Preschool Mornings

Several months ago when I was planning our school year I hit on a brilliant idea. I knew Missi planned to do some preschool activities with Jade and I was feeling overwhelmed at how to include Kyri in school this year and still get it all done.

And then I realized how much fun it would be for my kids to have some time with their friend Jade. And how nice it might be for their mommies to have one less child for a few hours each week. So we formed a homeschooling co-op.

Missi does arts and crafts one morning a week and I do "science" activities once a week. Missi graciously offered to include Ben too. We each have about three hours where we can do things without our oldest children and I haven't had to think much about hands-on art this year. (YAY!) Science is a stretch for me but our activities don't usually take more than 40 minutes (and that is doing more than one).

Missi always grabs a camera to document each week. See here. And here. And here. I try to conduct experiments without Ev getting into everything. This week, I managed to pull out the camera for a few minutes. First we experimented with cornstarch and water, and flour and water, and water and water to find out which made the best paste. We threw in some food coloring and made paste pictures.

And  then we watched what happened when you add food coloring to water (immediate dissipation), and food coloring to oil (we mixed oil and water first to show how they separate). Everyone managed to catch the magic moment when the drops of food coloring burst below the oil. It was pretty cool!

Which paste works best?

Colored paste is our favorite

What will food coloring do in oil?

Colorburst!

Cool!