STEAM MA

I made a handful of mellow math storytime lessons. I called them "Young Kids' Math". I posted them for free on YouTube. I made these in the evenings after our children went to bed, and was excited to share them with our children each morning.

Some of our mornings start off better than others.
How about yours?

Ours started off on the wrong foot. But we turned those frowns right upside down.
Here's a beautiful bouquet of ditch lilies in a beautifully turned wooden vase. This vase was made by an artisan out of Spartanburg, South Carolina. We saw his work during the bluegrass-filled Cherry Bounce festival in Forest City, North Carolina, and just had to take one of the pieces home. This wood came from a tree that fell during Hurricane Helene.

Do you know what kind of tree made the wood that was turned to make this piece?

The touch of a master's hand makes all the difference.
I bet our friend Derek Smiley Woodworks will enjoy this piece.

We love this story. It helps us to think clearly about really big numbers. Do you recognize it?

Do you use an abacus to practice counting?

What goes up must come down.
It's a law of motion. We made a song for it.

Reading, singing, and practicing math skills.

Wait. Which planet is consistently closest to Earth?
The answer is Fascinating.
Not Mars. Not Venus.
It's Mercury!
Sure, Venus and Mars both get closer to Earth at one point or another in their orbits. But Mercury's orbit is so consistent, it's moving so quickly, and so close to the sun that when you put together all of those distances over time it's consistently the closest planet to Earth.

Not only Earth, Mercury is closest to each and every planet in our solar system.

Want to build a base on Mercury? That's a very hot place, I don't think our current technology can get it cool enough to grow plants and house people.