Science

I am a science student, however science never excited me. For me, it was just school work (though I was good at school work). Ever since Angel is born, I have started looking at things with a different perspective. She started talking very early. After the initial string of "What is this?" questions, she started questioning things with "Why is this?". Its amazing to see how mundane things can excite a child. She would see a teddy bear in the spots of a fulka or a sheep in the clouds.

Her banging things and listening to corresponding sounds with interest made me try a Jaltarnag with her.

She wanted to know from where plants come, made us sow methi/fenugreek seeds which are found in the kitchen of most of the Indian households. She would remind me to water the pot and notice the progress each day. That taught her patience. I made paranthas out of our labor of love and Angel ate relished those as she had grown it herself!

When we moved to Toronto and it started snowing, she wanted to know that why there is so much snow on the footpaths but none on the main road and we tried melting the snow with salt experiment. To make it more interesting we added food color and little surprises to look for when we dig the ice.
We also placed 2 ice cubes in a separate bowl to observe the time they take to melt without the salt.

And looking at her interest, we have been trying some science experiments at home (with minimal ingredients and time). We tried this classic baking soda and vinegar experiment. I also added some food color to create colorful bubbles. The science behind it is simple - mixing them together generates carbon dioxide and hence the fuzzy bubbles. And she was thrilled. She wanted to try it with water and she noticed that nothing happened. I was preparing for the tempering in daal/lentil soup along with this so had hing/asafoetida in my hand and she wanted to try with that and we did to see what happens. Although she might not understand the actual science behind it, just the awareness of the fact that one thing when mixed with another has a different reaction is enough for me and she marvels at it. Not to the forget the fun she has!

So we tried another variant with the same ingredients to make baking soda and vinegar painting. For this you need a good amount of baking soda spread over a plate. a few different colors (water colors/tempera/food colors) mixed with vinegar in separate bowls and a dropper/syringe(without needle)/spoon. Using the dropper/syringe/spoon sprinkle the colored vinegar over the baking soda and see the fuzzy reactions. She tried using all three and below is the end product.

After doing it for sometime, she started to do the classic way again. After some more time, she mixed everything and that led to a mess. She loved the mess part the most, of course!

Angel loves snow. She also used to eat bits of snow with her friends in the day care. So we created artificial snow at home (not for eating). It was naturally cold and fluffy making it more realistic. The best part is that it requires just two ingredients - baking soda and shaving cream which most people already have at hand.

You need baking soda in a container or a sensory bin. I used one medium sized packet of baking soda and half a bottle of shaving cream. When shaving cream is mixed slowly with the baking soda, cold snow can be felt. I don't know exactly why it is like that, but it is! Angel also added some glitter to it, just for fun and she had a blast making snow balls and snow man. Since it was baking soda, she demanded vinegar and she had a blast making bubbles again!

Next we tried milk, food coloring and dish soap experiment. As the name suggests, it requires three simple ingredients - milk, food colors and dish washing liquid along with an ear-bud. You have to watch this video for that. It kept her busy for a long time.

We tried another variant of the same thing using water and black pepper which created the similar effect.

While looking for science experiments for Angel, I came to know about "Ivory" soap which floats in water, because of its high air content. I got a pack of three from dollar store and we did this experiment. Since I had spare soap, I let her put the soap in water and it floated, while the regular soap sank. I would not try this activity with the wet soap (as I am not sure about the results)

Its so quick and easy and it yields such fascinating results.You just have to place the Ivory soap in a microwave safe bowl, put it in the microwave for 1-2 minutes and watch the magic. My kitchen had such nice smell after this! A word of caution though - The bowl would be quite hot, so be careful with small children. Also, this will work only with the Ivory soap and no other brand because of it high air content as mentioned earlier. If other brand is used, it may burn and ruin your microwave. 

Angel was fascinated to see a soap convert into a cloud (in her own words). It was fluffy and powdery and she had a great time making the mess thereafter!

She loves raisins and I had told her that raisins are dried grapes after which she started enjoying grapes as much too. So, it was time to show her, how grapes are dried raisins. We just took five grapes and left them in a bowl. It is a very slow process and for about 7-10 days nothing much will happen, after that the grapes will start to become squishy and brown, gradually the juice will dry up and finally raisins could be seen. The whole process took around one and a half months months which again taught us patience - lots of it.

Day 40 was yesterday, so we are almost there!

We also got a chance to visit a science exhibition last weekend and spent good 4-5 hours there. Angel had a blast there and wanted to stay for some more time, even though she had missed her nap. I will write about her experience there, maybe some other time. I will also try to write about the other scienc-ey activities we do at home.

She loves these experiments and demands more from time to time. And guess who is learning science again, the correct way this time?!

The 100 Books Pact - 30/100

22/100 The Grim Grotto 

Continuing the Baudelaire series, this is the 11^th book of the series where the Baudelaires find themselves in the submarine of Captain Widdershins for the first time Count Olaf did not make an appearance for more than half of the book. In The end, the children reached the Briny beach solving the code in Quigley’s telegram and hopping onto the taxi driven by Kit Snicket who is the sister of Jacques Snicket whom they met in the village of fowl devotees(#7) and for whose murder the Baudelaires were accused and a new adventure awaits.

23/100 The Penultimate Peril
Penultimate means next to last thus making this the 12^th book of the series. The children met or saw all the people of their past in the Denouement Hotel like Esme, Geraldine Julienne(the reported of The Daily Punchtilio) and Carmalita, Sir and Charles from the factory, Vice Principal Nero, Mr. Remora and Mrs. Brass from the school, Hal from the hospital running an Indian restaurant.

In the end, Klaus helped Olaf to open the lock of the laundry room fastened by Vernacularly fastened Door as he was sure that the sugar bowl is not there, Violet helped him make a drag chute out of the boat on the roof so that they can land safely in the pond below without a crash as they will accompany him and Sunny reminded him of letting the hotel on fire as a signal to VFD that the last of the safe palce is not safe anymore and they landed up in a boat with him.

24/100 The End
At the end of 13 chapters (14 in case of The End) each in the 13 books, many questions like the whereabouts of the sugar bowl or its contents are unanswered and the fate of many people like the Quagmire triplets and Hector is unknown! That is a disappointment.

25/100 The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

Don Tillman is one of the most endearing, charming and fascinating literary characters I have met in a long time. This book is very clever and amusing. It has its laugh-out-loud moments and at some places its very touchy. I thoroughly enjoyed it and so did Bill Gates. Highly recommended.

26/100 The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion
This is the sequel to the above book and hence a continuation of Don Tillman and Rosie’s life who are expecting a baby. The author had raised the bar too high with the first book. This in itself is a good book, but relatively, it lags behind “The Rosie Project”. To be honest, I rushed through this book as I wanted to get it done with. Having said that, if there is a sequel, I will still pick it up for the love of Don!

27/100 The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

Calpurnia Tate or Callie Vee who is almost twelve, is a born naturalist. She is the only girl in the Tate family of seven children. The story is based in 1899. When there was dearth of earthworms which were required for fishing, she figured that earthworms came out in rains, so she created a little rain for them for a couple of days after which they came just by listening to her footsteps, captured them and sold them for a penny.

She figured why the yellow grasshoppers were bigger and the green ones were smaller. It was hard to spot them in yellow grass despite them being fat and slow while the emerald ones were too easy to spot and gobble down by the birds in the yellow grass, thus confirming the survival of the fittest theory by Charles Darwin.

She finds her mentor in her grandfather who has dedicated the later part of his life in the study of nature.  When she is not exploring nature with granddaddy, she finds herself incapable of doing the girly things her mother forces her to, like knitting, cooking or playing a piano. Throughout the book, she has to balance her curious personality with the restrictions placed on the girl. The book ends with the dawn of the 20^th century and the reader just hopes for the amazing things ahead for Callie.

28/100 The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

This is the sequel to ‘The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate’.  If she was my daughter, I would tell her that how immensely proud of her thirst for knowledge I am. I would tell her that how I love the way she loves and cares for her younger brother Travis, I admire her for standing up for what is right, for being brave enough to voice her desire of going to college and if it was not the year 1900 that how she will grow up to become one of the greatest environmentalist. But since she is a fictional character, I would tell all the children of grade 4 onwards to read these wonderful books. Although not everything in this book is pleasant, hang on and you will find yourself cheering for Calpurnia Tate at the end of this book. I can’t wait for Angel to grow up and discover these books.

Both of these are wonderful books and the reader can’t just have enough of them. I want the sequel to this part as well as I want to know what happens to Callie and her aspirations.

29/100 Murder In Bollywood

I was feeling nostalgic and I searched the library with the words – “India” or “Bollywood” and thus ended up with this book. I got four other books with "Bollywood" in title and I am sure I will read them all no matter how mindless they are. I even read a travel book on India and a cookery book on Indian vegetarian recipes too. Come on, I was am missing India!

So this book is written by Shadaab Amjad Khan, the son of Amjad Khan of ‘Gabbar’ fame from Sholay. An ace Bollywood director Nikhil Kapoor and his wife, a leading actress Mallika Kapoor are found dead on the same night. More murders and murder attempts follow. It’s now upto Senior Inspector Hoshiayar Khan to solve the mystery. The revelation was a surprise and the book is quite engrossing.

30/100 The Crossing Places by Ellie Griffiths
The one thing that stands out in this book is the unlikely heroine. Ruth Galloway is forty something, overweight, loner academician who lives with her two cats. She is convinced that her weight makes her unattractive. This is a mystery book with a flavor of archeology. The mystery is not a mystery as such but the writing style and the twists and turns are beautifully described. I have placed a hold for the next book in the series; yes it’s a series of 7 books as of now.

Caught Again!

Prequel here.

 We were discussing about the (dreaded) weight issues.

J* who probably was in a good mood said: On this day, at this point in time, you are not fat, you are perfect!
Me: Does that mean that I was fat at some point in time?

Poor guys! They are still looking for a perfect answer to this question :P

Needless to say, I never get bored of putting him in such tight spots *Evil laughter*