There's No Crying in Baseball

EARLY BEE: For whatever reason, Annabelle was up at 5:30 this a.m. I honestly think that might be a first. She's usually an hour or two after CJ (who's Mr. 6:30). Because she was up two hours before the sun, Annabelle got to watch the Magic School Bus on an ocean floor adventure. She was rather smug when telling CJ all that he'd missed. :)

BASE NOTES: As has become the norm, the kids had another fantastic time at music class. Today they got cards with lines and dots on them that represent musical compositions. Already they're learning that you read music from left to right, and that some notes are short and some are sustained, some are high and some are low, and that musical notation is the key to what's what. Without a doubt, Musikgarten is laying a great foundation for their musical education.

LEFT OUT?: I got an email from the folks at Scholastic today. I used to order a lot of books from Scholastic when the kids were in a bricks-and-mortar school. Now, Scholastic doesn't seem to want my money, but I digress. ... Anyway, one topic that caught my eye in their email today was under an Expert Advice heading. It read, "Left Brain, Left Behind?" Curious, I clicked on the link. The story starts:

Does your child prefer to work alone rather than with others?
Seem to be bright and intellectually active at home, yet frustrated and bored by
school? Interact more easily with adults than peers?

Yes, yes and yes! (when it comes to CJ).

The story was about a new book "Raising a Left-Brain Child in a Right-Brain World: Strategies for Helping Bright, Quirky, Socially Awkward Children to Thrive at Home and at School" by Katharine Beals PhD. In an interview, Beals says that as she learned more about the "new Reform Math pedagogy" popular in schools at the present, she started "noticing how ill-suited it is to the typical analytical math student. This made me take a closer look at current teaching trends in general, and I began to see how not just in math, but in all subjects, today’s classrooms conflict with just about every left-brain strength and weakness." Beals says by her observation, "Students today spend more time working in groups, and less time working independently, than ever before." I think she's right based on my childhood experience compared to Rick and Ken's years of schooling compared to CJ's disastrous kindergarten experience. Another Beals insight: "The analytic content of math and science has been drastically watered down, and foreign language classes now emphasize informal oral communication over mastery of grammar. All this favors the more outgoing, artistic students, especially those who shy away from rigorous analysis, and who think holistically enough to handle big, open-ended projects. " I think she is spot on in her observation, and spot on in her analysis of how this change affects different types of learners.

The (short!) interview is definitely worth reading, and her book is definitely on my "must read" list.

FREE PLAY DAY: We were supposed to have a playdate in the park with Connor, but it was miserable weather-wise (think sheets of rain). Darn. So instead, we (at Annabelle's suggestion) busted out the Play-Doh. Historically Mr. CJ has had zero interest in self-directed Play-Doh play, so I suggested the two make some items and open up a Fall Farm Stand. So they (mostly Bee) made plums, blackberries, apples and lime juice (yeah, I know - lime juice?). Anyway, I had them set prices for their items, and I came shopping-with green M&Ms as money. (I expected them to hike their prices when they saw the currency I was using, but they stayed true to advertised prices.) The best part of the activity was when the produce stand closed. CJ continued to play with the Play-Doh all by himself - for 45 whole minutes. He made creative monsters and had epic battles - it was terrific!
Of course, all of this serves as a reminder to me that it's important that we build plenty of time for "free play" into the schedule. I, um, have this tendency to overdo things and I realize that I need to balance my attempt to make sure they Learn Everything About Everything with plenty of no-agenda time. Which reminds me of a great quote I saw this week:

If we merely cram kids full of a lot of 'what,' we leave them utterly unready for 'what if?'

THE STORY BEHIND THE SONG: This weekend we'll be going to our last (sniffle sniffle) baseball game of the year, so I thought I'd take the opportunity get myself - er- the kids another great library book on the topic. This go round was Take Me Out to the Ball Game by Jim Burke. The kids are always eager participants in the seventh inning stretch, so I wanted to give them a little history surrounding its song. The book tells the story of Jack Norworth. In 1908, while riding an elevated subway in New York, near the Giants' stadium, the entertainer spied a poster that read BASE BALL TODAY - POLO GROUNDS. Though he'd never even been to a game, the poster inspired Norworth to jot the lyrics to what has become an American standard. Shortly thereafter, composer Albert Von Tilzer, who frequently collaborated with Norworth, wrote the melody for the lyrics. The book includes a photo of the original manuscript, illustrations to bring the entire song's lyrics to life, and includes gems about the great Christy Mathewson and the wild playoffs of 1908.

Annabelle was thrilled to learn that the song is actually about a girl (Katie Casey) who is a baseball fanatic, and the kids hearing the song's verses for the first time gave us a chance to talk about what "verse" and "chorus" mean.

After enjoying the book, we went to YouTube to compare and contrast different takes on the song. I was thrilled to find an audio recording from 1908, the year the song was written (and the last time the Cubs won the World Series).

We also watched a couple of comical-or-horrific-depending-on-your-proclivities versions of the song, one by Christian vegetables, another by creepy cats.

Mercifully, I leave you with this - a must hear. Played masterfully by Bernie Williams, it's a hauntingly-beautiful, guitar-only rendition. As CJ was listening to the music from across the room, he asked, "Why is it so sad?" I explained that for years and years, Bernie played baseball and he loves it, but that he doesn't play any more and he really misses the game. At that, Annabelle burst into tears.

Powerful stuff, baseball and music. ...

A First

OCTOBER ARRIVES - Since this is the first full month Magnolia Preparatory Academy has been in existence, it marked our first opportunity to make a monthly calendar from Day 1. I printed out a blank/boxed template, and had the kids write the month's name, days' names and dates on it. Then, we went through and highlighted some of this month's special days (Rick's birthday, Annabelle's birthday, my birthday, our wedding anniversary). We also marked Halloween. We also talked about how important things happen every single day. Conveniently, every darn day, The History Channel has a one minute video about an event of significance (they call it a lead story) from the past. As it turns out, Yosemite National Park was founded on Oct. 1.

THEY PUT A MAN ON THE MOON: Oct. 1 also marks one giant leap for mankind. NASA was founded on Oct. 1. So, we sang Happy birthday to NASA and talked a bit about what NASA is, and then I hopped online to find a brought-to-you-by NASA learning opportunity, and I found the StarChild Web site. CJ literally came running when he heard these words coming from the computer speakers: "What is the solar system? It is our Sun and everything that travels around it." (Kudos to the Pacific Science Center's daily Calendar of Science for giving us the NASA birthday news.)

LIBRARY LESSON: Annabelle's ballet was cancelled this a.m. (sick teacher), so we all went to the library. My hope was to load up on Halloween/October related books to get us through the month. Yeah, well, apparently I wasn't the only one thinking that. The library has a shelves with holiday-related books and the Halloween section was thoroughly wiped out. I did managed to find some scary-spooky-fall-type titles amongst the general population, so to speak. Having learned my lesson, I also gathered up an armload of Thanksgiving-themed books. The kids, meanwhile, loaded up on a dozen-plus DVDs.

THEY DID THE MASH: Since we're into October, a/k/a Halloween month, I thought it would be fun to find a Halloween-y tune as our song of the day. The obvious choice is The Monster Mash. I found a video on YouTube the kids loved - the original song with animated Lego action. Fun!

APPLE OF MY EYE: Apples were front and center in the Albertsons produce section today. As we surveyed them, reviewing what we'd learned about apples earlier in the week, CJ smiled mischeviously and said, "Did you know that apples grow in a bag in a grocery store?" Too funny. We bought some gala and golden delicious (only 78 cents a pound) and just one prized honeycrisp at $2.99 a pound - yikes!

PETER PETER: On the way back from Albertsons, where I'd let each of the kids pick a 99 cent mini pumpkin, CJ asked, "What's a pumpkin eater?" I responded, "Well Peter Peter would be one example," and went on to recite the very-bizarre-when-you-think-about-it Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater nursery rhyme (which, obviously, seemed to be at the root of his question). Naturally, this led to a discussion about how keeping one's wife in a pumpkin shell is not acceptable. Later this afternoon, while the kids were doing their math worksheets, I played a catchy do-wop musical version of the song. (It's worth noting that CJ completed his math in record time. I seriously did not believe him when he said he was done - I figured he probably skipped some, and would have bet money that he glossed over the instructions (it was mixed addition and subtraction). But lo and behold, he nailed it!

STORY WEAVERS: At one point today, CJ and Annabelle were making what they called "mixed up stories" using the "Bonus Feature" on a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse DVD. It has been my past experience that "bonus" features on DVDs are anything but. They're usually lame afterthoughts tacked on. However, in this instance, it was actually worthwhile - the kids were having great fun picking their stories' beginnings, challenges, solutions and conclusions.
EXTRA! EXTRA!: I can't tell you how often Annabelle takes the initiative to do her own art, writing, reading, etc. projects. Here are a couple of things she's done in the past couple of days. I especially love her spontaneous drawing of cirrus clouds!

Red blooded Americans

DO THE CIRCULATION!: I had to go get some blood drawn first thing this a.m. and knowing the kids would be in tow, I decided that the topic of the day would be blood. And nothing gets the blood going like an upbeat Schoolhouse Rock video! On tap this a.m., a blast from the past: "Do the Circulation," which, as its title would suggest, is all about the circulation system. We viewed and reviewed it (in other words, watched it twice). Oh, and for good measure, we also watched a live version, from an off-off-off Broadway production of "Schoolhouse Rock Live!"

BILL ON BLOOD: You just had to know good ol' Bill Nye would have something to say about blood, and sure 'nuff, we found a (three part) episode on blood and circulation on YouTube. It was a great program - six thumbs up from us! The song "Bloodstream" (sung to the tune of the B52's "Loveshack" late in Part 3) was was a big hit with us, and we got ideas for two experiments while watching Bill. One was to build a pulse-o-meter using a drinking straw and plastic cap:

Another easy experiment was using a disposable cup with its bottom cut out as a low tech stethoscope of sorts. Fun! We need to do more experiments.

GET ANIMATED: I also found a really cool (and short - 13 seconds) 3D computer animation of red blood cells on the move. (FYI, as it turns out, there are approximately 3.8 gazillion animations of blood/circulation on YouTube.)

NEW YORK STATE OF MIND: While scouring the Internet for blood-y lesson plans, I happened upon a friggin gold mine. The New York Times has a Daily Lesson Plan program, complete with a lead story, links to graphics and other resources, a language arts tie in and more. Really Good Stuff. It's for grades 6 and above, but still there were things there that I could definitely use with primary aged kids. For instance, some of the material in the NYT Lesson Plan The Wonders of Blood - which included a link to the ENTIRE PBS WEB SITE about blood . We'll be back to the NYT site for more!

NYT CHART

HEART WORK: I had to poke around a bit, but was happy to find some blood/heart-related worksheets for the kids. The American Heart Association has a kids' Web site and there I found a blood flow dot-to-dot for the kids. (In a perfect world, I would incorporate something video, audio, and hard copy and hands on for each "unit," as we all learn in different ways, and I think a multi-sensory approach makes sense.)
While working, we listened to "Here Comes Science," They Might Be Giants CD that Jake & Holly gave us, which includes a track called "The Bloodmobile." How perfect is that?

GROUP TIME: Wednesday afternoon means hanging with the posse at Befriended. Today they worked on common playground situations. It must have gone well for CJ-at the session's end he had a group high 5 kudos stickers. Way to go CJ! Meanwhile, Annabelle roamed the Meridian Park playground and worked on her bar-crossing skills. She and CJ both played in the park before and after Befriended, as well.

P.E. APLENTY: Like yesterday, we took Kirby for a walk this afternoon. I gave the kids each a chance with the leash. We want to get them established as dog leaders rather than Kirby's peers, as would be the dog's preference. And this evening, we headed down the hill to Smith Cove Park/Puget Sound (about a 4 mile round trip). The kids rode their bikes, we walked briskly alongside and Kirby ran, walked, and hung out (in our arms).

BABY TALK: CJ speaks frequently about being a parent when he gets older. Today, while we were on the way home from the clinic, he started in again and Annabelle chimed in and they started talking about the baby they'd have when they're married. To each other. Christian and I have told them before that brothers and sisters marrying isn't, shall we say, socially acceptable in our society, and genetically speaking, it's not a good idea either. So, I reminded them of these facts. We also talked about how people have babies on their own, or they adopt babies someone else gave birth to, and that some babies have one parent, some have two or more, etc. This prompted CJ to propose a workaround - that he and Annabelle could adopt a baby together even if they weren't married. Hmm. I suppose they could. ... So, then they began planning for this baby and, according to CJ, the first thing on their list of things to do is to visit Nonnie and Bops and take the baby swimming in their pool. Pretty sweet. : )
HE SPEAKS OF FORKED TONGUES: Today CJ was playing with a plastic snake and he asked, "Does a snake have two tongues?" I explained to him that it's a split or forked tongue rather than two tongues. Of course he asked WHY a snake has a forked tongue. Why, in my 43+ years, have I never wondered that? Dunno. But of course I had to get an answer for the boy. So, according to the magic of the Internet, snakes "see" using a sensory organ in their mouth called the Jacobson's organ. They pick up molecules of scent when they flick their tongue, which the Jacobson's organ analyzes when the tongue flicks back in. (The function is so that the snake can tell what's ahead of it.) Interestingly enough, each tip of the forked tongue independently senses molecules in the air,and the organ can tell the directional difference. So, for instance, if the left tip of the tongue has a stronger scent of mouse on it than the right tip, the snake heads left. Fascinating stuff. Thanks for asking, CeeJ. : )

We All Live in a Capital I

TABLE TIME: This morning's worksheets covered placing periods at the end of a sentence, and the "always capitalize the (standalone) letter I" rule. Frankly, the actual work/task itself is a breeze. What is the bigger challenge - especially for CJ - is following the directions. For instance, problem #1 said 'the cat sat." The title on the page was Capitalizing First Word and the directions were to "copy each sentence correctly on the line. Well, instead of writing "The cat sat." (capitalizing the T in The), he wrote "on the mat" beneath it. While true, based on the graphic on the page, it wasn't following the directions. He made the same type of mistake on all four problems on the page. So, he ended up having to do twice as much work. A tough but important lesson.
To reinforce the Letter I rule, we watched the Sesame Street classic: Capital I.


CALENDAR GIRL (AND BOY): We have been hitting the calendar hard the past week, talking about months and seasons. Today's calendar-centered activities reviewing a calendar, noting that each month has a specific number of days. We went over the "Thirty days has September" rhyme and sang the "Days of the Week" song CJ learned in kgarten last year. I found The Calendar Song on YouTube that covers the days of the week and months of the year. I thought the beavers in it were creepy, but the kids were OK with it.
Of course you know I had to show them the classic Purina Cat Chow ad (January, chow=chow-chow-chow-chow) from my childhood. (And, of course, they were singing it all afternooon.) I followed the cat version up with the original Neil Sedaka version. Calendar Girl. Still a catchy tune after all these years.

CONSONANT BLENDS: To help bone up on sight words, letter sounds and consonant blends, the kids viewed a PowerPoint presentation. It was good practice and more dynamic than a worksheet.

FUN & GAMES: The kids spent about a half hour playing "Kitchen Magician" on the Sid the Science Kid Web site. It was about heat is used to change food. It made Annabelle hungry for a grilled cheese sandwich. Of course, I obliged come lunchtime. : )

PARK PROGRESS: We decided to combine some PE (a robust walk) with satisfying curiosity. We wanted to check the progress on the park at the end of our block that's in the process of a makeover. Unfortunately, not much to see on that front. On the way back, Annabelle collected a bunch of dandelions. Back home, she held them skyward and said, "I'm like the Statue of Liberty, but instead of a torch, I have a bouquet." She requested I take a picture and then said, "Put that on the blog." Oh, OK. ...


ARE YOU READY FOR YOGA?: So goes the first line to the welcome song the kids sing at yoga each week. When we got there, I could see that instructor Nicole had set up all sorts of physical activity stations in the studio. I turned to CJ and said, "Looks like today is the Yogalimpics!" That got him - and every other kid within earshot - excited.

IT JUST NEVER STOPS: After yoga and after dinner, the kids were both hot to play PBS Island - a super educational Web site that's an offshoot of good old Public Broadcasting System programming. It's cool because they are playing games (and learning) and when they're done, I can go in and track their progress.

All About Apples

APPLES ABOUND: We're lucky enough to have a neighbor with a couple of big ol' apple trees, and we've planted a couple of our own. Since September and October are prime apple picking time - and we live in the state that is the number one grower and exporter of apples in the US, I figured it was time to learn a little more about apples.

APPLE ADJECTIVES: For language arts enrichment this morning, I thought it would be good to talk about apples - and what some of their characteristics are (taste, appearance, and so on). This led into a discussion about the use of adjectives, or descriptive words. I gave the kids each a worksheet with a blank apple tree on it and asked them to fill in six adjectives about apples. CJ finished in short order. Annabelle would up with six words, but not necessarily six adjectives ... But that's OK. She is 4, after all. : )

APPLE FACTS AND FIGURES: I also had an apple themed math worksheet for the kids (if you have X amount of apples and Y are eaten, how many are left). Single digit numbers, it was no trouble for the kids. It might be time to take on some double digit math.


APPLES ONLINE: We turned to the Internet to learn lots more about apples. Perhaps the best apple resource on the Internet is the Washington Apple Commission's Web site. There, we learned LOTS of amazing things about apples, such as ...

Horticulturists have IDed over 7,500 different types of apples
More than half of all apples grown in the United States for fresh eating come from orchards in Washington state, and more than 90 percent of apples exported from the US come from WA
One apple has five grams of fiber (20 percent of the daily fiber recommendation)
Washington apples are sold in all 50 states and more than 60 countries
Americans eat approximately 19 pounds of fresh apples annually, compared to about 46 pounds consumed annually by residents of European countries.
Over 100 million boxes of apples are produced in Washington each year - and those apples are all picked by hand!

We also reviewed the Washington Apple Commission's info about how apples travel from tree to supermarkets. And on their "What's New" page, we found an industry video that shows the entire apple-to-market process, from winter pruning through spring frost watch, summer blossom and fruit tending to fall harvesting. Not surprisingly, it was akin to a 20-plus minute infomercial for the Washington apple industry, but that said, it was very well done - visually engaging and very informative.

SILLY SONG: Eager to inject a little music into today's learning, I tried to think of apple-related songs. One that came to mind was "Apples & Bananas." I found a version on good ol' YouTube and the kids loved it. They were singing it all day.


HERE'S JOHNNY: We couldn't do an apple unit without talking about Johnny Appleseed, nee John Chapman. It gave us a chance to talk about tall tales, the difference between reality and fiction, and where and how those lines blur sometimes. (BTW, John Chapman was, shall we say, an apple lovin' eccentric). Anywho, I recall being shown a Disney cartoon about Johnny Appleseed, so I hunted it down on YouTube and played it for the kids. They were totally engaged in that telling of the story. Next, I hopped to Netflix's online selections and found another version of the story, this one by Shelly Duvall's Tall Tales. Quite a cast (Rob Reiner, Martin Short, Daryl Hannah, Molly Ringwald). However, the storyline was slow and the characters were, well, weird (not the type young kids would be drawn to). We quit it halfway through. It's truly, truly terrible, IMHO.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE: After the kids went to bed tonight, I found an audio file of American Storyteller Radio Journal Web site with a story about the life of Johnny Appleseed. I'll play it for them tomorrow.

OUT & ABOUT: Since it was Monday, that meant Christian was home and it was family field trip day. We decided to incorporate PE into the outing. We loaded up the strollers and headed for Gas Works Park/Kite Hill - a destination we'd been meaning to hit for, oh, two years now. We checked out the big ol' equipment.

Next, we went for a jog west, down under the Aurora Bridge then we trudged up Troll Ave. to visit the troll, of course.

Then it was back to the park for a romp on kite hill, which offered quite a view.

Weekend Rewind

FISHERMEN'S FALL FESTIVAL: Though the weekend provides a bit of a break from the "typical" school day, the learning doesn't stop here at Magnolia Preparatory Academy.

On Saturday, the kids were excited to attend the Fisherman's Festival at nearby Fisherman's Terminal, where hundreds of working (crabbing, fishing, etc) ships dock. We jog down there all the time, but the terminal doesn't usually look like a fishy fairgrounds, as it did on Saturday!

First the kids enjoyed jumping around on a big inflatable attraction, "Mutiny on the Bouncy."

Next, CJ and Annabelle encountered a gigantic salmon! Well, actually it was just an average sized person in a salmon suit. Of course CJ was That Kid who immediate started giving the salmon some lip. "I know you're not a real fish. You're a person in a costume. You have tennis shoes on. Salmon don't wear shoes." The salmon was a good sport and actually let CJ have a close look down his or her throat, into the costume.


And then, were shocked to see a temporary trout pond. The kids have never been fishing before - but today was their lucky day. Annabelle hooked a lunker right away. CJ had to coax a trout to his hook, but he finally bagged his fish, too. Christian grilled the trout for dinner Sunday night.





The kids also had an opportunity to build their own wooden sailboat, which they launched on a maiden voyage upon returning home. Cool!

Oh, and they also had an opportunity to see local legend JP Patches perform for a few minutes.


All in all a fun Saturday, and it was an event we'll certainly revisit next year.