Last week slipped away. It wasn't terribly busy, but we were on the go a lot. I had my dentist appointment Monday. We had PE and Art co-op on Tuesday. Wednesday the girls finished up their science fair projects, making the display boards. I went grocery shopping to get the ingredients for two months work of bulk cooking. Thursday morning we went to set up the science fair projects and meet with the judges. Thursday night was the award celebration. Friday I went to Phil's community and cleaned one of his vacant homes to get it ready for sale. Saturday morning Phil did most of the bulk cooking for me. We went to walk around Lake Morton and feed the birds. The girls went for their first swim of the year yesterday. I wish I'd taken pictures but I didn't think to until the girls were already in the house. The water is only 76 degrees, much too cold for me. I prefer the water to be around 85 or so, which means I don't usually swim until late June or so. I did some more grocery shopping, and other than that it was a nice calm weekend.
We went up to a nearby hill to watch the shuttle launch last night. We are in the Highlands section of Lakeland, and went less than a mile to a spot that provides a great unobstructed view of Lakeland. It was beautiful. The sun had just set, so it was lighting the contrail in shades of pink and orange. The sky was so clear you could see the solid rocket boosters separate and fall. The shuttle was clear for a very long time. We could only see the light of course, so it looked like a moving star, but it was beautiful.
I have been spending the morning working on the details for getting Tori enrolled at PCC. Last week we submitted an online application through Facts.org, the state run website that brings together a huge amount of upper level education information. Tori received a letter Saturday letting her know she'd been provisionally admitted to PCC. This is just a formality, as the school has open enrollment. I need to clarify whether Tori can enroll as a dual enrollment student while being enrolled in the private school we've used for years, or if she will need to convert to being enrolled in the Home Education Program. The private school we use is not located in our county, and I don't believe it has an "articulation agreement", so she may have to switch from being legally a private school student, to being registered with the county as a home education student. It will make no difference in the way we homeschool or the way college works for her, but it is a formality to be dealt with.
The girls did well at the science fair.
Tori's project was called Project Peppermint. She found the idea for the project at ScienceBuddies.com They have a survey you can complete to help you find a project that meets your interests. Her project was about whether the taste of peppermint will improve your reaction time. She used a website with an online reaction time test and gave volunteer participants instructions to take the test, make note of their average time result, then to take the test again with a peppermint in their mouth. She collected some identifying data from the participants and entered those into Excel to be able to sort the results using several different criteria. She found that participants under 35 years old generally did better with the peppermint or stayed the same. Participants over 35 generally did worse with the peppermint or stayed the same. It was quite interesting. She won a Grand Champion award. I tried to get a picture with her display and the ribbon, but each time I went to take the shot, there were people taking her test.
Beth's project was about growing sugar crystals. She was testing to see if starting with different temperatures of water to make the simple syrup would result in differing amounts of crystal growth. We discovered growing sugar crystals can be difficult. At one point it seemed the project wasn't going to be successful, so she was going to switch to one about pennies and lemon juice. We noticed on the second day of the new project that her sugar mixes had started to grow crystals, so she switched back. She found that the hotter the water, the more crystals you grow. There were a few other crystal projects in the fair. Beth won a Participant award.
Lili did a project about killing plants. She was testing to see whether removing the water, the soil, or the sun would result in the death of a plant faster. She found it was the lack of water. It took a couple of days to die, and did not recover once she started watering again. The other plants showed little decay at all. There were several projects using plants at the fair as well, all slightly different projects. Lili won a Participant award.
Evie did a project involving peripheral vision. She mad a large protractor out of cardboard and several different colored basic shapes on popsicle sticks. Her participants would hold the cardboard protractor in front of their face while Evie would hold up a shape at one end and gradually move it toward the center. The participants would let her know at which point they could see the color and shape. She found red was most easily spotted and yellow was most difficult. Circles were most difficult to distinguish, triangles were easiest. Evie won a Grand Champion award.
I think Tori and Evie's projects being unique helped quite a bit. Both projects were interactive as well, the judges and other visitors were able to try the project themselves.
Today I will be making a large batch of egg sandwiches and another of french toast. I cook them now and freeze for quick breakfasts later. The egg sandwiches get microwaved for about 30 seconds to warm them up, the french toast slices just go into the toaster. We have PE and Art co-op Tuesday and a field trip to Crystal Springs on Thursday. Saturday is Justin and Season's wedding.
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