Green eggs and ham

The boys love me to read Dr Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham, but Boronia and I are the only ones who love to eat it for breakfast: scrambled eggs with spinach and bacon bits (with homemade cheese and carrot scones on the side!) YUM!

Sugar, scones and snowflakes

And now for an update on our sugar crystal growing experiment. This is the white sugar crystal we produced.

This is the white crystal again, with the raw sugar crystal next to it. We observed and discussed why there might be differences. We thought the more refined white sugar produced a more even textured crystal and there was far more crystallisation in the cup of the raw sugar, it wasn't just on the stick.

This is the raw sugar's cup (our experiment continued as we spent another few days after this trying out ways to get the crystalised sugar out of the cup...)

Here are Mulga and Waratah making cheese and carrot scones for lunch...

Waratah likes to measure the ingredients for us.

The delicious finished product.

Another of Waratah's snowflakes, this time the picture was a stained glass window.

Puppet shows

The boys have been crafting puppets and putting on shows for Boronia and me. Here is Mulga in our home-made puppet theatre, presenting a tale about a panda and a snake.

This is Waratah's latest sock puppet creation.

Soccer

Winter is soccer season for us. Here I model perfect soccer mum attire LOL

Boronia is snug and keeping out of the wind on the sidelines.

Mulga with his adored coach.

Waratah, "eagle-screeching" at the opposition as he prepares to attack the ball. 

The boys' enthusiasm for lego has waned somewhat lately, which has allowed Boronia to step in and explore - literally. Her favourite position is inside the lego box.

I made one final effort to interest the boys in the 2D lego challenge - here I have made a picture of Gollum to illustrate The Hobbit, which we are currently reading. He is lying on his rock in the lake, with his precious and a fish to eat.

Snowflakes

We love using the free brochures you find outside travel agents for our craft and geography explorations. Here Waratah has created a collage showing some of the travel adventures he would like to experience some day.

We have also been using the travel brochures to make "snowflake pictures". Here is one of Waratah's, made from a picture of Chinese lanterns.

One of mine made a church on the Adriatic sea.

Another of Waratah's from a picture of a Thai temple.

Boronia, meanwhile, has been enjoying discovering the Boynton books she received for her birthday.

Flat out!

A miscellaneous collection of photo records of learning today :)

This is a close up of the raw sugar solution. We have been discussing what makes the brown colour, how it is less refined that white sugar, and how as a result it contains impurities which are really left over bits of the sugar cane. This has been graphically illustrated with our raw sugar solution where we can clearly see the "impurities" and how they could be refined out through filtering processes. 

Boronia is recovering very well from her operation to remove the pyogenic granuloma on her forehead. No ill effects from the anaesthetic, thank goodness, and the wound (which we have been asked to leave open to the air) is very clean - not bothering her at all.

This week's lego challenge was to build a flat (2 dimensional) image. The boys were not sure how to go about that, so I made some demonstrations and we discussed the differences in their construction and the effects produced - using lego to make a top down view...

and a to make a side-view picture.

Pyogenic granuloma

You may have seen the red spot on Boronia's forehead in some of the previous photos, or maybe the big bandaids caught your eye. A tiny little lump developed into a bigger lump that would bleed profusely every time she bumped or scratched it. At first our GP diagnosed it as a haemangioma and suggested it would go away in time. When it started REALLY bleeding, we had it looked at by a specialist, who changed the diagnosis to a pyogenic granuloma (the body's over-reaction to a minor irritation), and said it would not get better and needed to be operated on. By this time we were also firmly convinced of this necessity, as it was very distressing for all involved, and potentially life threatening, as babies had been known to need blood transfusions if the bleeding could not be stopped...

So on a cold June morning, little more than a week after Boronia's first birthday, she and I set off for Westmead Children's Hospital.

The biggest worry was that she would need to undergo general anaesthetic, because although it was only a very minor procedure - electrocauterisation to remove the lump and seal up the blood vessels feeding it - there was no way she would hold still for that! This was well and truly proven when the nurse tried to draw a little circle around the lump and an arrow on her forehead with a texta!!! Boronia nearly ended up with the arrow pointing at her nose!!!

In true Boronia style, she was completely unfazed by the new surroundings or the long wait, checking out all the playthings and charming everyone in sight.

The operation literally took 2 minutes. She was back out of surgery before I had time to take a sip from the cup of tea I had bought! A bit groggy and upset on waking, but as soon as she was back in my arms and nursing, all was forgiven. The operation was a complete success. So glad that little phase of her life is over!

Sweet :)

Here are the first of our sugar crystals, forming in the wide dish lined with alfoil that we poured all our left-over syrup into.

And just as sweet, Waratah giving Boronia a lesson in how to interact with Rosie, his favourite hen.

Sugar!

We have been listening to The Swiss Family Robinson as an audiobook. 

Waratah wanted to know: "What is sugar cane?"

This led us to research how sugar is grown, refined and marketed, and the history of sugar over the years.

We then decided to perform some experiments of our own.

Here, Waratah is observing and comparing six different types of sugar. We had white sugar, brown sugar, castor sugar, fructose sugar, icing sugar and raw sugar. He investigated the differences in their colour, texture and taste.

Next, we set up two experiments. 

The first was to see whether raw, white and icing sugar react differently when exposed to air over time.

The second was to create a super saturated sugar solution for each of those three types of sugar. We dissolved sugar in cold water, in room temperature water, in hot water, and in boiling water on the stove,

comparing how much sugar we could add before reaching saturation point, and how long it took for that sugar to dissolve. We discussed our results and drew hypothesis from them.

We put the super saturated sugar solution (produced on the stove) into glasses with a toothpick anchored in some cardboard. Our aim was to observe the formation of sugar crystals over time.

This is the white sugar glass. It showed the most immediate effect, as we could see nucleation points on the toothpick right from the start. This will be an ongoing experiment as it will take some time for the crystals to grow.

Boronia's birthday

Our little girl turns one.

The boys helped make heart shaped scones and peach cupcakes for her.

She greatly enjoyed her birthday treat...

and her new toys :)

Technophilia

I.T. plays a significant role in our daily homeschooling adventures. Here is a typical morning...

Never one to be left out, Boronia hasn't quite got the mouse/keyboard combination worked out, but that does not dampen her enthusiasm or determination. What the boys can do, she wants to do too!

Here, Mulga works with Reading Eggs, while Boronia explores the Forest Flyer app on Mulga's iPad.

On the other side of the room, Waratah has made himself an uncomfortable-looking nest in which to get creative with the Musyc app. This interesting app uses colour synesthesia, producing sounds through shape and colour which allow you to make musical arrangements without needing to understand musical notation or how to play an instrument. It is one of Waratah's favourites.

Lego challenge week 3 - "vessel"

Mulga's space ship, complete with the all important communication satellite and transmitter, and booster rockets underneath.

Waratah's tourist speedboat that carries 30 passengers on very fast sight-seeing tours, and has wheels so it can run up the ramp to let passengers on and off.

Sweet little birdy

Boronia's newest apps are Sago-mini Sound Box (pictured) and Sago-mini Forest Flyer.

The Sound Box is ok, if a bit noisy and repetitive after a while. We like the way the balls respond to gravity, and change notes and colours across the screen. Boronia is particularly fascinated with the way the balls pop and release an animal if you leave your hand on them. I first found it by following up on a review that called it the "21st century rattle" and that description is pretty accurate.

Forest Flyer, on the other hand, is highly recommended. We paid $1.99 for it, and it was well worth the money. Boronia loves it, and even the boys and I find it very entertaining. Its main appeal is its adorably cute graphics = there's very little in the way of gameplay, but for a very young child just learning to interact with a  touch screen, it is great. It is a small world where the a bird flies around and interacts with the surroundings based on where you touch the screen. The animated interactions are adorable, funny and appropriate for the situation. They are also great for investigating 'cause and effect'. It is completely open-ended, and there is enough going on to make the game quite riveting for a young toddler's attention span.

Nature observations... town-style

After Mass today, Waratah spotted a massive cockroach which he avidly studied (and was only with difficulty persuaded not to bring home to live in his mini-world!) We measured it using informal measures (1 finger length) and estimated it to be 5cm long.

Lego challenge week 2 - "monochromatic"

Mulga made this shiny red building all by himself. He tells me it is a toy workshop 

(and has been making up games with it for much of the day).

Waratah made this blue house on wheels (the front wheels swivel for steering). He got a bit frustrated because (a) his brother used up all the red blocks and red is his favourite colour, and (b) we don't have many long blue blocks, so the floor is quite a patchwork, and whenever he tried to put a roof on, the whole thing collapsed into pieces. He eventually handed it to me and said "You give it a roof, Mum..." so a collaborative effort.

It must be my day to do lego... this is the Mum and baby entry... I made this sturdy green tortoise and habitat for Boronia (who turns 1 tomorrow :D) to play with while the boys were busy (in between collecting red blocks for Mulga and building a blue roof for Waratah...)