September 16: Flower Garden

Remember we went to story time at the library on Wednesday?  On our way out, I noticed a pile of project papers on the table by the door.  I grabbed one for each of the kids because I thought it was so cute!  They each got to create a flower garden (I know, a little more spring-themed, but they didn't care!).  We didn't get to project time until after Koen was home from school, so he got to put one together, too.

The kids enjoyed coloring the flowers...some attending to details more than others. :)  Koen cut his flowers out, but I had to cut for Ty and Brielle (I'm not sure why Ty is so against cutting paper...).  We then glued each flower on a popsicle stick and "planted" our gardens in the upside-down egg cartons. 

She made sure she used every color!

 

The kids were SO proud of these!  I thought it was really sweet, though, when Ty declared he wanted to give his garden to his cousin Henry (he knew we were off to visit them in Chicago the next day).  I thought he might change his mind as he's KING of changing his mind these days, but he was super excited to share it with Henry.  I would love to see his sincerity and generosity grow with him. :)

September 7: Coloring Carnations

I've always loved this experiment, but it's been ages since I've thought about it!  I was glancing through a Family Fun idea book and came across this experiment again.  I knew Ty would love it, too! 

We purchased 4 white carnations from a local market, then came home and trimmed the ends at an angle.  Ty carefully poured water in each glass, but he didn't want to add the food coloring, so I did that while he counted out the number of drops.  Then Ty placed one flower in each glass, and we began to wait...and wait...and wait.  That can be quite difficult for a 3-year old! :)  About 2 hours later saw a tinge of blue on the outside of the carnation in blue water.  Ty was thrilled!!!  Slowly, the petals of the flowers turned blue, green, and red...but the purple never turned.  We waited a week...and still no purple!  The flower must have been taking in water because it didn't even wilt, but the food coloring was never evident in the petals.  I read on Steve Spangler's website that this might happen if there's an air bubble created when you trim the stem.  Apparently, the best way to trim stems is under running water to avoid air bubbles, which I recall learning at some point but had forgotten. 

While I didn't get into all the science behind this experiment, Tysen and I talked about how the color might be getting into the petals.  He knows now that flowers need to drink water to survive and that the stem is like a straw for the flower.  He enjoyed checking on his flowers every day and watching the colors deepen. 

24 hours after starting the experiment.