Productive week

I am confused about this new "sleeker" blogger so this is almost a test post but is also my weekly post so here's hoping it looks OK and transfers over the FB as usual.  This week we...learned about Ireland and then learned some additional things about Scotland and England that we hadn't got to last week. We learned about Bears/Caniforms with Zoology. We did some physical science experiments with K'nex and some biology with a an experiment from the naked scientists that involved getting to the DNA in Kiwi fruit through using alcohol, salt and dish soap! We took many walks with the dogs, watched Flower the cat climb some viney trees, had homeschool physical ed with some friends, took an art class at home school group and of course did the usual 3r's and more. Kids played extensively with Lego's as always. We got a few things from the Veg. gardens, mostly squash. We found that the beach is finally back to normal although there is starting to be a chill in the air some days. AND Comet turned 21 weeks old on Friday.

Hayley makes her K'nex well while Comet helps Tristan.

Tristan's working K'nex well. I'm very happy with the K'nex educational sets we purchased.

The kids were able to life small "buckets" of water with the k'nex well. We used a spring scale and measured that the K'nex model could hold about 3 pounds. Not bad for plastic and string!

After K'nex we delved into an experiment to see the DNA from Kiwi Fruit. I didn't know if it would really work but it did! The only ingredients needed are Kiwi fruit, white (clear) rum or methalated spirits, salt and dish soap.

First the Kiwi needs to be peeled and mashed.

Then a salt and dish soap mixture is added.

mash some more........

ready a hot water bath at 60 C, our water was too hot at first and our poor little thermometer broke!

After the mixture incubates for 15 minutes it's ready for the next step.

add 100ml of clear rum...

the rum sits on top and the Kiwi DNA forms a jelly like mass underneath.

It was hard to photograph but the kids could pick up the dna with a paperclip hook and also look at it under a microscope. This was good fun and a very unique experiment.

 Mid week brought us to the first class in yet another eyar of Mixed Class day. This year Hayley and Tristan are taking an art class and some months may also have science.

As usual a large part of the week was spent caring for and playing with pets! Comet turned 21 weeks old!

The older dogs had to wait and wait while Comet was not posing for the picture but instead was digging in the sand!