Today's homeschool was a mix of child lead and structured. I had wanted to finish up our world history, but we just got in Masterbooks Biographies of the Revolution, and I couldn't wait to get started on it. The planner for this is broken down day by day, with each front and page page intending to take 1 week. Mr. B enjoyed learning about George Washington so much that we did the entire first week today!
Then we moved on to Readers in Residence. This is a review item we recently received, and a full review will be coming soon. But he's really doing well with it. He spent a good portion of the day revisiting a lesson on narrative and non-narrative books, and then made a chart of several books in our house and organized them by narrative vs. non-narrative and genre.
Then came the part he was waiting on. NON NEWTONIAN LIQUIDS! I picked up a box of cornstarch at the grocery store last night so we could make a batch of oobleck. Oobleck is water mixed with cornstarch. This is a great lesson in liquids/solids, pressure, and viscosity. This is basically homemade quicksand. The pressure you apply to it causes the particles of the cornstarch to group together, making it solid. But once that pressure is release, the cornstarch releases, and it's once again liquid. This is similar to quicksand. The sand particles are broken up by water, but pressure-from tying to escape perhaps-cause them to group together so tightly they are like concrete. But relaxing and very short moves can break this bond and allow for your escape. This is not a liquid, but a non-newtonian fluid.
1-2C Corn starch
Bowl, pan, etc.
Food coloring if you wish.
I start with equal parts of water and cornstarch. And I add cornstarch as needed to get the consistency to be sort of like paint or thick milk. I mix with my hands so I can feel with it's a neutral balance of cornstarch and water so that it makes the solid and then reverts back to a fluid consistency.
Here are some photos of our oobleck fun!