The Volcano

So Nugley and I have made the volcano. It was a good experience for us both. He taught me a few things also.

The first day we started off by mixing the plaster in a bowl and pouring it into a mould. We had to let it dry for about 30 minutes then take off the mold and let it dry for the rest of the day. So I took him to Chapters and let him pick some books. I was hoping to pick him up some chapter books now that he's getting older and can handle it more. We were looking at The Magic Treehouse series by Mary Pope Osbourne. I picked the first book in the series for him "Dinosaurs Before Dark". He saw a "cool" book, it was part of the Magic Treehouse but it was a Research Guide on Tsunamis and other Natural Disasters which included volcanoes, earthquakes, avalanches and land slides. He was very excited about that one so I could I say no? Then I thought maybe getting an early readers book would be nice for him to keep him practicing with his reading. Plus we can't forget Choo Choo.

Then the next day for the volcano was a painting day. That was all up to Nugley, he didn't need any help with that. I let him go free, he mixed colours (which he learned about at school) he knew which colours were on a volcano before, during and after an eruption. He didn't even want me to look until his masterpiece was finished. Then we had to let the volcano dry for the rest of the day.

On the third and final day of the volcano we finally let it erupt. First we went to the Museum of Nature and looked at the dinosaurs, we also watched a little film on how the dinos became extinct. Well it was a volcano type of effect. Then in the afternoon when Choo Choo was home from school we let the volcano erupt. Nugley added the baking soda and I added the drop of food colour (for effect) some soap and finally some vinegar. And we watched as it slowly came up the funnel of the volcano and dribbled down the sides bubbling as it rose. It was very cool and had some great effects.

All in all, it was a great experience for us both.