Experimenting With Ideas

Okay so I have started trying out this new challenge business this weekend. I made broccoli and cheese muffins and then went on to try a different recipe for breakfast (above picture). I decided to become a little creative with the kids' breakfast and they loved it. They especially enjoyed the skewers to the extent that they wanted me to plop the chopped up barbequed steak, tomato and carrots from their salad onto them that evening.

This challenge got me thinking that if I wanted to learn new things, then why not involve the kids in a similar idea? So, I came up with a plan of providing Jad and Mina with a list of activities we could do after school or during the weekend so that we would not just watch movies. I thought it would spark me up as well as I was so used to us coming home, asking the kids to put on a CD while eating our dinner. This must not be that healthy. My husband was a little worried that this might add more stress on us as well as the kids and that they might need time to just chill-ax.

I disagreed as I thought that my list had a variety of activities including movie time in case they wanted to do just that... CHILL-AX. These slots included; arts and crafts, science experiments, some movie time, reading books, making up stories, using the puppets, imaginative play, etc. Every time we had an activity, we would cross it out on the list. When the list of 42 activities is finished then I would draw up another one.

Oh Boy was I surprised to see the excitement of the children when we had our first experiment. We placed some dirty coins in some lemon juice and then vinegar dishes to see which would shine the coins more. Lemon won in the end and the kids learned something about acids and their effect on metals. 

This experiment and the excitement that it triggered also got Jad thinking of coming up with all sorts of other experiments; some made sense and others well..... not so.... but I did not tell him that as he must do them to discover for himself. I will not dampen his excitement by saying that it won't work.

Already the kids are getting excited about the next activity which is helping to spark me up and getting me to do more.  

These are coins that were dropped in a container full of lemon juice.... it became so murky because of the dirt from the coins.