All the granddaughters sang at my Mom's funeral

They are practicing here.  My camera kept cutting off, but I got part of it.  My brother later recorded the whole song, but this one has all the granddaughters.




v. 1 When I enter Heaven's glory,
And I see my Saviour's face,
I will offer Him ten thousand years of praise.
Then I'll find that special one
In whose life I saw God's Son,
And through tears of joy with trembling lips these words I'll say:

♫ I saw Jesus in you;
I saw Jesus in you.
I could hear His voice in the words you said -
I saw Jesus in you.
In your eyes I saw His care;
I could see His Love was there;
You were faithful,
And I saw Jesus in you.

v. 2 When I stand before my Father
To receive my life's reward,
And my soul is bathed in God's eternal day;
When this race on earth is run,
And God sees the works I've done,
More than anything I long to hear my Father say:

♫ I saw Jesus in you;
I saw Jesus in you.
I could hear His voice in the words you said -
I saw Jesus in you.
In your eyes I saw His care;
I could see His Love was there;
You were faithful,
And I saw Jesus in you.

This was THE perfect song for my Mom. ♥

The next day, the remaining girls sang it again so I could at least get the full chorus.


sMiLeS,

General Science, Module 1, A Brief History of Science

►Videos & resources for this module

This was a very interesting first module.  =)
We learned about different scientists from way back, up to more modern times.
In the beginning, they didn't always know why things were the way they were.  The Egyptians were known for their medicine, but most of it was trial and error.  (I sure wouldn't have wanted to be on the receiving end of the error!)  They usually didn't know why certain things helped heal.
The Egyptian doctors and inventors did collect a lot of facts, but historians don't consider them to be true scientists since they didn't use this knowledge to explain the world around them.

This module mentions over 30 scientists!  We learned that some scientists had wrong hypotheses but were believed because they were great scientists, but some who had correct hypotheses were rejected.  Some had writings that were banned (Copernicus), and some scientists were even put into prison! (Galileo)  Some died never knowing their hypothesis was eventually accepted.
"...no scientist's work should be supported because the person was great.  It should only be supported because the scientific evidence supports it!" (p. 9)
Eventually these ideas got straightened out, but in Module 2 we will learn that unbelief caused many deaths.  Most doctors didn't believe what Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis said -- that they should wash their hands before going to each new patient.  Some doctors came straight from the mortuary and went to examine new mothers!!!  This went on for 10 years after it was shown that thoroughly washing hands in a solution did cut down on the mortality rate in hospitals!  Semmelweis was eventually put into prison and died never knowing that doctors finally realized the truth.
People just do not want to accept anything new.

One thing I thought was rather interesting was the alchemists (see the word chemist?) who wanted to find a way to make gold our of lead.  That seems rather silly to us today, but back then they thought they could do it!  They also tried other substances, trying to make something of more value.
During this time, very little progress was made in the field of science.  The culture was just different then, and the "Roman Empire didn't mind inventions..., but had little use for the practice of explaining the world around us."  (p. 12)
"Scientific progress depends not only on scientists, but it also depends on government and culture." (p. 14)

Scientific progress had slowed down, but a lot scientific observations of things had been written down by monks.  These were written in large volumes that were eventually called encyclopedias.  =)
Both Arabs and Chinese also kept detailed records of their observations even though they didn't know at the time what they were seeing.  Later, scientists were able to read this information and know what had been seen!  This information was very helpful to the more modern scientists who had better tools and resources.  "Science progresses by building on the works of previous scientists." (p. 16)

Near the end of the Dark Ages, science began to pick up a little.  The Romans believed in many gods, and believed things happened on the whims of the gods.  We now know that it is God's laws of nature.
A man named Robert Grosseteste believed that the happenings in nature could be explained by laws.  He taught that the reason to experiment was not just to come up with great inventions, but to find the reason things happen the way they do.
He said that scientists should come up with an explanation for why events happened, then perform an experiment to test this explanation.  If the experiment didn't confirm the explanation, a new explanation was needed.  This led to what is now called the scientific method.  Hypotheses do not become theories until they are supported by the evidence of the experiment.  Eventually after years of testing, a theory might become a scientific law.


I have more kids in my science class this year, and it is fun!  =)
We learned about the scientists that contributed to the first inklings of knowledge of atoms.
An object that has atoms that are more densely packed together will sink through more dense liquids than an object with less tightly packed atoms.
For instance, you know a cork floats on water, but a rock doesn't.
Experiment 1.1, Density in Nature
For our liquids, we used vegetable oil, water, and corn syrup.  The kids poured these into a glass in that order and watched as the more dense liquids swirled and collected below the less dense liquids.
Then the kids dropped in a rock, a grape, an ice cube, and a cork.

If you look closely, you can see that the ice is suspended in the oil, not sitting on top of the water.
Per an email reply from Apologia, "... the ice should have been in between the oil and liquid water but if the ice cube has air trapped in it (and you might not be able to see the air) then this would drop the density of the ice cube to be equal to or less than the oil.  Since the ice cube was suspended in the oil then the density of your ice cube was nearly equal to that of the oil."
Thanks, Apologia!  I was wondering about that.  =)
From the top down, we see the least dense items to the most dense items.  Cork, vegetable oil, ice cube, water, grape, corn syrup, rock.

►Next time, we might try this Amazing Density Tower!

A day or so after this experiment, one of my kids wasn't doing her chore...  I opened the door and reminded her to tend to the next step in the laundry (from dryer to living room/from washer to dryer/put in a new load).
Five minutes later I'm not hearing a dryer running, nor do I see clean laundry anywhere.
I open the door again and smile at my child.  She smiles back.  We smile at each other for a bit, she with a slightly quizzical look.  My son finally asks what am I doing, and I said, "I'm waiting on _____ to do the laundry."
"Oh!" my forgetful child laughs, getting up, "Haha, okay."
"Did you really not know why I was looking at you?"
"Well... uh, no."
I grinned, "If I threw all you kids into a pool, you'd sink to the bottom first since you're the most dense."
She smiled, "Hehe, funny science joke."  =)

Experiment 1.2, Atomic Motion
Q:  Which is faster, hot or cold?
A:  Hot!  You can catch a cold.  =)
This is actually true.  Hot atoms move faster than cold ones.  I know I move slower when I'm cold, haha.
The kids had a large glass of refrigerator-cold water and a glass of very hot water, heated on the stove a bit.
After letting the water settle for a minute, they dropped in some food coloring to see what would happen.

More food coloring was put into the cold water so it seems to spread faster.  It is swirling but not mixing as well as it is in the hot water.

Experiment 1.3, Chemical Change
Remember the alchemists who tried to create new substances with chemical changes?
A couple of things that indicate a chemical change rather than a physical change is the change of color, and the creation of a new substance.

First 2 Tbs. of baking soda were poured into the balloon thru the still-dry funnel, and the balloon laid aside.
Then into the bottle was poured 3/4. c. vinegar and ½ c. juice from a boiled red/purple cabbage.
The vinegar and cabbage juice when mixed together produced a new color, which was a chemical change (just like leaves changing each fall).
When the balloon was attached to the bottle and the baking soda poured in, the baking soda and vinegar produced water and carbon dioxide (a new substance).  The bottle and ballon were filled with carbon dioxide instead of oxygen.  After we took the balloon off, the bottle would stay filled with CO₂ for awhile, so Bethany lit a skewer (we were out of matches) and put it into the opening of the bottle.  It was immediately extinguished.
Fire needs oxygen in order to burn.
There are some museums that have special rooms for valuable objects such as paintings, that would be ruined by water sprinklers.  These rooms are designed, in the event of a fire, to shut and seal tightly, and the oxygen is sucked out preventing fire in those rooms.  Just be sure not to be in one when that happens!



Experiment 1.4, Mapping the Paths of the Planets.
This module talks about the Copernican theory, also called the heliocentric theory that says the sun is in the center of the universe.  Now this is something rather elementary, but we weren't just learning about the heliocentric theory, but how that Copernicus wasn't believed in favor of Ptolemy's geocentric theory - that the earth is in the center of the universe.  Ptolemy was more revered at the time than Copernicus.  Remember, "...no scientist's work should be supported because the person was great.  It should only be supported because the scientific evidence supports it!" (p. 9)  The Roman Catholic church prohibited Copernicus's book from being read!  Finally in 1543, his book was published.  Still, it took awhile for people to begin to accept this theory.

Johannes Kepler began observing the heavens in the late 1500's.  His observations were so detailed that he figured out the orbits of the planets around the sun.  He found that planets do not orbit in a circle, but in a slightly oval pattern called an ellipse.
We used two pushpins as the foci (pl. of focus point).  The sun ☼ is one of the focus points.  The other is like the imaginary equator.  It's there, but is not anything physical.


Experiment 1.4, Mapping the Paths of the Planets
To draw an ellipse, we used pushpins and double layers of cardboard (taped together) from an old science display board.  I could not buy 8 little bulletin boards!   (You can't see it under the paper, but it's there.  I had to make them small in order to get 8.)

If you measure from any point on the ellipse to each of the foci (so that your two measurements make a sort of V, even if uneven, with the tops of the V being the two foci and the bottom of the V being any point on the ellipse), depending on how far apart your pushpins are and how long your string is, the sum of those will equal about 4-5 inches.  Whatever measurement it ends up being, you can measure from any point on the ellipse to each of the two foci, and it will be the same measurement every time.

Eventually, Galileo's telescope helped show a lot of evidence for the heliocentric system that Copernicus had proposed.  The Roman Catholic church did not like this and put Galileo on trial for heresy!  He was forced to stop officially promoting the heliocentric system, however he did not stop collecting information!  The heliocentric view was not accepted until well after Galileo's death.

sMiLeS,

╔══╗
╚╗╔╝
╔╝(¯`v´¯)
╚══`.¸.Travis! ♥♥♥


sMiLeS,

Fruit-fly Trap

In a disposable cup, pour about ½ inch or so of apple cider vinegar.
Add a drop of liquid dish detergent.  (This breaks the surface tension of the vinegar so when the li'l critters go in, they go down!)
Cover the cup with saran wrap or a sandwich baggie and poke tiny holes in the plastic with the end of a sharp knife.  Use a rubber band to make the wrap stay on.
►Another way is to make a cone with a piece of paper or a coffee filter, making sure the end hole is tiny.  Tape the paper to the cup so that it doesn't come out.


Make sure no cider gets on the outside of the cup, or they will go there instead of IN.  It takes awhile, and they'll sit on the top awhile before going in, but they will.  The cup should be rinsed and fresh apple cider vinegar and soap replaced at least once a day.  Dry the outside of the cup.
I usually set out 3 or 4 of these cups around the kitchen.
►One more method is to place a bit of banana or banana skin in a ziploc baggie that has tiny holes poked in it, but I don't know if they'll die that way or are just in fruit-fly jail!

(If you're doing Apologia General Science, you might need these instructions after Module 9!)

sMiLeS,

A gallon of tea for $0.45!!!

I figured it up.  It costs us $0.45 per gallon of tea!

Dh takes a 16 oz. cup a day to work, with a few cubes of ice (so that it's not as sweet by lunchtime) so actually he takes 14 oz.
I figured it's less than $0.05 per day for him for tea!
(And to think how much drinks cost!)

So... how do I do it for 45 cents a gallon?

We buy the 48-count gallon-sized tea bags of Lipton tea at Sam's.  It's actually two 24-counts packaged together.
When we boil the water and pour it in w/ a gallon tea bag, I have my daughter to do it awhile ahead and let it soak, then make TWO gallons w/ it.
Tastes the same.  We couldn't tell a difference.
So for about 9.50 or so, we're getting 96 gallons!

We use 1¼ cup of sugar in a gallon, and I figured up that the Great Value sugar we buy is 0.28/cup.  (I did the math, but didn't trust myself, so I measured it out and got 10.5 cups in a 5 lb. bag)
So 0.10 for tea and 0.35 for sugar is 0.45 per gallon of tea.

Just wanted to share!
Have a glass of tea w/ me.  =)


sMiLeS,

Biology, Module 16, Reptiles, Birds, and Mammals

Videos, etc. for M16
Quizlet Vocabulary Game, M16

Well.... it is August.
And I have never written about our Biology Module 16!  I just kept putting it off.
We did no experiments; I made no pictures of the kids -- not even at our end-of-the-year party!  I totally forgot!  =(
So I just was not interested in writing a post.  bleh.
But...
Since Apologia General Science begins NEXT WEEK, I guess I better finish Biology, lol.

This module was about animals with which I am familiar.  No weird words that I had to practice the pronunciation.  Well, at least not many.  =)

We learned about each of the classes of animals listed in the title of this module, and their characteristics.
I know what reptiles are -- I just don't usually think of turtles and snakes in quite the same way, lol.
One, I'll pick up.  The other, not!
Yes, snakes are important for the ecosystem and balance in nature.  God made them, so I guess I like them in a way...  FAR away!  =)
Reptiles are cold-blooded, so they need the sun to warm up each day.  But they also cannot stay in the sun too long if it is really hot.  So if it is really, really hot, and you are in the sun, chances are you won't see snakes or lizards.  But if you're in a cool area, such as the woods, be careful about stepping over logs or rocks.  Snakes like to nestle up against the sides of these.

Remember the experiment we did with an egg in vinegar?  The shell is what retains the water in the egg.  Reptiles have amniotic eggs, which means they have a shell  so they'll retain water and not dry out in hot weather.
Fish and amphibians' eggs are jellylike, with only a thin membrane covering them.  They're much like the egg in our experiment after the shell was removed.




I think the most fascinating thing I learned about birds was about their wings.  They have these sets of feathers on the front of the wing that can be lifted away from the main part of the wing.

This set of feathers is called the alula (al' yuh luh).  Lifting the alula away from the rest of the wing prevents turbulence.
When airplane engineers discovered this, they were able to design "wing slots" in the wings of an airplane to greatly reduce turbulence.
It always amazes me that God knew all this beforehand; and that a lot of the things we humans think up, God had already designed it or said it already in the Bible.

We also learned about the wings of ostriches and penguins.  They can't fly, so what do they do with their wings?
Ostriches run very fast, and they use their wings as "sails"  to help them run faster or to make quick turns.  I think that is so cool!  =)  Penguins use wings as propellors in water.

Would you think of a dolphin, a rabbit, and an elephant as all being in the same class?  They are all mammals. They all have some hair, though it may not be readily noticeable.
Some do not think that humans should be classified as mammals, but rather have our own class.
"The similarities among animals are the result of a common Designer, not a common ancestor."
Apologia Biology, p. 526

We do fit all the criteria for mammals, but indeed, we are in a class of our own even if science does not recognize it.  =)
We are the only living creature made in the image of God.
We have souls.  We can think and reason.
We can decide for ourselves if we want to accept that Jesus is the only way to heaven, and we can also show others the way.  In fact, if we know how to keep someone from hell, and we don't tell them, we are pretty sorry human beings.
If you don't know how to be sure you are going to heaven, then I can tell you.
The first verse I learned as a child was Acts 16:31:  "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."  Pretty simple, right?  Just believe.
It doesn't say maybe.  It doesn't say if you are a good person.
The Bible says, "There is none righteous, no, not one."  Romans 3:10  None of us are good enough to earn our way to heaven!  
Heaven is free.  It is a gift.  You can't even earn your way to heaven no matter how hard you may try!
The Bible teaches that sin cannot enter into heaven.  If we are not righteous as it says in Romans 3:10, then how can we go to heaven?  The only way to enter heaven is if your sins have been covered by the blood of Christ.  He alone is sin-less, and He alone paid for yours and my sins by his death on the cross.
There is ONE way to heaven, and that is by faith, through Jesus Christ.  All you need to do is accept this free gift of salvation.
If you want to know more about how to be sure you're going to heaven, click here.
I'd love to meet you in heaven one day!  =)

sMiLeS,

Do You REALLY Want to Be Like Him???

Really?
Then don't try to fit God into your life anymore... instead, fit your life around God.  

If you really want to give God control of your life, you'll need to re-orient your lifestyle to revolve around your relationship with Him.
Some have a tendency to create a set of "rules" in the backs of their minds that, if they do them, they feel will make their life better.
We try to be faithful to read our Bible daily, to be sure we witness to someone or pray for them, and to not miss services when we feel like staying home, but hopefully it isn't just to make sure we're doing the right thing.
These things are good; they're wonderful!  We should do them whether we feel like it or not.
But if you read your Bible because you are striving to develop your relationship with Christ rather than just reading x number of chapters per day to say you did it, you will begin to want to read more.  These kinds of things will begin to be a choice instead of a chore.  =)

I'm a homeschool Mom, and when I hear someone mention they're a hs Mom, my ears perk up!  I have LOTS to talk about!
I want to know how old her kids are (especially if they're teenagers), what curriculum the other Mom uses (especially if we use some of the same things), how long they've been homeschooling, where do they live, and more.  I want to know what their values are and their dress standards.  I want to know if they are "compatible" with us, and is it a good idea to get together with their family.
I don't have to think about what to talk about.  I don't have to try to make conversation.  Homeschooling is a passion of mine, and it just spills out.  If I find the other mom likes algebra, or uses Apologia science, well, I'm  thrilled!  =)  I would excitedly tell her of how I've written blog posts and found videos to go along with each chapter of Physical Science and Biology, and how I have helpful links posted under these categories.  I'd tell her that I have a few videos for other subjects also, and that I have some things for algebra and geometry.
I'd have no problem talking for a few hours with a homeschool Mom!
(I had no problem composing this paragraph, either!  =)
But just recently have I been trying to read my Bible more faithfully, and trying to read some good books and really find something each day from the Lord.  Today I was reading some things along the lines in the first paragraph.  I realized that instead of just trying to do the right thing, I should try to really seek Him, and the right things will follow.  I want the Lord to spill out also, not just material things that I'm interested in.
What are you passionate about?

I have seen girls dress with skirts as short as they can get them, or shirts as low as they can and still be "acceptable" in their Christian circle.
Why?
It's like they're asking, "How far can I go and still please Jesus?"
Um... I'm pretty sure they're not even thinking about pleasing Jesus.  More likely, they're thinking how far can I go and still be accepted as a "good" girl in the eyes of others.

In dating, people want to know how far is it okay to go?
Why???
Why should we go as far as allowed?
What?  "Allowed"?  As far as WHO allows?
When you talk to a girl/guy, you'll talk about things you have in common.
Do you talk about the Lord any?   What does that say about what is in the other one's heart?
If you talk about Christian music, do you ever talk about the message of the song?
Yes, you can see others be faithful to church and carry their Bible, and maybe they're careful about what they write on their facebook statuses and comments (and maybe not, but that's another story!!!), but that's what they want us to see.  Only the Lord knows the heart.
"...for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."  I Samuel 16:7
And what's in the heart will come out.  Sooner or later.
Usually when it comes out later, it was something to hide.

The same thing with television shows and movies.  Who says what is okay to watch?  What is allowed and is not allowed?
The questions should be, "Do I think this show pleases Jesus?  Is there anything in this movie He would not be pleased with?"
"Oh," you say, "but it isn't much!"  Would you drink a glass of water with a little spit in it???

If I'm in a close relationship with Jesus (which I am still working on!), then my life will revolve around Him and what He wants me to do.  When I meet another Christian, I will want to talk about Him.  We do talk about things we have in common with others.  I'll not have to think of what to say.  I'll have plenty to talk about, and what's inside will come out.
"For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he:..." Proverbs 23:7a
You've heard people say, "You are what you eat," and that may be true physically, but spiritually "You are what you think, what you read, what you take in..."
No one knows what is in your heart but you and the Lord.  He knows if your motives are pure, and if what you do is to please Him or if it is for those in your Christian circle.
What kinds of movies do I watch?  What kinds of books do I read?  What clothes do I wear?  How much time do I spend online?
Take these questions and add "that please(s) Jesus?"

Don't do it to look good and please man.
"Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;"  Ephesians 6:6
If you strive to be closer to Him, it will come out.
"Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them."  Matthew 7:20

Will you give your life to Him? ♫♪


A good book to read is In His Steps, written by Charles M. Sheldon in 1896.  The phrase "What would Jesus do?" came from this book.  It was read on Christian Classics August, 2011.  =)
You can read most of the first chapter on Amazon.  Just "Click to Look Inside."


Also Suggested:  Modesty - What Guys Say


For Him,

Happy 4th of July! =)

Lyrics:
"The British are coming! The British are coming!"
♫♪ Now, the ride of Paul Revere
Set the nation on its ear,
And the shot at Lexington heard 'round the world,
When the British fired in the early dawn
The War of Independence had begun,
The die was cast, the rebel flag unfurled.

And on to Concord marched the foe
To seize the arsenal there you know,
Waking folks, searching all around
'Til our militia stopped them in their tracks,
At the old North Bridge we turned them back
And chased those Redcoats back to Boston town.

And the shot heard 'round the world
Was the start of the Revolution.
The Minute Men were ready, on the move.
Take your powder, and take your gun.
Report to General Washington.
Hurry men, there's not an hour to lose!

Now, at famous Bunker Hill,
Even though we lost, it was quite a thrill,
The rebel Colonel Prescott proved he was wise;
Outnumbered and low on ammunition
As the British stormed his position,
He said, "Hold your fire till you see the whites of their eyes!"

Though the next few years were rough,
General Washington's men proved they were tough,
Those hungry, ragged boys would not be beat.
One night they crossed the Delaware,
Surprised the Hessians in their lair,
And at Valley Forge they just bundled up their feet!

And the shot heard 'round the world
Was the start of the Revolution.
The Minute Men were ready, on the move.
Take your blanket, and take your son.
Report to General Washington.
We've got our rights and now it's time to prove.

Well, they showed such determination
That they won the admiration
Of countries across the sea like France and Spain,
Who loaned the colonies ships and guns
And put the British on the run
And the Continental Army on its feet again.

And though they lost some battles too,
The Americans swore they'd see it through,
Their raiding parties snuck up, hit and run.
At Yorktown the British could not retreat,
Bottled up by Washington and the French Fleet,
Cornwallis surrendered and finally we had won!

The winner!
Hurray!

From the shot heard 'round the world
To the end of the Revolution
The continental rabble took the day
And the father of our country
Beat the British there at Yorktown
And brought freedom to you and me and the U.S.A.!

God bless America, Let Freedom Ring!


sMiLeS,

Anita Renfroe - The Mom Song! =D

sMiLeS,

Happy Father's Day! =)

sMiLeS,

My kids at Grandma's =)

sMiLeS,

Hilarious Cats!

I love the one walking on its front feet!!!


sMiLeS,

♫ ♪This song is stuck inside my head...

HAHAHA!  Have a good day!
sMiLeS,

Biology, Module 15, Kingdom Plantae: Physiology and Reproduction

We grew this bean several years ago.
It grew unhindered from any tropism
experiments and was in the sun, so
the leaves grew large and green.  =)

Videos, etc. for M15 
Quizlet Vocabulary Game, M15 

Well, I have been putting off posting about this module, because I was doing an experiment with a pinto bean.  Actually, the whole class was, but no one got the results I was hoping for.

►The first bean actually did the best (as you can see in the pictures below), but I messed up on the timing to start the last step. So I was trying to do it over to get a different end result.  

Then the beans all decided to revolt!

On my second try, the bean didn't even sprout. =\
So I did it once more with three beans, and got vastly different results than before, but still a far cry from what I wanted.  I finally gave up on getting the preferred results, and decided to post what I have so far.
So... it was a true EXPERIMENT.
Now I think I know what to do next time.
Like raising kids.  Or homeschooling.  Or choosing curriculum.
When you're about done, THEN you know what to do next time, lol.
Shoulda-coulda-woulda.  =D

Experimenting with Tropisms.  (TRO-piz-mz)
A tropism is a growth response or a movement response toward a stimulus.  The stimulus might be gravity, water, the sun, or an object that the plant touches.
A vine growing around a branch that it touches is an example of thigmotropism.
Roots growing toward water is hydrotropism.

I needed babyfood jars, or something clear with straight vertical sides, but I had these clear cups that were larger at the top than at the bottom.  And that is all I had.  It had to do.
We folded paper towels into thirds and wound them around and taped them, then added on another paper towel, adding on and adjusting the best we could (which was not too great) to make a wedged cylinder shape.
(Is there such a shape???)
We needed it to fit against the sides of the jar cup.
We then put one dry pinto bean in the side about halfway down.  It needed to be wedged in.
Then we watered the paper towels, but not so much that the bean was sitting in the water.  If you soak the paper towel, then you can tilt the cup to drain all the excess water.

After a couple of days, the bean will be swelled right much larger than it was originally.
Ideally, the bean needs to be vertical with the "dot" on the side, as I sadly was to learn (in the last experiment).  Growing pinto beans in a cup apparently doesn't work as well as growing them out in the good ol' dirt!
This dot is from where the root will grow, and then the stem.

Root growing downward

The plan was to NOT put the bean in direct sunlight initially, and watch the root grow downward, demonstrating gravitropism.  This would be positive gravitropism since the root would grow toward gravity.

The green is the stem.

In a few days, the top of what looked like the root began to bulge upward, but this part was green.  This was not the root, but the stem.  Since the plant was not in direct sunlight, but it was growing upward away from gravity, this was evidence of negative gravitropism.
Seeds that are buried in the dirt will grow roots down, stem up, all without seeing the sun.  =)

Plant will soon begin to grow upright.
Testa is split, but has not fallen off.

After the stem began to grow a little, I moved the plant into the sun, keeping the paper towel moist.

The testa (bean covering) came loose from the cotyledons (cot-uh-LEE-denz) -- the two halves of the bean that is the first food for the plant -- and should have stayed inside the cup and up against the side.  If planted in the dirt, the testa would likely have stayed below ground.  The tapered cup didn't hold the seed firmly enough, and it grew on up with the plant for a bit, which was no problem.
(Remember, a bean has two cotyledons, and is a dicotyledon, or dicot.)

Evidence of negative gravitropism as
plant stem curved to grow upward.

As soon as the plant reached the top of the cup, I placed the cup on its side with the bottom of the cup toward the window, and in just a few hours, the plant stem had curved like this, demonstrating heliotropism. (movement, not growth, toward light.)

I then sat the cup back upright and put it in an upside-down square kleenex box with a small hole at one corner, and placed it in the sun.

The idea was to show phototropism -- growth toward sunlight.  But my box was short, and my plant was already nearly to the top, so instead of growing out the hole (as I saw on a video on youtube), it wound round and round in the top of the box!  haha.







I had resisted the urge to open the taped-shut box, and instead tried to peer inside with a flashlight, but couldn't really see much.  When I finally took the plant out, it had a very curvy stem!  =)

Shriveled cotyledons on stem.  Testa below, on the table.

The cotyledons stayed with the plant for quite a while (might have done differently in direct sunlight?), but were shriveled once they had supplied the plant with its first food.  God designed it this way so that a plant can have food even before reaching the surface of the ground and before growing it's first "true leaves" with which it can make its own food by photosynthesis.
These first leaves are called true leaves because the cotyledons resemble leaves on the stem.

But I found from my class that some plants didn't fare so well.  They weren't even be able to do the box part of the experiment.

One had a moldy bean that didn't grow.  (I think it might have been in the dark, and maybe I should have clarified that it just can't be in direct sunlight, but in the kitchen, etc, is fine.)
One just simply didn't sprout.

Curly root - top left.  It showed up
more before it got into such a tangle!

Um... where are you going, little root?

My kids had grown a pinto bean plant several years ago (pic at top), and had success with one try, so it didn't occur to me all the ways this experiment could fail.
And, as I was soon to discover, there are even more ways!

See the true leaves on there?  And
it's still in the cup!  Also, somehow the
stem grew through the paper towel.

On the second try, the bean didn't sprout, so with my third experiment, I determined that I should put in three beans around the sides of the cup.  I would keep the best specimen and throw out the others.  (yeah, right!)

My, my...  Those little beans were determined to thwart me! Not one did well, and on one, the root curled upward, then round and round, defeating my ideal of gravitropism!  haha.

After 3 weeks, they are still not above the rim of the cup!

Well, next time (which should be 3 years from now when my twins do Biology), I will make sure I have babyfood jars on hand from somewhere.
No, I do not plan on having more children just so I can utilize my vast knowledge of child-rearing, thus proving I have learned much with my three experiments wonderful teenagers, lol.
No, next time I will find a younger mom who will donate her babyfood jars to the cause.

Rebekah's bean plant.  She was in and out for several days
and neglected the gravitropism part of the experiment.
See the true leaves emerging from between the cotyledons?

More things I would change:
I do believe if the bean is held firmly against the side, it would do better.  And I will make sure the beans are in a vertical position with the dot on the side.
Since the in-the-box part of the experiment failed, and since some beans didn't grow, I decided that next time (yes, hindsight is 20-20), I will have the kids do three cups with several beans each, and go ahead and place one cup in the box as soon as one bean begins to sprout well, one cup will be the experiment for gravitropism, and one will grow in the sunlight, unhindered from any tropism experiments.
I had started my experiment a couple of weeks before the kids did, so from my error, I learned to have them tape their cup to a square of cardboard cut from another kleenex box to keep the plant from getting turned inside the box.  This is placed over the oval hole where the kleenexes come out, and the cup will not fall through.  The square of cardboard will not turn and does not need to be taped  to the box itself.
Also, this experiment takes more time for some beans than others, and I will begin it halfway thru module 14 when we are learning about monocotyledons and dicotyledons.
Next time... yes, next time, I will be smarter and wiser!  lol.

sMiLeS,


P.S.  I did have a video on here of my girls and their cousin singing, but they got older and more self-conscious and asked me to take it off, lol.
It was The Bean Song.  I think they had heard it on Zoom a long time ago!
♪♫ "My dog Lima likes to roam, one day Lima left his home.
He came back, nice and clean, where, oh, where has Lima bean?
Lima bean, Lima bean, where, oh, where has Lima bean?"
Other verses include Pinto bean, Coffee bean, and even Human bean! =)


All my bean plant pics (cause I know you want to see them!)

Marcel the Shell

For ONE video upload:
Nearly 23 million views, over 51,000 subscribers, and over 1,000 comments on the channel asking for another Marcel the Shell video.

sMiLeS,

Who's on First?

Love Abbot and Costello in this routine!  =)
This is a video response to my mom's comment on The Ins and Outs of Baseball.
Routine starts at 1:20


sMiLeS,