My Kryptonite

I took the kids to the Science Museum today and am torn between counting this as a day of attendance or not. We did not do any official homeschool activities today other than visit this place of wonder, exploration, and learning. (Well okay, we did learn about the continents and oceans during dinner, and we did talk about Christoper Columbus' voyage at bedtime, and Mark did work on using the index in a book before bed...but other than that, nothing.)

I am very weak in Science. Kinetic energy, gravity, friction, velocity, centrifugal forces, androids (not the phone!) and aliens, kilowatts, nuclear power plants, pistons, brakes, tectonic plate movement (okay, this one I am pretty good with!), mastodons versus wooly mammoths, rotational forces, combustion...completely overwhelming and over my head.

When I reflect on my interest and experience with science learning it is dismal to say the least. I have very few, if any, fond memories of science lessons, classes, field trips, or even experiments. I remember studying for a science test in early elementary school and feeling beyond inadequate as I tried to memorize the details. I remember reading dry texts and answering discussion texts. I remember dropping a beaker (or my lab partner did, one of us, completely accidental)and getting screamed at by our Earth Science teacher, "Get a broom and clean that up!" I remember sitting in chemistry class wondering when would the 40 minutes finally be over.

There are only three positive and exciting science lessons I can recall. Learning the eight life function in freshman biology (which I still know; pat on the back and cue: respiration, reproduction, regulation, growth, excretion, transport, synthesis, nutrition) and dissecting a rat in that same class (and carrying its heart up to our principal(an elderly nun) hoping to both shock and impress her). The third is learning the three types of clouds: cumulus, cirrus, and stratus (which I subsequently learned this year when teaching Luke...there are far more than three!).

Everything else, or virtually everything else boggles my mind. I think I can handle the lower grades. I am literate after all and literally have the world at my fingertips via the Internet. It might mean late nights as I prepare lesson plans and learn new material before introducing and teaching it. But it is all do-able. The later grades don't worry me because Mark can teach that material, or You Tube, or the free online classes from Stanford and Harvard.

In any case, my lack of scientific knowledge does not concern me, except when walking through the Science Museum and I don't understand more than 75% of the exhibits. I feel like I need a Study Guide to prep for a day there ad refer to while visiting. The kids were so thrilled (as usual, but this was our first time there since school started) to be able to touch and run and push and throw and PLAY, they did not even want anything explained. Luke always asks me how things work, but not today. (Which would have been good, except I felt compelled to at least attempt to introduce the concepts of many of the exhibits). I have to take a Classical Approach and just hope I put some pegs in today.

• Peg One: gravity makes the ball go down 
• Peg Two: more weight increases the friction 
• Peg Three: kinetic energy is a phrase that means something... 
• Peg Four: electricity starts at the power station 
• Peg Five: certain requirements must be met to be classified as a living thing 
• Peg Six: the earth is really, really, really old and has changed a lot 
• Peg Seven: some people think it got too cold for the dinosaurs to stay alive 
• Peg Eight: movement of an object is affected by the shape of what it is moving on 
• Peg Nine: air can move balls through a pipe, air can hold balls or chairs up above the ground 
• Peg Ten: there are different states of matter 

Okay...wow...I think this was most definitely a full day of attendance! Lots of little pegs were inserted today! I am thrilled with how much Luke (and Ian)were exposed to today! I could probably come up with ten more pegs if I needed to, but I don't. My lack of knowledge did not hinder him, my ability to read and then talk about the exhibits while they played taught him, and today was a legit school day!