Exploding a volcano with The Magic Schoolbus (review)

I won't make this another review of another science kit, but since I was disappointed with the Young Scientist Club kit I should mention The Magic Schoolbus Erupting Volcanoes Kit left me happier (which is funny because I'm not big on those books). I also got this one on Zulily for a steal, but I think I paid $14, which is a much smaller discount than for the other kits, but the price difference was reflected in the quality. The kit included a poster and an instruction booklet, which was written to the "young scientist" (unlike the instructions in the Young Scientist Club kit which were to the parent). The information was good as it was laid out on the poster and explained in the booklet, but the booklet was also basically a quiz with the busy work of correctly placing answer stickers, and that we could have done without. It also came with a volcano shield, something that the Young Scientist Club volcano kit does not include, and which, if we'd had time, we would have happily created ourselves, but this was a fun shortcut to get us directly to exploding and erupting. It also came with eye protection (fun!) and in general the equipment felt of a better quality (albeit still of plastic, of course). And I guess that turned into a short review.

We actually did this a couple of days ago, just a day after the acids and bases. Calvin started with paint. I'd already told him that the exploding of his own volcano had more to do with art and chemistry than volcanoes, so he set right to the decorating part. The kit included water paint for this step, but it just didn't stick so I broke out the poster paints instead. since it was warped from being in the box we held it splayed into shape using a rock (which also got painted and is in our garden now :o)

The mere existence of the eye protection, and possibly the use of the word "explode", set Calvin a bit on edge. He suited right up, and on pouring the vinegar into the baking soda solution he jumped right back to watch from a safe distance. We ran several trials before deciding on the right combination of ingredients. I love that we weren't given a "recipe" but were urged to find our own by trial and error.

The kit came with red food dye for the ultimate lava look, but after the first one, when we ended up with red fingers and a slightly red driveway, we ran the trials without it. That made the final explosion more dramatic. Well, that and the fact that we did this all outside and just as we were finishing the thunderheads were rolling in and the sky was rumbling in the distance. Time to head inside.

Felt, the volcano edition

It's been a while since I made new felt. It's been a while since Calvin asked for new felt (although he does continue to get his old sets out at least once a month for quiet play time), and then a couple days ago he became rather intent on having a volcano felt set. The first day he asked me to make him said set I told him to make me a list of what such a set would include, because I just couldn't get my mind wrapped around it. All the "volcano felt set" images I found when I searched online were actually dinosaur related (and you'll remember that Calvin's interest is most definitely volcano related, not dinosaur related), and it left me wondering. Calvin's list included a sleeping volcano, a volcano erupting with "volcano red" lava, houses, people, and sheep. Sheep?

When we sat down to work on this today I asked him to draw a picture of what his ideal volcano felt set would be. I guess he forgot about the people today. The sheep seemed to be the real goal.

I did most of the cutting, but Calvin selected the colors, did all the basic design work, and helped with the hot glue.

Having now seen him at work with the set I now understand (or think I understand) that what he's going for is a reenactment of the Pinatubo evacuation as we saw it on the National Geographic special we watched a while back. He reassured me, for instance, that the sheep in this picture is not being touched by the lava because he has been "evacuated" and is in a town far away from the volcano. "It's a matter of perspective," I was told.

Egyptian volcanoes

It has been a really long time since I shared any of Calvin's art, or really anything at all in this space other than book reviews. I wish I could say that was just a matter of not posting, but actually we haven't done much art as of late—we've been reading a lot of and playing make-believe, but other than that we've been outside and most of our activities have just been general day to day things that I've written about in the journal. I've been trying to sort out how I'll use this space on the site now that I use the journal space so much more, and so much more inclusively. Right now it's becoming mostly a book review site, and we're even in a transition on that front. Now that Calvin reads so much more on his own we are going through our read alouds more slowly and in the past I've only asked him to write reviews on the read alouds. Though we usually talk about the books he's read after he finishes them, and sometimes he still reads to me, he's not excessively fond of writing reviews so I haven't asked him to do so more often than before. So that leaves us with the weekly bookshelf post, lots of my own book reviews, and a handful of Calvin's for right now. But I have other plans in the works. I think we just go in spurts, that's all.

And today Calvin has some art to share. He specifically asked for these to be posted here. These drawings are a result of a rediscovery of the Egyptian hieroglyph stamps and a still active fascination with volcanoes. Note his creation of hieroglyphs for "volcano" and "dangerous lava", or so he tells me they mean.

Weekly book shelf, 4/29

I am trying something new. Since we enjoy reading so much, and since it is such a large part of our lives here, I am going to start listing our reading materials from the week every Friday so I can link up with a group of moms who are doing the same thing. I want to become more involved in the wider internet community, get some great new book ideas in the process, and hopefully also give some.

This week we're discovering volcanoes, so we spent some time with volcano books, of course. We have the DK Volcano & Earthquake Eyewitness Book and the DK Incredible Earth Inside Guide (an older book). We also have the Usborne Volcanoes book.

Calvin also discovered (or rediscovered, now that he can read them to himself) the Nate the Great series, and between his dad's old books and the ones we got from the library he's read at least seven of these.

Calvin is also reading his way through the Magic Tree House series. We discovered this one by accident when we used their Knights and Castles Research Guide when we were traveling through the Middle Ages. Once he realized there were story books to go with the research books—a whole series of them—he was in love. This week he read the first book from the series, and he's now in the process of rereading the second book. He's determined to read all of them in order.

Together we are reading Glinda of Oz. We've been reading our way through this series since we discovered it together last October. This is the 13th book in the Oz series, and the final one written by L. Frank Baum. We are both very fond of all of these books. They make great read-alouds.

And on my bookshelf this week...I finished Journey to the End of the Night, by Louis-Ferdinand Céline and have started on The Monk in the Garden, by Robin Marantz Henig.