Tuesday Wednesday

11.45a    - candle making (Science AND arts and crafts!)  apparently perseverance on this one, too (read on)

We tried to make dipped candles - but ended up with just prepared wicks because our pan was too shallow.  I thought that might happen... went on to Plan B, and prepared three eggshells by putting holes in the ends and blowing out the yolk and white into a bowl.. she liked that step.  Then we ran the prepared wicks through them and put them in a holder.  BUT - the wax was too hot, and the eggshells not very dry, and the styrofoam holder container melted and let the wax out onto the wax paper we had lined the surface with.  So, we got some sand and put it in a bowl, and rescued one of the eggs that way - getting at least small dome-shaped candles.  It wasted a lot of wax.... but it was a good learning experience. She really liked watching her crayons color the wax, and seeing the 'state change' between the block of wax, melted wax, and cooling wax hardening up on the spoon again.  I ordered some tin molds to use next time, and we talked about what went wrong and what we did get out of it.

12:45p  - puppy outside training

1.30p    - garden clearing / seed harvesting
 She helped me pull tomato cages and t-posts, used a pliers and cut and wrapped up strings of wire, looked for dried bean pods and sundried tomatoes still clinging that might have seeds in them.  We stacked 6 bricks and the tposts and cages away from the garden and talked about what we needed to do to make it ready for the tilling machine, and why we didn't want any wire in the garden.  She told me what she remembered about last year's tilling.. and played 'karate chop' in the dried tomato vines.  She built a 'tiger trap' out of grass, sunflowers and cornstalks and then showed me how it was supposed to work.  The two black puppies rolled around, followed us at our heels and one of them even brought Esme a stick to add to her tiger trap and then acted all happy she had helped.
2:30p    - break

3p      - lake walk, nature discussion, PE games

We walked to the lake and played hide and seek in the long grass, saw a tiny baby fish in the water (really odd for January, but it was 50 out) and ate lunch, which she had helped prepare.  She forgot her sandwich at home so she had to eat part of mine - which wasn't her favorite thing...it was entirely new to her (tuna and avocado, she had packed bologna, but not in the bag she had put everything else in!)..she ate half of it reluctantly, but did eat it all.  We played frisbee and hide and seek.. then walked home.  There was lots of talk about where the sun rose and set and what it meant about what time of day it was now...argument, and discussion about time of year/day, temperature, sky etc.


3:30       - break

4:15    - reading letter from neighbor about her farm
4:30    - pbs kids
5:00    - baking soda experiments
The PBS games site had baking soda experiment journals - and we tried several of them with a balloon to show the air being made instead of a cork.  She wrote down which were acids and which was a base.

5:30    - proper use of candles, matches
I stressed this was adult supervision stuff, and showed her how to strike a match, light the candle (with something under it) and how to transfer the flame from one candle to another to light more than one.  She did it several times and was very proud of the candles we had made ourselves.  She would like to make more another day and is glad her 'broken crayons came to use'.. her own words, because her teachers hated broken crayons and didn't want her to save any :)

5:45    - done, eating supper and very happy

---------------------------------------------
2015-1-20

This was flea market day, and we had planned to get up very early and take all the puppies.  Esme did a great job getting up when asked, grabbing food and a drink, getting dressed and getting her bag ready to go for the market.  We were in the car in about a half hour including all the packing.

7.30a    - Sitting at the market, doing Math Stretch app, geography discussion with world atlas app.

8a    - flea market (math, socailization, etc), shopped for fruit, toys, made change
We sold two of our puppies at the flea market, as well as her having to watch out for puppies, help attend to them and to people who came to see them, stay in sight and with us at all times, use her bag of 'stashed' food, drink and toys to amuse herself, keep a good attitude and ask good questions as she had them.  She asked me what several things were, why several things were (morning, sun, shadow, dew etc. etc), and talked about memories from flea markets before.  She price-checked a hen for her coop, at 8 to 10 dollars, but had forgotten to remind us to bring her cage so she will have to get that next week.  Then, she bought a large and a small toy, and a bag of apples from the fruit stand.  She looked over ducks, banty hens and chicks, as well as talked to several vendors and their dogs.  Helped pack up at 10:30 to take everything home.
11a    - break (3.5 hours)

2.30p    - pbskids.org
3.30p    - done

+1hr     - scrabble with Grandma