The sun broke out this afternoon, despite a rainy forecast for the week, so I decided to grab the opportunity to make a sundial with the kids.We found a great, Exploratorium printout, that walked us right through the process. All you need besides the printout, is a pencil, a compass (lucky thing we made one this morning!), and some sun.
The children took turns looking at the clock, and trying to figure out the time, and bringing up a lot of good questions:
- Why are there two sets of numbers on the clock printout? One set is for standard time, and the other is for daylight savings time.
- Why don't the numbers go all the way around the clock? Since there's no sun out at night, there are only numbers for the daylight hours.
- What happens if the sun goes behind the clouds? That probably means it's nap time.
It's great to be a homeschooler.
Funny, we started making a sundial yesterday - but then it came over cloudy and looked like rain so we abandoned it - to be continued later this week I hope!
ReplyDeleteI like the answer to the last question :) Goodness - it is DST already???
ReplyDeleteI had to explain to Jeff why I was laughing after reading your post, that last answer made me laugh.
ReplyDeleteI don't want it to be DST yet, I'm not ready to lose my hour of sleep.
We have a huge sundial in our town... so ... I was lazy and just took my kids to the sundial with daddy... on a weekend... and let him answer all the questions! ;) Seriously... cute post! clever idea to make your own! love it!
ReplyDeleteJust Jenn ~
I might even be inspired to take them back to the big sundial this spring!
Leah, seriously, you are a walking encyclopedia!
ReplyDelete