Gears!

We learned about gears yesterday and today. There are lots of things to know about gears, and they are used all over the house. Even the popcorn maker has gears! They are used to turn the mixing arms that keep the popcorn kernels from sitting in one place too long.
We watched videos of gears on YouTube. They are very short, but most are very interesting. We watched how windmills work. They have lots of gears, and they have right angles, too.
I am thinking that we will try to make some gears out of clay, and see if we can learn even more. He likes to play with the popcorn maker, but it is used mainly too cook Bear. Poor Bear......

Reflection or Ghost?

MrBaby told me that the 'ghosts' I was 'scared' of were really reflections from the car lights at the gas station shinning in through our windows. Good job figuring it out! I explained about the skewing of the window to make the shape, and that it was caused by the angle of the car lights. I tried to get it on video, but I couldn't pick up the 'ghosts' flying across the ceiling.

This is what it looks like after being stretched in Paint, and looks very similar to what was 'flying' across the ceiling.

The second picture is the actual window.

MrBaby learned About Friction Today

We took one of those opportunities that life throws at you and learned about friction. MrBaby kept grabbing onto my shirt, and I asked him if he wanted me to pull him, and he said YES. Well, that isn't good for my clothes, so I got him a lid from his play doh to sit on. That worked a bit, then we made ski handles from carboard tubes, tape, and clothesline. Then we tried it with MrBaby sitting on top of the rectangular sheepskin. That didn't work too well. We tried it with MrBaby sitting on top of the upside down smaller dish drainer rack, with the sheepskin on that. That was a lot better. I pointed out that plastic bottles are very smooth and have very little traction, the wooden bookshelf has a bit more friction to it, and the floor has even more. We talked aobut how the carpet is smooth when MrBaby pulls his toys on the rack over the carpet, but that when it has more weight, it presses down into the carpet, and that keeps it from moving easily. I asked if the foam mat would be good to pull on, or would the wire of the upside down dish rack dig into the foam too much, and MrBaby's eyes lit up, and said it would dig in and not pull across. Very smart little boy.

We Made a Mobile!!!

It looks great!!! We made it because Crystal wanted the old mobile for the baby over at her place, and MrBaby got VERY upset about it. Mommy got his work bench out of the garage, and we put that together, and then Mommy made a mobile for him, too. Will upload a simple video of it to YouTube here in a bit. This will teach science, math, art, physics, and a bit of nature.