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I'm a work in progress (aren't we all?). Once was an actress, but never took the risk to 'make it'. Now, I'm a mom, wife, teacher, sister, daughter, friend . . . so many roles, so little time!
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Holy Unschooling, Batman!
***UPDATED AT THE BOTTOM***
Well, let's see, what did we do today? The girls were playing princess
in their room when they decided to listen to Miss M's Disney Princess
song player. Lo and behold, it won't play so "Mommy, this needs
batteries!" Luckily, we were still stocked up from Christmas and I
actually knew where the tiny screwdriver was. Actually I thought I
knew, so we killed another twenty minutes looking for that and getting
Daddy's big screwdriver out. It worked and we put in new batteries, hit
play, and . . . nothing. We discovered that when you let your Disney
Princess song player sit for six months without using it your
mom should give it away the batteries leak icky stuff out and
it corrodes the little connector thingies so that the new battery
doesn't make the connection. Science lesson #1: Batteries have acid on
them -- DON'T TOUCH -- that can hurt your hands and even eat metal.
I tried to scrape the gunk off to no avail. I got some vinegar out to
see if that helped, it didn't. I suddenly remembered a childhood
experiment with pennies, vinegar, and baking soda. We got out the
baking soda and some q-tips. It made an awesome fizz in the cup but
took off very little of the gunk, leaving baking soda crystals in the
player. Meanwhile, they asked why I was using baking soda. When I told
them about the pennies, we had to go rob penny banks (my pennies were
no good) to try it. After slopping around pennies, baking soda,
vinegar, trying different amounts and combinations, and wiping up what
Little Dude dumped out on the chair and floor, we discovered that it
didn't work that well. I told the girls that maybe it has to sit a
while (although I was sure our pennies started gleaming right away as a
kid), then I managed to get that out and scrape off enough of the gunk
so that it played again. I think they listened to it all of 5 minutes
and were on to something else.
Then, while tidying up the
kitchen, I moved the salt shaker and BAM it hit me! Not baking soda,
SALT! I called them back in and we sprinkled salt into two of the cups.
The third we left with just baking soda to see if it would eventually
clean the penny (it didn't). Science Lesson #2: Salt and vinegar clean
copper. If I were a reeeeeeally good unschooling mom, I would have
looked up online to see WHY the vinegar and salt clean the pennies.
Maybe I'll go do that now.
Curriculum, shmiculum!
I did a little Googling and found this neat
experiment. Not only does it explain why the salt and vinegar
clean the pennies, it adds a second cause/effect. I think we'll try
that today if the girls are still curious.
Cross-posted to my other blog
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Posted: 10:47 PM, Jan. 10, 2006 |
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Untitled Comment
Very cool! I saved that experiment to try with my kidlets!
I like that whole *mom should give it away crossed out* thingie. LOL
Sherry |
Posted by Anonymous at 4:13 PM, Jan. 11, 2006 |
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