Friday, February 28, 2014

The See Saw: A Lesson in Weights and Measures


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There are so many ways to educate children in practical ways.  I love focusing on real-life lessons, especially in the early years.  As parents, we can turn any event into a lesson that will benefit our children and stimulate their minds.
This week, we took our kids to a local park for a math lesson in weights and measures.  Valene has been learning about weight and scales.  We made a great primitive scale at home using a plastic hanger, some yarn, and some foam cups.  Valene made different guesses about which items would be heavier, such as: 3 crayons or a jumbo pencil, 5 erasers or 3 markers, and a glue stick or jumbo eraser... you get the point.  The limitation of our scale is that we could not measure or compare large and heavy items, like people.  At the park, we could do just that.

We went over to the see saw and sat down, first my two girls.  Without teetering up or down, we watched to see whose seat was lower and whose was higher, just like we did with our primitive scale.

After a little play, we began to add weight, I jumped on with Baby Abraham and Leyah while Valene sat alone.  She knew that we would be the heavier group.

For our last experiment, we all got off the see saw.  My husband Peter got on one side with Valene, and I got on the other with the remaining two kids.



Guess who was heavier!  Peter and Valene!  The kids had a blast and Valene had the opportunity to have a very interactive lesson in weights and measures.

After we completed our lesson, we spent the afternoon playing and enjoying the park.



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