EXPLODING VOLCANOES
Or
AFTER 16 YEARS OF HOMESCHOOLING I’VE FINALLY USED SALT DOUGH ~ BUT IT WASN’T FOR A MAP!!!
7 October
A recurring joke among real life and cyber friends is that I’ve managed to homeschool for 16 years without making a salt dough map or lap book. Both of these are used quite a bit in Tapestry of Grace; but I’d even managed to avoid them last year.
However – THIS year….well did you know that the biggest Volcano in our solar system is Olympus Mons and that it is on Mars? We had the option of making and exploding a volcano. I was skeptical. The last hands on science experiment *I* planned was when the four older ones were in elementary school. I needed to boil an egg, which we began and then promptly forgot due to an interesting read aloud book. We heard an explosion and the egg had hit the ceiling. This time the project was SUPPOSED to explode. What could go wrong? I decided to give it a try. (Side note – we’ve DONE experiments before – but only when Mike was home).
The younger ones and I headed to Wal-mart for flour, vinegar, baking soda, food coloring and salt. We came home on Thursday to make our volcanoes. We were supposed to use “small, plastic aspirin bottles” but I didn’t have any and I didn’t want to buy 4 bottles of aspirin to empty and use. (I’d done that the week before for Jamin’s biology experiment – bought four jars of Ovaltine). Thanks to Zander’s fascination with play dough I DID have four play dough containers. We began to mix up sa
lt dough…we had to make 6 batches of it….(Yes, SHS ladies…the Bosch Mixer handled the load quite easily!) I think Alex (or Zander) is a budding scientist. He loved this project. Note the fine china on the plate stacker ).
ANYWAY, Thursday, we made four volcanoes. This came off without a hitch. We did discover that I seem to be an outside of the box type of person. I found that I was inspired by the dough. I thought I could make a mold of my face (ala Jan Brady) and impress the kids. The salt dough stung my eyes. I settled for making a nose. I made a mold of my nose, complete with nostrils for breathing or spewing lava. At this point we set aside our 4 trays of volcanoes, and a nose, to dry overnight. (I was actually a bit nervous about exploding things, given my prior record, and decided to wait for Mike to be home to supervise).
Mike is a great, by the book type, guy! He measured, poured and supervised as 4 perfect volcanoes erupted in the color of each child’s choice. It WORKED! They were very cool. This is a good time to mention that we are using “Exploring Creation with Astronomy” by Jeannie Fulbright and published by Apologia as our science text. This text takes a Charlotte Mason approach to science. We cover only one topic a year (though this is our second year on this for my young set (2nd, 1st grade, and Zander). By covering one topic a year we are able to really explore it. I believe the text is meant for older elementary kids but my younger ones love it as well. We plan to do the Botany book next…..we’re over ½ way through this book. Thanks to Jeannie for writing a text that is fun, informative, includes hands on ideas and gave me the courage to try another experiment.
Or
AFTER 16 YEARS OF HOMESCHOOLING I’VE FINALLY USED SALT DOUGH ~ BUT IT WASN’T FOR A MAP!!!
7 October
A recurring joke among real life and cyber friends is that I’ve managed to homeschool for 16 years without making a salt dough map or lap book. Both of these are used quite a bit in Tapestry of Grace; but I’d even managed to avoid them last year.
However – THIS year….well did you know that the biggest Volcano in our solar system is Olympus Mons and that it is on Mars? We had the option of making and exploding a volcano. I was skeptical. The last hands on science experiment *I* planned was when the four older ones were in elementary school. I needed to boil an egg, which we began and then promptly forgot due to an interesting read aloud book. We heard an explosion and the egg had hit the ceiling. This time the project was SUPPOSED to explode. What could go wrong? I decided to give it a try. (Side note – we’ve DONE experiments before – but only when Mike was home).
The younger ones and I headed to Wal-mart for flour, vinegar, baking soda, food coloring and salt. We came home on Thursday to make our volcanoes. We were supposed to use “small, plastic aspirin bottles” but I didn’t have any and I didn’t want to buy 4 bottles of aspirin to empty and use. (I’d done that the week before for Jamin’s biology experiment – bought four jars of Ovaltine). Thanks to Zander’s fascination with play dough I DID have four play dough containers. We began to mix up sa
lt dough…we had to make 6 batches of it….(Yes, SHS ladies…the Bosch Mixer handled the load quite easily!) I think Alex (or Zander) is a budding scientist. He loved this project. Note the fine china on the plate stacker ANYWAY, Thursday, we made four volcanoes. This came off without a hitch. We did discover that I seem to be an outside of the box type of person. I found that I was inspired by the dough. I thought I could make a mold of my face (ala Jan Brady) and impress the kids. The salt dough stung my eyes. I settled for making a nose. I made a mold of my nose, complete with nostrils for breathing or spewing lava. At this point we set aside our 4 trays of volcanoes, and a nose, to dry overnight. (I was actually a bit nervous about exploding things, given my prior record, and decided to wait for Mike to be home to supervise).
Mike is a great, by the book type, guy! He measured, poured and supervised as 4 perfect volcanoes erupted in the color of each child’s choice. It WORKED! They were very cool. This is a good time to mention that we are using “Exploring Creation with Astronomy” by Jeannie Fulbright and published by Apologia as our science text. This text takes a Charlotte Mason approach to science. We cover only one topic a year (though this is our second year on this for my young set (2nd, 1st grade, and Zander). By covering one topic a year we are able to really explore it. I believe the text is meant for older elementary kids but my younger ones love it as well. We plan to do the Botany book next…..we’re over ½ way through this book. Thanks to Jeannie for writing a text that is fun, informative, includes hands on ideas and gave me the courage to try another experiment. 
After all the real volcanoes had done their thing….I HAD to see if my exploding nose would work
. There was some discussion as to how I planned to do this. I added all the ingredients except vinegar to Zander’s previously exploded volcano. I then put the cost of my nose on top of Zander’s volcano, poured the liquids through the nostrils and whammo!!! It worked! The kids were very impressed…I put so much “juice” in the thing (not being a by the book type of gal I hadn't measured) that it oozed not only out the nose but out the sides, ears etc. Next week we begin a chapter on SPACE ROCKS!!!! I wonder what adventures we will have then!
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