Our little Friday homeschooling group arranged for a really cool program yesterday about astronomy, including the use of the park's Star Lab, an inflatable planetarium. Our wonderful teacher started out with a slide show about the history of astronomy. After showing pictures and discussing Copernicus, Galileo, and Sir Isaac Newton, Zoo Boy raised his hand and declared "Hey, I heard of those guys!" (The teacher told me later that he was worried that the slide show would be over The Boy's head, since the program was really designed with a slightly older child in mind, but that his mind was set at ease with that
statement.)
Unfortunately, Zoo Boy got a bit too concerned with the Star Lab portion of the class (enclosed in a dark space is not his idea of fun), so he opted to sit out the planetarium part, reading in the nature center instead, and rejoining the program once they excited the Star Lab. T tells me that they talked about the constellations, and that J had a great time identifying them and the myths that went with them.
After the Star Lab, the teacher had the kids' full attention with a discussion and demonstration on how binoculars and telescopes work. (Unfortunately there was no sun --in fact it was
pouring rain --so he was unable to show us how to safely look at sun-spots by reflecting the image onto a piece of paper.) He gave us Moms some great advice about buying binoculars and telescopes for space viewing, too.
Here the kids are shown a project to do at home -- making a solar clock. J, aka "project boy", was all ears.
The teacher shows the boys various types of sundials. It was a wonderful program, we're sorry to see the "school year" coming to a close, but we're sure to resume classes with them again in the fall. We've been extremely impressed with the quality of the programs available.
Our little Friday homeschooling group arranged for a really cool program yesterday about astronomy, including the use of the park's Star Lab, an inflatable planetarium. Our wonderful teacher started out with a slide show about the history of astronomy. After showing pictures and discussing Copernicus, Galileo, and Sir Isaac Newton, Zoo Boy raised his hand and declared "Hey, I heard of those guys!" (The teacher told me later that he was worried that the slide show would be over The Boy's head, since the program was really designed with a slightly older child in mind, but that his mind was set at ease with that statement.)
Unfortunately, Zoo Boy got a bit too concerned with the Star Lab portion of the class (enclosed in a dark space is not his idea of fun), so he opted to sit out the planetarium part, reading in the nature center instead, and rejoining the program once they excited the Star Lab. T tells me that they talked about the constellations, and that J had a great time identifying them and the myths that went with them.
After the Star Lab, the teacher had the kids' full attention with a discussion and demonstration on how binoculars and telescopes work. (Unfortunately there was no sun --in fact it was pouring rain --so he was unable to show us how to safely look at sun-spots by reflecting the image onto a piece of paper.) He gave us Moms some great advice about buying binoculars and telescopes for space viewing, too.
Here the kids are shown a project to do at home -- making a solar clock. J, aka "project boy", was all ears.
The teacher shows the boys various types of sundials. It was a wonderful program, we're sorry to see the "school year" coming to a close, but we're sure to resume classes with them again in the fall. We've been extremely impressed with the quality of the programs available.
1 comment:
I've been meaning to ask about all the programs and activities your kids seem to be involved in. Do you have a museum membership or are they enrolled in some museum class? Any tips for findings similar things on this side of the state? :)
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