Pinhole camera

I am sorry I haven't done a good job as sharing our Science projects. I hope to get better at sharing what we do. This is a project that might not work as well with a pre k child. I am sure a young child can do this but they will need a lot of mom's help. Because things have been a bit busy and crazy at my house I am only doing this project with Travis. Most of the time Demi joins in with our Science projects but for this one I have decided to have a different Science project to do with Demi.

The science project we are working on is making a pinhole camera. I found lots of options on the web.
Corbis Readymech Camera
Homemade matchbox pinhole camera
Pinholo pine nut camera
A real looking paper camera
R2 D2 Pinhole Camera
Cofffee can camera
Simple pinhole Camera
oatmeal box camera
Kodak

A google search will bring up a lot more for you than I have listed.

This is a project Travis and I are working on together. It hasn't gone as smooth as most of our other projects. Our problems with this project have nothing to do with Travis or the camera. Life has got in the way of getting this project done. First my printer wouldn't work with my computer. Now it seems that when we try to work on it the phone rings, the baby cries, Demi needs something, or something else gets in the way. I hope to get some pictures of Travis working on this and sharing with you how it turns out soon. Just in case things don't calm down I thought I should at least let you know what we are doing and share the links I found.

At a quick glance this site looks interesting http://acept.asu.edu/PiN/act/pinhole/pinhole.shtml It looks like it is in a lesson plan form and looks easy enough for an elementary school age child to follow. I only glanced at it so I could be wrong. I did see an activities button on the right that I want to check out when I get a free minute or two.


I want to read with Travis the info I found here.

My plan is to try to make one or two pinhole cameras. This will be an intro to photography type of thing. I will then let Travis use our digital camera and our camcorder on another day for a fun Science class. He has used our camera and camcorder before but this time we will compare cameras and maybe read a bit on how to take a nice picture and making a good video. If he enjoys the pinhole camera and wants to try to make more or get more involved with making prints we will follow that interest but we won't do it during our Science class time.

After we make one and learn how to use it Travis will then be able to use it on his own. After we read about and make the camera we will move on to something else in our Science class. I will encourage him and help him with photography in the afternoons, evenings, and weekends. I have learned that for my family this is the best way to let him to experiment with the things he enjoys for as long as he wants AND to keep moving along with lessons. We (Travis and I) don't view Science as real "lessons". it is more like a way to see, read, try, and learn about fun new things. It is more like play time with new handmade toys that we never knew we wanted to have. LOL! I want to introduce him to so many things but at the same time I want him to be able to play with and experiment with the things he loves so having a Science class time for introducing new things and lots of free time later in the day to keep playing/experimenting with things he has already tried wants to enjoy more is what works for us. I think this might be why he spends so much time in the afternoons in his room inventing or trying things and so little time in front of the TV.

This system is the only way I have found for Travis to be able to learn and play with the things he has an interest in AND have time to read and try other fun things that are in our books. Travis and I sometimes get so excited and interested in a project that we can forget that we want to learn about and try lots of other fun things. I never want to take away the excitement he has when he takes an interest in building, planting, digging, racing, inventing, and such. But at the same time I want to show him that we can learn about and play, make sounds, create, build, and do so many things he doesn't know about yet. I have always wondered how other homeschoolers make decisions like this. I doubt I am the only person who has had so much fun in a history lesson or a science project and ended up spending a month (12-40) hours on and forget to move ahead to the next fun thing. Until I find a better way to schedule and plan stuff we will keep with this system.

I hope to share in a week or two how our pinhole camera works. Please let us know if you make one. We would love to hear how other people make out with making a camera. From what I read online the results can run from wonderful to very poor. I am not expecting wonderful results my 8 year old will be doing most of this himself but we will have lots of fun trying it out! If it doesn't work well we will be able to appreciate having a digital camera to use whenever we want.