Blooming Scientists

The little ones have a great time rolling it out.

Zach puts his muscles into it. He loves cooking.

Molly is sure she can do it, “Me self.” She’s very hands-on.

I couldn’t resist the fun of rolling the dough with her.

Koren couldn’t resist helping and getting in on the fun.

We put out a variety of toppings: meats, vegetables, and fruit.

Zach starts with pepperoni.

Then Zach adds pineapple. Molly started with ham.

Here are some of our creations. We don’t worry if they aren’t round or square. We call them “free form”.

This one has fresh tomatoes, olives, and chopped, homemade meatballs.

I’ve always loved llamas and alpacas. There’s just something about their quizzical faces, soft dense fiber, and quiet nature that I find calming and intriguing. We had friends in New Mexico who allowed us to help with their llamas and alpacas, even on shearing day. It was such a treat. So I was thrilled when I visited Family Day at the Iwig Dairy Farm and found my friend Claudia and her Ad Astra Alpacas.

    
Claudia invited us for a tour of Ad Astra Alpacas located at Claudia’s childhood home. What was a dairy farm, is now home to about fifty alpacas, a few cats, and Pepper, their dog.

We began our tour in the store, where Claudia explained how the alpaca fiber is sheared, and then combed so that all the fiber strands are going the same direction.

Once the fiber is combed, it creates bats. These are like clouds of softness.

Claudia has a special felting machine that uses hundreds of tiny hooked pins to pull bats together, creating alpaca felt.

The felt can be used to make hats, bags,  and pet beds. Claudia has her own staff of pet bed testers, here hard at work.

Then there’s this amazing shawl. For this, two bats are placed perpendicular to each other and felted together. Then a delicate silk scarf is felted to the alpaca fiber. The result is a warm, soft alpaca shawl with silk scarf patterned on the outside.

We also saw the fiber before and after it was spun into yarn.

Claudia’s store has lots of handknit items. I picked up several pair of socks. I like wearing the socks and knowing the animals that help keep my feet warm and dry in any weather.

The boys were excited to see the alpacas. Animals that created such soft socks had to be special. Claudia led us outside to the girls paddock. (Female and male alpacas are kept separate once their are weaned.)

We were immediately greeted by the official “Welcome Lady”.

Following Claudia around the shed, we saw the rest of the “girls”.

Infant alpacas are called Cria. Claudia had two cria that were about three months old. Ad Astra is part of the Kansas state motto “Ad Astra Per Aspera” and translates, “To the Stars.”  In honor of this, Claudia names all alpacas born on her farm after stars, constellations, and celestial events.

She carried over Aurora so the boys could pet her.

Claudia’s alpacas visit schools, senior centers, and even the local cafe. So they are used to having strangers around them, and seem to pose for young photographers.

They are also willing to have their necks and backs petted, which I loved. “Hands on science” had a whole new feel as I had each hand buried deep in the softness of this lovely lady’s back.

It was great for the boys to see and touch the alpacas while Claudia answered every possible question, like “What colors can alpacas be?” We only had to look around to see most of the colors possible.
If you’re interested in learning about alpacas, check out: http://www.alpacainfo.com/.  You will probably find an alpaca farm near you that encourages visits. You’ll also find that alpacas are popular with homeschool families, so new friends could be just down the road.

–Madon Dailey
Homeschool Manager
Nancy Larson® Science

For me, one of the best ways to bring warmth to the heart is to help others. Recently, we created holiday wreaths to give warmth to families at the local homeless shelter. This isn’t just for the holidays. Winter is here and there’s always need for warm clothing. You can use any type of wreath— evergreen, grapevine, wire frame, or even a clothes hanger bent into a circle. Decorate it with gloves, socks, scarves, and stuffed animals. Then deliver these to your rescue mission or homeless shelter.

Anthony, Stuart, and Stuart’s mother, Melanie, helped create these wreaths.

We started by tying pieces of ribbon, about 24″ long, evenly spaced around the wreath.

We topped the afternoon with a trip to Orange Leaf for frozen yogurt.

Later in the week Zach, Molly, and their mother, Koren, came by for a visit. They made a wreath with their favorite school colors.

A new year is coming, along with our wish for you today, tomorrow and always.

Earlier, I showed the stained glass jar I made re-using a jelly jar. Today Jayde (7) and Jordyn (10) start with two pickle jars.

The clean jars are transparent. To begin the project, coat the jar with white glue.	Now Jordyn’s jar is opaque. We let the glue dry for several hours or overnight.
The glue is dry and the jars are translucent.	We cut white copy paper to fit inside the jars. Now the girls draw the design they want to use and color it with markers
Jayde places her paper design inside the jar to use as a pattern.	Now Jayde uses regular watercolor markers and colors the outside of the jar. Her paper design shows her where to color.
Jordyn is intent on following her pattern. She used several coats of color from the marker to make the colors more intense.	Jayde removed the paper design from inside the jar and shows how she colored the jar to match the paper pattern.
Jayde has colored her jar and is ready to make the marker color permanent.	We spray the outside of the jars with clear acrylic varnish and watch the jars go from translucent back to transparent.
Now that Jordyn’s jar has been sprayed, it can be hand-washed in warm water.	We put votive candles in the jars so the girls could see how the light shows off their designs.
We used battery-powered tea lights for safety. The girls have options for their gifts.	They removed the tea lights. Then we filled the jars with jelly belly flops and other candies.

                                                                 

The jars are ready to wrap and give.                                                                        Jordyn has everything ready.

In Nancy Larson^® Science 2, children learn to describe objects by their physical characteristics.

One characteristic is whether the object is transparent, translucent, or opaque.

This project incorporates these descriptions of a jar. The children watch their jars change characteristics

several times. The final versions make colorful votives that children can give as gifts.

I like to have the children work on their jars while I’m reading to them after lunch.

Start with a transparent jar.                 You’ll need white glue

Here I’m re-using a jelly jar.                like Elmer’s School Glue.

Spread a coating of glue over                  The white glue covers the 

the sides of the jar.                                 jar and becomes opaque.

As the glue dries, you can see                The glue is completely dry

the jar change from opaque                   and the jar is translucent.

to translucent.

Use regular markers to color                   Since my jar was embossed with

the jar. I’ve found inexpensive                fruit, I followed these shapes.

markers work best.                             

For more intense colors, use the              Handle the jar so that fingers

markers to add several layers                 don’t touch the outside colored

of color.  Let the jar dry                          glass. The marker colors will 

between layers.                                     come off easily on fingers.

You can create blended colors                   When you’re done adding color,

by layering shades. Be sure to                   let the jar dry, then spray with

start with the lightest shade and                 clear acrylic. I apply two coats.

work toward the darker ones.                    This keeps the colors in place

For the peach, I started with                      and makes the jar hand-

yellow, then pink, and lastly orange.           washable.

Your jar is now almost transparent               Use a battery-powered tea light,

and very colorful.                                       and it’s a glowing votive. 

I’ve used candles for older children.

The flameless tea lights aren’t as

bright, but they are so safe to handle.

Forget those “Do not touch” signs, here’s an artist that encourages people to be part of the art. After we posted about the Stickwork exhibit, Kelly wrote to tell me how much she and her children enjoyed Beyond the Frame by J. Seward Johnson. Johnson created life-size, and larger, sculptures depicting impressionist paintings. It allows the children to be part of a Manet, or to sit with the people in the Renoir. Enjoy the exhibit and fun with Kelly’s children, ThreeLittleJewells.com

Seward Johnson is dyslexic and struggled in school. He worked in the family business, Johnson & Johnson, until he was fired by his uncle at age thirty-eight. His wife suggested he take an art class, and the rest is history art. Hear him describe his art and story.

I wondered how he makes the sculptures so large and what reaction he hoped people would have to his sculptures. This video answers a lot of questions. He has exhibits and random sculptures in several cities.

Installing Beyond the Frame was quite an adventure http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8l69Z8YoGs&feature=related

Art is like science—it’s everywhere and in everything. We simply need to stop, look, and find it. The holiday seasons open many opportunities for art and science to meet and create.