Rocket Launch!

On Monday the 16th the boys and I went with some friends to see the Space Shuttle Atlantis take off. TOTALLY AMAZING!!!!!

We got there about 2.5 hours before take off. It was already pretty crowded, but we found a place that would hold 11 kids and 4 adults and sat down for lunch. It was hard for all the kids to be so confined to one area, but they did great.

As you can tell... my kids need hair cuts.

About 30 minutes prior to take off people really started to crowd in, so we moved up closer for a better view. It was good in the fact that we actually got to see a little better, but asking each small kids to stand in a 1 foot square area for 30 minutes is a bit much. Fortunately most people were understanding.

And Tim found that he is still very strong and broke the concrete step.

We waited... and waited.... and waited.... but all that waiting really paid off!!
We had a perfect view for take off!!

{Did you know.... that after only 30 seconds the space ship is traveling 500 mph! And after 2 minute it's going 2000 mph!! We saw the Side Rocket Boosters (SRB) fall off. They land in the Atlantic Ocean and are retrieved and used again. The External Fuel Tank (ET) falls off over the Indian Ocean but it is so far up that it disintegrates as it falls back to earth}

Unfortunately after it took off we didn't see much other than a big tree. I grab Tim and ran a little bit to see it go further into the atmosphere. {fortunately my great friend herded James and Tommy with them and saw that they got back to me}

It was fun to take a learning detour and focus on this for a couple days. The boys loved seeing it and still talk about it. I thing, for them, seeing the shuttle take off really made the things we learn stick. So I'm so glad we did this!!

Every moment was so worth being there!! And I can't wait to do it again.

Rockets and Space Shuttles

We are lucky enough to be able to view a shuttle launch on Monday {the 16th} so to get ready for that, we have been talking about rocket and shuttles and space things. {Odd I know to go from Indians to space exploration and then back to pilgrims... but hey, go with the flow right...}

So I found this little video about space shuttles, the launch and re-entry. there are even questions at the end to answer. It's really cheesy, but the boys loved it! It's on the website Kids Know It under Space Exploration {the best part... it's FREE} Take a look around... this is a site that I will be back to. The way they explain things is great.

I tried the whole baking soda and vinegar thing....

Yeah, it didn't work.

But since we are all here to learn and grow we chalked it up to experience and went inside to make some space ships.

{being boys, they really want to see something explode, so we will try again with the baking soda and vinegar another day}

Hopefully, I'll be back with some really cool rocket pictures... only time will tell.