Google Doodle History & Telescopes

**Edited 8/27/09 to add lesson plan links at bottom of post!

Every now and then one of the Google Doodles will catch my eye- today's doodle was Google entirely out of telescopes, and I was delighted see it was commemorating something truly historical.

"Exactly 400 years ago today, on 25 August 1609, the Italian astronomer and
philosopher Galilei Galileo showed Venetian merchants his new creation, a
telescope – the instrument that was to bring him both scientific immortality
and, more immediately, a whole lot of trouble."

Being the almost unschoolers that we are, we went with it. I printed out the article from the Guardian (a, no, the major UK newspaper) and it, along with some discussion, made for a history & science lesson. If we can scrounge up some time in the next couple days, and if the interest is still there, we'll pull out a book or two, maybe color or draw, and maybe even manage a 'report' or two about Galileo and his telescope- and more importantly, what impact his invention has had on the rest of history, as in, what it actually means to us, or, how it applies to our lives today.

That is where so much of the essence of real learning lies, and I love having the opportunity to learn in such a way right alongside my kids!

Enjoying them,

because of Him,

ali

**Here's a link with some info and even a free comprehensive reading worksheet/quiz for anyone interested! Enjoy! Galileo Galilei at LessonSnips (click the red "get lesson" button for a nice pdf that you can print and even save to your hard drive for printing later, or when you need another copy for a toddler to color on...)

**Here's a link to a fabulous article about building your own telescope! We can't wait to try this!

I'm still looking for more goodies to add on...