Last Saturday afternoon, I jumped onto the bed where my husband was taking a nap. “Carpe Diem!” I shouted. “The sun is shining, and it’s perfect for filming the Pond Unit Study. Can we go?”
“Get me some tea…” he groggily stated.
By the time we were backing out the driveway, dark clouds covered the sun, and it looked like it was going to storm. I looked down at all the gorgeous drawings my kids had made of microscopic creatures from the pond, and their sweet watercolor pictures of the pond itself. I didn’t want them to be ruined. My clip-on mic cost us $600. I didn’t want that ruined either. I looked nervously into the sky through the front windshield.
When we arrived at the pond, the wind started blowing all the papers. As my husband filmed, people gathered around just to watch, apparently entertained by me. I didn’t mind the audience. I’m a ham anyway. They asked me if they were going to be on YouTube. My husband laughed. My son Stephen asked if he could get another sample of the pond water, and I realized I needed to show the audience our handy-dandy pond-collecting contraption invented by my husband.
There was constant noise, so we had to keep stopping and starting over. A motorcycle started up every five minutes. Then I took a deep breath and nearly choked on an insect. And I was in a desperate hurry to film before an impending downpour.
You might be saying, why not film another time? Because next weekend I’m filming the mushroom hike and collecting video footage of all the mushroom activities we do. Since my sons are involved in flag football on Saturdays also, there is no other time to record. By the time my husband gets back from work on weekdays, it’s dark. Both of these unit studies are going into my Treasure Vault on November 1st, which only gives me five days to process the mushroom video footage. So no, there is no other time.
Then I found out my mic was on mute after half an hour of filming. Apparently my batteries were dead.
I looked up into the sky. “Lord, I know You want me to do this. You led me to do this unit study thing. I know You control the weather.” I felt discouraged as I went back to the car to change the batteries.
When I came back from the car, the sun was shining. The pond looked gorgeous with the beautiful autumn trees reflected in it. I was so happy. I pulled myself together to re-film the unit study.
People don’t realize how much work it is to film a video. I had accidentally left my notes at home, you know, my script, so I was doing it impromptu, hoping I covered all the transitions between the different video clips I had filmed over the last month. For example, I almost forgot to mention the coffee filter art we did to create that psychedelic-looking green algae called a Desmid.
Anyway, I now have the video footage, and it will probably take 2 to 3 hours to edit it because there are over 100 short video clips just for the Pond Unit Study. I will be adding it to my Unit Study Treasure Vault along with a Mushroom Unit Study on November 1st. On that day I’m also adding a video called “Feast of Tabernacles,” which was a super fun Bible unit study. My children enjoyed waving branches, building a simple tent-structure, and stomping on wheat that we collected from a wheat field. Yes, I’m filming my whole life right now and putting it into the Treasure Vault. That’s what I felt God leading me to do, and I will continue to follow where He leads!
This science experiment takes less than five minutes and is sure to impress any kid, especially young ones who have never seen it before. My own kids have erupted lots of volcanoes this way, adding red food coloring to a film canister inserted into a mud volcano outside. Create four different kinds of volcanoes side by side: cinder cones, composite cones, shield cones, and lava domes. Then have four kids get ready to pour vinegar into their volcano tops. Shout, “Ready, set, go!” See which volcano erupts first.
How to Write a Mystery Story
