Konos - TRUST - Ships/Floating

TRUST

A strong belief and confidence in someone or something;

To be anxious for nothing, knowing that the LORD will provide your every need.

(Jessica Hulcy)

This is our topic for the month of January.  Last week and this week, our focus has been on ships and floating.  We’ve done various experiments to find out what floats, what doesn’t, and why.  My children were pretty amazed to find that a “baby carrot” sank straight to the bottom of our pitcher of water, while a big navel orange bobbed at the surface!  We also thoroughly enjoyed conducting experiments at the community center’s indoor, heated pool.  We tried different ways of floating, and even tried sinking.  My youngest, age 3, got to be the visual aid since he was wearing his “floaty suit” which made him very buoyant. 

 We learned about surface tension by floating a needle on top of some water in a glass.  We also floated flakes of black pepper, and then watched as we touched a bar of soap to the surface and the pepper sank.  By doing these and other experiments, we learned that God put into place certain rules and laws that govern our physical world, and that those laws are unchanging and can be trusted.

 What fun it was to read the story ofArchimedes, and how he discovered the laws of buoyancy!  The children got so tickled at the thought of Archimedes running through the streets without any clothes on, hollering “Eureka!  Eureka!”  Then when the preacher that Wednesday night at church said the word “Eureka”, I thought my older two were going to fall out of their seats! 

 Songs that we’ve enjoyed include fun ones like “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” and “Barges”.  More somber discussions came about when we learned “A Mighty Fortress” and “It Is Well With My Soul”.  We all felt inspired after reading the story behind “It Is Well With My Soul”, written by Horatio Spafford.  What an extraordinary chain of events that led Mr. Spafford to pen the words to that song!   We’ve done a lot of reading about all different kinds of boats.  We’ve studied the Clermont, the U.S.S. Constitution, the H.M.S. Queen Mary, Titanic, and the Mayflower.  We watched a movie about the voyage of the Mayflower, as well as an extremely censored Titanic.  The children have used dozens of sheets of paper drawing pictures of ships and boats and submarines.  Today they even built their own “ship” in the family room!

 It’s been a fun unit, but I think we’re all just about “shipped out”!  We’ll be more than ready to move on to “flight” next week.  I’ve already got several books and videos checked out from the library.  We’ve even lined up a plane ride for the kids and dh!  Should be lots of fun!

5:17 PM - Jan. 12, 2007 - post comment

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That sounds like so much fun! I can't wait to do that unit. We're doing the military unit and I kind of feel like the Von Trap family making the boys salute us. LOL

Hugs,
Amanda

SurvivingTheTestosterone - 3:53 PM - Jan. 14, 2007

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Untitled Comment

I can't wait to get back on track with school this year. It sounds like you're having a GREAT start to the year!

Deblily - 2:33 PM - Jan. 18, 2007

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