Sometimes I have to laugh at myself. I am so amazed by some of the little things I learn almost daily being a hs mom. There always seems to be something new that I just kinda say, "wow, I never knew that!" or "did I even learn that in school?!". Today, I found out that in the southern hemisphere the moon appears upside down from what we see here in the northern hemisphere. It seems so obvious now that I think about it, but I never knew this and was just amazed by it lol. Does anyone ever marvel over the littlest things like I do or am I just a goofball? Michelle
Yes, I do that too! Sometimes I think, "Duhhh, probably everyone else knows that, and I'm just getting it!" That's one thing I llike about homeschooling---the "AHA!" moments!
Wouldnt that depend on whether you were looking at it as it rose or set and what direction you were facing?? THings that make you go hmmmm?
I hadn't thought of that! Hmmmm is right. I am going to have the kids do more research on this tomorrow. Here is part of the article we were reading: In the southern hemisphere, the sun passes from east to west through the north (in the tropics the mean Sun may be directly overhead or due south at midday). This causes sun-cast shadows to turn anticlockwise through the day. Hurricanes and tropical storms spin clockwise in the southern hemisphere (as opposed to counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere) due to the Coriolis effect. A fact often missed is that in the southern hemisphere, the Moon appears to be upside-down compared to viewing from the northern hemisphere. The south pole is oriented towards the galactic centre and this, combined with clearer skies, makes for excellent viewing of the night sky from the southern hemisphere, with brighter and more numerous stars. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Hemisphere Michelle
Couldn't help myself I just found this: http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0769186.html “The Man in the Moon” is the name for the dark shadow of craters and lowlands that appear to those of us in the Northern Hemisphere as a face. In the Southern Hemisphere, however, the Moon appears upside down and appears to people to look like an old woman with a bundle of twigs. This nasa site had something good too! http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/Sect19/answers.html To understand the Moon's inversion in the Southern Hemisphere, perform this simple experiment: Make a fist of your left hand - this is the Earth. Now, hold the thumb of your right hand upwards and the whole hand about 6 inches higher than the left hand - the thumbnail represents the Moon in its normal position as seen from the upper left fist (Earth's Northern Hemisphere). Then, swing the right hand and thumb downward along an arc until it is about 6 inches below the left fist. The back of the thumb now faces Earth. Rotate the entire right hand along the wrist 180° until the thumbnail faces the lower left fist. The thumb (and nail) = the Moon's frontside are now upside down and would appear that way to anyone in the Southern Hemisphere. A variant of this: imagine walking continuously from the central U.S. through Central America to northern Chile, without ever turning around. If that way in Chile, you would be facing away from the Moon and would need to turn around to see it, in its now inverted form. Michelle
Yes! I often ponder things to the minutest detail & dig out the trivia on things--sometimes to the point of making my children roll their eye-balls! I love to marvel & laugh over the fact that God put polka-dots on guinea feathers. And, Michelle, I've heard water drains out of bathtubs in the opposite direction from ours in the southern hemisphere, too! So, just for amusement, sometimes when I drain the sink or tub I swirl the water the way it doesn't tend to go. The direction can be changed. Thanks for the info. on the moon!
I can't believe how much more I am leraning now that I am teaching things as opposed to when I was a student. I love when I learn something I didn't know before.
Did you further know that that centrifical force goes counter clockwise in the southern hemisphere? The toilets flow the OTHER way, the sink drains the other way!
I find I learn new things or reminded of things almost daily. In fact, I have a better understanding of math than I have ever had in my life. If I understood math in school like I do now, I would have been an engineer. lol. Ok, maybe not. lol. I am decent in math but not that good. Just your average B student here, nothing more.
do you know that some people don't see a Man in the Moon, but instead they see a Bunny? My husband said his dad showed him that as a child, his dad later worked with Nasa and Boeing. I would never have seen it but its really there! So there is something to make you think! and hmm about!
Me too! Or at least remembering more than I thought I did! It is awesome to me! We had to share blessings that God had done for us during 2006 at our New Years eve Home Group gathering. It was hard for me at first, but then when i thought of it I realized that I had been allowed to assistant teach at the school and it showed me that I knew more than I thought I had! I got rid of my fear of teaching Algerbraic equations and helped me see that I am not so dumb! haha!
That's me, too. I wasn't a very good student....and unfortunately didn't learn a whole lot in school. I was busy having too much fun! So, now, "teaching" my kids is actually me "learning" with my kids! My dh laughs at me sometimes because he will come home and I'll say "did you know....." and he just smiles and says "are you just now figuring that out?" :lol: Yes, I am, thank you very much!! LOL
so, Leslie, do you feel like your children are missing out on "all that fun" that you had in ps? That's what our older children think they missed. How do you handle that topic with your dc? Yes, that's what I was referring too. Isn't that type of thing fascinating!
I know! I used to get so frustrated before I started hs'ing at how science lessons the kids were doing completely ignored God's personality! Now we spend a ton of time discussing how nature reflects the wonderful and imaginative Artist He is! Too funny! I told my dh we really owe it to the kids to find out in person if all this stuff is true by visiting the lodge at the safari webcam. He wasn't too receptive. :roll: Michelle
Funny thing is, I told that same idea to my dh, and he wasn't receptive either. What's up with those guys?!
I feel the same way. During elementary school, I was a GATE student and try to follow the approach the teachers in that program used. They made learning such an adventure and such a positive experience for us because it was more child led and in an environment of endless possibilities. I saw my own kids burning out after being in ps for only a couple of years and it killed me. They are just now FINALLY starting to rekindle their love of learning. I hope seeing my enthusiasm for the smallest bits of knowledge helps with that. Michelle
That is so funny, I find myself thinking if I hadn't become so burned out on the 'system' itself, I could be a rocket scientist right now! But then I wouldn't be a hs mom learning all sorts of new things with my children, so I suppose the system's failures are my blessings?! :angel: Michelle
Yet no matter where on earth we are, they both overflow all over the floor in the same direction!! LOL Michelle
That's a good way to look at it Michelle! I'll have to agree with that in my case! Though I sometimes wish I had learned like my kids are, I'm just glad that they can! Oops, you got the overflowing toilets in between the message I was talking about and this one, so I am amending this one to say I'm NOT talking about overflowing toilets being a good thing! :lol: I'm talking about "the systems failures are my blessings"!
