A^2 Multiply

Monday, March 14, 2016

The Artists

Julia and Benjamin, the artists, made their debut at an art show at our local library.

Julia's "Bird Under the Moon" and Benjamin's "Butterfly"

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Sibling Love

Snuggles and Peanuts!

Julia taught Benj some stitches while she was doing her sewing homework for co-op.

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Color Science

We've been exploring the science of color! When our thermometer dipped below zero, we tried out an idea from some friends to make colored ice globes.

Of course, I don't have any pictures of the finished products! But they were very cool. We had added food coloring to the water inside the balloons and the colored water formed an inner sphere. So we had colored spheres encased in clear spheres. We unwrapped one of them a little too early, it sprung a leak, and all the colored water flowed out leaving behind just an empty sphere. That was pretty cool. But then the temperature rose and that was the end of that.

Next we moved onto mixing colors. We did this with crayons to create a color wheel, and paint to make some pictures, and then we did it with colored water. Kids and water - what more do I need to say?!

Julia kept track of the colors she was making

Benjamin, the chemist

Both Julia and Benjamin played happily for a quite while creating different colors and combinations. And then somehow, they ended up turning it into an olive oil, lime juice, and lemon juice factory! They're very entrepreneurial these days!

Our final activity, so far, was creating spectroscopes so we could see the colors in different lights. It worked best in the bright sunshine!

Monday, February 22, 2016

The cyclist

Last week signs started appearing all over our house. Signs like these:

stop!

3 way stop!

sharp corner & potty past the sharp corner

Why you ask? Let me show you:

2 wheels!!

don't try this at home

yep, Ben got a new bike! Auntie Merrill gave it to him for his birthday and he has pretty much not stopped riding it since. It does have training wheels. They could come off because he doesn't really need them but Andrew is holding firm to not taking them off until the bike goes outside. He mentioned something about wanting to save our walls from Benjamin crashing into them. hmmm.

Anyway, back to the signs. Those are Julia's attempt to direct her brother. After a few hours of watching him cruise around on his bike she decided he needed some, shall we say, corralling? So every doorway, corner and intersection on our first floor is now marked with signs! stop, sharp corner, 3 way stop, slow down, caution wet floor... she's got it covered! And sometimes Ben even obeys them!

Maybe she should add one about standing on moving vehicles!

Saturday, February 20, 2016

A Rhode Island Winter

January. First snowfall. The coats, hats, and mittens appear. Feet are shoved into boots that are maybe just a tad too small... we didn't get them out earlier - we're tough, we don't need boots til it snows!