Planets, Homeschooling

Our Solar System, made from spokeshavings

So- our homeschooling of Fynn has evolved into a very dynamic and exciting style of follow th' leader. The "leader" being Fynn's interests. What ever he is interested in can be used as a tool to teach just about any topic. We of course had a summer break from official schooling, but kids never stop learning. Fynn's current passion is planets, our solar system, and stars larger than th' sun. He's been making model solars sytems and covering our back porch each day with drawings. We've learned so much about planets that we never knew before, it's been really exciting following him on this new venture. So here's some photos of planets and whatnot that he's made, as well as some interesting facts about space that we've learned through him.

 Fynn with Jupiter painted on his face, and a drawing of Jupiter, it was too big to fit on th' page. That black dot is a moons shadow. Jupiter also has a ring. I didn't know that. Jupiter is large enough to hold all the other planets combined. It has 64 known moons. It also spins so fast that it's not round, it bulges at th' equator creating something of an oval shaped planet. Jupiter is so large that it could contain all th' planets combined and still have room. It's gravitational pull is so great that it is actually drawing asteroids and debris from the asteroid belt between it and Mars towards it, which may account for why it has 64 known moons. 

 And here is Uranus, discovered in 1781. It's th' coldest planet in our solar system, even though it is not th' farthest from th' sun. It spins on an axis nearly perpendicular to the other planets.

Just after Uranus is Neptune, now considered th' last planet. Pluto, as Fynn says, has been delisted.

But Why? Well, Pluto belongs to a group of objects, known as Trans-Neptunian Objects, that orbit around the perimeter of our solar system. The group together is called the Kuiper (kyper) Belt, and holds an estimated 77,000 "planetoids" or large asteroids, as well as much dust and debris. The orbit of the Kuiper belt is on a diagonal plane compared to the orbit of the other planets, and at some points actually intersects with the orbit of Neptune. What that means is that for a while Pluto was actually closer to th' sun than Neptune. Pluto has a moon named Charon, but Charon doesn't really revolve around Pluto, they kinda revolve around each other, making some scientists consider them a binary planet. Pluto also has two smaller moons that orbit it.

Notice Saturn's large rings in th' picture below, but did you know that th' clouds around th' north pole of Saturn form a hexagon?

Fynn has also been playing with scale models of th' planets, which is great for imagining how far apart they really are. For example, if the earth were shrunk down to th' size of a basket ball, the moon would be th' size of a tennis ball- and can you guess how far away that tennis ball would be from that basket ball to be an acurate comparison of the earth and moon? 21 feet! Mars would be 83 feet away from that basketball Earth! We've had a lot of fun holding a basketball and having the other person walk th' required distance away with a scale model, it really helps to put those vast distances into perspective.

Here's a couple drawings of the planets in space, space being th' charcoal he takes from th' firepit.

The Universe is so large it boggles the mind. But is it really? The fact is that size is a comparison, and we can look infinitely large or infinitely small, so really we have no idea how big we are, or anything else for that matter.

The two extra planets seen in th' picture below are MakeMake and Eres, which is bigger than Pluto.

He'll even make square planets.

He's also very excited about stars larger than th' sun, as this video shows...

and last, but not least, is a solar system that Fynn drew at one of our farmer's market booths.

 

Well, hope you've had fun learning a little bit about our solar system and universe, there's so much more to know...

Bowmaking

SIGN OVER THE ENTRANCE 

TO THE BOWMAKERS BAR

"When two or more wood bowmen find themselves together, whatever conversation ensues is largely veneer. Their most important communication is subterranean and worldless. It's a shared sense of the bow's mystery, of ties to an ancient, authentic world, of quiet kinship. Become a woodbow man and you join a band of brothers stretching back in an unbroken line to you 500th grandfather. A time when, unlike our present competitive world, your life and the life of those close to you depended on the sharing of knowledge, goods, and danger. Become a woodbow man and you see that ancient spirit resurrected, other bowmen share with you their secrets, their help, even wood and tools. And maybe more surprising, you note that without calculation or conscious will you yourself becoming such a person too. If this evokes even a whiff of primal familiarity then it's entirely proper that you step at least tentatively onto that ancient path: Make your first bow and see what happens."

 First, locate your tree.

Chop it down. 

Split it into as many pieces as you can, still leaving ample room for bow layout.

Peeling th' bark while green is easy, and it rolls up into nice tubes that look like limbs, but are hollow. With elm at least. 

From here i chop them out to thick rough dimensions, then let them sit on racks in my garage for two weeks, then i start one at a time with them on th' shave horse, taking them down to beginning tiller dimensions. From this point th' wood dries quickly, and with th' low relative humidity here, i can go from live tree to finished bow in a month.

First pull on th' tillering stick shows one limb bending more than the other. After much trial and error, i've figured out a system where i can draw out th' bow and carve it out and have it very close to finised before i even string it. But i mean much trial and error. Many many bows. Many of them broken. Heartaches. Lessons learned. Now i naturally avoid many of th' mistakes i used to make, just because i made them so many times. I spent six years making these things and i've finally gotten to a point to where i am beginning to understand bow design. Every time i learn something new, a new technique for safely removing wood, a new trick, a new layout, and i take a step forward, i realize how much i have yet to learn. Bows are amazing, and i give thanks to those who've fed their families by th' skills of their hands making these things. They are so simple, just a bent stick that launches an arrow, but sometimes it's so hard to be so simple.

Make th' limbs bend evenly, shoot it a few hundred times, re check tiller, then grease it up with lard, pine pitch, beeswax, and oil. 

sinew backed hackberry

 

shadow tillering

meare heath bow at (my) full draw

 

I do make these on comission, so if you'd like one just let me know.

And now i'll leave you with some parting thoughts.

"In every Indian wigwam were kept bow staves on hand in different stages of readiness for work. Indeed, it has often been averred that an Indian was always on th' lookout for a good piece of wood or other raw material. This, he thought, will make me a good snow-shoe frame, or bow, or arrow and i will cut it down. These treasures were put into careful training at once, bent, straightened, steamed, scraped, shaped, when ever a leisure moment arrived.

As a rule, however, th' savage mind had as it's problem, not that of the modern of ransacking the earth for materials and transferring them to artificial centers of consumption, but the development of the resources of each culture area, to make the bow and arrow that each region would best help him to create. His was an epoch of differentiation."

~North American Bows, Arrows and Quivers by Otis Mason 1893

Sea Critters, Whale and Potholders for Market

Here's an example of some fun sea critters I made for the farmer's market. (You may purchase some via email as well!) Though they each have their own charm, I will keep making them as long as they keep selling, so they may vary slightly in color, size, etc.

Here we have the nautilus- an amazing animal! Batik (or another pretty fabric) on one side, terry cloth on the other.  Stuffed with cotton batting.  Cotton yarn tentacles.  About 3" across. Machine washable! Makes a great teething toy- One of Rowan's favorite teething toys actually- it can be put in the freezer or whatever... he chews the heck out of it at room temp.  Fynn calls it a jellyfish.  Can also be used as a bath scrubber, or just a good ol' fun toy.  ~$6.00

Choice of rainbow yarn (pictured) or green/tan/white yarn (not pictured, but it's nice)

Rowan's other favorite teething toy is... The Five- Armed Starfish! Batik on one side, terry cloth on the other, stuffed with cotton batting. Like the nautilus, it's machine washable, etc. About 5" across.  ~$5.00

This one is the Sun Star or Six Armed Starfish! Like the Five- Armed but with a patchwork plethora of different "pretty" fabrics on top, terry cloth on the bottom, cotton batting inside, machine washable, etc. etc. About 6 1/2" across. ~$8.00

Next we have... The Anemone and Clown Fish! Unfortunately the anemone is hard to see in this picture, but it's the best pic i have right now. The base is a blue batik on the outside, green terry cloth on the inside. The tentacles are pink and purple cotton knit fabric. The top (which you can't see because of the clown fish) is a circle of a different batik. The anemone can turn inside out just like a real one! (with no unfinished seams!)  The clown fish is made from orange flannel with embroidered eyes and mouth.  Not a good teething toy because the clown fish is small enough to be a choking hazard, but older kids (and adults) love it! About 3"x1 1/2" (clown fish) and 4"x3 1/2" (anemone).  Sold as a set. ~$15.00

closeup of clown fish :)

clown fish and sunstar- not sold together, but they looked like they were really swimming :)

All the sea critters together...

And here's the whale. Grey wool stuffed with cotton.  blue linen stitching, button eyes, and multi-colored wool yarn waterspout!  About 9"x 4 1/2".  This fella found a home already (surprised?) but I can make another to order.  Great for kids & adults of all ages. ~$20.00

And last but not least- the new set of Potholders:

Patches of blue, green, and brown linen, blue batik cotton.  Stuffed with double layered cotton batting.  About 6"x6".  Just grand.  Set of two. ~$25.00

~Beth

some school crafts

here are some school crafts we did a while back...

planet cookies!

we've been making a "coral reef" on top of the piano...

Fynn standing in front of the solar system he made- displayed on the closet door

that's "Earft"

a "real" coral reef from our field trip to the aquarium- see the clownfish in the anemone...

mud-burgers (inspired by Curious George)

"Chef Pisghetti"

and here's a few of the kids just bein' cute

Rowan, Fynn & Rowan and the "WHAAAAAAAALES"

that's a lot of science! for some reason i get the feeling all we ever do is... MATH!

~Beth