Are Your Science Lessons This Fun?

So, many of you know that we are a homeschooling family as of this school year. We love it (most of the time) and have had so much fun this year learning together and exploring education. One of the highlights this year has been the Spanish & Science class we participate in. In these pictures you'll see our "class." Three other families, plus mine, meet together once a week for Spanish and Science and the kids eat it up!! Chun Mei (the mother wearing the straw hat) teaches the Spanish portion each week and she has the kids singing, dancing and playing games most of the time. I'm always tickled when out of the blue my boys will say something to me in Spanish or sing their Spanish songs when they think no one is listening. I can't thank Chun Mei enough for all the work she does to make these lessons enriching and worth every minute of our time!!

I wanted to share one of our favorite science activities we did a couple weeks ago and what happened that really made it most rewarding. On this particular day, I was in charge of the lesson and picked an experiment on how to make soda explode from it's bottle using Mentos candy. Maybe you've heard of it or even tried it- if not, I highly recommend this activity! There is a handful of scientific language and several scientific concepts that can be introduced during this activity (ie. what is carbon dioxide and where is it in the soda bottle? & what are gas molecules and what happens when they want to separate from each other?). Ok, enough science babble. So, this was one of the first times we met at a park for class (I didn't want to clean up my yard after this messy experiement). The kids were having a blast on the playground and I decided it would be a good time to set up. To my surprise, when the kids saw I was setting up, they all came running off the playground, asked if they could help and then sat down on the blanket to wait for me to start! They sat there for a good ten minutes waiting. I thought for sure they would be drawn back to the playground but then it dawned on me- they love this stuff!! It's not me, they love, they love the lessons! They have really connected with these science experiements and concepts and they love it!! Ahhh! To me, this is why all this hard work feels so good!!

So, may I present: Mentos Geysers! An Experiement at the Park!

Here I am teaching the science behind the experiment.

Look at these expressions. Priceless!! This photo shows the kids reaction after the first explosion.

Love the red plastic kid sized poncho? You know, I wear it every time it rains! Just kidding!! I didn't want to stay at the park after science class soaked in soda!

Through our observations, this geyser went the highest of all.