Homopolar motors, Faraday, gardening, art games, sleepovers and Horrible Histories.

Today we looked at how to build homopolar motors. This wasn't as easy as it looks and we watched a few videos before we could get it right. I have visions in my head of doing elaborate designs but the wires took so much tweaking, we ended up concentrating on more simple ideas.

How it works

Useful videos can be found on YouTube..here's a link to start you off:

http://youtu.be/xbCN3EnYfWU

Owen watched both me and Blokey faff around for ages, then made a brilliant one on his 3rd attempt.

Sam, unlike the rest of us, managed to get his motor to work first time, without too much tweaking.

He made a couple of different ones too.

These are all the ones we got to work well

We checked on our self watering systems and found our seeds were already growing well.

This ones Sam's ..

Owens also has a little mushroom in his.

In the afternoon we did work tiding the garden. Sam and Blokey did the heavy work, I raked and picked up stones and branches.

Shadow supervised:

Sam helped me mow the front lawn and water the plants.

Owen enjoyed some quiet time reading and playing online with a friend. At this point the school children were coming home, so Sam went back out to play with them...surprisingly Owen joined them. He had to come in after 40 mins as the other children kept running on other peoples gardens and this worried him, in case he got told off by the neighbours. I gave some cuddles and reassurance to soothe him.

We looked at artists today. I started off showing the boys information on Magritte and talked about the time he lived and the type of work he did.

Next we played 'roll a Magritte '

Mine and Owens Magritte work:

Mine and Sam's Magritte work:

Sam asked if he could look at another artist, so we spent time looking and talking about Miro. These are the pictures we enjoyed best:

We then played roll a Miro:

Sam also drew a 'digestive' picture. 

The apples and bananas in the man's tummy are being broken down by the green stomach acid. Then the man poos in the toilet. He is laughing like a drain the whole time he is drawing it....he's tells me ' I have drawn a toilet door, so you know he's in the loo'. 

In the afternoon we head out to play a game of 10 pin bowling with friends:

I always save a bag of coins, because the boys enjoy playing the games where you drop the coins and try and shove them off the ledge. 

Sam wanted to do some more crafts, so we tried printing using shaving gel/foam. Sam was a little afraid initially as he was worried about touching the paint and foam. He was much more enthusiastic when I demonstrated he could use a stick.

He got some lovely effects:

And did various prints onto paper.

Next he wanted to make Papyrus from Undertale with Hama beads:

His finished piece..he was really happy with it. I am getting better at ironing his creations now too, so there were no mishaps today . *phew*

Next Owen made some foam prints. He is always much happier getting messy than Sam and enjoyed the smell of the gel and getting his hands in the mixture.

He explained how each of his prints reminded him of different things and was incredibly animated.

When the foam canister ran out I showed Owen some Miro paintings. This lead to him asking about the artist and us both talking about Barcelona. I had some stones ready for a different project but he decided he wanted to use them for a Miro inspired craft.

We drew Miro motifs onto our stones.

Then Owen arranged them onto paper to emulate some of the paintings he enjoyed most.

He really enjoyed the activity and was chuckling away. 'I am an abstract artist Mum'. It's interesting how between us we had cobbled ( pardon the pun) the activity together between us, my idea of painting stones and his idea of using Miro as his inspiration. Also he could more easily achieve the look he wanted by manipulating the pebbles and it took the stress out of holding the paint brush or not being happy with his marks on the paper ....it worked really well.

I am now wondering if we could use collage type ideas in the same way and get him more confident about using a canvas..especially if I collaborate and make it fun like this was....hmmmm. *ponders*

Sam made our bread today. 

Owen read his book and then saw our wild seeds had arrived and decided he wanted to plant them.

Leaving things 'accidentally ' lying around can often get the boys engaged more easily than any suggestion from me.

After reading the instructions carefully Owen explained what we needed to do. We dug and raked the soil, removing any stones and weeds. 

After scattering our selection of  wild flowers Owen watered the ground using the water from our waterbutt. He enjoyed turning the tap on and off and laughed when he got his feet wet.

Very carefully watering them in.

He then asked if he could water our vegetable seedlings and strawberry plants. He had great fun as I pointed out the different veg I had planted.

Carefully watering the beetroot seedlings.

After this he helped sweep round and tidy the garden, singing a happy little song as he went along. We talked about what plants were looking sickly and took guesses on which ones he thought I may resurrect.

Sam's finished loaves:

Today I had an appointment at neurology, my parents offered to have the boys over night so I could rest afterwards and  so Blokey and I could have a night out and a nice meal. Neuro appointments exhaust me and I always need some time to process what's been discussed. Afterwards I really didn't feel like the meal out..but Blokey persuaded me. I am glad he did, it was just what I needed and we had a lovely time.

In the morning we could take the dogs for a walk together. We always have to have someone with the boys normally so it made a nice change to get out at the same time. It was a beautiful morning and I felt my batteries recharging.

After this we went to collect the boys and took them to a Horrible Histories event at the theatre. This was organised by the North Staffs Aspergers and and Autism Association.

 Owen was so excited as he loves Horrible Histories. Sam was a little apprehensive and anxious about all the people but we supported him and he enjoyed it once we were sat in our seats.

Owen very excited before the show started:

There was even a 3D bit:

We joined in with the participation bits: 

The next day we all pottered about doing our own things. I planted some flowers and veg that my mom m had grown in her greenhouse out in the garden. I then sorted the compost and did a spot of weeding..in the rain. Sam made some Minecraft videos to add to his collection. Blokey fitted a new stereo system to the car and Owen chilled out and ate loads of food.