Weekend Fun Activities - Pumpkin Carving Party!

One of my friends hosted a carving party for kids and adults to partake in some squishy, sticky, orange and icky in between my fingers, kind of fun!  What kid [or kid at heart] doesn't like digging into their pumpkin to scrape out all that goo?!
 My daughter's older friend helped her a bit with the actual carving after showing her friend what she wanted it to look like.  I helped my son with carving his after he dictated to me what he wanted his to look like.  My daughter chose to go the "scary" Halloween face route and my son chose to do "funny" Halloween!

Weekend Fun Lesson - Woolly Bear Caterpillars

"MOMMY!  I FOUND ONE, I REALLY FOUND ONE!"

We found him, er, um "her" (it was a girl, according to my daughter, and she named her Zala) crossing the sidewalk at our house!  I told my Kindergartner about how there is an old wives tale that says that the wider the brown stripe, the milder the coming winter; a short brown stripe would predict a harsh winter!  Zala, the Woolly Bear Caterpillar, seemed to predict a normal winter with a brown stripe that was not too wide, and not too short.

Weekend Fun Lesson - The Claaaaaaaaw! (Responsibility Rewarded)

I know the candy claw machine makes them look spoiled with candy, but there is actually a method to my madness!  After they complete a chore, I let them choose between a real coin for their chore/savings jar, or a pretend coin that can be used in The Claw machine for a chance to get candy as the reward (I scored it for only $20, and totally worth the money!).  Getting a candy is not guaranteed, so the kids have to make the choice between earning real money that they can save towards buying something they want, or choosing to take a chance at scoring a candy. 

Weekend Fun Trip: Everything's Beachy [Day Three]

Decided to make our way down from Lincoln City to Newport today instead of going home!

When we woke up, there was a Mommy and Baby deer in the back yard of the beach house!  The kids said it was like they were at the zoo.

Found an awesome play structure in Lincoln City!

Stopped for some Whale Watching at Depoe Bay - the visitor center said they saw some Grey Whales the day before and to keep our eye out for spouts, but we didn't see any.  As you can see, the wind there was a hair-raising experience!

The World's Smallest Harbor!  Awwwwe, so cute.

The Yaquina Head Lighthouse was built in 1872.  At the Visitor Center, they have good, old-fashioned, 19th century games for the kids to try their hand at.  Above is the Game of Graces.  Below is the Ball and Cup game, and the Hoops game.

Then, we learned about the difficult (by our standards) 19th-century life lead by the lighthouse keeper.

Race ya to the Lighthouse!

You have to be 42" to climb the stairs to the top of the lighthouse, and my son was 40", so we didn't get to go up, but they were able to look up through the spiral staircase pretty much straight to the top!

Time for Tide Pools!  We timed it just right and were there as the ocean was approaching low tide, so we got to spy some sea creatures: Anemone, Sea Stars, Mussels, Barnacle, Sea grasses and Seaweeds of many colors.

It was SOOOO windy there, that it ratted and permed my hair!  I don't wear hair products at all, but the wind was still wild enough to make my hair stay stuck-out even after we got into the car!  It's a Natural Perm!  We decided to take a picture pretending that we were scared of a ghost, and that is why my hair got stuck like that (below)

Weekend Fun Lesson - Over the Top

For our Weekend Fun Lesson, we observed what happens to water when it freezes.  I let my daughter fill our Popsicle molds all the way to the brim with water.  Then, I carefully carried them to the freezer so that it wouldn't spill.  After a couple hours, we pulled it out to make our observation: the ice rose above the top!  It is kind of hard to see in the picture below, but the ice is bubbling above the brim of the molds, and some liquid even started to spill out and then freeze on the side.  So, the kids discovered that when water freezes, it expands!  Now we know that if we want to make frozen treats, we should make sure we leave a little room at the top to allow for expansion! (I think this experiment works even better if you have a container that is a perfect cylinder, rather than the shaped mold I used)

Weekend Fun Lesson - Mirror, Mirror

Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, why do you reverse some reflections but not them all? 
Today, we did a real fast lesson to show how the mirror reverses images.  I showed her that when you hold up words to a mirror, it will make them appear backwards; but, when you raise your right hand in the mirror, it still appears to be on the right, and not reversed.  I tried to explain that the mirror really is reversing the way we would see it if we were looking at each other.  If I were standing in front of you face-to-face, when you raise your right hand, it would appear to me as being on the left... which is opposite of the way it looks in the mirror!

Weekend Fun Trip: Arrrrrrr, Aquifer Adventure!

Today, we went to a free Pirate-themed event with one of their little friends, where we learned about the local Aquifer at the Slough (I'm all about the free events, especially when fun learning is involved!).

They had a "treasure hunt" where you follow the riddles and directions to find each hidden treasure box full of Pirates' Loot (they were actually beads), and the goal was to find and collect one of each color.

Along the trail, were fun activities for the kids.  They got to make their own ice cream float cup, where each topping represented a layer in the ground: cocoa puffs and peanut butter puffs were sand, rocks and pebbles, ice cream was the clay, and on the bottom were ice cubes representing big boulders deep underground.  Then, she poured fizzy water on top to see how long it would take for the surface water to make it through all the layers...  and then we ate it!

They experimented with how long it would take water to travel through pebbles vs. sand vs. clay at another stop.

They pretended they were the surface water making its way through all the obstacles (pebbles, sand, clay) on the way to become ground water ready to be pumped out for use in our homes!

Then, we got to go on a canoe ride through the Slough hoping to see some wildlife.  Although we didn't see any Herons or Cranes, my daughter got to row a canoe for the first time - she was so proud that she got to help!

Weekend Fun Lesson: Eggcellent Eggsperiment

This excellent experiment (EGGcellent EGGsperiment, if you will!) is meant to show how to tell if an egg is hard boiled, or still raw!

What you need: One raw egg, and one hard boiled egg (these eggs are from our chickens - one shell is naturally light green!  It's kinda hard to tell in the photos though), and a barrier if you are letting the kiddos take the eggs for a spin! (we used math blocks, but another idea would be to use rolled up dish towels - that way, if the raw egg breaks, you have quick cleanup!)

Spin the first egg, then stop it quickly and release your fingers/hand right away (stop-and-release -- quick, like a ninja).  Then, do the same with the second egg.  One of the eggs will continue to spin just a wee bit after you stopped it; that is the raw egg!  The hard boiled egg will not continue to spin (if properly stopped). You might want to demonstrate first if you have small kids like mine.

Why? Because the raw egg has the yolk suspended in the clear liquid inside and there is also a very small pocket of air.  When you spin the egg, the yolk and liquid spins inside the shell and when you stop it suddenly, the liquid inside of the egg is still in motion after you've stop it's container (Physics!) 
You can demonstrate further by putting water in a glass and move the the glass in circles to make the water spin inside.  Stop the glass suddenly and ask the kiddos what they observe!