Mt. Pleasant Classical Academy

My DS is quite amazing — Yea, I know, us moms are always talking about how amazing our kids are, but recently I was really awe struck by ScienceKid. The conversation went something like this as he walked by me in the kitchen;

“Mom, thanks for the idea. It really worked.”

“What idea? And what really worked?”

“The idea to gnarl the wheel and axle.” He shows me the wheel and axle which will be one of the simple machines in his Science Olympiad Mission Possible event.

“When did I give you the idea to gnarl that?”

“Remember when you asked me to hand Brutus the white bone?”

“No”

“Well you did, and I noticed how it had all these bumps on it, and that made me realize that if I gnarled the wheel and axle it would help it to be rigid which is what happened. It works GREAT now.”

Right, so somehow me telling him to hand the dog a bone caused him to come up with the solution to a problem he’s been having for over a week. OK, if he says so.

I will take the credit though in working with ScienceKid the last 5 years on making connections, in history and science and literature — always asking him to ask questions such as, how the Magna Carta related to our Bill of Rights? How an event in China connected to other events around the world? Asking him constantly to pay attention to cause and effect and to think about cause and effect by walking him through this everytime I possible could, in every subject. It is something us Classical Educators focus upon when our kids enter the Logic Age. No longer do we simple ask the child to tell us the facts as we did in the Grammar years but now we ask our child questions such as, why did the War of 1812 happen? or why did France sell us the Louisiana Purchase? What was the cause and what were the effects? Connections. Cause and Effect.

And somehow ScienceKid connected bumps on a dog’s chew bone to a solution for his problem he had with his wheel and axle. Pretty cool connection if you ask me. Pretty amazing too.