This weekend was opening weekend for the Handcrafted Gift Shop we are running out of our studio. Loren has "supervised" us in construction and preparation for the gift shop opening over the past few weeks and was especially excited when we setup and turned on the Christmas lights on the front door and down our long dark driveway.
All weekend long, she greeted customers, attempted to sell to them, supervised both Dad and me working on various shop projects, and practiced sales and conversations with customers through her imaginary play. We even practiced some math skills using coins to count, match, and make and complete patterns.
Showing posts with label learning tools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label learning tools. Show all posts
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Physics of Galloping Gertie
Last week while we were at the Washington State History Museum, we checked out a display on Galloping Gertie, the old Tacoma Narrows Bridge that fell into the Puget Sound.
I didn't think that Loren had understood what it was about until yesterday morning when we were driving over the new Narrows Bridge into Tacoma. Randomly from the back seat I hear, "Mom, why that bridge fall into the water?" We spent the rest of our drive talking about how the guy who designed it had messed up and that when the wind blew it waved up and down until it broke and fell into the water. This didn't appease the questions, so when we got to our destination (a show in Puyallup), we broke out the computer and internet and did a search for information.
First, we watched a YouTube video of the bridge collapse. 4 times. During the video I pointed out how the trees and bushes were blowing and the bridge was waving up and down because of the wind. The video that I found had some of the best footage of the collapse I'd ever seen, and I grew up in the area learning about it every year around the anniversary of the collapse. (View video here)
After exhausting the video (well, actually we exhausted mom's attention to the video, Loren would have watched it all day if I'd let her), we did a Wikipedia search for Galloping Gertie and read about the history of the bridge and the scientific explanation of why it collapsed. We learned the words "aerolastics" and "aerodynamics" during this research as well as what "resonance" is in relation to physics. I don't know how much of the physics she understood, but I plan to do a demonstration of the concepts that broke the bridge at home this week, maybe with dad's help.
On the drive home last night, I discovered that her interest in the bridge collapsing stemmed from her concern that the new bridges would meet the same fate. To alleviate her concerns, we talked about how Galloping Gertie taught the engineers how to build a stronger bridge and that even big mistakes like that can be learning experiences. Vocabulary, history, physics, researching, and life lessons all in one lesson. Gotta love Child-Led Learning!
I didn't think that Loren had understood what it was about until yesterday morning when we were driving over the new Narrows Bridge into Tacoma. Randomly from the back seat I hear, "Mom, why that bridge fall into the water?" We spent the rest of our drive talking about how the guy who designed it had messed up and that when the wind blew it waved up and down until it broke and fell into the water. This didn't appease the questions, so when we got to our destination (a show in Puyallup), we broke out the computer and internet and did a search for information.
First, we watched a YouTube video of the bridge collapse. 4 times. During the video I pointed out how the trees and bushes were blowing and the bridge was waving up and down because of the wind. The video that I found had some of the best footage of the collapse I'd ever seen, and I grew up in the area learning about it every year around the anniversary of the collapse. (View video here)
After exhausting the video (well, actually we exhausted mom's attention to the video, Loren would have watched it all day if I'd let her), we did a Wikipedia search for Galloping Gertie and read about the history of the bridge and the scientific explanation of why it collapsed. We learned the words "aerolastics" and "aerodynamics" during this research as well as what "resonance" is in relation to physics. I don't know how much of the physics she understood, but I plan to do a demonstration of the concepts that broke the bridge at home this week, maybe with dad's help.
On the drive home last night, I discovered that her interest in the bridge collapsing stemmed from her concern that the new bridges would meet the same fate. To alleviate her concerns, we talked about how Galloping Gertie taught the engineers how to build a stronger bridge and that even big mistakes like that can be learning experiences. Vocabulary, history, physics, researching, and life lessons all in one lesson. Gotta love Child-Led Learning!
Friday, October 21, 2011
Slugs... Like snails but without a shell...
A slug crawled into the studio today while we were working, so of course, being the family that we are, we took the opportunity to continue talking about Gastropodas (fancy word, I know :). We talked about how slugs and snails are different (shell vs. no shell) and how they are the same (slimy, crawl on the ground) and how they react with salt (dad didn't want it crawling to the garden). Funny thing was that I thought that salt killed slugs, but this one just crawled out of the salt heap and kept on going...
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