Air and Sound Science

Well, I suppose since my career involves sound, it only makes sense that I help Olivia with her Sound Science lessons. :) We talked about sound travelling in waves and how it has to move through a medium like air, water or even the ground. Some of the experiments we did involved seeing how sound waves can cause ripples in a glass of water (a la Jurassic Park), feeling sound vibrate a balloon, hearing how making a string tighter or looser changes the pitch and making an old-fashioned string telephone.

Olivia has been learning about some of the inventors of the 1800s and early 1900s. One of those was Alexander Graham Bell and the telephone. It was certainly a nice connection between history and science.

We also did some air experiments showing the power of wind.

We saw how a sail can make a boat move.

We saw how the air in a balloon can make it shoot across a room.

Even Gabe got into it. :)

What happens when you get locked into the state park?

Well, fortunately we didn't find out. :) But we cut it really close! A couple of weeks ago, we took the kids to Umstead State Park in Raleigh. Jeremy met us there after work, since he was working in the area. It's a lovely place. We went in on the south side. Jeremy and I went there a fair amount when we lived in the Cary area years ago. We also lived over by the north entrance for a year and enjoyed that just as much.

But, back to the story. So we had a picnic dinner. Then we went for a hike down the wooded trail to the Company Mill site. There are tons of rocks/boulder along the creek and remnants of an old dam long-since fallen into the water. There is even a small "waterfall" of sorts created by these rocks. We found ourselves having fun as the sun was setting and realized that we were going to cut it close getting back to our cars before the park closed. And they lock the gates so we would have been stuck. We hauled it out of there. I am proud to say that Olivia did an amazing job basically power walking up hill for over a mile with us. At one point, I carried both boys and JR put Olivia on his shoulders. The good news is that we made it out (with 5 minutes to spare) and had a great time! We did talk about what we would do for the night on our way back up the trail. :)

One of the reasons for going on this hike besides pleasure was Olivia's bible lessons for the last couple of weeks. The name of Jesus that we are talking about right now is Rock. Our memory verses: Deuteronomy 32:4 - He is the Rock; his deeds are perfect. Everything he does is just and fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong; how just and upright he is!  Matthew 7:24 -“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock." Jesus is the firm foundation that we can build our lives on. He is the best foundation for our lives. Our science the first week also had to do with the earth being made up of metal and rocks. So Jeremy talked to her about the "softness" of some rocks versus the "hardness" of others. We took paper and crayons and did some rock rubbings. We found some quartz rock on our hike. They put a few pieces of that in a paper tube and shined a light through it. Olivia has had a thing for collecting rocks for a couple years so this was a very enjoyable lesson for her. We talked about how the water and other elements wear away at the rocks but that God is rock that can't be changed or broken.

Here is a picture of her house built on the rock...

Jamestown Settlement and Indian Village

This was probably our favorite day. The things we saw went right along with our recent homeschool studies of early pioneers and indians. Therefore, it seems most applicable to Olivia.

We visited the minaturized Indian village. Olivia got to see a wigwam. She got to try her hand a making tools from bone, scraping animal skins, and pratice her accuracy with a "spear".

Then we went inside for a class similar to yesterday. It was taught by Mrs. M from William and Mary again. This one was on indian life and was just as hands on.

Gabe tried on an animal skin to cammouflage himself for hunting. :)

Next we headed out to the Jamestown Fort. Outside the fort was the riverfront with the three ships, the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery. I must say I can't imagine coming across the Atlantic Ocean in something so small. Those were brave people!