Homegrown Learners

Funny what can happen when you let your kids lead the way the with learning (dare I say UNSCHOOLING?). While shopping at the wholesale club a few months ago, Miss B found this great little Pop Bottle Science Kit. It looked great -- and the price was $10. (I'm noticing while writing this post that it is $5.98 on Amazon now - GREAT deal!) Included in the kit is the bottle, measuring spoons and cup, balloons, a cork, and a lesson book. You might need a few other household items, but they are things you would already have around the house. Here's the description:

It's pure bottled magic! A complete kit that ingeniously marries science and fun in the breakthrough vein of The Bug Book & Bug Bottle (1.7 million copies in print) and The Bones Book & Skeleton (1.65 million copies in print), Pop Bottle Science presents 79 easy, hands-on experiments that probe the worlds of chemistry, physics, biology, geology, weather, the human body, and even astronomy.The Pop Bottle bottle is a perfect miniature science lab--see-through, flexible, air-tight when necessary, made out of a durable, shatter-proof plastic and designed with a removable top that doubles as a funnel. The Pop Bottle book is a lively, fully illustrated 96-page guide to astonishment. Each experiment begins with a challenge and ends with an explanation of the scientific principles involved. Kids can design a volcano and watch it erupt. Create a tornado-maker and see how twisters work. Make quicksand--is it solid or liquid? Observe photosynthesis in action. Simulate Jupiter's giant red spot, investigate buoyancy, demonstrate inertia, and discover the Bernoulli principle--which allows planes to fly. Plus, turn the bottle into a barometer, a thermometer, walkie-talkie, trombone, compass--or groovy lava lamp

We have completed a few experiments from the bottle this week - and what I love is that my nine year old gets all of the supplies and pretty much can do the experiments for she and her younger brother, and if she needs my help it lets her know in the book. You really get a lot of knowledge for quite a small time investment with these little experiments.

The concepts are short and easily illustrated. They are perfect for my nine and six year old! Earlier this week we learned about how everything is made of molecules and how molecules are always in motion. When we put food coloring into a bottle of water, the molecules diffused throughout the water.

Yesterday we made a prediction about whether paper balled up in the bottom of the open bottle would get wet when it was submersed in a bucket of water. We had to follow the directions exactly - and discovered that the paper was MAGIC! The force of the air from the bottle kept the water out and the paper dry. Simple, really.

On today's schedule is a lava lamp made with vegetable oil and food coloring. I'm so glad we purchased this book and are having fun with it now - a perfect way to do quick and fun science with multi age children!

If you have a favorite science resource, can you let me know? I'd love to add to my resources!!