Impromptu Science

Yesterday I got my goat's milk soap and lotion in the mail. The box was filled with packing peanuts. In the past, I've saved those things, just knowing that they have art project potential.

Yesterday, I googled it and found out I was right. First we dipped them in water and determined that the ones we had were the biodegradable kind; they're made from cornstarch, which I thought was pretty cool.

They're actually a great material for sculptures. A little bit of water is enough to "glue" them together to that end.

First the kids experimented with different levels of saturation to determine what would work best for their sculptures. Then they played with it.

Next came the fun part!

I went to the kitchen and spooned a little bit of three different white substances on the counter, with the suggestion that the kids explore each material with their senses in effort to identify each. I used cornstarch (since that's what the peanuts are made of), flour, and baking soda.

We reviewed the five senses and I encouraged each kid to use their senses to identify the substances. As they were touching, tasting, smelling, and looking at the substances, I was asking them questions about what they thought and why. I then wrote down their guesses for each substance.

Then we put water in each to see what would happen. The kids mixed in the water with their fingers. They watched and felt the marked difference in how each substance changed when water was added. My 6 year old daughter noticed that the substance she was experimenting with felt the same as the packing peanuts had when they were mixed with water. She correctly changed her answer as a result.

Then, we added vinegar to a small pile of each substance. After seeing the bubbling and fizzing of the baking soda/vinegar concoction, my oldest realized that his initial guess had been wrong. (They've seen the baking soda/vinegar reaction enough to know.

Not surprisingly, Annacie, my little chef was able to identify all of the substances before anyone else because she had been in the kitchen enough to know.

This is definitely an experiment that I'll do again with different substances, though I foresee that they will need far less coaching and questioning next time.

If you're like me, there's so much stuff laying around in your house that can be used for experimentation. You are far better equipped to provide these hands on learning opportunities than classroom teachers are.

This is how kids learn. And it's how we learn too.

As William Butler Yeatts said, ""Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." 

Love them, play with them, and learn with them. That's what it's all about.

The Main Thing

Our days for the most part, are filled with busyness. There are few people who don't fit into this category. From work to play, and everything in between, each day is packed with activity, and before we know it, the days turn into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years.

Life goes by fast, and the older we get, the more we know it. The more we wish it would all just slow down.

Yet in a way it's good.

The knowledge that life is short can be a prompting to prioritize our time more effectively, to share more freely, and to love more deeply than we would otherwise.

Yet there are many people who don't seem to get it. Judging from the way they spend their time, you would guess that they have some secret knowledge that the normal life span doesn't apply to them. Many live carelessly, recklessly, with little regard for other people. Others live distracted, filling their time excessively with things that in the long term will be of no account.

Many never slow down enough to consider the things of God at all.

My heart goes out this morning to a sweet family who lost their Granny last night. As I've pictured them sitting in the hospital with her throughout the past few days, I've remembered my time with my own Grandma in the hospital just before she died in 2005. 

I got there precious moments before she passed, time that I wouldn't trade for anything.

No matter what you have chosen to fill your life with, when you are at the bedside of a dying relative or friend, everything falls away except the one thing that's really important. It can be a time of helplessness or a time of hope, all depending on the decisions that that person has made up to the point. 

There's nothing in this life that will ever compare to the hope that we have in Christ.

Parting from our loved ones is always sad, but it is an incredible consolation to have faith and confidence that you're going to see them again. I know of no other way to have that, except in Christ. It is because of his resurrection that we know that this is not the end, that we were created for so much more than this.

While, the way that we spend our time should be a direct reflection of what matters most in our lives, few ever even give it a thought. Typically, the things that are most deserving of peoples' time and thoughts are the things that get the least amount of attention. 

Don't let that be you.

Don't wait until you are at the bedside of a loved one or in that bed yourself to delve into the things of God. Don't wait until it's too late.

As I sang Amazing Grace at my Grandma's bedside, I know I was singing her into eternity. I miss her as I know my friends will miss their sweet Granny but I tell you, it's everything in those moments, to know that you'll see your loved one again.

O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? 56 The sting of death is sin; and the power of sin is the law: 57 but thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:55-56)

May all of our stories end in victory.