Water - Day Four

Today we did some watery painting.  Nothing very educational there, just mucking about with paint.  To fit in with a watery theme we thinned the paint and wet the paper to see what effects we could get.  I suggested dropping paint off spoons and blowing it with straws but it turned into a bit of a Jackson Pollock splatathon.

By the time we'd finished we'd got some lovely paintings and Rose had transformed herself into a living art piece.

 Here are our finished canvases.

Jacob has finished 'Catch the Capital' to friends and family quality so email us if you would like a copy.  Next he's working on a game where you have to be a droplet surviving the water cycle.

Rose has a What Am I? Quiz for you...

I am brown and yellow with 4 legs.

I live in a farm.

I eat hay.

People ride on my back.

What am I?

Please send your guesses and she will reveal the answer tomorrow.

Water - Day Two and Three

There has definitely been less enthusiasm this week so we've been taking things easy.

Yesterday we set up the solar still, same as last time magically turning salt water into fresh water.  Here are R and J testing that the water was salty.

And here is the still all set up and ready to go.

And here is a bunch of condensed water on the cling film proving that it works.

Rose has written up the experiment in her folder and Jacob has now pretty much finished 'Catch the Capital' and has come up with a water droplet game but not started it yet.

Most of that was yesterday when Rose also had a bath and claimed that was a water week activity too.  Today I planned to do some painting but we ran into Rose's friend in the park and ended up spending 3 hours at their house.  Painting can wait for tomorrow, no deadlines here so that's ok.

Week Two - Water

This will not be a long post, I'm tired so it wouldn't be happening at all if I didn't think that with no post you'd assume I've given up already.

So this week we're looking at water, specifically I think we might focus on the water cycle but we'll also do some other stuff too.  At our planning meeting this morning there were groans over resurrecting the solar still so I'd better find some more fun stuff to do, also need to come up with a watery craft, any suggestions gratefully received.  If the weather holds we might take a trip up to the meromictic lake and if it rains we'll just stay at home and look at the water precipitating outside our windows.

Today we held our planning meeting (at which Rose said she knows all about 'evacuation' because they did rain at school) and went to the library for reading scheme prizes and resource books.  While we were at the community centre we also went swimming which fit in nicely as a Day One activity and got everybody exercised properly when it's too hot for playgrounds.

Canada - Round Up

Thought I'd better summarize or something before we start on our next exciting topic.

Our goals last week were largely based around keeping busy and Jacob learning the provinces and capitals and by and large we achieved both.  Jacob's video game isn't finished yet but he's still up for plugging away at it and he's pretty much got all his facts straight from building the code and his electronics game.

Rose has become slightly obsessed with researching Canadian wildlife and has now produced sheets about all the animals on her survey and the common loon and is half way through the moose.

On Friday We tried out a light resist printing method on t-shirts (without a great deal of success) using the instructions on the Craftiments website (see last post).

Here we have painted on wet shirts and put pressed maple leaves on the wet paint.  The paint that is covered should magically disappear and leave white maple leaf shapes.

Here are the shirts now.

As you can see it didn't really work, I think the paint wasn't thin enough and the shirts weren't wet enough but I like the patterns the kids made so I'll probably appliqué a couple of leaves on later.

See you next week.

Canada - Day Five

We'll start today with a Ta Da moment.  Drumroll please.  The most popular of Rose's choice of Canadian Wildlife is... the Golden Eagle, although it was close and Teddy had to cast the decisive vote in the end.  Thank you for all your votes and here is Rose with the results.

In case anyone doesn't know about Golden Eagles Rose compiled some useful information.

Fact sheets about the other animals and the Loon are also available on request.

Unfortunately Jacob hit a stumbling block with the 'Catch the Capital' game but I think we've come up with some compromises and it should be available next week.  In the meantime here is his test your knowledge circuit board put together with kitchen foil and electrical tape.  Jacob doubted my ingenuity and electrical skills but It works and is very annoying as he's got it set up so that an alarm goes off every time you match the correct province and capital.

We also tried out sun printing t-shirts with mixed results.  They are fixing in the drier right now so I'll update you with them tomorrow.

Canada - Day Four

Again we have been thwarted by the weather, tomorrow there is a big fat sunshine prediction so maybe we'll get our t-shirts printed then.

Instead we made a solar s'more oven out of a shoe box, see Craftiments instructions.  Here is Rose painting the outside of an old shoebox black to try to absorb as much of the sun's heat as possible.

And here we are setting it up in the sun on the deck.  Put a graham cracker on a plate, put some chocolate on that, top with a marshmallow and leave in the oven in the sun.

The chocolate melted after about 10 minutes in the oven but the marshmallow didn't really soften up so it was a bit difficult to eat.  Here is Jacob bravely making an attempt.

I think it would probably have worked just as well if we'd left it on a plate with no oven but that would have been much less trouble so that's no good.

We also completed Rose's animal chart and Jacob made his Capitals circuit board but things got a bit crazy at the end of the day so photos will have to wait until tomorrow.

Canada - Day Three

Happy Canada Day.

Quick history lesson for non Canadians... Canada Day commemorates the enactment of the British North America Act or Constitution Act on July 1st 1867 which United three colonies of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and the United Province of Canada into a single country called Canada.  Essentially its Canada's birthday.

Today's Camp Kirstin activity was going to the Canada day celebrations on the Burlington waterfront.  I was amazed by the number of patriotic people who showed up in red, you can kind of tell even from this distant picture of the crowd.

We watched some First Nations dancers.  This guys outfit or 'regalia' was fab and there was a hoop dancing lady who was so amazing I was unable to take pictures.

I ate a pulled pork sandwich that was so hot it made my nose run and I spilled it down my shirt.  The kids were much more Canadian (and a lot tidier which doesn't happen often) and had hot dogs.

Tomorrow we will get on with some proper activities and the results of Rose's Animal survey may be available.  Anyone who hasn't voted for either the arctic fox, wolf, cougar or golden eagle has until tomorrow when the polls will be closed.