National Balloon Ascension Day

January 9 was National Balloon Ascension Day! (Who knew?!? )

When I was on one of my book-buying trips, I found this book at Goodwill. I bought it, not knowing when I would have the opportunity to read it and wouldn’t you know that January 9 just happened to be the perfect day!

The book was about the Montgolfier brothers who invented the first hot air balloon in France in 1783. The book was engaging and the illustrations were beautiful and the boys really enjoyed it! It even has a timeline in the back of major aviation milestones!

We were surprised to learn that the first animals to go up in a balloon were a sheep, a rooster, and a duck!

Such an interesting story about how the idea came about and all the things that have happened since. And it tied in just perfectly with our other topics this week since Monet and Camille Saint-Saens were French. We definitely know where France is on the map now! (That wasn’t planned at all, but I just love when things work out like that!)

January 9 commemorates the first manned-balloon flight in America made by Jean Pierre Blanchard.

We watched a short video on YouTube about the invention and history of the hot air balloon, read in our science books about hot air balloons and what causes them to rise and that led to all kinds of interesting discussions! We read a Curious George book and Jeff and I attempted to make our own balloon. It didn’t lift off the ground, but it was fun!

Maybe someday we can see a hot air balloon up close!

I love, love, love these national days and how they bring our attention to things that we probably wouldn’t have ever thought about. Oh! There’s even an Amazon Prime movie called Aeronauts that looks really good!