Determination

If you haven't heard yet, we're homeschooling now. Our mornings are filled with language arts and math, but our afternoons are a totally different story. After lunch we get down and dirty, literally in this case, and just have fun. Our afternoon unit studies cover science, history, art, and too many other things to mention off the top of my head.

This week and next week our unit topic is "Determination" during which we are learning about the great feat of bridge building. Our scripture comes from Luke, "With God nothing shall be impossible." I've had to ask a few times, "What did we say determination meant?" when I've had kids get frustrated or try to walk away from a project because they think it's too hard.

Yesterday we went a little more in-depth learning about arch bridges and the kids actually did a little bridge building themselves. After making their own homemade concrete (water, corn starch, sand, and a little gravel heated in a double boiler) they went to work constructing their own arch with small rocks. Above are Bella and Kassy stirring away at their concrete.

Construction has begun!

The finished product! We will hopefully be able to remove our can of green beans tonight after the concrete has dried enough.


After our arch building we re-capped a lesson we had Monday on the different forces exerted on bridges (tension and compression). As Tad and Lily drove across our card board beam bridge with jello box supports, they were able to identify that their car was compressing the bridge on top, causing tension on the bottom.

A mom's side note: I nearly cried and kind of did jump for joy when all 3 of the school kids actually answered questions that showed they all understood! I'm actually teaching them something! Yes, there have been times when I've had my doubts that this would be possible.

So, what did we do to ease the tension? We added an arch. Where did it go? My kids were able to tell me that the span is now stronger because the arch is distributing the weight across itself and down into the ground. (Once again, I think a little tear escaped! They're really listening!)

We also talked about the history of London Bridge yesterday. The kids favorite points were that traitors heads were hung at the stone gate of the bridge and looking at the depiction of a boat "shooting the bridge," a true medieval extreme sport and not what it sounds like. At the end of the day the little kids, and the big kids even, had tons of fun learning all 16 verses of "London Bridge" and "taking the key and locking her up" just as many times.

Stay tuned for the pictures of the cute little trestle bridge they constructed today.