If you thought this post would be about the Disney movie released last winter, sorry to disappoint you. I just couldn’t resist using that title. 😉 As I’ve shared before, Leslie is doing the Apologia Astronomy course. We just finished chapter 13 – only one more to go! When I bought the book in 2009, started it, stopped it and shelved it, I really never thought I would pick it up again. But this year, with the help of the Junior Notebooking Journal, we are almost finished! Yippee!
The project for chapter 12 was making ice cream. This project demonstrated the change in temperature due to the effects of different chemicals (in this case, it was the effect of the rock salt on the ice) is similar to the atmosphere on Uranus and Pluto, which has various chemicals in it. (I really hope I said that right!)
She measured the heavy cream, vanilla and sugar and put it into a small zipper bag. We sealed it up and placed it in a larger zipper bag with ice and…
…rock salt! I’d never used rock salt before! It really fascinated me. But then, I’m a simple person so it doesn’t take much to get my attention. 🙂
Next, she had to vigorously shake the bag for eight minutes. We took turns because it was harder than it sounded.
Here she is shaking! 🙂
Finally, the timer beeped and we had our very rich ice cream! Very, very rich!
I liked it, but Leslie wasn’t that impressed. It was just too sweet for her. I’m thinking it was just that her own sweetness and the ice cream’s sweetness were just too much. 🙂 ❤
Thanks for reading,
valeriewritenow.com 
I have heard a few people talk about using apologia for science. I am trying to decide what to do for school next year. We started with all Abeka, a few years ago, switched to Sonlight, then had to put the kids in the christian school at church for a year & a half. We started back last fall with 95% Sonlight, except for Daniel (2nd grade) doing Abeka math & phonics. I really love the idea of Sonlight, and I don’t use it exactly like it’s *meant* to be used. I do not do 3 different levels, I do Michael’s level & what ever the younger boys get, they get. So far it has worked very well as far as that goes. We are currently half a year behind in science though, because I can’t keep up with all the experiments that we’re supposed to do, and some days we don’t even do ANY science. I’m not worried about my little boys, but Michael will be in 8th grade next year. I’m looking for something I can pretty much give him, and say, go do your science…is it possible to do that with apologia? Or do you have to teach it?
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Hi Sonja! Yes, it is possible to do that with Apologia. Not with the younger ages. I would say up to fifth grade need to have the book read aloud, or the parent listen to the child read it aloud and narrate it (share what they’ve learned in their own words). My daughter (grade nine this year) did Apologia last year and this year on her own. I bought a science kit from hometrainingtools.com that has all the hard to find items in it. When she comes to an experiment, she gets the items out that she needs and does it with minimal supervision. I also buy the corresponding notebooks for each textbook, just to make it easier. I hope this helps. 🙂
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Valerie, thanks for answering so quickly! I appreciate your help!
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You’re welcome! 🙂
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I have done a similar experiment with a whole class of students. We used a can with the ice cream mixture inside a larger container of the ice and rock salt. We stirred and rotated the inner can like you would do the homemade ice cream canisters. I had forgotten all about that until I read this post. I’m sure Leslie had fun with it, and you have this record now so she will never forget it.
I love you both. Miss you!
Mother
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I never knew you did that! Wow. That sounds a little easier than our way. 🙂 Love you and miss you, too!
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