Shadows, Homemade Compass, and Metal-Working

Week of February 10 thru 16, 2013:

Jaden's Scientific Experimentation

Jaden has been constantly busy with reading and experimenting on his own.  He seems to possess a special interest in metals and magnetism.  He made a homemade compass and has continually tested different metals in fire and liquids.  He has been soaking various metallic objects in a glass of vinegar, always including copper.  He showed us how he copper-plated a brass heat strip from a furnace by placing the heat strip and some copper pipe in a glass of white distilled vinegar (should have taken a picture, but I didn't) and soaking it for three days.  He's been reading up a lot on melting points of various metals and talking about how titanium is used in spacecraft because of the high melting point and talking about steel and other things.  He's trying to figure out a way to separate silver he's saved on A/C contacters.  I've told him to read up on safety measures regarding heating metals, because I'm afraid of toxic gases. 

From How Science Works by Judith Hann

Below is a video of Jaden's homemade compass.  Email subscribers must click link to visit blog in order to view.

I think Jade is trying to melt copper here over one of his scrap candles. He uses the wood stove a lot, though.

Book of the Week

Bear Shadow by Frank Asch is about a bear who starts fishing, but his shadow scares a fish away.  Bear then devises ways of getting rid of his shadow such as: stepping behind a tree and climbing a mountain (both to hide), nailing it down to the ground, and digging a hole and letting it drop in.  He exhausts himself from the morning's work of ridding himself of his shadow so that he must take a nap around noon, at which time there is no shadow.  When he woke up the sun had started casting shadows again.  After unsuccessfully disposing of his shadow by slamming the door and reopening it, he enters into a hand-shaking agreement with the same, that if Shadow stayed out of the way to allow Bear to catch a fish, he'd let Shadow catch one, too.  Since the sun cast Bear's shadow behind him at that point in the day, Shadow was able to keep his end of the deal, and when Bear caught a fish, "...shadow caught one, too."  

I talked more about shadows, like how they're cast, the benefit of shadows (like shade), etc.   And then on Sabbath I briefly talked to Jaden about the feast days being a shadow of things to come, but then I focused mainly on the scriptures below with all the children.  Then I talked about accepting things that we can't change, which is what Bear learned he must do concerning his shadow.

I've got at least two more posts lined up soon.  We've had quite a bit going on, so I'm getting a little behind. One of the projects I'm trying to work on is getting pictures and letters/cards mailed out to many people, and I figure it will span out over a few weeks.

That box holds a lot of pictures!  There are some dear family and friends who have not received pictures in quite some time.  Those books underneath?  My baby books on which I'm still behind with pictures, so I've got to work on that, too. Elizabeth had pulled up there on the other end of my cedar chest and "cruised" down to the "bright orange" Shutterfly box.  She is pulling up a LOT but just recently started cruising along.

Until next time...