Science Discoveries: Dismantling an Old VCR

We had such a great day of school today.  The boys eagerly dove into working on their science fair projects and we managed to squeeze in a quick trip to the grocery store and our boxing classes at the gym too for some great physical fitness.



I need to brag a bit and tell you my oldest started the washing machine this morning!  He did all of his laundry today on his own without my asking! At that moment all I could think was "I must be doing something right!"  After all homeschooling is not just about the school work but about raising a well rounded child with plenty of life skills too. 

The boys all settled down to eat a late breakfast and I put in the movie Turtle The Incredible Journey.  Evan is researching sea turtles for his science fair project and this movie was just perfect for him.  The other boys wanted to watch it too so I figured that was great.  We all learned about the loggerhead sea turtles and their long journey.  The next thing I knew our whole school day turned into science learning.


 I called Evan over to my computer after the movie and asked him to tell me a few facts he learned by watching the movie.  He has a page of facts now all about sea turtles.  We found a book that listed the different species of sea turtles and I encouraged Evan to copy them down for his report after he sounded them out and read them to me.   He copied three of the seven turtle names down today and decided that was enough for now.  His report is shaping up rather nicely so I let him be.


Meanwhile, Alec pulled out his otter books and his display board and worked on filling in some more facts about river and sea otters.   He wrote at least 5 facts and asked me to help since his hand was getting sore.  I wrote up two.  I could tell his attention was wavering and I suggested to him that he might want to just pull out his board and write just 2 or 3 facts each day; enough to get his report done by the science fair but not so much that he'll start to hate it.  We'll see if he takes my advice. 
 
Ian found an old VCR in our garage and wanted to take it apart to see how it works.  We called my husband to make sure he was OK with this and since he was Ian happily brought his toolbox down and started disassembling the thing.

He was really getting into it and excitedly showing his brothers all the pieces and parts he was finding.  He showed me that some of the pieces inside look like circuit boards my husband has at his work and I was telling Ian that his dad used to repair VCR's back in the day when that was all we had to watch movies on.  It was a great hands on science lesson and I couldn't help but think that I need to find more things like that for Ian to work on.

Look at the look of pure joy on that face! 
Evan was checking out the different way gears mesh 




Such a look of pure concentration


Comments

  1. I thought of you today when I was playing darts with Max. So much math involved, even he was picking up some basic adding and subtracting skills. I'm sure you've played with the boys but if not I highly recommend. You have to add, subtract, even multiply to figure out how many points you have and who has won the game. I felt like a lightbulb went on in my head.

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  2. Thanks for thinking of us, but no we've never played darts. We just may have to now!

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