October 9: "B" Verse

"Be still and know that I am God..." Psalm 46:10

The boys really knew this one already since they sing the song in Children's Worship every week.  I love Bible verses set to music...it makes it so much easier to learn and remember!  We've been listening to a lot of our Seeds Family Worship CDs (thanks Aunt Jane!) as well as Steve Green's Hide 'Em In Your Heart discs.

I'm amazed at how easily the kids remember the verses!  Granted, they only have two to remember right now, so we'll see how it continues.  I wish we'd started this long ago.

October 7: Color Changing Milk

This science activity originally comes from the Steve Spangler Website, but it's no longer posted.  It is very cool, though, so here's what you do.  Take a plate and pour milk to fill it.  Drip one drop of a few different colors of food coloring in the middle of the milk.  Try to keep the drops fairly close together.  Take a q-tip and dip it in the middle of the colors to see what happens (do NOT stir it).  Then put a drop of dish soap on the q-tip and place it in the middle of the colors again (for 10-15 seconds) and watch what happens.  Ty and Brielle were both excited about the movement of colors!  You can repeat that last step and place the q-tip elsewhere in the milk and watch what happens. 

Food coloring drops in milk.

Food coloring reacting to the soap in milk.

So what makes the food coloring move? 

     "Milk is mostly water but contains some vitamins, minerals, proteins, and tiny droplets of fat suspended in 

     solution.  Fats and proteins are sensitive to changes in the surrounding solution (milk)."  (Steve Spangler)

Apparently, the soap molecules weaken the chemical bonds in the milk's fats and proteins and then the soap molecules "chase" the fat molecules to connect them them.  I didn't explain all this to Ty and Brielle...maybe someday.

We decided to try this same experiment with food coloring in water.  I didn't expect much to happen based on the Steve Spangler website's information, but I was wrong.  It wasn't as dramatic as when it was in the milk, but still fun!

Food coloring in water.

Food coloring reacting to the soap.

Ty wanted to try something else for an experiment, so I pulled out the water color paint books and told the kids to see what happened when they painted with water.  They spent the next 30 minutes painting with water!  So fun!

October 6: Ty Plans the Project

I had a project planned for today, but Ty declared that he was going to paint a dinosaur today.  Far be it from me to get in the way of his creativity, so "dinosaurs" it was!  He probably spent more time painting his pictures than he would have on my suggested project, and I'm sure he enjoyed it more since it was his idea!

Dino #1

Dino #2

October 4: Oatmeal Butterscotch Muffins

Another muffin recipe attempt:  Seth really liked them; Koen ate one, said he liked it, and then wouldn't eat any more; Ty refused to try them, and Brielle seemed to enjoy them...maybe because she was the only one who helped to make them!  Like most oatmeal muffins, these did begin to get crumbly after the first day or two.  We stored them on the counter, so maybe the refrigerator would've worked better in helping these last longer. 

Oatmeal Butterscotch Muffins

• 1 1/2 cups quick oats
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup butterscotch chips

1. Mix all together in a large bowl.
2. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden.

Recipe taken from http://www.sarahsdeals.net/search/label/Recipes

October 3: Brielle's First Gymnastic's Class

For the past few weeks we've gone to For the Kidz gymnastics class for Tysen.  Well, Brielle has been eager to get in on the action.  You may remember that I brought the kids to an open gym at For the Kidz before re-enrolling Ty in class.  Since then, Brielle has wanted to go out to play each time we've gone in to Ty's class.  There was a parent-child class that met at 9am and Ty could switch to Mr. Randy's 9am class, so we decided to give it a try. 

The first day went pretty well.  It's a little tricky to get a 19 month to listen to a teacher to do exactly what's planned for the class, but overall, the experience was really good for her.  Ty had a difficult time focusing on his class with Brielle and Mom in the same room, so we'll have to see how he does in the future.  I grabbed the video camera for her first day, but most of the activities involved me, too, so I didn't get anything to post here.  It's a shame, really, she was so cute running around and bouncing on the trampolines.

October 2: "A" Verse

For some time, I've been feeling led to be more intentional about memorizing Bible verses and getting the kids involved.  I decided that each Sunday we were going to introduce a new Bible verse, using the alphabet as a guide.  While researching online, I found a few lists others have used, so starting with those and changing some to ones that are near and dear to my heart, I came up with our list. 

Why do this?

"Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."  Deuteronomy 6:5-7

So today after lunch I introduced our "A" verse:  "A friend loves at all times..." Proverbs 17:17

I wondered how difficult it was going to be for the boys to remember a verse, but I shouldn't have worried.  Monday afternoon, Tysen looks up from his trains and says, "Hey Mom, 'A friend loves at all times...' and then he smiled and went back to his playing.  WOW!  He was the one reluctant to say it after lunch on Sunday, but he got it!  Why have I waited so long to introduce this?!?

I'm trying to get them to remember where the verse is found in the Bible, but that's proved to be a bit trickier.  Koen always says "17:17" after the verse, omitting "Proverbs" and Ty just forgets it completely.  We'll talk about it each week, but I can't promise they'll remember it. 

October 1: Caramel Apples

Unwrapping (and eating) the caramels.

I hadn't made caramel apples in years!  I thought the kids might really enjoy the process and the taste.  After finding a crock-pot "recipe" for the caramel, the kids (including Brielle!) unwrapped 2 bags of caramels, ate a few, and tossed the rest in the crock pot with a 2 tablespoons of water to melt for a few hours, stirring every 20-30 minutes.  I punched some popsicle sticks into the bottom of some apples and let the kids start dipping.  Since it was Saturday, Seth was home and got in on the fun, too!  Unfortunately, despite repeated warnings, Koen got a little of the hot caramel on his hand and was done before he really started.  Be careful with hot caramel!  We let the apples rest on parchment paper and should have left them there.  I moved them to a plastic container, but then we had to wrestle them to unstick them from the plastic.  Don't make the same mistake!

Surprisingly, none of the kids really got too excited about eating the caramel apples.  We did end up slicing them to make it easier for the kids to eat, but they didn't like how chewy and sticky the caramel was.  We ended up sharing most of them with friends, and Seth was able to enjoy the rest on his own. 

Carefully unwrapping...

Dip and roll.



The finished product.