Ellie has been busy with science kits [VIDEO]

For Christmas, Ellie got a few science-centric gifts. Her aunty Nicola got her an electric circuits set, and we got her a 3-month subscription to KiwiCo’s Tinker crates, where she gets a new kit in the mail every month with a new mini-engineering project.

She’s been having a great time over the last few months playing with them and is loving learning about physics, chemistry and engineering.

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Helping to change the oil

Ellie has always been mechanically inclined. She wants to know how things work and to see what goes on, so I’ve always been happy to have her join in when I’m doing things like changing my oil. Not only does it feed her interests, but I believe in the importance of teaching all kids – but especially girls – how to do basic things in life, like simple maintenance on your car.

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Ellie’s first science fair project

Ellie’s school invited students of all ages to produce a project for their science fair this year, including kindergartners. With Ellie having such a verve for science and me being right there with her, we decided to do one together.

Ellie’s school district provided a list of over 150 suggested topics, so after scanning the list together, we settled on the question “What affects how much sunlight we get in a day?“.

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Ellie building a Lego yacht

One of Ellie’s main Christmas presents was a big Lego yacht: a 600-piece kit aimed at 9-14 year-olds.

Once again though, she proved just how skilled she is at abstract thinking. She did require a little bit of help with this one, mainly to correct a mistake, but aside from that, she built the bulk of this with very little input from any adults.

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Ellie’s first day at school [VIDEO]

This day was a long time coming. I think Ellie’s been ready to go to school for about three years, but she finally got the chance.

We sent her off into the world and she had an excellent first day at school. She rode the bus without issue and forgot about us the second she got on the bus.

Ever since, she’s truly thrived at school and loves going. She’s coming alive with learning new information and skills and will undoubtedly become a very intelligent person. Continue reading “Ellie’s first day at school [VIDEO]”

Eclipse

Last August, we were lucky enough to have the solar eclipse pass right by Portland. Because of the promise of absolute bedlam on the roads, we decided not to drive 30 minutes south into the path of totality and instead settled for 99.64% totality.

Ellie was very excited in the run up to the eclipse (prompting her to gain a real interest in astronomy) and loved watching the whole thing.
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Ellie making her first electrical project [VIDEO]

A couple of weekends ago, in the hopes that we could stop Jack from playing with all the light switches in the house, I made a simple box with four switches, each controlling a different colored LED. Pretty simple, but it did the trick.

Then one of Ellie’s friends wanted one and she also wanted to make one for herself, so I took the opportunity to teach her the basics of electricity and circuits and we made it together.

Now that she made one for her friend, she’s excited to make her own! Continue reading “Ellie making her first electrical project [VIDEO]”

Ellie explains the solar system [VIDEO]

During dinner, I’ve previously used fruit and the lamp above the table to try and explain the basics of the solar system to Ellie (particularly as the solar eclipse was approaching a few months ago).

A couple of nights ago, out of the blue, Ellie grabbed a few pieces of fruit and started to explain the solar system to me, completely unprompted. That was amazing in and of itself, but she also came up with a few new theories as to why certain things happen. They weren’t all true, but seeing the cogs turn in her head is amazing to me. She is one exceptional child.
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