As my children were growing up the question was always, "Why can't we have another cookie (or candy, ice cream cone...)?" When my daughter was in the fourth grade, we decided to see what sugar (and an acid based juice, lemon) would do to a baby tooth that we had saved.

We set aside an area where the experiment could be observed without being disturbed. We set two glases side by side and filled one half-way up with a sugar solution. The second glass was filled half-way up with lemon juice. We rigged a sting to hang from a pencil and attached a baby tooth to each string. We lowered the teeth into the individual glasses and began the observation.

The results were verrrry interesting.

The next amazing experiment happened quite accidentally. Our cat became pregnant not long after we got her. I'm not sure who was more surprised, the cat or us! On the day of the delivery we all gathered around to welcome the new kitties into the world - it was great. About two to three days later, we had a hard time finding mama cat. She must have run for her life when she saw five hungry kittens!

We were left to care for the three-day old kittens. We planned a visit to the Vet so that we could find out if the task was something we could handle. The Vet encouraged us and supplied us with the nursing bottles, formula, and vitamins. She explained the schedule of feeding, sleeping, and how the mama takes care of her babies. The one snag was that mama cats stimulate the kittens to use the potty by massaging their rear end. We were not sure we were ready for that task - the kids were a bit squeamish about that job. We set up weekly visits to the Vet so that we could be sure that the kittens were developing well. Bought plenty of film, and started out on the task.

Raising the kittens was a continuous (day and night) job, but the kids were fascinated and stuck with it. Through their determination, all of the kittens, except one very weak one that the Vet kept at our third visit, lived on to be playful, friendly kittens. We had so many pictures that we used them as a chronicle for our science fair project - and won first place!