I was not as eclipse-crazed as everyone else around me was for quite a while, but a couple of weeks before the big event I decided to jump on the bandwagon. Luckily, my sister's family had some extra glasses so it was nice not to have to scramble for glasses at the last minute. The big kids had started school by then, and Cat's school let parents know that their students would be allowed to go outside to watch. Jack and Eliza's school wouldn't be doing that, though, so I checked them out from school for a couple of hours so we could go down the street to the library's Viewing Party to see the eclipse and check out the activities. We made and played with a stomp rocket, compared the sizes of the planets in our solemn system, and Eliza traced Luke shadow so that we could go back and see how the shadow had shifted over time.
They had a green screen set up inside but the photographer left early, so I created my own eclipse photo of the kids using PowerPoint:
As the eclipse became more visible, someone pointed out the cool shadows of the leaves on the ground. I have no idea why this happens, but I'm really glad we got to see it.
We watched the eclipse on the grounds surrounding the library, and it was really cool to be able to see it. It never got as dark as I thought it would - I was hoping for dusk-like darkness with the 91% coverage we had in our area - but it did get noticeably darker and cooler.
That night for FHE we talked about the eclipse and how the glow of the sun is visible even when it's completely covered by the moon. I used this to illustrate how the kids should react when faced with bullying or other unkindness - they can choose to glow no matter what they're faced with. I got the idea when I saw this page in the Ensign the day before the eclipse, and then the kids helped me make chocolate cookies with white frosting on the edges as treats. I sent some smaller ones to school with the kids.
Great education!
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