Week in Review - A Dead Tadpole, A Sinus Infection, and a Fun Science Activity

I'm so glad it's Friday!  While nothing particularly bad has happened this week, I've just been feeling tired, vaguely stressed, and overwhelmed.  I'm hoping to gain some peace and clarity this week-end!


Duncan was a bit upset this week to discover that his tadpole had died.  I have no pictures - that would be too morbid.  Our Grew a Frog is still alive, though.


Mason has had a lingering cough for weeks now.  On Monday, we decided that we had better take him in to see our pediatrician.    Our doctor diagnosed him with a sinus infection and now he is taking medication and still has a lingering cough.


We have been having small problems with our computer for a few months now.  After talking with a computer technician, we decided to upgrade our computer rather than try to fix the many problems.  We are definitely due for an upgrade and our computer gets a ton of use as we use it for business and personal use.  While we are having a computer technician transfer our data, the whole process is still a bit disconcerting.   I will be happy when we are all set up with our new computer next week!


Sadly, not a lot happened in our homeschool this week that was picture-worthy!  If I had taken more pictures this week, they all would have been the same - children bent over schoolbooks reading or writing.  While working on book-work is very good, it doesn't make for interesting pictures!


We started Friday morning with our weekly "watch all-together" history video.  We watched Dawn of the Maya.  For the past three weeks, we've watched videos about ancient peoples - the Incas, the Aztecs, and the Mayas.  


This afternoon, Duncan and I did a hands-on science activity that he's been looking forward to all week.  He saw the "Vroom, Vroom!" activity in his science textbook and he was very excited about trying it. 

The main question in this activity was, "Does the amount of force needed to move a toy car increase or decrease as the slope increases?"  He compared many different degrees of slope and found that more effort was needed to move the toy car up the ramp when the slope was increased and less effort was needed when the slope was decreased.

The toy car was taped to a 1 meter long piece of string attached to a plastic cup (the effort).  Duncan added one penny at a time to the cup until the car moved up the ramp to the top.  

He enjoyed predicting how many pennies it would take to move the car every time he adjusted the slope.

Our boys have a swim meet all week-end and Amber is away for the week-end at a church retreat (I will miss her).  I know that Monday will be here in the blink of an eye so I better get started on finding that peace and clarity!


Visit Kris at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers to read about what other homeschooling bloggers did this week!