We've covered the classical elements, oxygen and gold. Next in The Elements: A Short Introduction (cue clickable ad)...
...is the development of the periodic table. I don't know how this one is going to go. It may be a little heavier and might bog Catherine down a bit. However, she's enjoying it so far, not as much as the Narnia books which we're also reading, but enough to ask questions ("What's alluvial Mom?") and to take great delight in knowing who Antoine Lavoisier is ("I bet there aren't too many kids who know how he died!").
I have discovered that this read-out-loud method seems to work brilliantly for us. Catherine is definitely an auditory learner and gets a whole lot out listening to me read and asking questions as she plays with her pokemon figures. And I'm finding it positively addictive. I picked up Sarum by Ernest Rutherford the other day and my first thought was whether it would be suitible for the kids to listen to (any opinions?). I couldn't imagine reading it quietly and still enjoying it.
14 comments:
You're just trying to see if anyone is paying attention, right? Or is the Periodic Table theme just overwhelming your typing fingers and making them type weird things? :-)
Is it a test? Do I win a prize for noticing a blooper? Ernest Rutherford... Edward Rutherfurd... darn near the same.
You have no idea how my brain ran with this. Ernest Rutherford wrote a novel? Is it about atoms? Wonder how he came up with that name, is Sarum a chemistry term? Oooohhh, Michael would like a book like that. LOL!
EDWARD Rutherford I mean! LOL!
It would be you that would notice that mistake. :D
You know of course, that the fact that we're both cracking up about this is undeniabile proof that we're hopeless geeks!
You're forgetting that I live with the periodic table guru here... I know my Rutherfords. Haha. And it's RutherFURD, not Rutherford, just to make myself even more annoying!
I did however have to go look up "alluvial"!
And yes... I do find it funny. How sick is that...
And I found a pdf of The Golden Book of Chemistry today (banned in the 60s cuz it's so damn explosive, literally). Use that with Crocodile Chemistry and we can be even dorkier together!
The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments I mean.
//Use that with Crocodile Chemistry and we can be even dorkier together!//
Just googled that and it looks so cool! Thanks for the tipoff! :D
If you go out and buy some of these you can be just like me... http://www.physlink.com/estore/cart/PeriodicTablePlayingCards.cfm The Discovery Centre has them.
Good lordie don't get me going on about chemistry... we've been soaking in it for six months now. Check out Zometools "Molecular Mania" kit. So fun. Makes so much sense to start with the elements in elementary. haha, snort.. Dork joke...
Oops, my link got cut off:
http://www.physlink.com/estore/cart/PeriodicTablePlayingCards.cfm
Sigh...
http://tinyurl.com/374zh6
Lorraine...You're making me spend money here. >:(
That's what money's for... silly.
Heck yeah, especially since we've actually got money these days. My husband is actually talking about maybe replacing our 25 year old floor model TV with a plasma lfat screen next Christmas. :)
Oh, if you want to check out the book I'm reading to Catherine it's at textbooktorrents.com. I'm guessing Michael might find most of it familiar but it does weave history and politics into the elements in a way he might enjoy.
Cool. Thanks. Acquiring said book now.
"Nature's Building Blocks" by John Emsley is a fun book too. Subtitled "An A - Z Guide to the Elements". We bought a used copy but it's so dog eared now and falling apart at the spine that I'm going to have to spring for a new copy I think.
Michael's getting a Chem C1000 kit for his upcoming b'day. Can't wait!
Have you read Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything? We've been doing the periodic table off and on for a while, and he gives a great discussion on its development. Infinitely readable, even for my 9 year old.
I'll have to check out the ones you mentioned!
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