This experiment involves dissolving the egg shells with vinegar, hence the name “naked egg.” You are then left with the egg white and yolk encased in a semi-permeable membrane.  We then put one naked egg in water and another one in corn syrup to learn about osmosis, which is the process of water moving from more concentrated to less concentrated solution.  In the water solution, the egg expanded as the water moved inside the egg whereas in the corn syrup solution, the egg shrunk as the water inside the egg moved out.  After this, we reversed the process by putting the imploded egg in the water solution to expand it and the fat egg in the corn syrup solution to shrink it.  The results were fabulous and fun to play with.

Without further ado, here are  pictures documenting our experiment.

Here is the egg sitting in the vinegar solution, and as you can see, the shells are already dissolving and releasing bubbles.

After two days of soaking, the shells are completely dissolved.  To the left is the naked egg and to the right is the normal egg.  As you can see, the naked egg had already expanded and is larger compared to the regular egg.

The kids then took turns handling the naked egg and bouncing it gently.

After some fun, we put one naked egg in water solution (we added red food coloring to the water) and another in corn syrup.  After soaking for about two days, here are our shrunken and fat eggs.  Very cool, right?

We reversed the process by putting the red, fat egg in the corn syrup solution and the wrinkled egg in the water solution and let them soak for about two days.  Truth be told, we forgot about these eggs as they sat in the refrigerator so they sat in the solution for many days.

Our red, fat egg shrank.

Our shrunken egg is now revived and plump.  Because it was in the red water solution, it too became red (though a lighter shade than the first).

Once again we played with the eggs.  I dropped the fat egg in the bowl and it instantly popped as there was a lot of water content inside the egg.  The red blob to the right of the egg yolk is the membrane.

The kids took turn feeling the membrane and squishing the egg yolk out.

Now, on to the shrunken egg.  Here is Bethany feeling it and checking it out.

We bounced the egg from various heights to try to pop it.

Look at this boy’s hand!  That’s the perfect free-throw hand motion for basketball.  He was trying to score and he did.  The egg finally popped after many abuses from these kids.

Due to the low water content inside the egg, it was much harder to pop it.  And of course we have to mess with the insides just to see.

They sure love the gooey mess.  I was actually quite relaxed about this mess, only because it was well contained.  You see, this is the solution to everyone’s happiness.  Mess = happy children.  Well contained mess = happy mom.  When you have this combination, you have one happy family.

The aftermath of our much abused eggs.

For the conclusion of our experiment, I here present NATHANIEL!

His older brother thought it was cool to put an camouflage bandanna on him.

You may wonder what Nathaniel has to do with our experiment.  Well, nothing really.  It really doesn’t have to make sense.

My blog, my call.

That said, I posted his pictures for the following reasons:

1. My island-dwelling friend Andrea thinks he is cute so this is primarily for her viewing pleasure.
2. These pictures share the same memory space in my camera as the experiment.  I’m all about equality here.
3. Blogging is harder to come by these days due to sleep deprivation so squeezing everything I want to say all in one post is ideal.
4. Hmmmm. . . . I ran out of brain cells to actually say something.

Oh wait, few of my brain cells have returned.  We now have a nickname for this child!  We didn’t have troubles in the past coming up with nicknames for our children, except for Nathaniel.  For some reason we just didn’t have a good one for him, and once again I attribute it to brain cell depletion.  Before I reveal his real nickname, I must tell you about my failed nickname.  I affectionately call him “Man-Child.”  Notice that i used the present tense for “call” instead of past tense?  It’s because I still think in present tense and not willing to let go of this nickname.  I tried to convince the family that this name is biblical.  After all, biblical matriarchs and patriarchs call their sons man-child.  It’s gotta be in the Bible somewhere.  The family ignored me at first, not saying anything positive nor negative.  They eventually moved into the stage of frowning upon hearing this name.  They have now moved to the final stage of declaring this nick name as weird.  I think they’re really saying that I’m weird and to which I say. . . too bad I can’t argue against that.  Man-child isn’t sticking so we have to move on though I’m still holding out hope.

So my husband has the winning nick name of CHEEKS.  Nathaniel is all cheeks and we absolutely love those droopy, squeezable, and plumply cheeks.  Everyone in the family approves.  Even I have to succumb to such a cute nickname.  So, there you have it, a window into my scattered brain.

And it spins!  And it’s fun to spin, spin, spin!

This lazy susan was super easy to put together though I had to enlist my husband to do it because I can’t use a power drill.  All you need is a lazy susan from Ikea and seven buckets, also from Ikea.  The total cost was about $14.  Thanks to Pinterest for this inspiration and if you want to make one of your own, here is a photo tutorial.  I didn’t bother to paint the buckets nor the lazy susan because I actually like the way they look.

So why do I like this organizer?  Because it keeps all the supplies centralized in one location, in the middle of our school table.  Whenever someone needs a pencil, pen, crayon, or a ruler, it’s right there!  Each child used to have a pencil box of his/her own where they store their own supplies.  I thought this was a great idea because each child felt special in having a box of his/her own.  Not only that, each person got to pick his/her color.  Well, inevitably whenever a child needs a pencil or a crayon, it’s missing from the box!!!!  So, I have to go and hunt for one.  To fix this problem, I have the child refill his box with more pencils or other supplies.  Guess what happens next?  Somehow they disappear again.  We must have a school supplies thief in the house.  In the end, having individual pencil boxes don’t work for us.  This new organizer solves our problem so no more hunting for more supplies.  We are loving it.

This morning, my eldest took his little sister under his wing to begin her formal education.  He got her started with all the necessary materials (“just like” her older siblings): a pencil box, a binder, a pair of scissors, two pencils, and a few crayons.  Today, he taught her the letter B and began to show her what words start with this particular letter by cutting corresponding pictures from a grocery ad.  This explained why when I went to check the ad for a grocery shopping trip, there were many missing images and lots of holes in the ads.  This was not apparent to me initially, but after seeing my daughter’s lesson, the holey ads mystery was solved.  I chuckled when my son clipped a picture of beer, among other B letter words.

It was so sweet watching him teach his sister.  He was so patient with her and she reciprocated by being receptive to his teaching.

Even more rarely, that rare tide occurs durying the daytime on weekends when folks can go observe it.  Today, from 3-5 pm, we had the occasion to visit Moss Beach to check out marine life as a family and with friends.  It was really cool to see the rocks and sea life that one normally only gets to see at an aquarium.  Hermit crabs, anemones, and sea stars and other creatures were easily discovered by the thousands of people who were drawn by the same event to the area.  The weather was shockingly warm, and the sun shone brightly (great for people, tougher for photographers!).

Here are a few of the photos I snapped.  I didn’t get any particularly rare species (to my knowledge), but did capture a few very pretty shots of anemones up close.  I may even print & frame a couple of ‘em!

The website offers videos of how this sharpener works as well as repairing it when a lead gets stuck inside the mechanism.  I’ve had to remove the lead several times and the video proved very helpful in getting the lead out.  I find that when I sharpen colored pencils, the lead tends to break off more easily, but it can be easily remedied.  Happy sharpening!

They started out with using fun noodles as foils or swords.  Now we’ll be purchasing some fun noodles for practices at home.

Now it’s time for the real thing, but they must put on their protective gear.

Let the bout begin!

And finally, a photo of a bout between brothers.  Yes, we’re promoting sibling rivalry, but in a pre-ordained fashion.  Looks like the younger brother won this round as his foil hit his older brother’s torso.

When I did the school prep for this particular lesson, I told my husband that our children will have a biased view of this lesson.  I didn’t flash any snake pictures on our big screen.  Turns out that my children didn’t get a biased view of snakes despite my phobia.  They knew all about snakes.  When I started explaining how snakes move despite having no legs, the children already knew that it was because snakes had scutes or scales under their bellies that enable them to move.  They got so into the lesson that all of them decided they would be snakes and scoot on their bellies.  They even had a race!  Now, that’s as hands-on as we’ll ever get on learning about snakes.

Here are the kids scooting on their bellies on their snake race.  Notice the cute moo moo cow diaper my 2-year-old is wearing?  I love it.  So Adorable.  I get distracted easily.  I know.

The boys decided that they’d have a private race just between the two of them.

Now, I can handle these types of “snakes.”  I can even hug them, kiss them, and cuddle with them.  That’s my kind of “snakes.”

This morning right after I set up the screen for school, one child yelped in pain.  One of the siblings decided to leap on him.  So, before we could even start, we had an interruption.  Not a great start in the day. After some talking, apologizing, and relationship-mending, we are ready.

Half way through the lesson, the same child cried because he had a bloody nose.

Another interruption.

Nurse Mommy came to the rescue and took care of the bleeding nose.  Then, we discovered the the blood on the child’s shirt as well as on the couch!  There’s more work to be done.  So, we proceeded to take off the shirt and the couch cover off  to get the blood stain out.  (Can I just say that I’m thankful for these removable covers from Ikea?)

After removing the cushions, another discovery was found.  There was a lot, and I mean a lot of fish food pellets between all the cushions.  Apparently, the youngest culprit dumped out the fish food a while ago without our knowledge. I took the vacuum cleaner out and cleared out all the fish pellets.

Where were we again?  Ah, let’s see, somewhere in the lesson.  But, we managed to pick it up and finished the lesson.

We transitioned to a different subject.  While the boys worked alongside me, the youngest one came down, needing a diaper change.

Another interruption.

Before I went off, I reminded the boys to keep on working even though I’m not physically there.  Five minutes later when I returned, I found the boys had stopped working while I was away.  Their disobedience needed to be addressed so I took the time to talk to them, which resulted in . . . .

Another interruption.

We worked on the lesson for some more until the kids started to get hungry.  I left for a while to heat up some leftovers for lunch, which of course translated into. . . .

Another interruption.

Today’s interruptions were par for the course: a very typical day.  I always set out to do what we need to accomplish, but it doesn’t always happen the way it ought to.  It’s frustrating because a task takes twice or three times as long to accomplish.  “Can’t we just get on without any more interruptions?!!!”  That’s an impossible feat, I’ve learned, when you have children.

When we are inflexible with the schedule or are under the pressure to complete a lesson or task within a given day, any interruption is frowned upon, let alone the mass of interruptions that I typically experience.  However, I’m learning to accept the fact that interruptions are a normal course of life and that they offer teaching opportunities.  Remembering to keep this perspective in mind isn’t easy.  In many ways we are driven by our goals and deadlines so that we forget that it is through interruptions that teachable moments arise.  What’s amazing is that interruptions provide teachable moments for both the parents and the children.  So, the next time when you’re ready to complain about the umpteenth interruption you’ve already had, rest in the idea that you can use unwelcomed interruptions as a valuable lesson.