Weekly wrap up 4/28/17 Telephone museum field trip

I got together with a friend, we only see each other occasionally as our schedules are so busy.  We both had a free Sunday so we decided to spend the day together.  We decided to visit a new museum that just opened in our area.  I will definitely be going back and taking the kids soon.

there was a lovely docent who showed us around and pointed out all the really neat things about the history of phones.  Honestly I was learning so much.

They had a model of the switchboard and showed how it worked when you dialed your phone number.

It was so cute watching two young children trying to figure out how to dial an older phone.  It took several tries and the grown up were trying so hard not to laugh out loud.  Man I felt old!!!

Also learned how the switch board operators had to listen to the sound of the coins drop to make sure the right amount was deposited. when a quarter is dropped it hits a bells that makes a low sound, a dime makes a medium sound and the nickel makes the highest pitch sound.  I can't imagine listening to that all day, oh my!

 We also learned that the original switchboard operators were men but later changed to women as it seems the men were often rude to customers on the phone and did not always manage the heavy call volume as well as women did.  HAHA

Next we saw the St Louis traveling switchboard that was used when the presidents was in town.  It was a secure line.  This system was used by Nixon, Ford and Carter.

the last room were filled with novelty phones throughout the decades.  It was amazing.  Some I had seen as a child but others were new to me!

There is so much more to report on this museum but I will save it for when we visit again but with my children.  I know they will love seeing all the funny looking phones. I am forward to arranging a field trip to this museum next year for our local coop!

MarioFan has been looking at fungi in our science book and we looked more closely at mushrooms and did an experiment together.

Learning about fungi

the cap of the mushroom is the fruiting body

We did a yeast experiment with salt and sugar seeing which one yeast feeds off of.

added yeast and either salt or sugar to a bottle and shook it up

added a balloon and then took some measurements 

we saw early on the yeast likes sugar as the balloons filled quickly.

measuring our results.

we didn't get quite the reaction the book shows (we rarely do) but we still got results that was needed.  Whew:)

Firedrake completed a drawing in her art class and is coming along very nicely in portrait drawings.  She has in the past struggled with this.  Here is a drawing she completed using the color photo as her guide.  I was very impressed (but I am her mother:))

Firedrake love digital art and plans to turn these two art projects in for the annual coop art show which is held next week!!

That is our week in a nutshell.  Keeping very busy!!