I love watching…
Posted on: January 24, 2011
… science fair projects going into the gym. The sense of accomplishment is satisfying. Knowing that the prince actually got his in on time is, well, priceless. One year, in the not too distant past, the prince decided to blow it off. That’s okay, his teacher & I showed him! We made him do it anyway even knowing that it was late (he turned it in on the last day – for those of you who maybe haven’t done this annoying little project w/ kids yet, ours lasts for a full week) anyway, back to the story. So his teacher & I colluded & made him do it anyway. The kicker was that he was told he wouldn’t get anything above half of the grade he would have earned if he’d brought it in on time. Yeah, his teacher caved. She gave him a C. I think he deserved to flunk. I’m a mean mom.
For the last 3 years though those projects have been in on time. This years almost didn’t make it. Last week he started to do his project (which works best to kill a grease fire – totally not an 8th grade project but his teacher this year is not the greatest) so he discovered that a) we don’t have anything to actually ensure the hotness of grease/oil & b) he needed to start over. This time he came up w/ which laundry detergent (tide, cheer, gain, all, 7th generation & greenworks) would work the best on ground dirt, coffee, red kool-aid & ketchup. Surprisingly ketchup wasn’t the hardest to get out. The dirt was. Oh & Tide won but Gain was a close second. None of them completely got rid of all the stains but these were the most faded. The worst of the lost was 7th generation. All of the stains were still highly visible. The greenworks one wasn’t too bad. Probably w/ some stain fighters you’d get the stains out.
It was really interesting seeing how many ingredients all of them had. Oddly enough, the tide, cheer & gain had the exact same ingredients & yet the cheer didn’t do so well.
Well, now that I’ve explained my son’s science fair project I’m off to do laundry. Cause I know now that my tide will kick the other product’s butt!
8 Responses to "I love watching…"
January 24, 2011 at 4:32 pm
That’s actually a really cool project, glad to hear the results. We tend to use the most inexpensive “free and clear” detergent in the market on a given week since I can’t use a detergent with dyes or scents when washing cloth diapers. Borax and stain removers help with the smellier / stainier of the lot.
January 24, 2011 at 6:24 pm
Actually the majority of the detergents were the free & clear type. The princess has some pretty sensitive skin plus sometimes the perfumes used are just too much for me. Try using tile-x on your whites w/ stains. That’s like almost pure bleach & man, does it work great.
January 24, 2011 at 4:43 pm
Hooray for turning things in on time! My question is: did he do all the washing himself?
January 24, 2011 at 6:25 pm
Yep, although he did use the washer on the quick cycle. Probably would have gotten better results if he’d used the full cycle but oh well.
January 24, 2011 at 6:52 pm
Yeah! Good for him. I’m so glad I know they are such a great learning tool but it was always such a difficult thing for me because I had never done them and had no clue. Guess that shows what a “brilliant” Mom you have. Tell him Congratulations!!!! Really proud of him, besides it’s good to know that I’m using the “best” detergent.
January 25, 2011 at 3:17 pm
We should have tried the kirkland brand too. According to consumer reports that’s the best detergent but… well… I didn’t want to head back up to the big city. Oh, well, I use tide too!
Hello, My Name is Susan 
January 24, 2011 at 4:15 pm
I also like seeing science projects. There are some really cool ones out there!
January 24, 2011 at 6:22 pm
Our home-teachers came over last night & one of them was telling us about his coolest sf project. He wanted to see which soap worked the best so he went around touching different things & then touching a petrie dish. Then he’d wash his hands & repeat. Of course he had to wait & see if things grew but how cool is that?
The results were that bar soap always has germs on it while liquid does the best job for getting rid of germs. I think we might have to try this next year for the princess.