Petri dish experiments

There is something about the microscopic side of diseases and invisible-to-us bacteria that fascinates me.  So, with homeschooling, I get to force my curiosities on the boys.  : )

We finally used our petri dish experiment bought courtesy of the investment my mom makes to their education.  

First, you get to dissolve the agar (a nutrient for bacteria) in some boiling water.

The instructions for measuring were for 1 dish at a time.  I don't know who would even do that.  That's not exciting at all.  How are you going to put your toilet seat sample next to the remote control sample and compare.  Sheesh.   

You pour a little in each dish.

You spray a mist of water on a q-tip, then swab some things you might think are disgusting.  You let the squeamish students take pictures.   

We swabbed some money.

Then the swab is introduced to the petri dish filled with agar.

Joel apparently thinks the swab from his flip flop is kind of gross.

We waited about 10 days and got a mixed result.  The boys either had better swabbing method than I did, or their swabbing objects were all that much dirtier.

The dishes with the most visible colonies.

And they weren't too visible, really.  I'm kind of glad they weren't worse, because the samples were from our home, but I'm kind of disappointed we didn't get to see a lot of awesomely disgusting growths.  : )  I am keeping them around a bit longer in case they need more time to grow.  I have some doubts that my agar mixture was correct because it seemed like it should have been more wet.

Games

The boys are learning to play chess. I'm not sure yet if it's a disadvantage or advantage that he's learning from Trevor who is not skilled yet.   The fanciness of the chess pieces add to the excitement for sure.

I took Trevor to watch his friends play Upwards Basketball.  It seems like a great program and he's excited to try out next year.    

We played a game called Cash Flow for Kids.  It teaches kids how to see income, taxes/expenses, and investment opportunities.  The object is to make enough cash to cover taxes and expenses from investments such as home businesses, mutual funds, and real estate. 

Joel is reading SO well!!

Trevor was on my team.  Scott and Joel barely beat us to Cash Flow.

The boys get to play foosball at church before and after co-op.  They LOVE it.

This is a game called Suspend.  You are supposed to be the first to hang all your wired on the tree stand without knocking off any others.  It's a fun balancing game.

Bowling for charity

We went bowling for charity.

I did not like my score, but I did like hanging out with this guy.

I decided I'm going to buy my own bowling shoes, too.  Because 1) Ew.  and 2)  It's financially sensible.  I should have done this years ago.