Science and ice cream

Yesterday I read a fellow bloggers post on science. Like her, I have never used a science text book. My friend wrote a great curriculum that includes sci, and I am terrible about sticking with a unit study. So my kids, well do they lack in science? They do fecal samples. They do blowing up experiments with baking soda and water, they learn to dye fabric with procian and non procian dyes. They learn to make fuel and soap, which includes chemicals of course. Hmm. Science, its necessary in school to have boring textbooks right? I remember these. School AND homeschool, I didnt learn from these science textbooks, I learned to hate it. That was it. Mostly, its learned enough to pass but fun, is not had in these texts.


Fun was had here today! And many things learned. The children bought some rock salt from the local grocery store, which they had to search for. Tad read several project books, we have sci experiment/project books and he loves them. He finds the ones we have ingred for and does them with his sister, and occasionally my help. I do not require note taking, or anything "unfun" to go along with these. That really takes away the desire I have learned. If he is lacking ingredients, he makes a list. More often than not, I buy his ingredients but sometimes he desires to.


They measured out a small amt of sugar and vanilla into a small zip bag, added 1 cup fresh chilled goats milk and sealed it. Then they used a gallon bag half full of ice with 6 tablespoons of rock salt, put small bag sealed in big bag, sealed, and shook for about 5 minutes and look! They have vanilla ice cream! They noted that it isnt french vanilla, because that uses eggs.

Jar of fresh goats milk, Tad remembered to thank both Zoe and Pheonix (our does in milk) this morning as he helped to milk them. He thanked them for cereal and ice cream and Nathalie thanked them for homemade mac and cheese. I thanked them for fresh feta...

This is the bag shaking, it ended up going outside to avoid the drippy water on the floor. Tad noted that the salt stung his wounds on his hands, and Nathalie noted that it tasted a bit different than regular salt. They both noted the larger size, and wonder why rock salt is different than coarse sea salt.

Here is the recipe, this book was gifted to me by a homeschooler in Sc whose children were grown. It has been a wonderful science aid.

They both admitted that their hands were a bit chilled and that if Daddy wants a bag of ice cream when he is home, he can make it himself. They have no intent to shake daddy's bag for him. They think he would like for mama to make some cookie dough to mix into his, or at least crush some oreos.

Still shaking... Seems to take forever, but not as long as making butter in a jar they remember. That was a fun project!

This was the measureing process, somehow I put these photos COMPLETELY BACKWARDS but I am not switching it around. These are cheap ingredients, and at 2 tablespoons of sugar per kid, its not bad! They ate it straight out of the bag, and as you all know I wash and reuse zip lock bags so not an expensive project at all. Lots of salt leftover for many more ice cream servings!

Nathalie is still in her Pjs, but hey. Its saturday! She has been out in this today, milking goats, mucking barns and breaking her bicycle so why not make ice cream in the same outfit?

Tad read the ingredients first and quickly learned that he was confused without the directions, just like a cooking recipe. He then skipped down to directions first before he tossed the milk into the salt/ice mix...

This was a fun project and covers science for one day next wk, which is on our wkly schedule 2 days a wk. Thankfully their lives and their own personal experiments cover their science needs so far.