Going to private school open day this morning ... dh wants to go in his jeans?!

[roisin]

Do you think this is OK? He actually knows some of the staff as he does assemblies for them, and tours round the church, so maybe that's why he feels quite relaxed about it.

He's not quite as convinced as I am that we need to go the private route for secondary (though he is coming round to the idea). And he has been to open evenings for the local comps in jeans, so...

OOOOOOOOOOOOH deffo not home experiment

Is it something about the full moon or just this time in the school year that all the contentious threads are in the Education topic?

Just did some chromatography - using coffee filters! I don't think they were the best thing, especially as they are recycled and brown! But the black ink worked particularly well.

LOL at the screaming jelly babies! Doesn't it make you want to be a chemistry teacher?!

One my boys continually enjoy is little rockets (outside):
Get a 35 mm film cannister (those ones with the very tightly fitting lids), put in 2-3 tsp of water then add half an alka seltzer tab. (You can use bicarb of soda, but alka seltzers are easier.) Bung the lid on tight, shake it twice and place on the floor (lid end down). Stand well back, and do a 'lift-off' ten second countdown: it's remarkably accurate timing wise.
They go up 4-8 metres, with a lot of force. So do supervise little ones carefully, as one in the face could cause some damage.
If you're feeling creative you can first decorate the film canister with a nose cone, and fins, etc. to make it look more like a rocket

How about this
\link{http://gslc.genetics.utah.edu/units/activities/extraction/index.cfm} kitchen extraction of DNA\

This is amazing, the wheatgerm method is stunning and you can do it in the kitchen....i tried it myself. 50 odd years ago it was the stuff of Nobel Prizes, now you can extract DNA in the kitchen!

Roisin, I've posted a thread for you

soz
link

I misread the title of this thread and thought it was about your ds wearing jeans, not your dh So my comment advising him not to wear a hoody doesn't really apply - I can't see a grown up baptist minister wanting to wear a hoody, somehow!

Glad your day went so well and you rose above the parping possiblities presented on this thread. With the situation in your local state secondary schools, and your sons' obvious abilities, you have no realistic choice but to go private or move. Given your husband's line of work, moving location is far from simple, I bet.

Btw thanks to everyone who leapt to my defence last night!

Martianbishop - am I being thick, I can't see any reference to wheatgerm on that link?

Btw first time through I missed a full stop in your post, and read "I tried it myself 50 years ago" ...!

sorry posted wrong method....put it down to me being 70!

wheatgerm method
It has to be 'untoasted' wheat hgerm, or the wheatgerm is heated to the point where the dna breaks up. It works like a dream tho and is dead easy to do. While doing it remind you son he has 2m of DNA in each if his cells with a nucleus, and enough DNA in him to go to the moon and back 600 times! Bloody amazing.

Oh and look at my other thread and do the egg experiment with him. Eggs are best soft boiled...do this one in the garden!

Hell I jsut thought, I should market this as a party pack

Science is Fun parties.....lets go into buisness together and themn we will have enough dosh to send our kids to a really snobby school

Oh and the mothod works with surgival spririt

oh, I go away for the weekend and there was a thread to give definitive advice on. So disappointed!

The answer is, from recent experience at a Saturday open day for, um, quite a competitive school: do not put your child in grey slacks, a tiny navy blazer and tie, especially if he looks like fotherington-tomas; and it is probably best if you & dh do not look ready for a Hello shoot. As it will look insecurely aspirational.

Do put your child, and your dh, in comfy cords/jeans and one of those outdoorsy jerseys with a short zip at the collar.

rosin

deffo filters should be white

deffo brill rockets sound great fun

Binkie, are you moving your ds? I thought it was all working out for him. Hope things are going okay for you.

We've just sent off the forms for dd1 secondary schools -- v. scary to be doing it for real. At state school open days no-one cares what you wear. But agree that "insecurely aspirational" is never a good look.

Which ones were you, Binkie?

I'd gone for the plunging zebra-print and the turquoise peeptoe mules. Oh dear I wish I hadn't.

frogs, it is sort of working out, at the moment - but it's that thing I've heard about a lot, the luck of the right teacher. Which is what I think we have just now. But even she, and her v experienced assistant, are making noises about unusualness, and I just thought we ought to keep our minds open about where more generally he'd best "fit". (Have just written to current headmistress in exactly those terms.)

Thanks for asking! (And I have e-mail guilts too.)

Glad it's okay for now, binkie. We have 'luck of the right teacher' for dd1 and ds this year. Dd1 off to woodland education centre in Epping on Wednesday to spend the day plotting course of a river and building shelters. The note from the school said, "Children should wear old clothes as they are likely to get wet and muddy". Should be good, then.

Ds, bless him, is not unusual at all, but is happy anyway. Apart from a massive bump to his forehead that he acquired 'tripping over Jamie's feet' during a particularly rough game of playground football.