February 2018

A short, yet full month, was the month of February.

Science Fair

We carried out, wrote up, rehearsed and presented two science fair projects. Both were about electricity.

To introduce the concept of electrical charge we carried out a few experiments:

1. I built a simple electroscope- a glass jar, a self-made lid from foam, a small hole in the center of the foam, a metal piece from a paper clip, and two light pieces of aluminum . We charged a balloon by rubbing it against hair, and introduced the charged balloon to the jar. The effect was that the two aluminum pieces separated. 
2. We charged a balloon and were also able to move from a distance, through induction, an empty can. 
3. We inflated two identical balloons. We tied them with a string of the same length. We taped the balloons to the ceiling. We placed a small magnet between the balloons. The balloons separated.  

The eight-year-old's science fair was about Batteries connected in Series. He learned about the inner workings of batteries, the components and their dependencies; as well as the basic principles of current flow. I explained that a battery is a device which pushes electrons around a circuit; it is a device that does work. We carried out six experiments:

1. The first one was using regular batteries. We connected them in series, adding them one by one and measuring the voltage every time.
2. The second on was by building a Penny-Salt-Nickel battery units and stacking them on top of one another. As we would add a new battery unit we would record the new voltage. This was the most successful battery combination; ten battery units produced 3V.
3. The third experiment was the same as above, except that we excluded the salt water bridge (we did not put the paper between the Penny and the Nickel. No voltage was produced. This highlighted the important of the bridge which I spent a good deal explaining.
4. The fourth experiment was to build a lemon battery. On each lemon with a knife a small slit was made; in one slit was placed the Penny, and in the other slit was placed the Nickel. The batteries were connected one by one and the voltage was measured. We barely got 1 V out of 3 batteries.
5. The fifth experiment was to cut one of the lemon battery units in half between the coin slits. No voltage was measured because the circuit was open and no current was flowing and no work was being done.
6. The sixth experiment consisted of him putting one half of the lemon on one palm, and the other half of the lemon in the other palm. The result was a closed circuit and voltage was measured. The importance of this last experiment was to highlight that the human body can conduct current, and one needs to be very careful when handling electrical components.

The ten-year-olds' science fair project was about Ohm's Law. We verified it by using a solderless breadboard, resistors of different resistivity, and 9-V battery. She learned a lot of concepts.

1. What a resistor is, why it is important in a circuit, and how to read and measure its resistivity.
2. What current is and how to measure current flow in a circuit.
3. What voltage is and how to measure it across a component in a circuit. In addition she participated in the boy's science fair, so she learned in detail what batteries are and how they work.
4. We measured the current as we were changing the resistors. We verified Ohm's formula and talked about why it makes sense. The higher the resistor, the more work the battery needs to do in order to push the electrons through; the more the electrons to be pushed through, the higher the work the battery has to do.
5. We also hooked up an LED to the circuit, after we had carried out the previous step. This showed the effect of increasing the voltage through the current-the higher the resistance, the lower the light intensity.

New York Trip

We were in New York for three days. I had to go for work, and the kids stayed with relatives. They met their big sister, they nephew, and other family members. They had a good time. We visited the National Museum of Math. We had a lovely experience there but had to leave because we were hungry. The trip back was an adventure. It took us forever to leave; the delay was due to bad weather. We also almost missed the flight because in my mind I was running an hour behind, but once I saw people lining up at our gate, we rushed for it, and succeeded to board on time, and pick good seats.

Books and Reading

We slacked here a little because of the travel and because of family's visit, but we did read. We read most of the Native American tribe stories. We watched the map for each of the nations. We also watched the Trail of Tears. This saddened the kids but they realized why I am not head over heels with the American History told in schools. We have the Sioux, Seminoles and Iroquois to talk about and then we will move to African American history.

New Year

This year we will focus on slowing down. Before proceeding, before committing, before reacting, we will ask: is it useful? The goal is to eliminate unnecessary pressures and to focus on enjoying the journey, and not focusing on the end of the destination.

It has been cold, bitterly cold, yet we found time to venture out. Last weekend we went to 'hunt' for bald eagles. We saw two, we some lots of other birds and spotted various critters. We went to Four Rivers Environmental Center for the first time. It is about 45 minutes away from home, on the Des Plaines river, and is a good 45 minutes closer than the next best spot in the state-Starved Rock. I hope to make a trip to Starved Rock once the weather improves a bit. It will be nice to see the waterfalls frozen. The last two Sundays we also went ice-skating in the afternoon. It has been very peaceful both times. This past weekend, both on Saturday and on Sunday, we took two hour walks around our own neighborhood. We played in the in-and-out-of-freeze hockey field, we observed and listened to birds' conversations, and just enjoyed being out in fresh air, in peace, with no objectives and no time constraints.

In history we are focusing on the Native Americans societies on the American continent. I try to point out similarities, relations, and impact from encounter with europeans. We first talked about the the civilization at Cahokia, and we saw a documentary about Cahokia. The kids (8 and 10) enjoyed it. We moved on to reading about particular tribes. We started with the Apaches because we have heard a story about them. We moved on around their neighbors before finishing with the Indians of the northwest. The Indians of the northwest offered a wonderful opportunity to think about how geography effects history; here, the intrusion of the European settlers was delayed, the harsh impact was inevitable.

1. The Apaches
2. The Navajos
3. The Hopi
4. If you lived with the Indians of the Northwest Coast
5. Cahokia (and for adults this)

For portuguese the kids resumed their weekly lessons with my friend Renata. The lessons are an Vovo Vigarista which is funny and touching. We have not finished because it is a little sad and I worry how my daughter will react. Maybe I will just shorten the ending for her sake. With my daughter, during her portuguese time with me, we read

hour long and are done over skype. The kids enjoy them and are benefitting from them. Together we continue to read in the evenings. This month we read
Diario de um banana 1. We have been dragging this book for a while but I hope to finish it in February and to begin the second book. With my son we are reading and almost finished with
Diario de um Zumbi. It is nothing special but because he likes Minecraft for him this is the most excellent book.

In Math for fourth grade we are working in Beast Academy 5B finishing Fractions, and Multiples & Factors, as well as our first encounter with proper algebra. We also covered train problems. We covered two mental math strategies-multiplication by 11, and multiplication of two numbers whos last digits add up to ten, and who first digits are the same. Next month the focus will be on rates and ratios. For second grade we are finishing BA3B-perfect squares, and will move on to the distributive property. So far so good.

In Science we started talking about electricity. I introduced the periodic table of elements. I talked about the structure of the table corresponding to similarities in the structures of the atoms; in particular I mentioned how certain atoms tend to lose easily electrons from their outer shell and how other atoms tend to gain easily electrons in their outer shells. I emphasized the role of neutrons in keeping the nucleus together. I emphasized the weight difference between the electrons and the constituents of the nucleus. I emphasized how fast the electron moves and how uncertain one is about where the electron actually is. (We will watch videos on the reactivity of elements later. We will also listen in some crash Chemisty videos.) Next month we are going to carry about the science fair experiments. The boy wants to explore batteries in a series. The girl wants to explore Ohm's law.

• We did the double slip experiment to demonstrate the wave nature of light. (we will demonstrate the particle nature of light later). We talked about how waves add constructively and destructively.
• The kids played with their snap-circuit sets. My daughter noticed the polarity if the motor and the polarity of the LED.
• We investigated that battery alone in a circle drains the battery i.e shot circuit.
• We investigated that batteries in series add up their voltage.
• We investigated static electricity and induction using a balloon and cans of soda. (we will do the experiment with water eddy).

We played the following Games:
Sport It-my dad agreed that this is a great game to practice concentration and to practice foreign language vocabulary
Origami Revolution and Origami Shapes-quite delighted that my daughter took to this hobby with desire. I told her about all the practical uses of origami, from medicine to space. She was thrilled. I expect to hook her on to the mathematical way to looking at origami.
Minecraft Paper Crafts-quite delighted that my son found this site; yes, there is a lot to print, but it is better to have him build this way than to buy plastics. My son has started putting small pieces of lego inside the paper craft pieces for stability. His intuition is amazing to me.

Music  was my motivation to let go of the reins and to enjoy the ride. Since the shift in attitude all lessons have been enjoyable. Both children are progressing beautifully. My daughter is going to participate in a piano competition in late spring, and a violin group concert in mid-March; and both kids will participate, hopefully, in the Bulgarian piano festival in May.