Expensive Science Project.

This post is going to show my age!

I was looking ahead in T.'s science experiment book to see what supplies we will need in the next 2 weeks. We have read about inclined planes, wedge, and levers. We are working on a balance so he can learn about a type of scale right now. We are going to read about wheel and axles, and gears next. We are just covering basic things simple stuff I learned in elementary school. I looked in the experiment book and they have an experiment with gears. It is just to show children how a gear works. T. has a large bucket of gears we bought them for him when he was 2 or 3 years old (he loved to build even back then). I remember we spent a lot of money on them because back then the only place that sold them was a high end educational store. Now you can get them for a lot less money in any toy store. My point is I know T. knows how gears work he has spent tons of time building with them but I still wanted to do the simple experiment just so he could see a gear that looks different than his bucket of gears and his K'Nex. The experiment says to use bottle caps for gears. I looked at the picture and saw they use the old metal pop tops. The kind that come on glass soda bottles! NOW this is how you will see my age! I remember buying soda in glass bottles in soda machines when I was young! I haven't seen a glass soda bottle in a very long time! I am 36 and I think the last time I got a glass bottle out of a soda machine I was under 12 years old. I then started thinking well they still sell beer in glass bottles with bottle tops! Hmmm... I don't know anyone who drinks beer out of a glass bottle. When I met my husband he would drink an occasional beer and when he did it was always in a glass bottle. He was never much of a drinker and I haven't seen him drink anything in about 4 years. I can't go into a bar and ask for bottle tops! I am VERY prego! You know with my luck the second I walk into a bar someone will see me walking in and in the area I live the rumors will be going around! I know before I got home people would be calling me saying they heard I had left my hubby, was sitting at the bar drunk and in labor, I was having a baby that isn't my hubbies, and well I am sure anyone who lives in a small town or way out in the country knows what I am saying. I decided I enjoy my quiet boring life and want to keep it that way so I would go looking at the grocery store for glass bottles. I checked 3 stores before I found one that sold soda in a glass bottle! Good thing the 3rd store had them because we only have 3 stores in the town near me. I found 6 packs of CocaCola in glass bottles with metal tops! YAY!

BUT the price was sooooooo expensive! For me to spend all that money on pop just seems silly! I did fork over the money and I hope this experiment works! If it doesn't I will be MAD!!! BTW this is a good lesson for others! If you are looking at using a science experiment book that has a copyright date of 1959 you should be willing to skip a few experiments or be willing to spend money and time looking for things like metal pop tops! I guess if I was a person who had lesson plans made up a year ahead like other homeschoolers do I wouldn't have this problem! I am the type of person who is happy that I look 1 to 2 weeks ahead to get supplies. I get a bit overwhelmed when I try to look a month or so ahead. I don't see myself planning out a full year ahead anytime soon. I don't think I could ever find the time to do that! I have always spent money on school stuff. Needing supplies is something that comes up a lot BUT $10 for 2 6packs of little 8oz glass bottles of coke seems like a lot to show gears to a child who already knows about them. Like I said before my son has a HUGE bucket of plastic gears in his room. I will blame this all on my prego brain. I have to admit I did like having a coke with my hubby in a glass bottle we got to talk about our childhood memories. T. thought it was so cool to drink from a glass bottle also! I guess that is all worth something. I then came up with a use for the glass bottles. I know they can be recycled but I wasn't willing to do that just yet. I want to get my moneys worth out of this. LOL! I made my children up a musical instrument with them.


I filled the bottles with colored water from full to empty (each one has about 50 ml less than the next). I added a spoon and then let the children play.

So if you happen to be using the book Physics Experiments For Children and have spent money on glass bottles of pop you could look at it like this....

1. gear experiment
2. enjoying a bit of your past (if you are old enough to remember glass pop bottles)
3. telling children how it was in the old days
4. letting the children taste the past
5. making music together

That all should be worth $10. RIGHT????? LOL!

I think my big problem with this is when I was young bottle tops cost NOTHING! I remember them being free and children doing crafts with them. You could find them all over on the ground in front of the soda machines! Does anyone else remember this??? I don't feel that old! I feel silly paying $10 for something we use to get all over for free. WOW! I guess I am getting old and I am turning into my grandparents already! LOL!


I bought two 6 packs because the directions said to use only caps that are flat be careful to not bend the caps. I thought it would take me two 6packs to get 3 caps that didn't have bends in them. I was able to open them slowly around the cap and not put much of a bend in them. I guess I could have done this for $5. Oh well, live and learn. We still have a 6 pack left to enjoy.