Sometimes the perfect homeschooling lesson starts with an accident.
Yesterday morning I was rushing through the house carrying the 1 year old and finding her some new clothes or some other such things when I bumped a box of tiny nails that had been left on a bookshelf that was probably already too full and CRASH the box fell to the floor, spilling little nails everywhere. I called to my 12 year old son to help me pick them up. I had a sudden inspiration as I looked up on the top shelf and saw the magnets I’d taken away from the 2 and 4 year old boys previously (possibly for using them as swords) and told him to use those to make sure he got all the nails so no one stepped on them, or found them and decided to taste them. (of course it could happen.)
He’s been learning about magnets lately and when the issues with my 1 year old had been taken care of he showed me what had happened with the nails. They formed an arch, sticking to each other and to the magnets in an interesting pattern and then in even different patterns off the ends of the magnets. He was using several magnets together which compounded the effect. He said that he knew it was a demonstration of the magnetic field of the magnets. We put the nails in the box and I made a mental note to follow up.
No need.
My 12 year old had a lesson in his science course later that day that mapped magnetic fields of a little bar magnet. He showed me the results.
We decided to play “150 nail pick up” again to see if we got the same results again. Other kids came to see.
We got to talk about the sun’s magnetic fields and the earth’s magnetic fields and look up all sorts of related information to magnets, fields, poles, and even got some history of magnets and lodestones in there too.
Seize the moment, even when things are chaotic (doesn’t that describe my life?). It will all work out, somehow. Amid the mess of life we can always find the time to learn with our children. That IS the essence of homeschooling and learning as a family. It works differently for everyone, but it works. No matter what your philosophy of homeschooling and learning is, when you are spending that time with your children, there will always be more moments to seize.
Tabitha
(wife to Tom, homeschooling mom to 8 kids ages 14 to 1, learning something new all the time)
Love it! What a neat lesson! God’s timing is always so perfect! ;D
Fantastic way for your children to learn practical science, Tabitha! Call me crazy, but I think those times are little gifts from God to encourage us along the way…lessons our kids can learn that really require nothing from us but a little explanation. He made it easy for you and easy for them!
you really nailed the details with your article and i hope the lesson on magnets stick with benjamin-just keep them away from the computer. I have a website that sells magnets-some are so strong that if you put one in each back pocket of a child and stick him to the frig, he/she isn’t going any where! some of the neodynamic magnets are so powerful-even a dime size-they are rubber coating them because if the n and s poles get close, they will crash into each other and shatter! Amazing how strong and little they can make them now compared to when I was younger. we had a 200 lb pull magnet about 4″ x a footthat we would tie to a rope and drag the river from our boat.. It was interesting how many fishing poles and reels we would find that fell off of boats.
what a fun lesson. I get so stuck in a rut that homeschool = completed workbooks and assignments. It’s a lifestyle. Thanks for writing, “Seize the moment” – YES! I learned this last year after a 2nd trimester miscarriage and had no desire to sit at a desk and open a book. We watched cardinals outside in the hammock, read books together in bed – it wasn’t “accidental” but it was learning. And those moments together the boy absorbed more than a pre-planned fill in the blank answer!
great post thanks for sharing !!
Stef
What I’m most impressed with is that he did the mapping himself! I wouldn’t have known where to begin with that.
What a delightful learning moment.
we are a very hands on learning family. When my now 30 year old was just beginning his home school world, we had read a book on ants. We went to the mailbox & what did we see? why ants of course…they were moving their home & eggs just like we read in the book…God gave us an amazing science lesson so timely to the reading. I could not have planned that if I had wanted to…
My son has cerebral palsy and God has answered so many of my prayers. This article is encouraging to me and several others.