The other day (I’ll admit it was over a week ago; I just didn’t get around to posting) I took the boys to the local children’s museum. That is always a fun trip in itself, but now, before Christmas, they are offering a special activity that I love (we already took part in this program last year): All about chocolate.

Yes, you heard right. Chocolate can be quite educational. And if you like chocolate as much as I and B., you’ll be delighted to hear it. Anyway, I realized that many of the activities could just as well be done at home, either in a homeschooling context or just for fun. So I thought I would give you a quick rundown on what we did and you can pick and choose any (or all) of the activities you would like to do with your kids.

Part One: Where does cocoa come from?
In the first part of the program they explain basically that cocoa is a main ingredient of chocolate and where it comes from. Some (and admittedly the most interesting parts) of this you won’t be able to do but here goes:

• Talk about what gives chocolate its taste (cocoa) and where cocoa grows (rainforest)
• Look at a globe or map and let kids identify where there is rainforest (right around the equator). They also put on a CD with “rainforest sounds” which was fun.
• At the museum they had a fake cocoa tree to look at. You probably don’t have one at home (though you never know). Still, you might be able to see one at a botanical garden etc. If not, just find a picture in a book (not quite the same but still).
• Then everyone got to taste a real cocoa seed. Probably you won’t get to do this at home but don’t worry - it doesn’t taste good at all.
• Here a quick info on how cocoa is made: First the fruits are cut off the trees with big knifes. Then they are put under huge leaves in the sun and left there until the fruit rots away (yuck, that may be more than you wanted to know). Later the cocoa beans are roasted to give them the right taste.



• At that point the kids got some cocoa beans that they had to grind to a powder on a huge mortar and pestle. Unless you have access to cocoa beans (we don’t) you’ll have a hard time to recreate this part of the project. If you think your kids would really get into this activity (or if you just want to show them the hard work involved in making cocoa the old-fashioned way) you could just do it with some other kind of bean
• Then hot cocoa was prepared by pouring hot water over the ground cocoa (you could easily do this with store-bought cocoa). Now, without sugar this will not taste very good. However, that was the way the Aztecs originally prepared it and “chocolate” actually means “bitter water”. The aztecs even added other spices to make it spicier.

Part Two: Make your own chocolate
Next the kids got to make their very own chocolate. All you need for this is cocoa powder, powdered sugar, powdered milk and coconut butter.
Just mix 1 teaspoon each of cocoa powder and coconut butter with 1/2 teaspoon of powdered milk and powdered sugar in a small pot and warm gently (best in a hot water bath) while stirring constantly.
Once the mixture is a smooth consistency you pour it into small molds and let it sit for a bit to harden. Voila - your very own chocolate. Of course you can experiment by varying the amounts of sugar/cocoa and by adding nuts etc.

Part Three: Tasty treats with chocolate
The kids then went ahead and made three different types of treats:

• The littlest kids used a small brush to smear melted chocolate on Graham Cookies. Yum.
• The bigger kids made some sort of chocolate truffles with ground nuts. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the recipe but I am sure you can find one you could substitute.
• My boys made almond splitters:
1. Boil some water and put a bunch of almonds in for a couple of minutes. After that the kids can easily slip off the almond skin (or of course you could buy your almonds already prepared)
2. The kids cut the almonds into long, thin slices (yes, my three year old did this but you’ll definitely have to be there and watch little ones)



3. Pour the almond pieces into melted chocolate, mix together well and drop by spoonfuls on a piece of baking paper. Let cool off (best in the fridge) until firm.
4. Enjoy!

One of the things we like to do for Family Moment Monday are experiments. Did you just shudder, remembering the disgusting smell of a Chemistry class gone awry or the completely confusing mathematical formula behind some physics demonstrations? Don’t worry, our experiments are not only completely safe but also easy to do and lots of fun.

The most popular experiment in our house actually is a scientific exploration of the pH-ranges of various household substances. Too complicated? Well, you can also go ahead and call it the Cabbage Experiment. That’s what we call it anyway.

You need:

Some fresh red cabbage
A pot with water
Various household liquids (for example vinegar, soda, mouthwash, liquid soap, etc.) and powders (make sure to include baking soda/baking powder/potassium carbonate/alum)

Here is what you do:

1. Put some red cabbage leaves in the pot of water and boil for a little while. 10 to 15 minutes should be enough (You will know that you are done when the water turns an interesting darkish purple).
2. Discard the leaves and let the water cool off. This is your main science ingredient:



3. Now pour some of the cabbage water into several clear containers (glasses etc.)
4. Let the kids choose one liquid/powder at a time and add a bit of it to one of the glasses.
5. Voila! The liquids should change color depending on whether you added something acidic or alkaline.

I really love this experiment. The kids love it too. Jonathan even took it with him to preschool and they did it there as a “Magic” demonstration. The variety and intense hues of the liquids are fascinating. For me, the most exciting part is that mixing green and pink make purple (never learned that in color theory, did you?).

A couple of tips:

• Choose the additional ingredients according to the age of your kids. If there is any chance that they can’t resist tasting the experiment (yep, I have two of those scientists) stay with somewhat innocuous stuff. There is plenty to choose from. If your kids are older, you could also use more “dangerous” ingredients (cleaning supplies etc.).
• This is a chance for the kids (and you) to come up with some creative stuff. Don’t nix ideas because “they won’t work anyway”. You never know. Who would have thought, for example, that the cherry liquor we added one time (don’t worry, I made sure the kids didn’t taste that particular concoction) would be strongly acidic and make a gorgeous deep red color?
• Some consistencies work better than others. Viscous liquids generally don’t perform as well as others (but go ahead and try). The color of the ingredient will have an impact too (white vinegar gives a bright pink whereas balsamic vinegar turns the liquid more of a burgundy color). In our experience it is much easier to find acids than alkalines. We have made amazing discoveries with potassium carbonate and alum.

My kids are still pretty little, so science experiments are all about fun and seeing the wonderful variety in the world. However, if you need a bit more theory behind the experiment you might start up by reading the Wikipedia article on pH values.

If you can get some left-over red cabbage leaves for free, go ahead. You really don’t need a lot for this experiment. If you do have to buy a whole head of the stuff - well, I guess you can never have too much coleslaw, can you?

I love to read. I have loved it ever since I first read a small book about Bee Maja in first grade. I have to admit that at times my reading was a bit…. should I call it obsessive? Let’s just say that reading was pretty much all I did as a child.
I would read as soon as I got up in the morning, all through breakfast. And as soon as I got home from school, I would grab a book and bury my nose in it until bedtime (at which time I would hide under the covers with a flashlight and another book). Truthfully, I would rather my kids don’t get quite as enarmored with reading as I was. It really kept me from doing pretty much anything else. But I do want them to enjoy it and take advantage of all the knowledge, fun and entertainment to be found in books.
Which is probably one of the reasons why J’s reading journey is so important to me. I have posted several times about it already, and here we go again. We just found a pretty nifty website with very funny, interactive stories to teach reading. J. really enjoys it and is getting quite good at sounding out words. It is hard work though for him so I hope he won’t get discouraged.
We also went to the library the other day, and J. got his very first LIBRARY CARD. I can’t believe how grown up he is getting.