Superman and Science

A question, if you find your child awake at 1:00 a.m. reading about space shuttles and astronauts does that count as home school reading time? This is what happened last night at our house.

Here is the background information, this week in zoology we have been reading about aerodynamics and how God designed birds to fly. This bit of learning about lift, drag and thrust lead to the making of several paper airplanes to test theories. Also, a discussion of how jet planes and space shuttle work with the same basic theory.

Last night we watched parts of Superman Returns, he loves the parts where Superman saves the day. There is a part of the movie where a space shuttle is attached to an airplane as a method of getting it into space, naturally everything goes wrong and Superman rescues all. LittleBit had hundreds of questions about Superman, the plane, the shuttle etc. Seriously, it was non stop questions. Such as how does Superman fly, he doesn’t have wings? Where does Superman hide his cape? What is the science of Superman? Why use an airplane to put a shuttle in space? What happens if the airplane goes into space? Why did Superman fall from space, shouldn’t he have floated off? How come nobody can tell Clark Kent is Superman? Endless questions!

I was up late, went to check on the supposedly sleeping child and he was in bed with three different books on space, space shuttles and astronauts reading. He said he wanted to learn more about how it all works. I am all for learning but 1:00 in the morning, not the best time!

Since we are both going to be beyond tired today, I think reading at 1:00 a.m. should count toward home school. It just proves that learning happens everywhere, at any time, and from the oddest sources.

Edited to Add: Now we are planning a small trip to Huntsville, AL to the Space Center and Sci-Quest.