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By Mom Unplugged, September 20, 2009 8:55 am

Today is the 3rd Annual International Rock Flipping Day!

Bored? Need something to do because your TV is off? (Yes, today is also the first day of Turnoff Week!)

Then go out and flip a rock to study what is underneath. Record your results via photos, poetry, art, diorama, cupcake replica, in other words, anything at all! Post on your blog. Or, add your photos to the International Rock Flipping Day Flickr Group. Read more about it here.

It is a gorgeous fall day here, perfect for rock flipping. We’ll head out later and I’ll post the results here on Unplug Your Kids.

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By Mom Unplugged, September 14, 2009 10:41 am

I had all kinds of thoughts churning about in my head for this week’s Unplugged Project theme: sound. A science experiment, a game involving sounds, making a musical instrument. But this weekend we were so naturally unplugged, that we didn’t have time for an Unplugged Project!

Soccer, a concert fundraiser for our school (a concert involves music which is sound, right?), homework, and then a lazy rainy and cool Sunday afternoon spent reading on the sofa in front of the fire. That wonderful first fire of the season. Fall is definitely on its way.

This week I offer instead, a few quick links related to sound. Not terribly “unplugged” perhaps, but hopefully useful for someone.

Neuroscience for Kids - Hearing Experiments: Fun activities and experiments for children arranged by grade levels (Kindergarten - Grade 12).

San Fransisco Exploratorium - The Science of Music, Headlands Experiments: What do you get when you mix a tunnel, a metal gate, two musicians, and a physicist?

Hark the Sound Computer Game: A game designed for visually impaired children that includes games involving naming, categories, math, words, and Braille. There is also the possibility of easily modifying the existing games to suit your child’s needs, or to create your own new games.

Exploratorium Online Sound Games: Play “Pong” with your eyes closed (sound guides you to the ball), analyze bird calls, create your own soundscape, do “sound jigsaw puzzles” and play a sound memory game. Not unplugged, but really neat activities!

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If you did a sound Unplugged Project this week, thank you! As usual, please link to your post in the linky below. If you didn’t do a sound project, but would like to join in, then please do not link but read more about the Weekly Unplugged Project here. We’d love to have more people!

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The theme for next week’s Unplugged Project will be:

Feathers

Be creative and have fun!

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By Mom Unplugged, September 8, 2009 1:18 pm

As I am sure you all know, September 20th, 2009 is the 3rd Annual International Rock Flipping Day.

Oh, you didn’t know that? Well, on September 20th take your kids outside, choose a rock to flip, then:

1) Record what you find. “Any and all forms of documentation are welcome: still photos, video, sketches, prose, or poetry.”

2) Replace the rock as you found it; it’s someone’s home. But if there are critters underneath, move them to the side before you replace the rock and let them scurry back. You don’t want to squash anyone.

3) Post on your blog, or load your photos to the International Rock Flipping Day Flickr group.

4) Send a link to Susannah at Wanderin’ Weeta. Her e-mail address is in her profile.

5) Susannah will collect the links, e-mail participants the list, and post it for any and all to copy to their own blogs.

6) She also says: “Maybe we can Tweet it, too, this year. Use the hashtag #rockflip.” (NOTE FROM ME: This information is totally beyond my comprehension, but if you understand Tweeting, then give it a go that way and I will be impressed.)

(All instructions are from Wanderin’ Weeta’s blog - edited slightly by me)

I love this idea because it reminds me of something I did in very early elementary school (Kindergarten? 1st Grade?). We went out and measured a one foot by one foot square of dirt behind the school, and then we had to look closely and draw what we saw in that square. Obviously it made an impression since I remember that lesson VERY many years later!

So go ahead, take the badge, the link, and the instructions, and pass it on.

It’ll be fun and interesting, so please join in! We’ll be there! (…and September 20th is even my sister’s birthday…)

NOTE: More on the history of Rock Flipping Day at Wanderin’ Weeta’s.

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By Mom Unplugged, July 12, 2009 9:29 pm

The theme for this week’s Unplugged Project was fast. This is a fast post because the week went really fast, and we will soon be flying in a fast airplane to France.

We did experiment with some rubber band powered cars, and finally succeeded in making an original prototype from a Knex Set that went very fast…for about 6 inches. I think the axle needs work, as does the length of the rubber band. It was fun, even though our model obviously needs improvements.

If you have budding engineers at your house, try this project and see what you can come up with!

Here are a few links to get you started:

PBS Kids - Rubber Band Car

Easy Propeller-Driven Rubber Band Car

LEGO Rubber Band Car

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If you did a fast-themed Unplugged Project this week then please link to your post below (not just your blog, we always want to be able to find your fast post). If you didn’t do a fast project, then don’t link, but please read more about how to join in the Unplugged Project here. We’d love to have you!

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Since I will be away until August 6th, the Unplugged Project will be on vacation also (although, if anyone is interested, I hope to post a few virtual postcards from France, perhaps even one a day if I can!).

The next Unplugged Project will be Monday August 10th and the theme will be:

Photograph

I bet we’ll have a lot of photos by the time we get home, and you’ll have a lot of time to think about what you will do with your photos!

Enjoy and have fun!

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By Mom Unplugged, June 24, 2009 10:12 pm

(WARNING: If you don’t like worms, then skip this post!)

It was a very thrilling day today - our 2 lb. bag of Red Wigglers finally arrived!!

The Fedex driver had probably never had a more excited welcome than he got this afternoon. As my 8 year-old daughter put it: “Now we have millions and millions of pets!!!” Hmmm….not exactly what we need with 9 cats, a dog, 2 birds, 2 fish and a bunch of happily reproducing sea monkeys.

Here is the box of our very well traveled worms. Did Fedex know what they had in here?

The worms arrived nicely packed in a brown paper bag.

We opened the bag…

… and this is what we saw:

After holding a few worm friends:

And discovering an egg:

We gently tipped them into our “Worm Hotel” and tossed some of the damp newspaper on top of them.

Next came food. We were certain that they were hungry after their very long trip, the sort of trip that most worms never have to make.

The menu consisted of a medley of carrot peels, followed by leftover bok choi greens and brown rice, with some tea leaves for dessert:

We hope that our new pets will be very happy and produce a great deal of lovely, rich poop castings to transform our nasty clay soil into gorgeous, moist, nutrient-filled humus.

NOTE: To see how we made our worm bin, please visit our “Slippery” Unplugged Project post.

UPDATE: Harvesting the worm bin (it took only 8 weeks to make a gallon of lovely compost).

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