Watched them until I drifted back to sleep. I pulled the blanket to my chin and watched the snowcapped hills in the north through the window. I waited until they pulled away, turned the corner, then I slipped back into bed in my flannel pajamas. I made a point of watching Ahmad and his father get into the car, Ahmad in his wool vest and winter coat, his schoolbag filled with books and pencils. Every morning, I watched from my bedroom window as their Hazara servant shoveled snow from the driveway, cleared the way for the black Opel. Ahmad had epilepsy and always wore a wool vest and thick black-rimmed glasses-he was one of Assef’s regular victims. His father was some kind of doctor, I think. I remember one kid, Ahmad, who lived across the street from us. No kid I knew ever volunteered to go to these classes parents, of course, did the volunteering for them.įortunately for me, Baba was not one of them. There were the so-called voluntary winter courses. And running them.įor a few unfortunate kids, winter did not spell the end of the school year. Winter to me was the end of long division and naming the capital of Bulgaria, and the start of three months of playing cards by the stove with Hassan, free Russian movies on Tuesday mornings at Cinema Park, sweet turnip qurma over rice for lunch after a morning of building snowmen.Īnd kites, of course. The reason was simple: They shut down school for the icy season. Winter was every kid’s favorite season in Kabul, at least those whose fathers could afford to buy a good iron stove. I walk down the front steps, barefoot, and call for Hassan to come out and see. I shovel a handful of the fresh snow into my mouth, listen to the muffled stillness broken only by the cawing of crows. The sky is seamless and blue, the snow so white my eyes burn. I find the driveway, my father’s car, the walls, the trees, the rooftops, and the hills buried under a foot of snow. Research and present the history of kites to the rest of the class.Īs you can see Mary Poppins has it right! Kiteįlying can be super fun and a great way to sneak in hands-on science! So….Here is what I do on the first day of snowfall every year: I step out of the house early in the morning, still in my pajamas, hugging my arms against the chill.Host a kite flying party and invite the parents.Integrate art and science as kids develop and decorate their own kites.Read the Fuddlebrook book A Big Gust of Wind and the Quirkles book Jazzy Jetto reinforce the science of kite flying.Perfect research opportunity to see how this is possible.Ĭhosen as National Kite Month because it is the month that perfectly symbolizes But you can fly a kite even without wind! Of the air above the kite is greater than the speed of air below, the pressureĪbove is less pressure than the pressure below and the kite is pushed into the Daniel Bernoulliĭiscovered that air pressure decreases with faster moving air. The top moves faster than the air moving over the bottom. Kites are shaped and angled so that the air moving over It produced sounds when it flew in the sky.ġ760 because too many people wanted to fly kites instead of work.įorces of flight (lift, weight, drag, and thrust) affect kites in the same way Man to cross the English Channel towed by kites. Machine as a kite before they flew it as the first manned airplane in 1903. Of research and experimentation, the Wright brothers tested their flying Since the toll wasīased on the number of horses pulling a carriage, this invention became quite a He created a carriage pulled by a pair of arch top kites. Strangest uses of a kite was developed by George Pocock, a U.K. Unfortunately for him, he was captured and Large kite to carry himself to the top of Nagoya Castle in order to steal a In 549 AD paper kites were flown and being used in rescue missions.Īccording to one source, approximately 300 years ago, a thief was said to use a Kite was invented by the fifth century BC Chinese philosophers, Mo Di and Luīan. Origin of kites is not known, but many sources point to China. Spring is a great time to do this! As the days get longer and warmer, it’s time to go outside, expel some energy and learn about the history of kites and the science behind kite flying. “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” is one of the most popular songs in the movie Mary Poppins.
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