Sugar Crystals and Headstands

Sugar Crystals

Both of my girls have expressed an interest in Chemistry (Dad's horribly nerdy influence causes these sorts of things). This week we decided to do an experiment with sugar crystals. We read on several sites that we needed a saturated solution and about 1 weeks worth of waiting time to make crystals grow on a string tied to a pencil, suspended above the solution of water and sugar. Dad also read that a super saturated solution could yield crystal growth in as little as a few hours. Naturally we went for the super saturated solution. Unfortunately, I think our execution was off. In Isabel's own words:

"Well, we were seeing what would happen when we made our solution. But the solution kindof turned out wrong. We wanted faster growth, so we used the super solution. But when it was done, the crystal didn't even grow on the stick. Instead, it grew on the entire cup. Our whole cup of solution turned into a crystal."

Sophia's observations are as follows:

"Cool. It did take a long while for it to stop dissolving. At least an hour I think."

When the girls were asked if they would like to do the experiment again and what they would do different they said:

"Maybe this time we should not dissolve so much sugar in the water, we should dissolve a little less. Maybe we should make the water hotter so it will dissolve quicker."

"We should boil it a little bit less."

Sounds like these girls are forming hypothesis and are ready to become great chemists.

Headstands

Since we did a brainy activity (Chemistry), we also wanted to do something fun with our bodies. So Dad and the two girls spent a considerable amount of time on the lawn, learning to do headstands. Daddy was the champion, his headstand lasted a full 43 seconds before Victor tackled him. Sophia and Isabel also had their own personal records for headstands.

Person	Record time
Daddy	43 seconds
Isabel	4 seconds
Sophia	5 seconds

Comments from Isabel:

"I thought the headstands were pretty cool, but learning them was pretty hard. So what I think we should do is learn an easier way to do them. Like maybe we should do them on a wall. Doing them outside was really fun even though it was hard. Or if that is too hard, let's stick to something we know like handstands and just figure out how to hold them longer."

From Sophia:

"Maybe we should do handstands next time. It would be fun if we did handstands, they would be really easy and also really hard. But I still like doing them with my sister and my Dad."

Conclusion

A successful daddy time was had. Next time, we will take more(than 0) pictures.