Today we drive to Baddeck (pronounced BA-Deck). We arrived early so headed out to the Alexander Graham Bell Historic Site. The grounds were beautiful. Across the street there were a few people playing bagpipes wandering around. People were tossing frisbees and flying kites. It was a gorgeous day.
We took a tour called “the Measure of a Manâ€. We learned a lot about Bell. He was homeschooled through age 10 and then tried public school but didn’t do well. He was an accomplished pianist and found a great passion working with the deaf. He was very interested in sound. His parents thought he would never amount to anything. His two brothers died at a young age and his parents moved thinking that would make him healthier (he was showing sickness signs as well).
He invented the first telephone. He was friends with Thomas Edison and purchased the patten for the photograph from him, improved it and then sold it back for $200,000. He used that money to open a school for the deaf. We learned about finger spelling and his unique phonetic language based on tongue and breathe.
He went on to have an obsession with tetrahedrons and created some very unique flying machines like the Cygnet, Silver Bullet and the hydrofoil.
We worked on our Explorers book and learned our dog tags. I really liked laying with the “ancient telephone”. I insisted it would only work if after you dial the number you call the operator and tell them who you are calling.
I worked really hard on a kite design.
I like these tetrahedron things. I am all about symmetry!
Flying kites was simply awesome. The wind was strong and there was lots of space. Mom helped us get the kites going and gave us some pointers. Two other boys came over and begged her to help them too. She got all 4 kites up and gave little flying lessons. B and I took turns with the giant butterfly and another smaller kite.
The wind was insane! Mom said HOLD ON TIGHT! It was pulling me around it was so strong. This kite was bigger than me!
B got the kite up really high and then let me have a go with it. I helped Mom bring it back in. That was hard work. The kite kept wanting to pull out. We got it down after about 20 minutes of work.
