Homer Price - A Book Review by Bryce

Homer Price chapters are like seperate stories. Homer helps to catch the bad guys. Next, he helps a pretend super hero. Then, he tries to stop an unstopable donut machine. There were donuts everywhere. At the fair, Homer saw three people roll gigantic balls of string. After that a mystery person came to Centerberg. Homer became a detective for an ice cream reward. Finally, a lady was going to make Centerberg bigger, so all the homeless people would have homes.

I liked the donut chapter the best. I thought that the ball of string race was funny.

Minneopa Falls

New Camper

Today, Derek and I purchased a new to us Pop-up Camper. It is a 1999 Coachman. I am very excited to go camping now that I no longer need to sleep on the ground. We also have an air conditioner, so July and August camping no longer mean no sleep at night, Yeah!  The boys think it is great because now they can have the air materess in their tent. I am glad they are still going to sleep in their own tent.

We have a King Bed with the U-shaped table/bed, then a full bed with a table/bed on the left. The storage areas are set up differently then my in-laws so that is going to take some getting use to and careful planning to get all of our gear stored eventually. We will be picking up the camper on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend and driving it down the road to Minneopa State Park, 5 min from the dealership, to camp for the weekend.  Good thing the only thing we really need to bring is bedding and the normal dishes, that we already pack for camping.

Exploding Volcanoes

 Over the last few weeks, we have been reading about Pompeii. This seems like a great time to also learn more about volcanoes. The boys have loved being able to do experiments and have volcanoes exploding in our kitchen.  This also seemed like a good time to introduce the Scientific Method.

Bryce's Volcano Experiment Lab Report

First question:  Does flour effect the creation of bubbles?
     He planned to determine this by seeing how far a cork would travel. We quickly figured out the cork traveled to far to do this experiment in the house.

Second question: Does flour effect how long the bubbles stay?

He measured the out come by timing from the time I poured in the vinegar until the bubbles were flat in the remaining liquid.

Hypothesis:  The more flour the longer the bubbles will last.

Experiment 1:  1 Cup Vinegar, 1 Tablespoon Baking Soda, No Flour
          Results: 2 minutes
Experiment 2: 1 Cup Vinegar, 1 Tablespoon Baking Soda, 1 Tablespoon Flour
          Results: 5 minutes
Experiment 3: 1 Cup Vinegar, 1 Tablespoon Baking Soda, 2 Tablespoons Flour
          Results: 6 minutes

Conclusion:  My hypothesis was true, flour does effect the longness of the bubbles.

Micah's Volcano Experiment Lab Report

Question: I wonder if the amount of baking soda effects the amount of bubbles created.

He will measure his results by taking pictures to record his observations.

Hypothesis: I think experiment 1 will have the biggest eruption because it has the most tablespoons of baking soda. I think the eruption will flow out of the pan.

Experiment 1: 1 Cup Vinegar, 1 Tablespoon Flour, 2 Tablespoons baking soda

Experiment 2: 1 Cup Vinegar, 1 Tablespoon Flour, No Baking Soda

Experiment 3: 1 Cup Vinegar, 1 Tablespoon Flour, 1 Tablespoon Baking Soda

Conclusion: Experiment 3 had the most bubbles. I think this was because there was less baking soda and flour in the bottom of the bottle after mixing with the vinegar. Yes, the amount of baking soda effects the amount of bubbles.

Amazing Chemical Reaction

Science Museum

On Sunday, we purchased a Science Museum for the first time with a gift certificate from Uncle Jim. Thanks Uncle Jim the boys love it. They are very excited to go back and explore the galleries more.  Micah kept saying "Wow, this is science."  

Matthew was entertained playing with fire.