martinzoo

Our homeschooling Adventure


Snow, finally!

Filed under: Just my thoughts — Robin on February 1, 2007 @ 3:49 pm

Godzilla Boy has decided to keep with the college type of learning. So, before lunch we do one subject from his curriculum. Today was Science. After lunch we work on our unit study. Right now we are working on a Weather Unit.

Our curriculum was all about sound today. How we make sound, how sound enters the outer ear, vibrates on the ear drum, passes to the middle ear, with the three ear bones, and then to the inner ear where nerves send signals to the brain about the sounds passing through the ear and the brain relays the information to tell you what the sound was.

We did an experiment where he stood against the wall and listened to a ticking clock with his hands over his ears. He walked several paces until he couldn’t hear the ticking anymore (9 feet, 5 inches). Then he came back to the wall, uncovered his ears and walked down the hallway until he couldn’t hear the ticking (18 feet, 2 inches). Lastly, he took an empty paper towel roll and held it against his ear like a funnel. He walked down the hall until he couldn’t hear the ticking again (26 feet, 2 inches). This showed him how making your outer ear bigger with the use of the paper towel roll or even by putting your hand behind your ear and cupping it, would increase your ability to hear. This was the funnest part of his curriculum today.

After lunch it started to snow. This was perfect because our unit study is on weather. So after one hour we checked our homemade rain gauge and determined that we have had 1/2 inch, so far.

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Then we got a magnifying glass and some black construction paper, caught some snowflakes on the paper and examined them with the magnifying glass. This was great fun for him.

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We also had an in depth discussion of the three key factors in determining weather; precipitation (we are having snow), temperature (ours is 34.2), and air pressure (we are under a low pressure).

Guess what happens when you blow bubbles in freezing cold air?? They come out bigger, float higher, and stick around a lot longer. Who says bubbles are just for summer?

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Since I am still under Doctor’s orders to lift nothing heavier than 5 lbs., that meant I couldn’t make a traditional snowman with GB. So, we decided to make mini-men. Aren’t they cute? The hat, gloves, and scarves are made from old socks. The arms are made from bendable straws. And the eyes are made from sparkle-y beads that I use in girl’s hair at prom time.

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I thought this was a cute picture of GB enjoying the thrill of snow….. finally!

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***Update ~ Here’s a funny story about this post. My dh was at work and went online to look at this post. Now, you know I can’t lift anything yet, right? Well, when dh saw the little snowmen, he thought they were normal sized snowmen, because I had taken such a close-up picture. So he comes home and is getting on to me….. and I’m cracking up….. and he can’t figure out why. So I take him out onto the deck and show him how ‘big’ the snowmen are! It just goes to show that he’s just like a kid, and only looks at the pictures!

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