Worth the Trip - House of Mystery, MT

While travelling through MT we found this little hole in the wall place that was amazing.

The Montana Vortex.

There were some amazing things we saw.  Let me tell you about them.

That house above was a really cool "playground" for us.  The vortex causes electrons to move about in a whirlpool type motion.  This causes some effects like distortions in the way you can stand (think twirling around on a merry-go-round), how tall you are, and how the trees grow. (there was also talk of auras and personal energy)

This yellow platform that my son is standing on is level.  He is not.  It is super hard to stand without tipping over.

There was a ladder standing straight up, when you gripped it and let your feet off the ground, it made you fly!

The trees were growing so funky.  Where the lines of the whirlpool were the strongest the trees grew the funkiest.

We had such a blast checking out the energy in the place.  We had never seen or been in a place like this before.  The tour guide was full of energy and information.  The tour was interesting and so much fun. 

For just over $30 it was a tour well worth taking.

Cheers

Growing Gunk

A few months ago I ordered a kit for science. 

I wanted to teach my boys about bacteria and all the kinds of stuff that is microscopic on stuff we touch (or live in) everyday.

I knew that my Mom wanted to teach it for me anyway!  She is a lab tech and know stuff like this, so I figured she wanted to do it for me.  Turns out I was right!  :)

So, my kit came in the mail.

It contained everything we needed to do a really basic room temperature bacteria growth experiment.

We prepared our dishes by warming up the agar and pouring it in a thin layer on the bottom of each dish.

But, because I didn't know any better, my first batch had some lumps in it...this is not something you want.

We had 20 petri dishes when we were done.

We divided them so my boys each got 5, and my Mom and I got 2 each.

We labeled them with names (or nicknames) and where we were swabbing, making sure to choose places that were room temperature.  (ex.  armpit is out, but arms are in...rim of nostril is in, inside the nostril is out)

We also made sure that we kept the swabs fairly sterile, opening from the stick end, and only bringing it out to swab. 

(Didn't get a photo of this step)

Using a gentle zig zag motion, swipe all the way across and down the surface of the agar, and close with the lid.

Make sure that you have a control (just in case you math geniuses caught that above, that is where the missing one is)

This may grow things (ours did) but at least you know what to rule out as your "air" bacteria or other contaminants from just making them.

We divided ours into three places to try growing, on top of the fridge (for the warmth), in a box (to keep it dark) and just out in the open.  Not having swabbed all the same things and having 3 controls, this was just something for us to play around with...not a "true" experiment.

Having a control was very useful though because it gave us ideas as to what the contaminants were in the agar, petri dishes, and air.  What we grew there, we knew was not from our swabs.

We then swabbed a tiny bit of "gunk" and smeared it onto our slides.  I just had disposable slides as this whole thing creeps me out.  Germs are not my forte, I do not like knowing what germs grow on my stuff.  :)

We just have a simple little microscope, but we were able to find some fun things on our slides.

Here are a couple views of the fun stuff we saw.

If you get a chance to do this, it was really fun for us to try out. 

We grew some nasty stuff, learned what was germy that didn't necessarily know.  (like my boys really didn't know how dirty the dishcloth was, it spreads the germs each time you use it too.)  We now know how to be more clean.  We also know what kills those germs.  Try it out.  We loved finding out about the stuff that lives on our bodies.

Cheers

Field Trip: The Gault Museum - Lethbridge, Alberta

As I stated before, we are suckers for a museum.  We pretty much go to one in every city we are in.  I did wonder why we had never been to the museum in Lethbridge, as we use to live there.  BUT we drove up and I realized we had...it was just over 6 years ago when my oldest was in Kindergarten! 

It was a fun little museum though.

There was an "Airplane" that took you on a tour over Southern Alberta.  It showed you the major sites and told a little about each one.

Of course there was a buffalo.  This one was standing on a map of Southern Alberta with a button you could push with information all about how the plains used to be teeming with buffalo, and where they ended up.

There was a little section devoted to toys.  It was fun to tell the boys that most of them I remember from my childhood. 

Inside the toy section, it had a fun little "dress-up" box.  It was full of hats.  We struggle not putting things on, even as we are old...like me, so we had fun in this section.  (this little man would NOT look at my camera!  Stinkin kid!  Can you tell he is like, "Oh Mom, seriously?  ANOTHER picture?!")

Inside this teepee, there was a meeting area you could sit and watch a presentation about the Native Americans.  There was also a huge drum you could play on.  We enjoyed drumming it.

Out in the lobby there was a HUGE snakes and ladders game with a GIANT foam dice.  Snakes and Ladders is not our favorite game, but HUGE like this makes it so much fun!  Of course the big boys were not impressed that my baby won!

And I leave you with one of the signs that really struck me as we were in there:

All too often we struggle with doing this.  It is so easy to just stay inside, but outside is so much fun and so much better for you.  (just remember your sunscreen, even here in the winter) 

We enjoyed the trip.  If you are in Lethbridge, this little museum is worth the $12 admission fee (for a family).  It will only take you about an hour, but has some fun stuff worth seeing in there.

Cheers

My Favorite Apps

I love our iPad. 

We are so lucky here in Alberta because we have funding to use for school.  Last year we used some of our funding to buy an iPad and we have been using it ever since.

Just in case you have one you love and want to find a new app or two, I thought I would make a list.  Or you are getting one for Christmas...or iTunes money...

English

Verses Poetry

We love this one.  You get a whole selection of words and you make poems with them.  You can change them up, make them easy, or add words.  Great for practice.  (and no one grades you on your creativity)

Word Abacus

We love how you have to make words on a cool abacus.  I must admit that this is one of dh favorites.  He plays it more than anyone else in our house. 

You get a whole abacus full of letters and you must make words by using the letters adjacent, linking all of them.  Excellent game.

Bananagrams

Classic game, only on the iPad.  My oldest plays this often.  He loves Scrabble and Pick Two, so this is right up his word game alley.

You get a pile of tiles to make crosswords type puzzles with, adding letters as you run out.  When your pile is empty you are a winner!

Textropolis and Fishtropolis

I must admit that when this popped up as a free app, I was rather snobbish and I didn't download it for a couple weeks.  It was a persistent little app and so I finally figured if it sucked I would trash it.

It doesn't suck.

These are our families favorite apps right now.  My youngest is even able to play a bit.  He can pick out a few words and move on to another.  You must make as many words as you can out of the base word.  There are some words that I have never heard, but luckily they define them after you get them!  Great vocab builder for kids.

Word Bingo

This is one I downloaded for my youngest.  There are pre-K words and up.  He is getting really good at reading his sight words so this is a hit.  There are a couple different games that as you complete them you get a "bingo bug".  Later you can go play with your bingo bugs.  They can be shot at words or just tickled to give you little giggles and fun sounds.

Chicktionary

I admit it.  We really are suckers for word games.

This is much like scrabble in that you have a few letters you have to make as many words as you can out of them.  There are a couple ways to play (speed or just find them all) and we enjoy both.  There are a bunch you get for free then if you want more the next packs are pretty reasonable prices.  (I think $1.99)

Math

Drill-San

I love this one for my boys.  You can set the level, the number of questions and what they are doing (multiplication, division, addition, subtraction) then they do them.  After you can see how they did.  It tells you how long it took, how many they got wrong or right, and what percentage that is.

Math Bingo

Another one we enjoy is math bingo.  Just like the word bingo above, this one has a few different games to play.  After you do them you earn bingo bugs to play additional games with.

I think my favorite part of this one is that it looks like a game, but it is really a drill!  :)  Even my youngest can play this one.

Rocket Math
We enjoy the drills that look like games.  :)

This one uses incentives like rocket money.  You have to answer questions to earn money then  you can make a rocket.  Some of them are pretty fun (like a phone booth, a school bus and others).  Then you can see how far your rocket will go by answering more questions. 

History/World Awareness

50 Places of a Lifetime (National Geographic)

This one has some AMAZING photography.  We use it often.  We enjoy using it for the information it contains (there are photos, videos, and written articles). 

Flags of the World and National Geographic GeoBee

Both of these apps are wonderful for the information they contain.  They both have quizzes that are like games so that you are learning and having fun at the same time. 

The flags one has lots of info on each country and flag.

The GeoBee works you up level by level and gets harder and harder as you go.  I enjoy the challenge if presents.  It is slanted to US though,  (so those of us that don't actually live there know ahead of time) with many questions about states and history.

Misc Apps For The Younger Set

How to Draw

This is a fun little drawing program.  It takes you step by step through the process of drawing simple things like a dog, cat and dinosaur.

My youngest likes it best because it is geared towards really young kids who are just starting out.  It is even narrated by young children.

Moody Monster

Apparently this is a program on TV?  Not having TV makes us ignorant to that, so if your littles like moody monster, this will be a hit. 

There are different games in here that you match, make up different things and answer questions.  It is a great pre-K or K game.

Super Why

Also a program I guess...who knew?!

This one has 4 fun games on it.  Rhyming, fixing a story, spelling and hunting letters.  Great game for the younger kids.  This is the app that helped my youngest finally understand rhyming.  For the longest time he would think that the words that STARTED the same rhymed.  Now he understands.

Misc Apps That we Love

BrainPop

Super fun (and educational) app.  There is a featured movie you can watch everyday.  It is always informational and fun.  After watching you can answer questions.  (or not)

There are a few movies each day you can see.  I think it is about a weeks worth. 

All my boys love to watch it.  The youngest still doesn't answer the questions but it is amazing what he retains from the information he hears.

Weird but True

Who doesn't love the books?! 

My boys love this app because of the information (which is funny) and the animations (which are really funny). 

My youngest especially loves the animation that says "That's Weird".

Triazzle

Ok, I added this one because it is my favorite one.  Have you ever put together the three sided puzzles?  This is it only as an app.

I love to figure them out, and it is nice to have the little animations to tell me when I have it right!

Where's my Water?

Love Swampy.

He is a little guy that all he wants is to get clean.  He doesn't want any poison in his bath though because he is unlike others, he likes clean water.

These are fun and rather addictive puzzles. 

You need to get all three ducks, avoid poison, bombs and other obstacles.  Our whole family enjoys this little app.  (and the animations are awesome!)

Spikey

This is another one we just play for fun.  Spikey sticks into everything.  He wants to free all the butterflies but he keeps getting stuck.  You have to shoot him to smash all the jars to free the trapped butterflies.

Little Things

I love the I Spy books.  Well, we all do in my family.

This is a game like the I Spy's.  You have a big photo that you have to find little photos in.  It gets harder are you figure them out. 

This is great fun for all my kids.  (and me when they are in bed!)

Fruit Ninja

Who doesn't like chopping up fruit and wishes to be a ninja?!  That's all I have to say.

World of Goo

I actually held off buying this app for a year. 

I am not a big fan of some of the other big grossing apps, and this has been on the top charts for a long time, but I finally caved and bought it.

It is a great little app.

You have to help the goo balls reach the collection tubes.  You have to be really careful though because if you build a shaky tower, it falls.  You build bridges and towers and various other methods of transportation for your little goo balls.

My youngest is in love with this game. 

Pixlr O Matic

Love this one.

You upload your photos (or if you are in the lucky few who got an iPad2, just take a photo with your built in camera) and apply different things to them.

You can make them black and white, sepia, old fashioned, change the colors, add different extras to them...and more.

Great fun similar to photoshop. 

My two oldest really get a kick out of changing their pictures with it.

Well, that's it for now.  I hope that you might find something that you can enjoy from our list.  We sure have fun with ours.  How about you?  What are your favorite apps?

Cheers