Hop to It

EARLY BUNNY: Annabelle made her way to our bed at 5 this morning. She crawled in and at 5:01 asked, "Do rabbits have eggs?" (Which I perceived to mean "Do rabbits lay eggs?")

"No," I manage to mumble through a thick sleep. But even my groggy brain came up with a couple of immediate qualifiers, like the Easter Bunny certainly has eggs, and female rabbits have ova. I voiced neither observation, given the early hour.

"Oh, so they're mammals," Alert Annabelle says of rabbits.

Then, at 5:06 a.m., comes this: "How are compasses made?"

Really??? Are you kidding me??!?!

I'll admit, that question elicited a gruff, "It's time to sleep," response. It was a cop out, I know. And what it really meant was, "I don't know." However, I willed myself to remember the question and when vertical not much later, I did explain to the kids that the Earth has a magnetic field and I told the kids that compasses are cool because no matter where you stand on Earth, you can hold a compass and it will point toward Santa Claus/the North Pole. :)

I also found this really great how-to-build-a-compass activity. Now, all I need to do is round up a couple of corks to make it happen. Guess I have to buy and drink a couple of bottles of wine. It's the least I can do - it's for the children, after all!

AGITATO: Musikgarten class is usually a peaceful oasis in a busy week. Today, um, notsomuch. ... One of the kids' classmates had an extra dose of spazz for breakfast that turned him into a pinching monster. Apparently (and this is the teacher's report, not just histrionic Annabelle), the kid pinched her really hard. She was puffy eyed when I got there. (I am glad that CJ didn't deck the kid in retaliation. He has been know to take exception to those who have wronged her in any way before.) Unpleasantries aside, they did manage to have some fun - they played a chasing squirrel game to one of the songs on their latest Musikgarten CD and drew the sound of the rain, wind and thunder. It was interesting seeing the similarities and differences in their pictures.

EXPERIMENT BEGINS: We decided to undertake an experiment today, supplies from reader Ruthie. :) The kids have a dinosaur and a giraffe that are supposed to grow to 600 percent their current size when left in water for 72 hours. So, we measured their width and height today before immersing them in water. We'll monitor their growth over the next 3 days and see how much bigger they get.

GAMERS: I let the kids play their newly rented Wii game for about 20 minutes, and I honestly think it's 20 minutes very well spent. For them, gaming is about paying attention, persistence, troubleshooting, reading, formulating workarounds and even researching (when they get stuck, we'll hop on the Internet and try to find some advice from other gamers). It's also cooperative - about 75 percent of the time they're working the game together - if not with two controllers, it's a pilot/co-pilot adventure.

UNDER THE GOLDEN ARCHES: Because it has been raining for three weeks, the Friday kids' park playdates with friend Connor have been washed out. As an alternative, today we went to McDonald's (I know, ick), but at least the kids got to hang out and as an added bonus, enjoy some very nutritious food! (jk, jk). They ran around for a good hour, thick as thieves.

It reminds me that I really need to check out a Seattle Homeschool Group park play date someday soon. I've been putting that off for, oh, like a YEAR now. I need to embrace my inner Nike and Just Do It.

DADDY's BDAY: Today was a much anticipated day at MPA. One look at the kids' calendars tells you it's their dad's birthday. So our art experience for the day today involved crafting a card, wrapping presents and assembling a cupcake tree.

GROUND CONTROL TO MAJOR TOM: I figured it was time to check in on the Atlantis astronauts, who have been in space for four days now.

Today, the astronauts' wake up call came at 3:28 a.m. Believe it or not, this was actually allowing them an extra 30 minutes to sleep in, making up for lost time. You see, they were awakened last night by depressurization caution alarms sounding on the International Space Station. (That would get your attention.) The kids and I talked about why having your spacecraft depressurize would be a Really Bad Deal. Fortunately, it was a false alarm.

In happier news, the shuttle crew started its day today with a wakeup call to the tune of Sister Sledge’s “We Are Family.” I played the tune for the kids, who discoed down to it.

We also learned that a scarf that once belonged to Amelia Earhart is among the commemorative items for the STS-129 crew.

Photo caption/credit: Backdropped by the blackness of space, a partial view of Space Shuttle Atlantis' payload bay, vertical stabilizer, orbital maneuvering system pods and docking mechanism are featured in this image photographed by the STS-129 crew from an aft flight deck window.Image Credit: NASA