Oooh, thanks for all of the great tips and links guys! Azure I am going to put the cornstarch experiment on my list. I had done that years ago when I worked at a preschool but I had totally forgotten about it. That is a cool experiment. Thanks!

Kelli I have been reading your links and really enjoying them. I'd love to see a thread on this. I think stuff like this is fascinating. I definitely think experiences are the best teacher anyone can have and I am really seeking to provide my kids with those experiences, from travel to tinkering. I had kind of a lightbulb moment with James a week or so ago when we were looking at a book with animals in it. He started doing impressions of the animals, like most two year olds do, but many of them were very realistic impressions and he'd do the impressions even of some kinds of animals most little kids skip, like fish. Then I realized that the difference is that he is remembering having seen and in some cases interacted with the real live animals he saw on our trip as opposed to remembering me telling him, "A sheep says Baaa" and repeating it.

Mighty I think safety goggles are a totally reasonable addition to the workspace. I hope your kids have as much fun with it as I think my kids will.

We had a not-so-frugal day. Zach apparently needs another textbook. I hate textbooks. They are so expensive. I tried to talk him into renting one, but he wasn't having it.

I also let him go to AxMan, a local surplus store, with the intent of getting some LEDs for an electrical project he wants to do with the kids. $65 later... The manager there is really cool, though and was very much into his vision for the project so she threw in a bunch of LEDs for free. She picked out some girly coloured LEDs too. She loves that the girls are into things like wiring, building, engineering and anatomy (Cheyenne was oggling the surgical tools) but not afraid to love horses and mermaids and pink and purple. I got a pulley I will use for some future experiment for $.95.

On the plus side, it's Minnesota cold out as of tonight, so I think tomorrow we'll have a stay-at-home day. I'm thinking it might be good tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich weather. That's a nice, frugal meal.