Boats Afloat.

Today we played with boats. In the name of science, of course. I found a cool book at the library last week with things you can make and then experiment with. We used clay to make our boats and then counted how many paper clips and marbles they would hold before they sank. Then Mia hypothesized about what would happen if we added salt (a lot of salt!) to the water. She knew the answer; the boats would hold more. And where did she obtain this valuable information? From The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, a Narnia book. See, I knew I wasn't slogging through those every night for nothin'. (Actually, I quite enjoy them. I'm not eager to return to Junie B. Jones.) Her other hypothesis (also correct!) was that the boats would not hold as much if we floated them in vegetable oil. I think that was just a good guess, because she added, "Oil is sucky. It will suck the boats down." Oh, and Mommy learned something! I love it when that happens. Did you know that cold water is more dense than hot water? So, ships traversing the North Atlantic are allowed more weight than they are in equatorial waters. Anyway, we had fun.