First Weather Experiments

 Look at those cuties pouring over their science book.  Just makes a homeschoolin' mom feel proud.  :)

 In the above pic, Miriam is adjusting the angle of two thermometers to see if the angle at which the sun's rays hit the earth really affects temperature.  Super cheap thermometers aren't the greatest though, and while there was a temp difference, it was pretty insignificant.

 There is our homemade thermometer.  It never worked.  My hubs came home and said it was because we hadn't sealed the top adequately.  Good learning lesson for the rest of us to follow the directions more carefully.

 This is the sealed thermometer experiment, meant to show how the atmosphere keeps us from freezing each night.  Let's just say I've had better luck with experiments.

 The flower was the best and most successful of our experiments.  In the book A Drop of Water by Walter Wick, the author talks about the unique properties of water, including the fact that water will go up into straws and things even though that appears to go against gravity.  Then he suggested dying a white carnation.  We didn't have a white carnation as I hadn't planned on doing any of the activities in that book, but we had a pink rose handy.  It was really interesting to watch the flower change colors--even for me!

 The next two pics are the kids doing their "water art" by painting on a piece of paper with water.  We then took the paper outside to see how long it would take for the water to evaporate.  Hardly any time at all.

This bottom picture has nothing to do with science.  I just think it is funny that my children had a nervous break down when we arrived home after running errands because we were almost to the end of Ella Enchanted and they didn't want to wait until another car trip to hear the end.  I brought the cds inside to stop the hysterics and my two oldest stayed riveted to the computer listening to the last few chapters.  You have to love a good book on tape.