Homeschool science is fun in the early years. At least, I think so. There are so many great books in the kids section of the library, and so many great sites on the internet. I have stacks of books sitting around the house all earmarked and sticky-tabbed at pages for fun experiments and projects.
Today’s science investigation was Identify The White Powder. No, not what you may be thinking. Four white substances from the kitchen (flour, baking soda, salt, and sugar), a magnifying glass, some water, and some vinegar. No tasting allowed. Or sniffing.
The actual identification was quite easy for the kids, but that didn’t seem to bother them. They gabbled on about why and how and how else and look what happens when and see, I added water and it turned to glue, just what I suspected and how come the salt crystals aren’t as shiny as the sugar crystals, and then the talk turned to the acetic acid/bicarbonate reaction, which naturally lead to the discussion of the properties of a gas, and the three phases of matter, and of course atoms and atomic theory, and isn’t it cool how dry ice sublimates at room temperature?
All of the talk about gases gave Tee the idea to put a balloon over a bottle to see if we could capture the CO2 from the baking soda and vinegar combination. Look at their faces! I think they were expecting Chernobyl.
I was, of course, lumped with the cleanup, as they went on to discover more properties of balloons play, but I didn’t mind. My little contribution to science.
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