Matthew and Andrew got their first physics lesson today while out on a family hike in a local hiking spot. This fits in perfectly as we are _planning_ on unschooling our boys. (This has yet to be solidified.. right now we waver between being overwhelmed by parenting and actually being in a mind frame to think about something,anything)
The trail was very wide and well traveled (an old mine road or something). On the side of the trail was a set of fallen trees that formed an X. Well the X happened to be situated so that Matthew with only a little help from Mom could push down on one side and watch me rise up a foot of the ground.
I can't imagine what his mind was thinking but It was very fun to "play" with this concept for a while lifting different weights and having fun going up and down (that is what Andrew liked the best). We talked a bit about leverage, fulcrum point etc.. who knows what he thought of that. The point is that there before us was an entire lesson in physics.. not in school.
Posted by Kevin Foote in life on November 04, 2007