"A pulley is a machine."

I will be the first to admit that I allow my child to watch too much T.V.  I know intrinsically that watching television isn't good for him, but he doesn't really sit and watch T.V.  It's more like he plays in the same room with the television on.  (especially since I grew up practically Amish.)  I feel a little less bad about it when he comes up to me and says things like "The band-aid on a worm is closest to its mouth." or "A pulley is a machine."  He uses the things that he learns about animals, machines, and the world around him to dictate his play and thus learning experiences.

After telling me that a pulley is a machine, Miles told me that it helps lift heavy things.  I remembered that we has bought a few pulleys for a project that never made it into fruition, so I went on a hunt and was able to find them with much more ease than I thought.  I also gathered zip ties, different colored yarn and 2 buckets. ( I couldn't find any string.)

I attached one pulley to the rail on Miles playhouse with a zip tie.  Then Miles and I threaded yarn through the pulley and attached a bucket to the bottom.  we first experimented with one person having the tail end on the ground and pulling toys up to the person on top, but then decided to tie the yarn on one of the floorboards of the playhouse so that it wouldn't fall back through and Miles could put things in the bucket and then lift them up into the playhouse.

After we had played with the pulley attached to the side of the playhouse (red bucket), we decided that it would be fun to be able to send things from the porch to the playhouse and back again.  So I attached the pulley to the top of the porch rail and then strung yellow yarn round the two with the white bucket attached to the yarn.  The yarn stretched out quite a bit and we ended up having to take the slack out a few times.  

I then decided (while I was at the everything's a dollar store to get a dollar's worth of clothing line.) I restrung the pulley and we were able to have a much more secure non-saggy pulley.  

Miles really has enjoyed the pulleys.  I even sent a little snack over in the bucket for him to picnic in the playhouse.  In reflecting on this experience (as well as other experiences Miles and I have had together), they are often sparked by something that he has seen through some sort of media.  Not that he wouldn't have had experiences using a pulley at some time in his life, but would he have had that experience if he hadn't seen something about pulley's on T.V.  I'm always torn about the amount of screen time Miles is exposed to, but when it leads to a rich experience I'm glad that he has these kinds of opportunities.