Fractions for fun

I caught my oldest trying to explain to our youngest about how fractions work the other day. A moment of intensity and joy. A child happy to share knowledge and a child eager to learn from the older, full of respect. I love these moments that jump out of conversations we have, and turn into very motivated learning.

Counting your money

Making learning come alive, with real life challenges, is high priority in our home school. Learning about numbers and being able to count, makes sense when you get pocket money and want to see if you have saved more than your siblings. High motivation.

Electronic synthesizer

We examined sound waves and an Electronic Circuits, by putting together a small keyboard.

The synthesizer is build around the NE555 timer chip and a resistor-ladder.

Parts



Diagram

Below is a screenshot from »Engineer’s Mini-Notebook« by Forrest Mims from 1984. This version uses a lot of different capacitors which makes it more expensive. The previous DIY version shown above is very cheap compared to this one.