We've all been up to the usual stuff this past week - school for the boys, work for me, homework, flute lessons, Cross Country practice, a Cross Country meet and a lock-in at Spring High for middle school band students. I worked this past weekend while the boys caught up on their reading of Great Expectations and some other homework that is due today. I worked about 12 extra hours last week and slept most of today! I don't regularly work extra, but we are very short on nurses lately due to retirement, illness, etc. I got my annual flu shot this week also and think it has made me a little tired.
Both boys worked hard on their Science project (with minimal help from me) and Ryan's is complete since it is due today. Justin's isn't due until Thursday so we have a couple of extra days to work on it. Here's what I learned from Ryan's project: his element is Manganese - chemical symbol Mn on the periodic table. From the picture you can see that the nucleus is composed of 25 protons (red) and 30 neutrons (blue). They boys hand painted the wooden beads with metallic craft paint. Surrounding the nucleus are 3 energy levels (you can have 4, but the teacher wants 3) with 2 electrons in the first level, 8 in the second and 15 in the third. Those beads were already that color - less work! We used craft wire used in jewelry making and lots of hot glue!
For their community service I think they will be able to work in the concession stand for the Bailey Band Boosters and also possibly do something for the Paper Houses Across the Border charity. The Bailey Band sponsored a collection at school last year and collected over $1,500.00 during their lunch periods. It takes about $1,200.00 to feed a table of kids in Mexico for an entire year. If your interested their website is: http://www.paperhouses.org/ I have some other ideas to follow-up on as well.
That's all for now - I should catch up on laundry and some housework before it's time to pick the boys up from practice!
