Phriday Physics

Ok, sorry, I just had to have fun with that. :-) LOL!

Friday morning we took our PhysicsQuest kits over to the house of some friends. Lori, Madison & Quenten were going to do the experiments with us. We got all set up, the boys were working together and the girls together. We read the first section and started the first experiment and were thrown when we realized that we should have set up part of the experiment a couple hours before we were ready to do it. Oops...this is why we should read through everything *first*...right? :-) So we got that part set up and set the experiment aside and went on to the second section. We got through that section & experiment just fine. The kids really seemed to enjoy it and were learning bits & pieces (even though this is intended for kids in middle school not elementary). They got to see and create first-hand that electricity creates a magnetic field. We had lunch and then all headed to gym day. Afterwards we returned to Lori's house and did the first experiment. That one was cool too and involved refraction & reflection and water gel crystals. I think the favorite part was seeing how big the water gel crystals became in the course of a couple hours. LOL! We then started on the third section but we had to pack up so the kids and I could go pick up Corey and get to the garage in time to get our van (yea, fixed). We will go back over this coming week and finish the third & fourth sections and experiments. :-) Lori and I are happy with how it is all working out and pleased that the kids are enjoying it and learning. Morgan asked, "Isn't physics usually done in high school? How come we are doing it now?". We told her that one of the joys of homeschooling is that we can pretty much do what we want when we want. And that the school system typically puts a subject at a certain grade to make it easier to get all the kids through various subjects. I personally think it is all about control & power trips but that is just me. I don't want any subject to be a "high school" or "later" thing. If they are interested I want to try to find a way to expose them to that subject and let them learn what they can (as age appropriate). I think it creates this huge mystery and "scare" factor that x, y and z subjects are hard, scary, and yucky because you can't do them until you are in 11th grade,etc. What a crock....chemistry, physics,algebra, etc....it is all around us all the time. No reason for it to be so mysterious and scary.

Corey finished Eclipse last night. We went to Books-A-Million today to get Breaking Dawn. He's loving it. I picked up a few books, using my BAM giftcard (thanks Mom!), and Alex got a little something. Morgan is spending the night with a friend so she's having her own fun. :-) Since it is so cold & rainy it is just a perfect weekend for reading & football. Unfortunately our Tennessee Titans just lost the play-off game. Soo...we will be cheering on the Giants tomorrow.