I cut open an apple

I cut open an apple for lunch, and found this:



Sprouting seeds!

We finished plants, FINALLY!

This week we finished our plant study. Oh, you thought we had already done that? Before we moved on to birds, amphibians, and reptiles? Well, almost. We had one lab that was not cooperating. Remember when we covered leaves with foil to see what happens when leaves are deprived of light? Well, removing the foil after one week did not yield results. Two weeks, no results. Three weeks, nothing. Finally, at four weeks, we saw results. Well, on one leaf. Out of three. Darn healthy plants.



It is entirely possible that the leaf was simply due to die through the natural life-cycle of the plant. We won't mention that to the kids, though!

And apparently this plant is opposed to pictures that are in focus...

Plants get water from their roots!

We were finally able to see some visual evidence that plants get their water through their roots, not through their leaves.



The difference was mainly in the flowers, but it was sufficient to allow the kids to see the difference, which was the important part. When we measured, though, we did find that the pink plant had grown a centimeter while the red plant was actually 3 centimeters shorter. The leaves were that much less rigid. We only measured to the top of the leaves, not the flowers, since those have a cycle and may or may not have been there when it came time to measure.



Once we completed the lab, we pulled out the foil and watered them both at the roots. The red flowers had perked back up by the end of the day when Daddy came home. He noticed right away that we had watered it.

Once we finished up that lab, we talked about the different parts of the plant and what part of what plant we eat. The curriculum calls for making a "Plant Parts Salad," but, well, the idea did not appeal to my kids or myself. We made a list of what we could put in, but we didn't make a salad.

Our final plant lab is still in a holding pattern. We are STILL waiting for the leaves on the plant to change color!!! Apparently our plant is just too healthy, which is odd, since I horribly neglect my plants!

Civil War Saturday

We are fortunate to live in an area with lots of recreational opportunities. Three Rivers Park District operates a number of different parks in the area with a number of different purposes. One of them is The Landing, which is a living history village set 150 years ago. There are costumed interpreters and buildings of the era.

Saturday they did a Civil War encampment day. They brought in Civil War reenactors with guns and canons. I sent the kidlets with Hubby (so I could go to some garage sales). They had a great time. I talked to them a couple of times on the phone. Kiddo did not want to leave. They had to see everything before they could come home. That is how Kiddo is when you put him into a setting like that--he needs time to absorb as much as he can. We can go back many more times, and there will always be more for him to absorb. He just loves it.

At the Landing they got to ride in a horse drawn trolley, go to the one room school house, where Kiddo was quizzed on first grade spelling words from the 1860's, and visit several different houses with various activities inside. The high point of the day for both of them, though, was being asked to collect dandelions to be put into bread. The kids loved the idea of being able to eat something that just grows wild in our backyard! We had already learned that Dandelions were edible as part of our Outdoor Hour Challenge #1. Having someone else confirm this, AND being asked to collect them to actually be baked into something that could be eaten was very exciting. Of course, now they want to eat dandelions. All.the.time. Anyone have any good dandelion recipes?