greatest artists by Mike Venezia, so much so that I actually BOUGHT his books to have here at the house! That is a big deal for this penny pincher. So, when the book on Jackson Pollock arrived it was pure excitement around here. We mixed up some cornstarch paint, inspired by a post I saw over at Domestic Charm, and headed outside. Here is the ensuing mayhem.

You can't really tell, but they were dribbling a Pollock-esque painting on the driveway.

Let the slinging begin...

Wish you could see the "paint" more...

Then they kind of painted each other.

Then they kind of painted the van...wish I'd rolled the window up first!

Really it was a great time - clean up included and the boys remember who Jackson Pollock is so much more with adding in the activity!

Dying in the moment

Have you ever had a period in your life when God was working on driving a particular point home? Of course, we should always be growing, maturing, but I'm talking about one of those times when you have the perfect storm, as it were, that opens your eyes to an issue you didn't really see as an issue. I've just had one of those. One of those moments in the rock tumbler, as Rachael Jankovic would call it. My ladies book study group is reading Elizabeth Elliot's Because He Loves Me. It's pushed me a little, but most of it I sort of took as, "I've heard all of this before." I suppose that's where it started. Then we covered women's roles in a sermon at church. That chipped away a bit more. Then I read this article from over at the Femina Girls blog. Ouch. I was getting poked in a sore spot that needs a lot of work.

                                          
Woman and a child on a walk through a forest, a photo by State Library and Archives of Florida on Flickr.

That sore spot has turned out to be quite a surprise for me. When women's roles are talked about, I'm right there with you. When loving your family comes up, I'm all over it. When I read or hear of the cruciform life, I couldn't agree more. But, what I've realized is that I've been lined up in the macro line and I've been simply ignoring the micro line. Let me explain. I get the big picture - the macro. Die to yourself. Love your husband and family. Serve them. Sure. Got it. I love God. I go to church. I had quit my job to stay at home, care for the house & my family's needs, and to home school. I bake and make crafts on top of all of that, for crying out loud! I mean, I get it. I was dying to myself. Now, you would think that a girl with a blog by the name of Eating Elephants (you know...one bite at a time) would not have the problem of missing the trees for the forest, but I did. I wasn't striving to die in the moment.

I haven't been seeing my huffiness over the 3rd spilled cup of juice before 10am as sin. I haven't been considering my lack of self-control in staying on the computer "just 15 more minutes" as a problem. Most of all, I haven't been seeing the little people. My tone. My lack of compassion at times. My not treating childishness differently than willful disobedience. The effect has had dire consequences in those little hearts. That hurts.

God is gracious. Not only has He brought me to the place of recognizing this, but He has been patient with my disobedience. What a loving example. And He brings me here knowing that this is what is best. Knowing that in dying, I'll find a more abundant life. Well back to eating those elephants!

Home school History Fun

These are the pictures from our latest stop "Around the World." We are still in North America. As you can see, it is the Spirit of Saint Louis.  It is a construction paper-covered milk carton with cardboard and craft stick wings taped onto it.  It lasted for, oh, about 2 minutes after this photo was taken...which I expected.  I mean, who tells a 6-year-old boy the story of Charles Lindbergh, hands him an airplane and expects him not to see how far it can fly?!  Not me.  That's why I take pictures.

Here, we had just talked about the history of writing in the Mesopotamia.  They were supposed to be practicing their cuneiform writing - like the Sumerians.

Julius was MUCH more interested in the Egyptian style.

The twins, well....I...ummm...let's move on...

This was fun. We talked about the Old Kingdom in Egypt.  This is GREAT boy stuff! They put organs in jars - pulled out brains through your nose - there was buried treasure and thieves. I can't make up stuff this good! I told them each to go get one of their stuffed animals and we'd make it into a mummy.  The one on the right is just a doll that I'd sewn for them a few years ago. The one one the left  is a Rio Angry Bird - you can't make that stuff up, either.  This picture was taken immediately upon the completion of the wrapping, because I knew what was coming...

...this is what the "mummies" looked like before I even made it across the room to set the camera down. Mothers of boys, take heart. :)

Fun Science

We've been doing a lot of fun science-y stuff lately.  I mean, part of the fun of home schooling is, well, the fun!

Magic Milk or Milk Painting, as the boys liked to call it. Great lesson on surface tension.
See the tutorial here.

We both decided that this one really looked like Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh. (This happens to be his favorite painter, because his middle name is Vincent.  He remembers the name because of the book Vincent van Gogh by Mike Venezia.  He has a whole series of books out called Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists.  Our local library carries many of them.  He mixes period paintings and the artist's works with hilarious cartoons.  My boys love them!)

Making mini volcanoes with baking soda and colored vinegar in droppers. He TOTALLY felt like a scientist.  If only he had a lab coat... 

This week's lessons learned

I learned some valuable lessons this week.

Lesson #1 - Sometimes, it only takes a few drops of food coloring and a pancake to turn the morning around.

Lesson #2 - Ivory soap really does turn into this in the microwave!
See the tutorial here.

Often, the guys cutting down and chipping up the trees outside have more to teach your boys than you do.  Don't fight it.

Mucky, messy boy fun

There are days when I wonder if I have lost my mind and this was one of them.  We have a book of Kid's Concoctions and they requested that we make what they call "Magic Muck."  I'm not sure what came over me, but I agreed.  By the time they were done, there was muck everywhere.  And, for those of you who have small boys, you know that this is, by no means, an exaggeration.  Here are the photos.

Now, really, the sweet smile on the face in that 1st picture explains exactly why I allowed them to do this.  And, really, this stuff is pretty awesome, messes aside.  It changes from a liquid to a solid and back again.  You can pick it up in your hand and squeeze it and it feels like a hard ball, but if you open your hand, it "melts" back into a liquid.  If you poke at the liquid, you can see it become hard and crumbly.  I'll admit it :  I played with it myself for a bit before tossing it.  Here is the recipe:

Add 3/4 cup cornstarch to 1/3 cup water (colored w/ a few drops of food coloring, if you'd like, but it will stain hands), but DO NOT stir.  Allow the cornstarch to sit in the water for about 2 minutes, then let the fun begin! 

Even more busy bag ideas

So, apparently we have been too busy doing to blog about it...or Christmas shop...(ahem)...

Playdough snakes into alphabet letters.

Gluing beans and pasta onto a turkey

Great $2 investment - wooden alphabet beads.  The boys made a necklace after matching the letters in their names

I would never have guessed on this one, but they loved putting on and taking off the nut on these screws so much, it occupied each of them for 30 minutes!

Our paper craft decorations

Another great buy at less than $3 - Trader Joe's Letter and Number cookies.  I had the little guys name the letter or number before they could eat each cookie and it was spelling for Julius.

A Few More Busy Bag Ideas

Moving marbles with a melon baller

Transferring pom poms with tweezers

I added numbers to the bottom of an egg carton and had the boys add the correct number of dried beans

This was kind of a 2-for-1. They had to put the correct number of the correct color beads into each egg

Letter Reversal Help

This was such a "Duh!" moment for me, but, within about 5 minutes, a problem we had been working on for a couple of weeks, was solved, so I had to share!  Check out Laura's solution for letter reversal over at Come together kids:

AND...as if that were not enough...

Amazing.  It's always the simplest solutions that I love the best!

Preschool "Busy Bag" Ideas

I've been trying to look for some ideas to keep the twins engaged while working with Julius during our homeschooling hours.  Coloring just doesn't get it.  It lasts about 15 seconds.  Most of the ideas I've found have come from moms with 1. all girls or 2. no older children.  They just weren't working for us.  I stumbled across a mom at www.littlehandsbigwork.com.  She has LOTS of great stuff for boys and moms with lots o' little ones.  Here are pics of a few ideas we have snagged from her that have bought us some valuable teaching time and made for some very proud little guys!

Sorting by color

They LOVED putting the stickers on the letters!

Can't remember if this was her idea or not! But the boys loved it.

Washers, nails, screws, paper clips, and cut up pipe cleaners in a container with a strong magnet.