Creative Science : Making lemons out of lemondae

Things are progressing very fast here with our homeschooling. So fast I can barely keep up with all the blogging, facebook updates and pictures. I am overdue. This week I will be posting some of the activities we have been doing over the past 2 weeks. Enjoy and share your idea/comments.... with that said...on to the lemonade!

I woke up to my little one (the preschooler) asking me to make lemonade for her. She literally woke me up with a bag of lemons. So with one eye open I said ok just to get her out of the room so I could steal 5 more minutes of sleep. But as that sleep never came, I began to think of our daily schedule and how science was on the to-do-list for the 2nd grader. And then a light bulb went off...




I was going to incorporate making lemonade into a science project. That way the 2nd grader still received her science lesson and the pre-k diva got her lemonade out of me all in 1 squirt. So... I did a bunch of research and decided to go with the science experiment of making lemonade and lemonade soda. The lesson involved learning about acids and bases, and through baking soda seeing how the 2 intermixed.


We founded the basis of this experiment from this site...http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/experiments/lemonade.html and we were on our way.

Little Miss L - Tasting a little bit of the lemon to make sure its just right..

Miss 2nd grade J squeezing her lemons to make the lemonade. She learned a lot about acid and bases that day

The final result after adding baking soda - the base. A nice bubbling surprise that needed Lots and Lots of sugar to taste good.

The First 3 Weeks of HOMESCHOOLING

            Well, we have made it to the 3rd week of our official homeschool and things are going really well. Miss J is doing awesome in her studies. She is surpassing her 2nd grade curriculum and embracing the 3rd grade material with such a jest for knowledge it's contagious. Even the little one - Missy Le - is what we'll call her ...is loving her preschool curriculum. She has all her colors down back and can visually recognize her numbers from 1-5 and is even beginning to write them all out. I'm a proud mother... 

Now... here's the DON'T JUDGE ME moment of  it all. I had to go into survival mode after the 1st week. The excitement and newness wore off. 

The reality of it all and how much work it is trying to running businesses from home, teach 2 children under the age of 8, maintain the house - keeping it clean, and stalked with food from couponing, and finding the time to pop alone....is draining! Yes I admit it... some days I am wiped out and even serve fast food for dinners, I'm taking showers at 11am - trying to sneak one in, it gets so busy some time. AND I found a new place to hide...my walk in closet. I hide there, say a long prayer, shed a tear or 2 or even sneak 5 seconds of sleep. Then I come out - and ta da! All is well (at least for the next 15 minutes). So with that said - I'm adjusting. 

I love spending more time with the family, I love seeing the girls really grow and thrive in their work but I am frequently reminded just how much I am sacrificing for the girls - for my family overall... and at the end of day....that's what keeps me going and I know I will be fine.