The on-line dreams and activities of a young home-educated boy from England. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/littlesmurf/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Tue, 12 Aug 2008 09:35:00 -0500 Tue, 12 Aug 2008 09:35:00 -0500 Today, I did a science experiment all about salt and lettuce!  What a strange combination! I began by putting some water into two bowls and adding quite a bit of salt to one of them -   As you can see, the Olympic Games was on TV in the background, but it didn't distract me at all! I then took some lettuce and put one leaf into each bowl -     This is the lettuce in the bowl of salty water, and this is the lettuce in plain water -     We then left the lettuce in the water for 30 minutes (during which time we actually did watch the Olympics more carefully!). After the 30 minutes was up, I lifted each lettuce leaf out of its bowl to see if they had changed at all.  The lettuce leaf that had been in the salty water had wilted (become limp). Whereas, the lettuce leaf that had been soaking in the clear water had not changed - it was still as crisp as it was when it went into the bowl. Why was this?  Lettuce is crisp because of water in its cells.  Cells in lettuce (like the cells in our bodies) are surrounded by a selectively permeable membrane - a barrier that lets some, but not all, materials to pass through.  Water moves through this barrier in the direction of lower water concentration.  When I added salt to the water, the water concentration went down and water from inside the lettuce cells moved out of the cells through the membranes into the salty water.  This is what made the lettuce wilt! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/littlesmurf/573549/ Tue, 12 Aug 2008 09:35:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/littlesmurf/573549/ Yesterday, I went with my homeschooling group for another lesson in a canoe.  We went to Chorlton Water Park and had a full hour's lesson on the water.  This time, we managed to travel right around the lake, which was absolutley great!  At one stage, we were asked to try standing up in the canoe which wasn't too bad - I also volunteered to travel from the middle of the line of canoes to the end by walking along the floating canoes.  That was when things went a bit wrong and I fell into the lake again!  Luckily, I got a "lift" part way back to the shore by one of the instructors - I then had to swim onto dry land!             I think my friend, Joanna (who was not allowed to canoe on the lake because she was too young), had the right idea! She kept to dry ground the whole time!   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/littlesmurf/570221/ Tue, 5 Aug 2008 10:31:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/littlesmurf/570221/ It has been so hot here lately that I was really happy to do my Science "lesson" last Thursday.  I was looking at what happened when different liquids were frozen - boy, was it fun!  I started off by freezing some water in an ice lolly (popsicle)  mould over night.  Then, I mixed up a soft drink and added some sugar to the mixture - then that was also frozen over night. The next morning, I took the frozen lollies out of the freezer and had a good look at them - the frozen water looked like a giant ice cube with white lines running through it; the frozen drink looked totally different. Than came the fun part - I got to bite into the lollies.  The frozen water was very difficult to bite into, I almost broke my teeth!     The frozen drink was much easier to bite and it also tasted much more refreshing on a hot day. The reason?  The sugar I added to the drink made the molecules less easy to bind together - so the lolly was easier to bite into! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/littlesmurf/566177/ Sun, 27 Jul 2008 05:08:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/littlesmurf/566177/ There are a few bits of news that I have to share with you all. 1. I had a hair-cut (I was starting to look like Samson in the Bible!). 2. I got my 200metres swimming badge at my swimming club. 3. I won a photo scavenger hunt run by a HomeSchool group (I got 19 out of the 30 items).  My prize arrived today - a game, a jigsaw and a "Countries of the World" Info-disc. 4. I went to a Sports Day yesterday afternoon and got a certificate, a small trophy and a bookmark.  I also made two new friends (John and Barnabas). 5. Yesterday evening, I took my Radio Amateur's Foundation exam and passed!  Hurray!  I got 22 questions out of 25 right.  Now all I need is a radio set!! Lots of great things to celebrate. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/littlesmurf/562365/ Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:06:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/littlesmurf/562365/ This will be the last project I do on my MSPaint Art course.  It was fun to do, but I did struggle when trying to draw the Curves.  Even Mum found it difficult to do!  Otherwise, I think I did pretty well.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/littlesmurf/552427/ Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:33:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/littlesmurf/552427/ My Mum's friend, deedeeuk has a competition running at her blog at the moment - and it's only for people in Europe!  Here are the details from her blog - So, the question is…….is there anyone out there who’d be interested in winning a one year, level one language course in one of 14 languages??? (They actually do programs in 31 languages, but only 14 are available yet in version 3)    Here is a bit more about the program in case you aren’t familiar with it.   ‘In case you've not heard, Rosetta Stone has just launched the first 14 languages of its new Homeschool foreign language curriculum in the UK.  The new curriculum is available in three levels for each of the 14 languages released.  This is not just the same Rosetta Stone program redone, it's an all new curriculum.  Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3 includes a headset with microphone, and students must participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program.  Of course Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well in addition to speaking.  Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they're included!  For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports.  Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers, and it doesn't look like that's going to change any time soon.’  You can also check out the Rosetta Stone website at http://www.rosettastone.co.uk/home_education/ to read all about the program and to see the full list of languages available. To mention a few though, you can get a course in Irish, or if you are interested in a course in English you can choose if you want ‘American’ or ‘British’ English! LOL!  Maybe I should get the course in British English!  Also the traditional languages studied in schools like French, German and Spanish. This course usually costs £145, but to the winner of my contest a level one course in the language of their choice will be absolutely *FREE*! (And you all know how much I love that word!) So, what do you have to do to have a chance of winning the fabulously amazing prize? First of all you have to leave me a comment on this post(www.homeschoolblogger.com/deeedeeuk/549007/), and just to make it more fun tell me what languages you have studied or can speak (or not as the case may be!) Be sure to include your blog address where you can be reached or if you don’t have a blog, an email address so I can notify you if you are the winner! AND if you enter and leave an email address and you don’t win you will receive a special offer from Rosetta Stone! How cool is that?  So everyone who enters and leaves an email addy wins!! Whoo Hoo!! You can double your chances of winning the full program and get two entries to the contest if you leave me a comment AND copy all of the highlighted (green) information and post it to your own blog, then post a link back to my blog at (www.homeschoolblogger.com/deedeeuk/549007/) to show where you blogged about it and to complete your entry.The contest will close at midnight on the 28th of June. The winner will be chosen at random (out of a hat!) on Sunday the 29th. Hurry up and enter everyone and be sure to spread the word! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/littlesmurf/549876/ Thu, 19 Jun 2008 11:57:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/littlesmurf/549876/ Today for my Art "lesson" I did another picture using the Paint program.  I started off by drawing one tiny cube and then copied and pasted that cube until I ended up with this -   Colouring the "Impossicube" was mind-blowing - I nearly went cross-eyed!  However, I eventually managed to get it looking the way I wanted it to. Then, I copied and pasted the "Impossicube" and put one cube on top of another until I built this -   I decided to give this creation the name of "ImpossiTower".  This was a fun activity! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/littlesmurf/549851/ Thu, 19 Jun 2008 10:34:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/littlesmurf/549851/ We had our Green Kids meeting yesterday at Chorlton Water Park.  This time we went pond-dipping.  We started off with a quick lesson from one of the rangers, Andy, who told us how to scoop things out of the pond and how to stay safe near the water.   I have my back to the camera, but you can still tell that I'm the biggest (and oldest) in the group! We then split up into small groups and put whatever we had collected into trays.  We were able to take a closer look through a magnifier and made an attempt to identify each creature.  I caught a water-boatman and a ram's-horn water snail!       After we had had our fill of dipping in the pond, we went for a short walk along one of the forest trails to hunt for minibeasts (or bugs). While I had lunch with the grown-ups, the younger children had a play-time on the playground equipment. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/littlesmurf/548831/ Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:18:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/littlesmurf/548831/ I am still having fun making pictures on MSPaint.  My latest masterpiece is a picture of a Chunky Robot.     I used the rectangle tool mostly. The only parts I needed help with were the hands because they had to be curved.  Once I'd drawn one arm, I just had to copy and paste another one and rotate it so that it was the other way round.  This was great, as I wouldn't have wanted to have to try and get both arms the same size!  I did the same with the legs and the antennae. If I were to do this picture again, I'd like to be able to add some text on his front panel. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/littlesmurf/547459/ Sat, 14 Jun 2008 04:07:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/littlesmurf/547459/ Today was my Dad's **st birthday, so Mum and me decided to take him out for lunch at one of his favourite restaurants.  Actually, he took us because Mum can't drive - but she and I shared the bill between us! Here is Dad with his meal -   As you can see, he had a great big plate full of grilled meat - but he did go for the healthy option of adding a jacket potato instead of fries!   He had grilled gammon, grilled pork, grilled steak and a grilled lamb chop, a sausage, a grilled tomato, a grilled mushroom, peas and a jacket potato.  He also had a cup of coffee to go with his meal. Here is Mum's meal -   She had a gammon steak with fries, two fried eggs and a slice of grilled pineapple. Her drink was very healthy - water! I decided to go for my favourite - a chicken breast burger with fries (and definitely without any dressings!). I had a glass of orange "squash" with my meal.   We had a great time - we were there for over two hours!  As they say, "Time flies when you're having fun!". http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/littlesmurf/546200/ Wed, 11 Jun 2008 12:51:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/littlesmurf/546200/