pandemic homeschool blues with a side of relish

The Northern Lights (Also known as Aurora Borealis) is when the sun gives off a lot of energy. Earth has a defence. There is some sort of pretection that repells the sun's hot rays so we don't burn up. Sometimes a tiny bit gets through and turns the sky a little greenish. The night we tried to see the Northern Lights was perfect. We stayed on the side of the road. It was pretty cold and there were a lot of cars coming down the road. Whenever a car came along I thought it was about to squash us. We waited for a while. Nothing lit the sky up other then stars and the moon. After a few long, cold minutes a police car came. The flashing object parked right behind OUR CAR! A person emerged. I hid under a blanket. The police man started talking to my parents. He asked them questions like "What are you doing here?" Some time passed and I peeked out from my hiding spot. Then I came out entirely. I shivered and wraped the blanket around me once again. Finally the police man ...

Making bubbles may sound pretty lame, but the bubbles we made weren't the kind toddlers blow through little hoops on sticks. We bought some bigger(and when I say bigger I mean huge,) sticks on etsy. they were made of sturdy sticks with a loop of string fastened to both pieces. We stuck this into a pie tin filled with bubble solution, and we waved them arount. It was actually very hard to make these bubbles, since half the time they would pop before they even got into the air. The ones that did survive however, were giant and amazing. A little trick we learned from a science channel on YouTube was to bounce the bubbles by wearing a certain kind of gloves. It turns out, this did not work as well as expected, but however, it did still work. (sort of) We were able to bounce one time or so before it floated away ( it was rather windy) or popped. It was still fun and very satisfactory to hit the bubble without popping it. From this channel we also learned some cool science facts, such as...

For science/cooking we decided to make mozzerella cheese. Well, it turns out, that is easier said than done. The recipe consisted of lots of milk(a last minute run to the gas station) and rennet, a substance which none of us even knew existed, much less where to get it. Luckily, we got it shipped to us, and we used it, discovering soon after that rennet was from a cow's stomach.( A few of us were a little more reluctant to eat the cheese after learning this.) We finally mixed it all up to find... mush. It wasn't stretchy!!! We found the solution on a cheese making channel on YouTube. We simply refrigerated while watching videos on cheese physics. When we reheated the gloppy substance, it worked like magic. We celebrated with caprese salad along with fully functional cheese. :D

There is a pandemic going on. We are homeschooling this year because: (grown-up's opinion) 1-safer from covid-19 germs at home 2-parents uneasy about age appropriateness and instability of the distance learning provided by our school district 3-connection with people- family! instead of connection with screens 4-SIEZE the oppertunity to do something fun and memorable and learn together through traveling.(Dad's job become fully remote enabling him to work from anywhere in U.S.) (student's opinion) I think it is interesting. It's not fun the same way regular school is fun but mom and dad try to fill it with activity. There aren't as many people so in a way there's less variety. But there's more time for students (us!) to go at their own pace with less kids to teach.