Whales, Planes, & Imagineering

Our first semester was all about scientists. Each week we learned about a new scientist with two weeks dedicated to one topic like Astronomy, Physics, Zoology, Botany, etc. This semester, I stopped everything. No schooling whatsoever. I told my husband, "Let's see where they go." That was over Christmas Break and now we are in May and the kids haven't really gone anywhere. I would like to take all the time it would take for them to venture out and start exploring and learning but I feel like there isn't time for that. Especially for Pilot, our oldest. No matter what, I just don't feel comfortable at this time to sit back and watch. I've thrown ideas, books, and videos out there and they've actually taken them and enjoyed them. Pilot was amazed how great the book, From Oklahoma to Eternity: The Life of Wiley Post and the Winnie Mae (Oklahoma Trackmaker Series) by Kenny Arthur Franks, Gini Moore Campbell and Bob Burke (Feb 1, 1998) was. So, I figure I'll keep doing that and see where they go from there.

And I'm not talking loading them up with curriculum and a full day of their noses in books. For instance, Monday, Storm Chaser (9), Little One (6), and I did a simple experiment with some Crisco and two cups of ice water. Little One has this fascination with squishy things. Many family members of ours have found this out much to the dismay of their rear ends, lol. Anyway, when I was browsing the net for ideas, I thought of blubber. This led to the discovery of  the experiment at http://www.kidspot.com.au/kids-activities-and-games/Science-experiments+10/Blubber-experiment+10975.htm And what has blubber? Whales! Weirdly, searches into whales led us to a disgusting but interesting video about tube worms at http://www.divediscover.whoi.edu/expedition15/videos/dissection.html We showed this video to a friend yesterday and he asked why the man was doing that to the tube worm. Good question! Yes, for research, but there is obviously no benefit to that particular tube worm. Good conversation and exploration of ethics.

Yesterday, Tuesday, I found a packet of activities I printed out for the Winter Olypmics that we never used and in it were some Sudoku (with images) pages. Storm Chaser really enjoyed the challenge and, today,  asked for more difficult ones.

Little One and I made a trip to the library today for some books about whales, turtles, seahorses, and crabs. We found so much more, of course. The first video we watched was The Science of Disney Imagineering: Design and Models. Pilot (14), as I expected, was the only one to stick with the video the whole way through. It was a very fascinating look into the processes and teamwork that goes into creating Disney theme park rides.

I gave Pilot a group of links to explore regarding beginning aeronautics and aviation careers. I will have to check in with him in a few days to see if he's looked into any. It will be interesting to see which ones he is most attracted to.