Back to the Grindstone

box o' fun

Monday was our first day back to schooling after our extended Christmas holiday. As usual, I didn't start any serious planning until Sunday night. We still managed to pull off a pretty exciting week thanks to chemistry. I bought this chemistry set over the summer and we've slowly been working on some of the experiments. This week we made our way through the rest of the experiment manual and even added a few ideas of our own. Chemistry is not my first love in science so I had a lot to learn too.

be prepared

When JT walked into the classroom today and spotted the fire extinguisher I had brought in from the kitchen, he said, "You know it's going to be a fun day of school when Mom brings a fire extinguisher to class!" I was pretty sure I was only being extra cautious, but I thought it just might be a good idea to have it on hand. We forgot to take it in the garage the day we cooked up a little iron sulfide, so I wanted to do things right this time.

tools of the trade

We spread our chemistry lessons out over three days this week. Each day we did a few of the experiments in the booklet, finishing today with electrochemical experiments. I've enjoyed using this kit because it came with almost everything we needed. Even though we are finished with this particular booklet, we will continue our chemistry using another book I found at a used book sale, as well as experiments we have found online.

When I was originally planning our science for this school year, I had hoped to complete the chemistry unit before Christmas break and start botany when we returned to our studies. Now it looks like we might just spend most of the year on chemistry. The boys both enjoy the experimenting and they seem to be getting a lot out of the unit. This week JT was making good application of the knowledge he picked up from earlier in the week to predict the results in yesterday's experiments. I think he has a deeper understanding of some of what we have been doing than I do. Maybe I should let him start teaching me...

...but I might still keep that extinguisher handy.