July 27, 2026

Category: Science Discoveries

LED Robots
A Mind Wide Open, Beautiful Curiosity, CDE Standards Reference, Chemistry, Confidence, Construction, Creative Solution Generation, Developing Self, Earth Science, Electricity & Circuitry, Engineering, Fine Motor Skills, Imagination, Knowledge Base Expansion, Lils, Physics, Science Discoveries

LED Robots

Today we built two robots and gave them sight!  Lily worked on this project as her first project selection from her Tinkercrate and we had a great experience. She and I read through the directions, she assembled the components, and we set to work placing resistors, LED’s, and copper taping in a pattern on a printed […]

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A Mind Wide Open, Archaeology, Atomical Explorations, Beautiful Curiosity, Chemistry, Electricity & Circuitry, Forming Complex Questions, History, Lils, Physics, Science Discoveries, States of Matter, Theoretical Physics

Circuitry, Electrons, Atoms, and Catfish

A post under development – as we work through her Tinkercrate (Circuits) this week: Today we read through the Tinkerzine, learning about the basics of electrons, the concepts of particles within an atom, the structure and concept of an atom, how electrons behave, the difference between a particle, an atom, and a molecule, and discovered […]

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A Mind Wide Open, Beautiful Curiosity, CDE Standards Reference, Cosmology, Creative Solution Generation, Knowledge Base Expansion, Lils, Math Discoveries, Numeracy, Playing, Science Discoveries, Self Esteem, Storytelling / Recollection, Theoretical Physics

A Googol & A Light Year – That's How Big

Yesterday and today… We’ve been playing with the abacus, learning about the Orders of Magnitude (what we call each major transition in numbers, as they increase exponentially), and multiplication via sets thanks to a few beads on sticks. Yesterday, we talked about how, with each added zero, we increase the size/amount of the number.  She’s […]

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A Mind Wide Open, Artistry, CDE Standards Reference, Confidence, Construction, Creative Solution Generation, Culture Appreciation, Developing Self, Drawing, Engineering, Exploration, Fine Motor Skills, Global History, History, Lils, Questions from Lily's Brain, Responsibility, Science Discoveries, Sculpture, Self Awareness, Societal Studies

The Year She's Carved Out

This is the first year Lils has had refined enough motor skills to manage the various tools necessary to carve a pumpkin independently.  How excited she was yesterday, and again today, as she got to tell her friend all about her carving adventure. Last night she came bopping down the stairs, pumpkin in arms, lit and […]

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A Mind Wide Open, Beautiful Curiosity, Bugz & Her Explorations, CDE Standards Reference, Lils, Physics, Science Discoveries, Simply Nature, Society & Culture, Thought Process & Development

Quantum Leaping, Roof Raising, Laser Guided Pooping Machines

This morning we began with some wacked out sentences on the fridge, which included flying pigeons with laser guided poop devices.  These sentences are made out of English, French, and Spanish words, randomly thrown together.  Is this a logical way of learning sentence structure in a language other than English? No.  It does generate vocabulary […]

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A Mind Wide Open, Beautiful Curiosity, Biology, Bugz & Her Explorations, Care & Nurture, Compassion, Confidence, Demonstrating Empathy, Developing Self, Lils, Playing, Responsibility, Science Discoveries, Self Esteem, Simply Nature

Her Eggs

“I will become a mother. I have eggs to grow.” “Lils, you’re a cat…” “A Chicken-Cat.” Well, then. Ok. The video attached was filmed (is that what we still call it?) by Lily, with the assistance of Russ. Note: discover.cecilynixon.com has become, per the conversation that followed after she made the video, discover.cecilynixon.com.  She’s already […]

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A Mind Wide Open, Beautiful Curiosity, CDE Standards Reference, Developing Self, Engineering, Geometry, Kindness, Lils, Math Discoveries, Movement & Coordination, Neurological Development, Numeracy, Physics, Playing, Responsibility, Science Discoveries, Self Esteem, Self Management, Social Development, Thought Process & Development

STEM, Optics First, Robots Next

After learning about the STEM program at our local university a few weeks ago, I spoke with Lily about her interest and upon her request began the process of trying to get her accepted, given that the requirement was a minimum of 4th grade.  As we are not utilizing “grades” and she already meets about […]

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