Day 5 :Roots and Wings

You have to know that when you hang a large glider from your kitchen lamp and pass out hot chocolate that the kids are going to be interested.

What are we doing today?


 

I am a big believer in kids needing inspiration. So many times we can get locked into doing the necessities of school like grammar, spelling, math, etc.(The roots)  that we forget that we are there to inspire, encourage dreams, and facilitate exploration ( the wings). I am constantly reminding my self  of that . I make a conscious effort to have at least one day a week where we break from the normal school routine and work on something a little differently. Today our theme was "Adventure"  

Like so many times before our next Bible lesson fit seamlessly  into our theme. Genesis 12: The call of Abram. We read the passage and then talked about the types of feeling that Abram might have had. Going on an adventure would require faith, trust, and bravery,  but also cause nervousness, excitement, sadness, and happiness. 

We moved on from there to history where I then introduced them to our next adventurer: Amelia Earhart. 

I happened to have purchased a book a few weeks ago that has been such fun for us to read at night as a family. "Real life Hero's. America's Story" 

 

So we started by reading the story of Amelia Earhart and the Power of Adventure. We began by learning that she was from Kansas which gave me the oppertunity  to pull out a map, locate Kansas and discuss the Capital city. I also asked the kids to tell me anything they knew about Kansas.

Their answers included: Prairies, Cyclones, The Wizard of Oz, farms, and Aunt D. 

As we continued to read we learned that Amelia had been to the St. Louis state Fair in 1904. We discussed that the fair was a celebration. The centennial of the Louisiana Purchase. Again I was able to find a map that highlighted the land that was purchased and we listed the states that were part of it.

I was able to find and we read aloud the story "Anna Goes to the World Fair"  You can find the story online as well as pictures here: http://washingtonmo.com/1904/midi/stuartg.htm

The kids were really interested to learn about the inventions of that day including the vacuum, toaster, and ice cream cone. 

When we finished the story on Amelia Earhart  I decided that it would be fun to learn about Bernoulli's Principal , the reason why planes can achieve flight. We also learned about the aerofoil shape of a bird and planes wing. There are so many fun things to do that simply  explain the concept.  

I found a really great lesson plan for a  kids  Introduction to Flight that explains this here: 

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/lessonplans/flight/flightintroduction.html

I found an amazing video for the kids to watch that explained what we had been learning as well as more ideas/ experiments that we could try :

http://www.videojug.com/interview/fun-science-demonstrations#what-is-bernoullis-principle

And then it was time to try it for ourselves! 

 

We did a few other experiments but we were so busy I forgot to take pictures -oops! What the kids thought was just a "fun school day" as they call them included Bible, History, Science, and Math/Physics. It also encouraged them to seek adventure and dream. School can be so may things but it should never be limited by what we think is the right way. Dream big and take chances. My husband has a saying that he tells the kids and has become integral to how we live. " We are Puerto Ri-can's not Puerto Ri-cant's" Now I know that not everyone is a Puerto Ri-can but you can be Ameri-can's instead of Ameri-cant's, or a number of other things that will fit but the point is that if you believe it, it is true. You can homeschool :) 

I want to thank you for taking the ride with me this week, now go be awesome!