Experimenting With Kids

I found a book several years ago on clearance at Barnes & Noble called 365 Science Projects and Activities . For several summers I invited different friends to join us once a week for "Science Summer." I would do 5-10 of the experiments and teach the concept behind what we were doing.

After we moved to Colorado, I never got around to doing Science Summer, and I have to admit, I didn't do much of anything regarding Science for a couple of years, other than what they learned on Brainpop.com. This school year I wanted to add something fun to our school day and I remembered our past Science Summers. I gathered together my trusty Science Activity book and designated Monday afternoons to be our Science Experiment days. The kids have loved them!

The interesting thing I have discovered in teaching my kids, is that I often learn concepts that I must have been taught at some point, but somehow they never stuck. I have enjoyed really understanding Density, pH, Air Pressure and Calories in a whole new and interesting light.

All the kids have their own Science Notebooks. We set up the experiment and then I ask them to each form their own hypothesis of what they think will happen. They write it down and then we see what in fact will happen. Sometimes they guess right and sometimes they are surprised to be wrong. They were shocked, for instance, that the room was 10 degrees warmer by the ceiling than by the floor.

Sometimes I am even surprised by an experiment. I was amazed that you could heat a can of water with a burning nut and discover how many calories the nut has by the temperature change in the water. Walnuts have more calories than Almonds, which makes sense, since they are fattier.

I have many favorite experiments, but my all-time favorite experiment has to do with purple cabbage. If you boil it for 30 minutes and pour the juice into several cups they will act as a pH indicator. When you add something to the liquid it will turn the juice a new shade. The more pinkish it becomes indicates that it is an acid. The more bluish it turns means it is a base. I find it absolutely fascinating.


The biggest surprise for me was to learn that dishwasher soap is a strong base. Who would have thought? What I enjoy the most though, are the conversations that spring up from these experiments, sometimes even months later.....and the smiles on their faces.

Motherhood

I had my first child when I was 24. I had a decent case of baby blues. I felt a loss of freedom, a fear of ability as a mother, and then terrible guilt for feeling this way. Of course I also felt a tremendous love and care for my son, and eventually got through those postpartum feelings. My next three children were born over time and I was so busy with all my other children that I never had time to have baby blues.

Pregnancy and childbirth are an amazing experience. They are full of many ups and downs....and pain. But the most wonderful part of it for me, is when I see my baby for the very first time. It is miraculous.

I had baby blues again with this fifth birth. But this time it revolved around endings. I had a severe case of the nevermores. I will never get to hold my newborn child and kiss her sweet cheeks again. I will never feel my baby kick in my stomach again. I will never look at those exquisite little feet and marvel at the life I am holding.

I suppose all I can do is savor every moment I have now, so that I remember this time.

And also remember that there are still really great memories left to come.

Happy Chinese New Year

Today is Valentine's Day, but it is also Chinese New Year. My husband and oldest son are both Tigers, and Danielle will also be born in the year of the Tiger. Our family is a little Tiger heavy. Connor is a Horse and debates with Brandon about which runs faster....a tiger or a horse. They have agreed to disagree. Nicole is a Monkey, which I think is quite appropriate. Our Andrew is a Rabbit. The rest of the kids pretend to pet him. Today we looked up Togo to see what he is....he was born in the year of the dog. Togo would have thought that is obvious.

My parents went to China a couple of years ago and brought the kids back personalized stamps with red ink. The kids like to stamp their papers they write with their own personal seal.

Anyway, on Chinese New Year you shouldn't sweep the floor, because you might sweep away your good fortune. I was grateful for yet another excuse to not sweep the floor, which got me thinking about housework.

All responsible women face the inevitable housework. I had a grandmother who was a compulsive cleaner. She even scrubbed behind the fridge once a month. My mother was much more relaxed in her cleaning style, often to my embarrassment when I had friends come over. I was probably leaning more toward my grandmother's style until a defining moment in a child psychology class. We were discussing family cycles, and I brought up the differences between my mother and her mother. My professor asked me how I was going to be. Up until that point I think the pendulum was going to swing the other direction. But I looked at it and decided I didn't want to be either of them. I wanted to be somewhere in the middle.

Anyone who homeschools knows that some other things have to give. I must admit that my house is never spotless. It is a physical impossibility, when your children are always there, but I think I have also found a balance.

Before I became pregnant, I knew that I would need extra help with the house when the nausea and exhaustion came, so I started training my kids to take on more of the chores. They can now all do their own laundry, do the dishes, clean their rooms, clean the bathroom and they do so every week. It is so wonderful. Even though they complain, they have told me that they are glad that I have taught them to do these things and that we don't spoil them by doing everything for them. I told them that today they didn't have to sweep, because we didn't want to sweep out all our good fortune.

I was born in the year of the Ox. I looked up my forecast for the year of the Tiger, since we have so many Tigers around and this is what it said:

Tiger style is not conducive to your peace of mind. This is not the time to march forth boldly into battle heedless of the consequences. You will have to pick your fights and show much restraint if you want to be successful overall. You are only likely to have two great months this year; make sure to take advantage of the opportunities they provide. The rest of the time you need to tone down your efforts and press ahead carefully with ongoing projects.

Well I guess I'll have to be careful, since I'm only going to have two good months this year. I'm also a Scorpio and am crying out in dismay, because Pluto rules my sign. Now that Pluto isn't really a planet at all reading my daily horoscope may be a futile waste of time. (Christine Lavine)

It's a good thing I'm not superstitious. But I'm still not going to sweep my floor today.

Leave it!

Tonight the kids were playing a game with the dog where they were putting their feet in his face for him to lick. They thought it was a fabulously funny game. It made me think about his place in our family. Togo was born on September 1, 2006, which happens to be Nathan's birthday. They must be kindred spirits.

When we moved to Colorado, we rashly promised the kids that we would get a dog. Then after we got here and had mice in our garage, we ended up getting a cat first. But that is another story.

We acquired our newborn puppy at a charity auction for much more than he was worth, but he was so cute, and it was for a good cause. He is a purebred beagle, who we had fixed right away which kind of defeats the purpose of having a purebred. We bought him under the pretext that he was paper trained and would be a small dog. When we brought him home that night, it became quite apparent that he was in fact not paper trained, and as he started to grow he turned out to be not quite so small either.

The kids were in shock the next morning when they woke up and had a dog. He was pretty cute, but potty training in December was tricky, because it was so cold outside. He cried at night for the next 3 months, and I felt like I had a newborn on my hands, which I guess I did. Finally his bladder grew, and he stopped having accidents.

Coming up with his name was a family effort. We decided to name him after the almost mythical dog that Nathan used to tell about in bedtime stories. Grandpa Costello had a dog named Togo (named after a famous pre-WWI Japanese general), who had killed a poisonous snake that had come into their home, saving the lives of the family. The hotel that housed the charity auction we bought him at was called the Inn of the Rio Grande (being located next to the very river). Hence, Togo Rio Grande.

Eventually Togo Rio Grande grew large and became completely out of control. We decided it was time to enroll him in obedience school. This was very helpful and we started to get a little bit of control back. One of the commands we worked hard on was "Leave it!" which you say when you don't want them to get into something. He started to think his name was "Togo Leave-it." Togo was the proud graduate of the La Jara Institute of dog obedience, graduating Magna-Comuh-Hereuh.

Recently I noticed that things were starting to slip for him. He snuck into some donuts that were left on the table, and I decided we needed to do some retraining. We put a piece of hot dog on the table filled with a large dose of cayenne pepper. He left it alone for several hours, but eventually he couldn't resist the call of a hot dog. It must have really burned, because he licked his chops afterward for a good 5 minutes. We haven't had any more incidents, so hopefully he will live up to his full name: Togo Leave-it Rio Grande.

Expecting Expectations

I've always been blessed with good health. I've had four healthy pregnancies and never had any complications. This pregnancy has been a little more stressful for me than the past four. I can tell that I am older, and I am having issues that never came up before. A couple months back my thyroid tested quite low. I felt like my life of invincibility came crashing down around me. Then, it was too high, so it had to be adjusted. This morning I was measuring two centimeters smaller than I should be, and sure enough, the ultrasound showed the baby only weighing 3'11", when she should be closer to 5'.

I think the older we get the more fragile life becomes. I used to love to read tragic books, and reveled in the sorrow. I think when we are young and have no personal tragedy, we need to experience it through some other medium. Now that I have plenty of my own personal fears and challenges I don't need to gain it vicariously. There are some books that I can no longer read.

I'm still a pretty optimistic person, and I'm sure Danielle will be just fine. A friend of mine looked like she was measuring small and then she delivered a 9' baby. I guess time will tell. In the meantime I am just enjoying the end of my pregnancy.

These are the things that I won't miss about pregancy: charly horses in the middle of the night, constantly emptying my bladder, heartburn, sore ligaments, sickness and exhaustion, the fears and uncertainty, other unmentionable conditions. These are the things that I will miss: feeling the baby kicking, Nathan's extra attention and help, the way I look when I'm pregnant. I think pregnant women are beautiful.

It really is a magical stage of life. I'm glad that I get to go through this one more time, stress and all. I'll be happy when I have Danielle tucked in my arms along with my other children.

Tucked in my Arms

When I was growing up I knew a few people who homeschooled their children......and they were crazy. Somehow I ended up becoming crazy myself. I was unaware until later that my journey in that direction started when I was only 17.

That year I received my patriarchal blessing which said, "You will have a great challenge raising your children in righteous paths." Those words terrified me and made me never want to have children. When I was set apart for a new calling four years later I received an inspired blessing that gave me new hope and guidance. It opened with these words, "The Lord knows of your great fear of raising your children in righteous paths, but know that all will be well if you teach your children courageously."

When my oldest was only three, I attended a Church General Women's Broadcast where our prophet, President Hinckley spoke to mothers. He talked about some things we needed to do in raising our children. One of the things he mentioned was making sure our kids had good friends and making sure that they got the best education possible. I visited the school we were zoned for and knew that I could never send my kids there. It felt like a battlefield. I looked into private schools, but the cost was more than we could ever afford. I browsed Barnes and Noble and discovered the homeschooling section. I read "Homeschooling the Early Years" by Linda Dobson. The more I read, the more I knew that this was my answer.

I now have 7 years of homeschooling under my belt. There have been ups and downs along the way and plenty of insecurities, but this is the first year that I really can start to see the fruit of my work and it is sweet. My favorite time in the morning is when I wake up and walk out to see one child practicing the piano, another writing in their math notebook, one doing a Latin lesson on the computer and one coloring a picture. My house is a learning house and there is such a wonderful feeling here.

Of course it isn't easy, and we have hard days as well. I know that we live outside the traditional box; there are sacrifices that I make. But most of the time I am so happy. As I course through life, I tuck my children in my arms and meet my challenge of raising them in righteous paths.

The Happy Marriage

I find it ironic that I had to travel 553 miles to meet my husband when we were from the same place. I tried to register for a social dance class that would fit my schedule only to find that my first several choices were already full. Finally I found one that would work and added it to my schedule. On the first day of class the instructor taught the first simple dance and then told the men to go pick a partner to dance with. I braced myself to be one of the last ones to be picked, since that was generally typical for me; but to my surprise, a young man came straight up to me and asked me to dance.

Nathan tells me now that the moment I walked into the room, he saw me and knew that he would ask me to dance. Every class the rest of the semester he asked me to dance first. I have to admit that I was flattered, though a little unsure if I was interested. I had just ended a different relationship and wasn't exactly ready to jump into another one. But he was persistent.

A month after we met we went on our first date...to see one of the worst movies ever made: Captain Ron. Despite the movie, he was nice to talk with and brought out a side of me that I really liked. We dated for about 10 months before he headed off to Alabama on his mission. I was starting to like him a lot more but wasn't convinced that he was the one. After he had been out for a little over a year, I went to Alaska on my mission. The time that we wrote to each other was good for us. We got to know things about each other and I finally started to feel like this was right. Three months after I got home we were married in the Las Vegas Temple.

My mom says that it doesn't matter who you marry, because when you wake up the next morning they are a different person. I think marriage is a leap of faith. I'm happy to say that my leap turned out better than I could have imagined. He is a wonderful provider, has told the children a bedtime story every night for the past 8 years and makes me laugh every day. Of course we annoy each other at times, but most of the time we are able to overlook those minor imperfections.

This morning I woke up with the stomach flu. I knew that Nathan would take care of me and the kids. I had cups of water, toast when I asked for it and an empathetic ear. I would call that a happy marriage.