ABC’s of Homeschooling ~ X-periments!

This week is a double whammy of ABC goodness. Dawn wrapped W and X together in the same week and gave us the option of doing either – or both!! And yes, I cheated a little bit with the “X” part… but with our new “Experiment Box” and our first experiment of the box landing on TODAY.. on “X” week.. how could I pass it up??

In the past, I’ve had trouble being prepared enough to do right by our science experiments. It has been hard to make sure that we had all of our materials. It’s been difficult to make sure that we had enough time to do it. Ugh.

No more!! This year I determined that We.Would.Get.Our.Experiments.In! To help us meet that goal, I’ve set up our first ever “Experiment Box.” Simply put, it’s a plastic file box with supplies. Specifically, I have envelopes for each experiment in the book with a copy of the directions and all of the supplies that I can fit inside the envelope. Other supplies we’ll need such as tubing and iodine are also in the box in front of the file folders. Large everday items like knives or mixing bowls will be handy enough as is so I’m not worried about those. There were a few items I couldn’t prepare in advance (such as a cooked chicken wing!) but I’ve made a note and hopefully I won’t forget it!

Everything is ready and waiting. I’m so excited!

Today was our very first experiment, too. We made “edible cells” for our first Apologia Anatomy lesson. The kids really had a lot of fun and they turned out well — and they were rattling off which ones were the mitochondria, lysosomes, centrioles, etc, just as quick as you please. I’d say they all deserve an “A,” don’t you think? ; )

When it was (finally) time for the experiment we pulled out our Experiment Box and got to it. Fortunately I remembered that we need to make and refrigerate the jello beforehand so we did that at the beginning of our school day. Later, we pulled out our envelope and dumped out our ingredients and our directions. After gathering some plates and spoons and a knife we were ready to go — in MINUTES! That was pretty cool.

It’s amazing how a little preparation can go a long way….

I’m looking forward to fitting in all of our science experiments this year. They may not all be as tasty as this one, but the success will be just as sweet! Yay for preparation! And experiments!

This is a part of the ABC’s of Homeschooling series by Dawn @ 5 Kids and a Dog. Check it out! You can see all of my ABC posts here:

• All Year
• Books
• Choices
• Differences
• E & F ~ “Everyone Together” and “Flexibility”
• God
• Housework & Homework
• Imitation
• Joy
• Kids
• Lead By Example
• Methods
• Not Comparing
• Overwhelmed
• Planning
• Q & R ~ “Questions” and “Relaxed”
• S & T ~ “Supplies” and “To Do’s”
• Unpredictable
• Virtues
• Workcharts/Workboxes