Introducing Fangs, the Venus Fly Trap

Ever since we started Apologia Botany over the summer, LittleBit has wanted a Venus Fly Trap. We have searched all over, had relatives looking and I never could find one locally. I finally decided to order one. I found a seller on Ebay with great feedback and for the price I figured it couldn’t hurt. I order the Venus Fly Trap on a Monday and it arrived on Thursday. I wish I had read the care instructions for the plant before I ordered one, my word it is like having a pet in the house. After reading up on the care instructions, we had some shopping to do.

The plant requires a non porous pot, sphagnum moss and you can only use distilled water. Seriously, I have to buy distilled water for a plant now! So, after going to the Old Time Pottery store for a pot, Home Depot for moss and Wal-Mart for water, we were ready to plant our $5.00 Venus Fly Trap.

First we had to soak the moss, a Venus Fly Trap plant requires a very moist potting medium. As you can see in the photo, LittleBit did not care for the texture of the moss. We(I) filled the pot with moss and we soaked it thoroughly and then we planted the plant in the little black basket that came with it.

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Our Venus Fly Trap is all settled in it’s new home sitting on a bench by the window and is ready to grow(hopefully not die). He named his plant, Fangs.

Note: We really like the Apologia Botany curriculum, but I have put it up until next spring. Most of the activities and experiments in the book are better suited to the spring/summer. We are working on Zoology and Astronomy this semester. We will finish Astronomy by the end of the year and pick up with Botany then.

The Great Pickle Experiment

First let me say, my husband is an electrical engineer and was very comfortable with this experiment.


Have you seen the new science show for kids on the Science channel? It is called Headrush and is a spin off from Mythbusters, a favorite show here. It is a great educational show for children with lot of fun science facts and experiments. LittleBit finds an experiment to do on every show.

This was an experiment involving a pickle, one of the large dill pickles, a car battery, jumper cables and two metal forks, screwdrivers, etc. The object is to light the pickle up. The theory is the sodium content in the pickle will glow when exposed to electricity. Similar to how sodium vapor street lights work.

We bought a jar of pickles, and LittleBit promptly dropped on the kitchen floor, spilling pickle juice everywhere. It smelled so bad but my kitchen floors got an extra mopping this week. We gathered the pickles, two screwdrivers with plastic handles, jumper cables and took off to the car. I was just hoping nothing blew up.



Hooked everything up and NOTHING! The pickle did nothing. LittleBit was sure it was because we did not use forks exactly like Kerri had on Headrush. I won't share hubby's thoughts. All was not lost though, Dad showed him how to make sparks with the jumper cables, yippee! LittleBit had a grand time yelling, "Busted" in Mythbuster fashion.

A failed experiment but LittleBit learned a few things about positive and negative energy and how even unsuccessful experiments are fun.

Wordless Wednesday - Big Helper

Camping – A.K.A I have lost my mind!

 

LittleBit has been asking to go camping for months.  I am not a camper at all, my idea of roughing it is a hotel without Wi-Fi.  I admit it I am a spoiled rotten girl who likes her electricity, plumbing, and access to Twitter! 

In a moment when I had obviously lost all sense of reason, I ordered a tent.  I was hoping it would be one of those, we will totally do that purchases that ends up hidden in the garage.  I am not that lucky.  As soon as the tent arrived LittleBit wanted to know when we would go camping.  We decided that a backyard camping adventure would be a good test of how dedicated he was to this whole thing.  Honestly I expected him to think it was fun but when it was time to go to sleep he would be back in the house with me.  I had decided that backyard camping was a great father son activity.  He did whisper in my ear, “when Dad goes to sleep, I am going to come in an sleep with you.”

The Labor Day weekend seemed like a good time to try out the camping thing.  The boys set up the tent, I took photos.  

 

 

They had a great time, roasted hot dogs over the fire pit,  they told “scary” stories, used Google sky to find constellations, stars, and as shown in the photo below, the planet Venus. They played Nintendo, yes he took it with him. (he is too much like Mom, likes his gadgets)

 

It was so cute to see LittleBit with Leo the lion, his Nintendo, a Horrible Science book, flashlight and blanket go off for his big adventure. 

They made it until about 1 a.m and the cold brought them in.  It was very chilly that night and Dad was not dressed for it.  Neither one of us thought LittleBit would make it.  Overall it was a grand success. LittleBit has already asked when we can go camping again, it seems he forgot to play shadow puppets in the tent and he wanted to.  He also asked if we can climb a mountain and camp on top.  Where does he get these ideas? 

 

I know the learning opportunity is vast while camping, and it makes for a great family time but I will be going kicking and screaming, at least silently.  I put this under the category of “I’m a Mom of a boy”  and this is why I am doing this.

Wordless Wednesday

10 Questions You Should Ask Yourself Each Week

 

I recently read an article about questions you should ask yourself every Sunday.   I thought many of the questions were relevant to homeschooling.  I found asking myself these questions as I was working on my lesson plans for the week, helped me keep in mind what works for us and what doesn’t.  Also, helped to remind me what is important to us and our homeschooling goals.

Here is a list of questions I ask myself:

 

1. What did I learn last week? 

2. What was my greatest accomplishment over the past week?

3.  Which moment from last week was the most memorable and why?

4.  What’s the #1 thing I need to accomplish this week?

5.  What can I do to make this next week less stressful?

6.  What have I struggled with in the past that might also affect the upcoming week?

7.  What opportunities are available for this week?

8.  What are my homeschool goals?

9.  Have my recent actions moved me toward my goals?

10. What am I looking forward to in the upcoming week?

 

 

 

Build A Solar System

 

 

 

 

We built a solar system this week using the Magic School Bus Solar System science kit.  I love these kits, there is enough supplies and experiments for 10 to 12 activities. They cost around $19.99 per kit but you can find some good deals with coupon codes from Scholastic.

 

The photos are self explanatory.  It was an easy project and help to reinforce the order of the planets.

Supplies provided in kit

Line up the planets in order

 

 

Label each planet

  Cut the wire to the correct length

Painting Time

Let the paint dry

  

Assemble the planets in order

 

Completed project