Yesterday Gavin worked on his Engineering Kit to make a pulley.  He remembered the pulleys he has seen on our visits to The Magic House.  When I told him that a pulley doesn't change the amount of force it takes to move an object like a lever does, he told me that if there are more than one pulleys it is easier.  

There is an exhibit at The Magic House where there are three different pulley systems connected to a seat.  You sit on the seat and try to pull yourself up by pulling the rope connected to the pulley.  One has just one pulley, the other two have more (but not the same number of) pulleys.  He remembered that it was easier to pull himself up on the one that had the most pulleys attached to it so we talked about bait and tackle pulleys and how they are used on construction cranes and such.

The nice thing about him getting older is he is able to build these on his own.

He even set it all up on his own!

Austin drew a nice picture...sadly, I can't remember what it was.  I think it was a union soldier in a thunderstorm.

As proof that we are winding down the school year, today Gavin finished his Abeka math book!

Adelaide hung out on the couch for a bit after lunch.

On Monday, Gavin and I read these books.

I read the first two chapters of this book (sorry it's so small) on Monday and Gavin finished it himself.  It's a story about a factory that caught on fire in New York City that spurred some labor reforms.  The event was real but the characters in the book were not.

Today we switched over to learn a bit about Ellis Island.

We are about done with history too.  Our projected end of school date is May 2nd!