Amundsons

When I realized we had volcanos for the 4th quarter of 6th grade science, and we had already been there, done that , I thought we might take on a little physics for homeschooling.    Science lesson #1: There are lots of fun things to study about the physics of air, one of Jake’s favorite is scuba.  As a certified Dive Master, he has been diving for years.  I frequently go with him, but real-talk, it freaks me out, every time.  Now that I am of a certain age, I feel like I have hit the stage in life when I can say no to things, things that other people might think are cool- but I don't.  Outdoor Music festivals would be one example, scuba is certainly another.  Plus with my advanced years of age, a bonus 12-year-old lives with us.  According to PADI, 12-year-olds  are old enough to dive 40-feet underwater, and ours loves an adventure with her dad.  When she found out that her aunt Abbie was gonna come down and go diving with her, she was all in and I was all out. These t

.............. When I was in Spain I wrote a report about Chocolate , my aunt Becky told me that when I went to the Dominican Republic I should write a report about the Cacao beans.  This is because the Spanish do not grow their own cacao, they only make it yummy.  Their cacao is grown in tropical places like the Dominican Republic.   In fact, 15% of the world's cacao beans are grown in the D.R.  We went to San Franciso de Macoris, which has a large cacao plantation to see how cacao is grown and turned into chocolate. First, the farmers plant the trees.  I got to plant my own cacao bean, once the bean grows a foot tall, they cut down branches from a mother plant and splice it into the new plant.  A mother plant is a grown tree that has always grown lots of pods, so they hope that it will help this new plant grow lots of pods as well.  There are three different kinds of cacao pods.  At this plantation they grew yellow and purple pods. Pods can grow on a healthy cacao tre