Rain Rain Rain

It's summer, which means that it rains frequently. Huge summer showers are the norm instead of the exception. They're so common, in fact, that in the tiny town where I grew up, we had tornado sirens so you could know when a bad storm was coming. I guess being surrounded by swamp we needed to take extra precautions from the water to sandbag our houses. 

Trying to make the most out of my abundant time with the kids and be a good homeschooler, I try and take any opportunity to teach them. One particularly cloudy afternoon we did a quick lesson about clouds by watching water cycle videos on youtube, the water cycle Magic School Bus, and doing the heat boiling water and put it in a container with a cover to make a cloud thing. I don't know why I didn't think to snap pictures. 

Today it's raining yet again, so I figured I'd capitalize on it. We watched the storm episode of Magic School Bus, put a very primitive rain catcher (i.e. a cup in a Tupperware), did some coloring activities, and made a cloud experiment. 

I wrote prompts for wind, clouds, rain, and lightening. Auds is on top and really enjoyed drawing an explaining her drawings. Tony got bored quickly and didn't finish. Lol. 

Then we got to our experiment. I took a thick layer of paper towels and secured it over a Tupperware with a rubber band. Then I took some food coloring and dyed a container of water blue. I gave them each a medicine dropper and told them to slowly add the blue water to their "cloud" to see how much it could hold before it began to "rain." Then they got to play with it and see how much rain they can make. Actually, they're still doing it now as I sit down and nurse Drum. 

The basis was that when the gas water vapors cool, they condense to ice/snow/water depending upon the height and temperature. The more they condense and gather, the heavier the cloud gets and eventually when it's too heavy it turns to precipitation. 

That's T checking out his rain progress. Pardon the big chair in the way, I'm on the couch next to it. Our living/dining/kitchen is one big open area so I can still participate in things the kids are doing even while I'm nursing or cooking. That's the one good thing about our ranch-style house: all the bedrooms are on one side for quick access to nightmare comforts and all the living space is on the other so mischief is somewhat manageable. :)