Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Life of An Explorer- Day 1

Today we learned about what life was like on a ship- what it was like to live like an explorer. We heard about typical provisions and disease including scurvy. After several remedies, the best one turned out to be fresh squeezed lime juice. Though I lacked fresh limes I do have some Edy's Lime Fruit Bars (and plenty because it turns out I'm not into limes). So right at breakfast after reading about a sailor's life, I cut up the fruit bar for the kids to share. That's the kind of mom I am! I would have let them scarf a whole one, but we were set to meet Dan at the dairy bar this afternoon.


We had a lesson on knots which E10 did beautifully. Remember he took a knot tying class at co-op last semester. (BTW, I did figure this picture turning thing out...it has to do with my photo software not saving the information on changing the orientation of my picture. Looks like I'll need Picasa for funky pictures)

E10 shares how to tie a bowline knot with eager siblings.

Great job! Now give me a "blog shot" E10 (don't worry...for every photo you see without their faces, there is a much better one with their complete likeness).
Our knot tying stash- I secured this book at the last library book sale

R8 gives it a go.

She did it!

Great job I-6!

E10 attempts the sheet bend and the fisherman's knot- his personal favorite

Sheet Bend

Fisherman step 1

All done!

But look- you can make it get bigger in the middle. E10 thinks this rocks.
On Thursday we'll be drying some fruit just to see how it turns out. And we'll be glad we aren't sailors!

This unit is a bunch of fun. On tap for tomorrow- a word about ships.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The first knot is a square knot, not a sheet bend. Additionally, square knots are supposedly the root cause for many climbing accidents since it is not a secure knot and is highly recommended against in any load bearing application.

Heather said...

Dude seriously? The first knot is not a sheet bend, it's a bowline.

Shouldn't you know that?

Also, I will make sure the children are not in any load bearing situations with a square knot!

Thanks for gettin' my back.

Terri said...

Just thought I'd let you know that you have an awesome homeschool blog here. I just found you today and have spent the last hour perusing your archives. As a homeschool mom myself, I found a lot of wonderful resources here. Thanks for sharing your homeschool journey.

Heather said...

Terri thank you!! Welcome to Blog, She Wrote. I hope you will visit often.

Heather