Human Body and experiments

Human Body

Today we worked a bit more on learning about the heart.  We labeled it, and then did some experiments on figuring out how our pulse changes with how we exercise.   It was a bit of a battle as the lad wanted to really just do his own thing today.  BUT we persevered - by talking about the parts of the heart and what they do.   And then doing some experiments I got somewhere on the web but can't recall where.  Opening and shutting a hand to see how often we could do it in one minute and realizing how tiring it is.   Finding our pulse, making a homemade stethoscope, exercising and counting our pulse and such like.

It was worth it when suddenly he said.... "If i have no pulse mom, does that mean my heart isn't working"?   My response was .. "You got it buddy.  No pulse, no heartbeat".   He grinned and all was good.  :)

Candy Experiments

One of my facebook links sent me over to this Candy Experiment.    So.. since we had candy we thought we'd try it.  We were MOST interested in trying the M&M's one - we wanted to see the M float.  BUT.. well...  Here's what happened in that one:

We did experiment with a whole variety of candies though.   We chose identical candies and put one in hot and one in cold.

The one that simply amazed both of us was the fizzy ones.   We were astonished at the sheer amount of bubbles that came shooting out the fizzy when it was placed in hot water.  Like the M&M it disappeared in no time flat.    The fizzy when put into cold water bubbled slowly and over time hollowed out in the middle.  The lad thought this quite interesting and BEGGED to eat it. 

The one that disgusted us...the gobstoppers.   MOST candies..the water tasted sweet or at least sort of like the candy.  Gobstoppers...just...ICK...and hence forth I have NO desire to EVER eat one again.

Halloween Candy when placed in hot water exuded this white waxy film (looked icky but the lad said... MMMM).  AND caramels dissolved fairly quickly BUT left this sticky spot behind on the cup that took a couple doses of oil to get off.  Smeared all over the cup.

Rolo pops on a stick...dissolved slowly in cold water, fairly fast in hot but the rolo part didn't dissolve.  the lad put it in his mouth and immediately spit it out.  YUCK!  It was a very pale colour which made me wonder if the hot water sucked the colour/flavour out?

Anyways, some pics.  They might be a bit jumbled, I'll try to comment.

Our Reading

Today we learned about some Chinese explorers.  Mostly about Zheng He.  He sailed all over the place, mostly to Africa, bringing back animals and other goods to show the emperor.   He used a compass to get around.

SO.. we made a compass!

we read part of "the trail of the meat".  This was a very long chapter and comes from Jack London's call of the wild.  The lad was intrigued but said...haven't we read this before?   and yes, I had started, a while back, to read this book to him in the car.   Good to remember.

Today we learned about the Desert Tortoise and The Turkey Vulture.  The lad is quite familiar with the turkey vulture and found it interesting that it doesn't nest in a tree. But mom.. they fly up high!  they should use a tree, it's safer. 

The Star and the Lily.   This Indian folk tale made the lad snort.   Mom...that's just not true!   Did they really believe that?

Physical Education

We went out for a walk. The lad thought it behooved him to complain for a fair while since just walking is "boring".  But he found some sticks and life seemed much better after that.  Boys and sticks...makes life so much better.  :)