One Small Step for Rubbermaid

 You may think this is a plain, lime-green rubber tub, but you couldn't be more wrong. This is a space capsule. Inside this tub is an astronaut. While the outside of the tub is sitting near our wood stove, the inside is traveling across the galaxy with a small, slightly cramped astronaut inside.

Here she is, travelling to Betelguese as commanded by mission control, otherwise known as Zaya. Sometimes Mission Control takes his turn as an astronaut, but this morning he was content to direct the endeavor.

The astronauts are well fed on their journeys. Specifically, they eat apple chips, turkey jerky, and peppernuts - the snack of champions...and astronauts apparently.

The iPad has added another dimension to space travel. Usually it takes place in a cardboard box with the control panel and viewscreen designed by Sharpie and Crayola. Since this tub will be returned to Grandma T at Christmas-time, they decided to use an iPad app called SolarWalk to visualize the adventure instead.

Does this count as science? Sure, it does. Why not? 
 

Snap to it

 I hadn't really planned for electronics to figure into last Friday's curriculum, but Mim dragged out all the Snap Circuits so I decided to let them "play" when they probably should have been finishing their science vocabulary sheet.

Mim made an FM radio, and she is happily surfing the waves. Zaya was worried about what she might run across. To alleviate his concerns (and mine) we made a Christian or talking rule. Since the only talking she could find would be commercials or Trade-ee-oh, it wasn't a problem.

Zaya made a motion sensor and a siren. Why you would want to spend so much time and effort making various loud noises is beyond me. I suppose I need a Y chromosome to really get it.

While there was a little more "Mom, can you help me?" than I had hoped for out of playtime, it was worth it in the end. I hear electricians make a good living, and if all else fails they'll at least be able to construct the most critical parts of a cop car.