Chemistry :(

I loved school when I was a kid. I wouldn't say I'm competitive by nature, but I did everything in my power to finish my multiplication timed tests first. I would slam my completed paper over as loud as possible to draw attention to the fact that I was the first one done. I took pride in the fact that I was one of two or three people in the highest reading group in grade school. I would finish my seat work quickly so I could move up a level in the SRA's with the color coded story cards complete with comprehension questions. I rarely missed a word on the weekly spelling test- even when written in cursive. I regularly took home report cards with straight A's. . . . . And then. . . . . . . . I took Chemistry my sophomore year in high school and realized I just wasn't that smart after all. I always managed to pull my D letter grade up to a C by the time report cards came around, but no matter how hard I tried to understand it, I just could not grasp the concept of an atom or a molecule or how elements got together to form things like water and ammonia. I even memorized the Table of Elements but it did me no good. All of this to say that, of all the choices I offered Gloria this year for Science, she chose "Fun With Mixing and Chemistry". I went with it, figuring I could figure out 3rd grade chemistry. . . So, today we were using gum drops and toothpicks to form molecules:

We were going along just fine until Zach started asking questions about the elements and blah, blah, blah. . . he's read enough about chemistry on his own in the past that, not only could I not understand his questions, but I certainly couldn't give him an answer. I couldn't even fake it!! Lucky for me, the internet is vast and immediate so I pointed him to the information he requested at http://biology.clc.uc.edu/courses/bio104/atom-h2o.htm . It's all Greek to me:

"The shape of a water molecule is also a tetrahedron. Oxygen has six valence electrons and two “holes,” thus can bond with two hydrogens. Therefore, the chemical formula for water is H2O. Oxygen’s other four valence electrons, in two pairs, are not bonded to any other atoms, thus these are referred to as unshared pairs of electrons. Oxygen shares electrons with hydrogen, but pulls just a little harder on the electrons. The electrons are just a little closer to the oxygen than the hydrogens, so this is called a polar covalent bond. Note that even though the molecule as a whole is electrically neutral (the + and – charges balance), the ends of the molecule where the hydrogen nuclei are (which contain only a proton) have a sort-of positive charge, and the ends of the molecule by the unshared pairs of electrons are sort-of negative. The sort-of positive ends on one water molecule are attracted to the sort-of negative ends on another water molecule. This is called hydrogen bonding. Actually, hydrogen bonding can happen with other molecules besides water as we will see later."

Blah, blah, blah. . . It makes my head hurt just looking at it. The worst part is, I need to understand it at least a little bit so I can teach it to my kids. Thankfully, Zach is scienc-y and usually understands this stuff when he reads it. I guess he'll just have to teach it to Gloria!!

Tonight we brought the neighbors with us to Quizzing/Kid's Club/Youth Group and they had a great time:

I've been thoroughly enjoying the last few days of ordinary-ness in my life. Less to blog about but way more peaceful.