Sciworks

The flight exhibit wasn't the only thing we saw that day at Sciworks. We took some time to explore some of the other fun things to see. 

Rebecca and the kids got into a race on these little scooters.

Olivia managed to come from behind and beat Rebecca to the finish.

Olivia tried her best to get the treadmill's "Run" light to come on, but couldn't quite get it fast enough. I did it, but only because I nearly slipped the very for time I got on it. :)

The boys had a blast with the dental drill and air blower. It was non-stop laughter until we dragged them away from it.

Outside, Olivia got to see a working Archimedes screw, which we had read about last spring in MFW.

We got to see the otters playing.

"fishing" in the stream.

The physics exhibit had this chair that lifted you up using vacuum suction. 

Of course, this was a highlight of the kids' day.

The had a robotic claw to pick up different shapes with that Olivia managed to get pretty good at. 

There was SO MUCH more to see there that we will certainly be going back. They have tons of exhibits on all kinds of subjects like the human body, physics, sound, animal habitats, a planetarium and then a special exhibit that changes every couple of months.

FIAR - The Glorious Flight

The next book in Gabe's Five-In-A-Row curriculum was The Glorious Flight. It is the story of Louis Bleriot, the first man to fly across the English Channel in 1909. Considering how much Gabe and Ezra like airplanes, this was a real treat for them to study.

 They loved hearing about how he kept building planes even when he crashed them or they didn't work at all. 

They learned about Louis's home country of France. "They eat snails?!? Ewww!"

They learned about the parts of an airplane and what makes one fly instead of falling to the ground.

For a field trip, we drove the kids to end of the runway at PTI Airport to let them see planes take off and land. It was really windy that day and they were landing right over our heads.

We got to see a couple of planes land, including a small plane that was about the size of Louis Bleriot's plane. Unfortunately, we were run off by airport security after about 20 minutes.

Another treat for them was a travelling exhibit at Sciworks in Winston-Salem about flight, both planes and rockets. One station let you build a paper airplane and then launch it to see how well it flies.

The launchers took a bit of getting used to.

But before long, Olivia was launching her planes all the way to the wall.

Next was a pair of stations that had you build "helicopters" using paper cones and then seeing how long you could get them to hover over a fan. one fan was open and really tough to get your cone to stay up for long unless it was perfect.

The other had a cage around it to keep your cones in the air flow, making them go up with no problem at all.

Even Emma was able to get into the action.

The last station showed you how to build a paper rocket and then let you launch them.

First, you had to pump up the launcher

Once it got to the red zone...

you punch the button and make it fly!

Emma's Walking!

Emma, at 21 months, is finally walking! She followed after her older brother in just taking her time to getting around to it. She clearly just didn't want to walk. She would take a step and then sit down, or we would walk holding her hand and then let go and she would just laugh and sit down. 

Well, she finally got motivated enough to just start walking on her own and is now on a whole new level of mobility. She's already pairing her new balance with her love of climbing. Rebecca heard her calling from the dining room and found her on the table, quite unsure of how to get back down.

Irene - 5 months

She is such a happy girl! She loves to smile and laugh at everyone. It's a favorite activity for the rest of the children to get her to smile. 

She has recently "discovered" her feet. 

Giggle-time with mommy

She gets very intense when playing with her toys. She will focus on them and then grab and swat at them enthusiastically.

She's very interested in everything around her and will try to grab everything within her reach.