I love this. A creative idea that took a lot of effort and dedication to pull off! And the Tank Banger team did it.
If you like what they did (or even if you don’t) consider donating through them or directly to one of the marine conservation groups they support (my personal favorites include The Coral Reef Alliance and Shark Savers)
This summer Johann has had a lot of time for pretend play. About a week ago, I made tortillas. Johann put on his cowboy hat and then got his squirt gun and stick horse. He was Johann the Kid, the orneriest tortilla rustler this side of the Mississippi. He rides his horse into the kitchen, tries to distract me or has Eric distract me, steals a fresh tortilla, then gallops back to his hide-out to enjoy his appetizer.
As we sift the gravel out of the dirt in the garden, we come across worms now. Last year there were no worms. Johann was concerned about the worms being taken from their homes, so we began what we affectionately refer to as the Worm Rescue and Relocation Program. Whenever we find a worm, we give it to Johann to put in another part of the garden. This ritual took on a new twist last week when Johann was running with a dowel he was pretending was a spear. He was a prehistoric human hunting for food.
I asked him who he was. Was he Johann the Barbarian today? Yes, Mommy!!! Eric explained that the Romans used that term to refer to anyone who wasn’t Roman and stood up against the regime. That just gave Johann even more purpose. Now he was Johann the Barbarian, Rescuer and Protector of all oppressed earth worms everywhere! We suddenly became the Romans and Johann had to save the earth worms from us.
Hours later he was the new Lone Ranger, riding his stick horse around the house. We came full circle when it was time to make tortillas again a few days later. Johann the Kid got away with 3 tortillas before dinner. But he shared with his sidekick, Daring Daddy, so that was OK. There was one time they ate so many that there was barely enough left for dinner!
Eric’s Physics class just covered Newton’s Laws of Motion. Eric thought of making it real and fun for Johann by doing the elevator experiment. Eric tested our digital scale, but since it didn’t work, we went to Wal-Mart to buy an analog scale. The next evening after dinner, we all got into the elevator with the analog scale. We took Johann’s weight while the elevator was on our floor. Then we began going up and down in the elevator, reading what his weight was at the top and at the bottom. It returned to normal in the middle of the ride. I was the official data recorder.
Eric and I both love science. Johann has the same innate ability and curiosity and has picked up the bug of enthusiasm from us. It’s good that he is advanced in math and science, but it sometimes makes him a handful, just like we were. We are always searching for new material to keep his mind occupied. Or as I like to say: he needs a lot of brain food. Homeschooling gives us the flexibility we need to continually challenge him. I still can’t believe there is no science in the Connecticut public school curriculum until the 4th grade.
Even if we weren’t homeschooling Johann, we would still do all the science activities we do, because we have so much fun doing these experiments together. We got an ant farm this past summer and conducted some ant behavior experiments. We raised butterflies again. I’ve taken Johann on countless nature walks. We often collect treasures off the ground, but at the same time, we are always observing. Eric took Johann outside to track animals around the building and found the footprints of cats, a deer, a skunk and a few rabbits. We made a marble contraption that goes around the apartment and tested which marbles go faster through the tubing and why. Johann learned more physics from the pulley system we set up from the ceiling and the cable car kit we had on the railing.
During an evening walk by the river, we noticed something bioluminescing in the water. Johann wondered what was producing the light. We thought about what animals we know live in the water there and which ones were capable of bioluminescence. Johann guessed it might be the comb jellies (Mnemiopsis leidyi). So Eric and Johann collected comb jellies near the local marina, brought them home in a bucket and we conducted an experiment based on the hypothesis that these critters were the ones bioluminescing in the river at night. We guided Johann through the experiment and figured out how and why they were bioluminescing. While we walked back to the marina to release the comb jellies, we walked him through the scientific process and he even wrote a summary report of his findings. We had him draw pictures of everything we did. When we can we like to allow him to learn the answers on his own, rather than just give him the answers.
After Eric learns something in oceanography or biology that we can boil down for Johann, we find a way to turn it into a family outing or an experiment at home. Johann discovered Eric’s litmus paper and wondered what it was for. Eric explained what he was using it for at school. The obvious question was, “What is pH?” Eric defined pH as measuring how acidic or alkaline something was. “What is acidic? What is alkaline?” I suggested we relate it to liquids Johann knows well: orange juice and milk. So we tested those two liquids and compared them. Of course Johann was curious about other liquids. What would they do? Next thing I knew, we were testing every liquid in the refrigerator and the pantry to measure their pH. Another day we tested our rain water and compared it to tap water and filtered water. We talked about why our rain water was so acidic (pollution).
We all went to Ender’s Island with a seine and conducted our own population count of the fish there in the shallows. We had a wonderful day at the beach and learned even more about the animals that live along that protected area. Eric’s day long field trip collecting data on the tidal levels of the Sound became bathtime fun with a contraption Eric made out of PVC pipe, a cork and a skewer. We measured the change in the level of the bathwater using Eric’s homemade tool when Johann stood in the water, versus when he sat in the water. Then we took measurements with Eric in the water. Then with both of them in the water. Eric used that demonstration to explain what he had done on his field trip and why collecting that data was important and how the scientists use the information.
Johann and I made ice cube castles using salt to hold the cubes together and later watched which ice cubes melted faster: the one in the bowl with the salt, the one by itself, the one wrapped in aluminum foil or the one wrapped in plastic wrap so that we could study the effects of salt and insulators on ice. With the melting ice cubes experiment we graphed our results. We froze one bottle of colored water and kept one at room temperature to illustrate how water expands when it freezes. Eric and Johann weighed bottles of cold and frozen water and compared them to the weight of a bottle of room temperature water. Eric and Johann did some water density experiments during bathtime with bottles of water, salt water, soda and diet soda, observing which ones sank and why. Eric put baking soda into the bottom of a tall glass, added vinegar and then poured out the carbon dioxide to put out a candle flame. We put baking soda into a balloon and put it over a plastic bottle with vinegar in it. After we shook the baking soda into the bottle, the balloon filled with the carbon dioxide that was produced. Johann loved those last two experiments so much that we did them multiple times.
One day another issue of Zoobooks magazine about bears came. Johann wondered how fast other animals run in comparison to a bear. Eric went to Google and found all the stats on the animals Johann wanted to know about. Then they created a bar graph that Johann colored in so he could clearly see which animals are the fastest and by how much. Our upstairs neighbor, who studied science in college, told us about an experiment his dad did with him when he was little. We made a little boat out of half a cork, some toothpicks and a birthday candle. That was placed in a bowl full of water. We lit the candle and put a short glass over the boat slightly into the water. It was fascinating to watch the water rise inside the glass as the flame burned up the oxygen. When the candle went out we had created a vacuum. Johann loved the suction sound as we took the glass back out of the water. We did that experiment at least 6 times before he was satisfied.
Our upstairs neighbor came down to hang out with us one afternoon. We showed him some of the science experiments we had been doing and Johann’s wooden dominoes toy that we got as an extension of the marble contraption. He jumped right in and played with us for a couple of hours. He said he’s never seen a kid as turned on to science as Johann is and he loves coming over because we always have something science-related going on. Our home was dubbed “The House of Fun” by our friend that day. While we are homeschooling we want to continue to keep science accessible, fun and magical. I overheard someone complain that our society isn’t producing any more Einsteins or Monets anymore and why was that? How can we if our public education system crushes the kids who are advanced, curious and always questioning? Those are the ones who might have been the next Einstein or Monet. Johann has said many times he wants to become a scientist when he grows up. What his focus will be changes, but he always wants to be some kind of scientist. We intend to keep it that way. And how could we not? After all, this is the House of Fun!
We’re having a hard time convincing Johann he’s clearly outgrown some of his toys. There are some of them he just isn’t ready to part with for one reason or another. We will keep them until he is ready. Sometimes I do start to lose my patience with it, but then I remember how I felt when things were taken from me without my consent, and I convince Eric and myself to wait a while and then ask Johann if he’s ready to donate it then. One such toy is the firetruck. Some five year olds might still use it as a firetruck. I’m sure Fisher Price didn’t anticipate what our five year old would do with it.
A few months ago, Eric and Johann were watching a TV show on the Science Channel about early Roman technology. Johann soaked it all in. It became apparent how well he absorbed the information from the TV show a few days later when I saw Johann was studying his firetruck and deep in thought. I watched him for a while. He started to move the telescoping ladder back and forth as though he was trying to figure something out. Then he exclaimed, “Just like the Roman catapult that threw the javelin, Mommy!” He was referring to the ballista catapult, the precursor to the cannon. You can imagine how quickly the original intented use of the toy degraded into what soon transpired. Johann wanted to make his own catapult.
As an aside, I have to state here that this toy has always annoyed me. I’m very sensitive to loud noises and this thing is a battery-powered noisemaker. There’s the flashing lights and siren when you push one button. Then Firefighter Sheryl says different things in an incredibly annoying perky voice when you press her down into her seat. “I fight fires. My puppy helps.” “I hear an alarm. Let’s go!” “My truck is fast!” “My siren is loud!” “My horn is loud!”(No kidding?) “I’m Firefighter Sheryl. I rescue kittens.” (What, female firefighters can’t rescue people too?) “Let’s fight fires!” (Oh, shut up!)
I don’t like toys that direct play too much and eliminate the opportunity for the child to use his imagination. I have never heard Johann make his own siren noises or make up dialog or a name for Firefighter Sheryl like he does with other toys, because it’s already been provided for him. And, to me, what they have her say is insulting to the child’s intelligence as well. So when Johann chose Firefighter Sheryl to be the first toy to be flung by the catapult, I saw no need to discourage him.
Johann set up his catapult so that Firefighter Sheryl would be launched across the room and land in the back of his dump truck. It was a science experiment when you think about it. No, really. We helped him troubleshoot his system to get the results he wanted. First we showed him how to lift the front end of the firetruck to get the right arc for the toy (trajectory). After several trials, he saw how hard and fast he had to push the ladder down (the correct amount of force) to get the toy (er, subject) to go fast enough (the needed acceleration) to reach the dumptruck (target). He learned that the heavier objects being launched needed more force. We firgured out the best positions for the firetruck and the dumptruck in relation to each other for a slam dunk every time (you know, creating more consistent results, thereby reducing the margin of error). We even started using the magnet board as a basketball backboard (calculating angles!) We were making math and science accessible, right?
Firefighter Sheryl got dizzy after about a dozen launches, so Johann decided Puppy should go next. It didn’t take long for me to become just as enthusiastic as Johann. I held the firetruck steady while Johann pushed down the ladder. We steered him toward toys we were sure could handle the impact of being launched. After about 20 minutes, Eric relieved me as Johann’s assistant, while I went to take a shower and get dressed. As I was about to get into the shower, I wasn’t thinking about anything in particular. It was late morning, but I was already exhausted due to another sleepless night. I was feeling particularly frustrated about our situation, Eric being laid off, etc. And then, for no apparent reason, I imagined an animated Firefighter Sheryl getting into the firetruck and climbing up the ladder. She was standing in the bucket at the top of the ladder and said, “Hi! I’m Firefighter Sheryl and I fight fi-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ahhhhhhh!” (Another successful launch!!!) I could not stop laughing.
As I came out of the bathroom, I could hear that Eric and Johann had long since moved on to new subjects. They were launching the Playmobil people and animals. There was no doubt who was next when I heard them both yell, “When pigs fly!!!!” followed by, “Yaaaaaayyyy!!!” I smiled and giggled. I knew it had to be a slam dunk!
Eclectic Echoes is Stephen Fry proof thanks to caching by WP Super Cache