Day 96 - A Visit To The Dentist & Testing For Acids.

Unusually Paul left for work at a much more reasonable hour this morning which pleased the boys. They talked to him for a while before waving to him as he drove off. They were both in happy moods as they began their home school day with me. 

I gave them breakfast in the living room as I had already laid out today's English activity on the table.

As soon as they had eaten they began the task. I had given both boys an empty bottle, a piece of paper and a pen. I asked Theo to imagine that he was stranded on an island and to write an SOS message. Tristan was asked to draw a picture of himself on a desert island. They both enjoyed making their messages. Theo's task was taken from his English Text book although I elaborated upon it by asking him to place the message in an actual bottle. Once they had put their notes into bottles we went and set them adrift in the bath. I took the opportunity to discuss how objects float and sink with Tristan. 

Theo worked through the end of chapter summary exercise in his Maths book. 

I sat with Tristan and looked at letters of the alphabet. I asked him to copy out various letters and as he  did this I asked him to say what sound the letter makes. He was able to do this for most of the letters in the alphabet.

We walked to the dental surgery for our group check up appointment. Theo was the first into the chair. All was well with his teeth however when the dentist painted fluoride onto his teeth it all went wrong. Theo has a strong gag reflex and this was triggered rather dramatically by the taste of the fluoride. As I sat with my mouth open in the dental chair I heard Theo vomit. Marvellous. The dentist was very helpful and provided lots of paper towels for me to clean up the mess. He then showed Theo to the bathroom. Tristan was fantastic and sat in the corner watching the chaos without adding to it in anyway. When it was finally Tristan's turn the dentist decided that he would leave the fluoride treatment  for him until next time. I think we had all had enough for one visit. 

On the way home we called into the library to return some books. Tristan was ecstatic to discover that one of his best home ed buddies was there and ran over to him shouting his name. They played together happily for half an hour whilst I chatted to the other mum and Theo recovered after his ordeal at the dentists. It was great to bump into them both. 

We had a late lunch when we arrived home. 

Yesterday Tristan had been asking questions about acids and today we had talked more about acids after our visit to the dentist. Theo had noticed a poster in the surgery about acid erosion which had sparked off further questions. I decided to conduct an experiment with the boys to test for acids and alkalis. 

We chopped a red cabbage up and boiled it until the water was very purple. Theo was amazed by how quickly the water began to change colour once the cabbage was added. Once it was ready we drained the cabbage and left the purple water In a pan to cool.

Whilst it was cooling we took a walk to the post office. Theo completed a form requesting various leaflets and support materials from The National Autistic Society to help him collect money at the Cardboard Challenge. He proudly posted the letter. 

By the time we arrived back at home the cabbage water (Indicator) had cooled down. I asked Theo to pour a small amount of the liquid into a selection of glasses. We then set about getting various substances to test. I asked Theo to draw a table in his science book which we could use to record the results on. He did an incredibly good job of this. 

Tristan and Theo were absolutely amazed to see the indicator change colour dramatically with the addition of various liquids. The experiment was wonderful and helped them to understand how various things can be damaging to our teeth. Theo was especially shocked to see that his favourite blackcurrent cordial registered as acidic.

Theo completed his table by ticking whether the test substance was acid or alkali. He was unable to say what milk was and so I asked him to read about neutral substances. He realised that water is neutral and milk is only very slightly acidic and is close to water on the PH scale. We looked at the PH scale in a science book and discussed our findings. He drew a lovely diagram in his book in support of the results. He really enjoyed the experiment. 

We had some cabbage water left and so we decided to use it as dye. I showed the boys how to make a fixative by using salt and water. Tristan was interested to see how the salt dissolved into the water. They then added an old white vest to the fixative and left it for an hour.

The vest was transferred by Theo into the pan of dye and will remain there until tomorrow morning. 

Theo practiced his violin for half an hour before playing cars with his brother. 

After dinner they both sat at the table colouring and drawing for a while. Tristan began to colour in an Autumn picture but became too tired to continue. He wants to carry on with it in the morning. 

Paul spent time with Theo this evening whilst I put Tristan to bed. We read 'We Are Going On A Bear Hunt' by Michael Rosen before we went up stairs and then pretended to hunt or bears on our way to the bedroom. 

We had a lovely day despite the drama in the dental surgery. The experiment was a huge success and I have another planned for later in the week although there won't be any colour changing involved. 

Prudence Clarke

17.09.2013