Amazing Leonardo Da Vinci Inventions: You Can Build Yourself

We received this book within five days, and before the sun set that afternoon, my nine-year-old grandson had constructed three sizes of the trebuchet by following the instructions.

I purchased this book after I saw the "Leonardo di Vinci" exhibit at my local museum. This particular exhibt showcased his inventions, not his artwork. There were many full size replicas of machines that he thought of that were actually built for this exhibit. I was intrigued by the bridge that could be built with just a few stick and got stronger the more weight you put on it. After putting the dowel sized replica together at the exhibit, I had to have one for myself to build. That's the primary reason I purchased this book. Now that I have it in my hands, I've been going over the different activities I can do with my baby siblings, and I'm so excited I have this book in hand. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in "how things work" and science in general.

I purchased this book as a cross curricular lesson. Although I teach science there is history, strategies, art, and exposure to building simple machines. I am using the book to make shoe box activities for me students and update myself on the wonders of Leonardo.

We are homeschoolers using this book in part of a unit on Inventors. My eight year old is able to read and enjoy the history behind the different inventions. I thought it would just be a "how to" book, but we are both really enjoying the well written historical information in this book. It really makes Leonardo and the world he lived in come alive. I like to just browse through the book and look at all of Leonardo's sketches as well. The pictures and instructions are fairly easy to follow. The inventions do use common items, but we don't always have the right "common" items at the right times. We have modified most of the directions to use what we actually have in our house. Today we wanted to make the camera obscura, but we just threw out our last empty Pringles can... guess we'll be eating lots of chips in the next week :)

Wonderful book for kids who love to learn. Great info and facts even for adults. Highly recommend.