Sunday, October 23, 2005

Microscopes and Plants and MC Lars


This week, a miscroscope arrived in the mail - addressed to Anny!

We had subscribed to the Horrible Science magazines - we already get the Horrible Histories magazines, although that series is almost finished.

One of the special offers with the subscription was a new microscope - one of those models with a viewing screen at the front, in addition to the usual eye hole.

There was major excitement in the house when the microscope arrived. Anny and T spent several hours investigating the slides that came with the micrscope and also making their own slides and observing. A found an old How and Why book about microscopes and we compared the old model in the book to our model.

That same day, I was putting dried kidney beans into the crock pot to cook. I decided to save a few and keep them on a saucer of damp tissue, to observe the growth.

The beans are now staring to sprout. We have talked about plant growth and conditions for growth and photosynthesis. I looked up some information on the growth of seeds and shoots in our Childcraft book The Green Kingdom - and now this book is on display in the kitchen. This makes it handy to reference during our observations.

BTW, this is a pic of the rapper MC Lars. The Homeschool Spring Concert is on next Sunday and J and A are part of a group of teens who are organising the concert - no adult organisers! T will help sell tickets on the day.

T, Anny and I are going to perform MC Lars' rap version of the poem "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe. Should be fun, I hope. We have our baseball caps to wear backwards :-) and some props.

J and A are performing in a "rock" band with some other homeschoolers - A is bass guitar and J is the vocals ( and dancer/performer!). They are playing a rendition of Purple Haze ( Jimi Hendrix) and The Anthem ( Good Charlotte).

2 comments:

Cindy said...

How fun, Leonie! Is this picture of Anny?

We used to love looking at things through our microscope.. so many cool things just in the kitchen pantry.. have fun!

Leonie said...

The pic is the rapper MC Lars - we performed his rap version of Mr Raven at the concert.

Anny is our youngest - recently turned 10!

Greg, I think the new microscopes are super easy for anyone to use!