Hot Ice

Yesterday, if you like our Facebook page you would have seen a few status updates about our attempts to make "Hot Ice".

We were following this video from YouTube:



We didn't realize the boiling down would take forever -- it took nearly 2 hours.  So WP wasn't to thrilled. It made her school day much longer because I refused to let her do anything else while it boiled down.

We boiled it down, placed it in the refrigerator, and after 2 hours still no crystals. We assumed we did it wrong; so while she did her school work I did up another batch. I mixed it, boil it down -- let even more crystal form then the first time -- thinking that was our mistake.

Let it sit in the refrigerator for several hours -- nothing -- no crystals.  So we left it overnight and the majority of today. I was cooking steaks on the grill and WP came out asking if she should just dumb it seeing it was just a liquid with no crystals. I told her yes. She asked where, because Daddy was washing dishes at the kitchen sink. I told her just take it out front and just dump it. It's just vinegar and baking soda and wouldn't hurt anything just dumping it out front. (Even though it was just vinegar and baking soda I didn't want her dumping it in the back yard because of Puggy the Puggle).

A few minutes later -- WP came running out the back door towards me -- Mom, mom, look what happen?  What happen you wonder -- well the liquid mixture turned to a solid on her as she was going to dump it. She asked if this was the "hot ice"? I told her yes it was -- but didn't understand why it didn't work like the video, or why it turned to a solid on her when she went to dump it.  -- Other then it must have had some crystal or dry residue on the side of the plastic container and when the liquid touched that it made the rest of it turn into a solid.

I wish I would have thought to snap some pictures of our failed experiment.  Failed because it didn't go exactly like we thought it would.  However, it was still cool we got the hot ice to form -- even if it was accidental. One interesting thing about the "ice" was that it actually was hot, warm, to the touch. Much, much warmer then you would expect seeing it was just in the refrigerator.

Have you tried to make hot ice before? How did it go? Did it work like this video? Or did you do something else? Have you had experiments that have failed or didn't go as plan? Tell us more? Leave a comment.

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High School. Here we are.

8 years in and here we are: High School!!

I'm given my years what many would consider an veteran homeschooler. Many have come to me looking for advice, tips, help, but yet here I am in uncharted waters.

I was robbed, yes strong words, but how I feel from being able to do high school with my son, but overjoyed and overwhelmed to be doing freshman year, here at home, with my daughter.

Freshman year.  I many moons ago bought homeschool tracker plus edition. This year I am honestly using it. For real. I have used it on and off over the years among other various tracker, record keeping programs. I just keep coming back to the homeschool tracker.  So with it being high school now I'm using it completely, for real, fully and being sure I honestly record things within the program. That way when needed with a few clicks I can generate report cards, transcripts, reading logs, materials used, etc. The more info you put in the better the generated reports will be.  One thing I do like is the plus edition (along with the free basic they still offer) is local to my computer. It's not online or some cloud.

Don't get me wrong. I use cloud things to store thing many things. I do use Google drive, facebook, etc. However when it comes to my education records for my kids, especially seeing my state is a low regulated state and does not require records, I like that it's just local to my computer. It gives me a sense that it's just for me and my kids only. our eyes only.

Although, the down side is that it's only on my computer and while the program can be loaded on multiple computers only one computer is going to have the up to date information unless I put the file on a flash drive and manually upload/download it between the two computers. Also, seeing it's on the one computer only, even though the plus edition allows for separate student login it has to be in that one computer. Hence sharing a computer. Which is not horrid, but over the years it's been nice not having to share and why I tried my hand at a series of online programs and apps when the kids go their tablets.  I wanted them to use their tablets and me my computer and have us "communicate" that way in terms of what to do for school, if the work is done, etc.

The only online programs I haven't tried are ones that cost money including homeschool tracker online. Mainly because I refuse to pay monthly or yearly for something I paid for 8 years ago as a one time fee.  Homeschool tracker plus edition, which is no longer available, was a ONE time fee of $50.

So back to schooling. It has only been 5 days so far. 3 last week; 2 this week. So far I seem please and so does WP. We have been doing Algebra 1, some English and Biology.  I ordered yesterday what I needed to complete our English course and World History. Once I have them we will start. We will also be doing a full years worth of PE/Health and Bible/Religion.  I haven't done PE/Health yet because she's been fighting a sinus infection. I also didn't start Bible/Religion because what I was going to use for her prove to be to advance when I took a closer look.

However within a a month we should be running on full steam.

How has your year started out? Have you even started? How has it been going? Already making adjustment?



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