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

Reading Buddies

BOOK 'EM: Shortly after breakfast this a.m., CJ and Annabelle (with no prompting from me) curled up together on the couch and started reading their "Get Well, Pikachu!" book aloud to each other, taking turns reading the pages.

It was the same book that CJ had asked his dad to read to him last night - much to our surprise. It was the first time I can recall CJ point blank asking someone to read him a specific book. He's always a willing and polite listener, but being the instigator was a big switcheroo.

"Get Well, Pikachu" is not "Wuthering Heights." Heck it's not even anywhere near being a Newberry Medal winner. It's just a first or second grade reading level branded book hoping to appeal to kids who like the Pokemon game and/or cartoon. But you know what? In my book, any book that makes kids want to read is a good thing, so I was very pleased to see the kids enjoying it together the way they were.

At one point I overheard Ananbelle say, "You're a good reader, CJ. You're really good at your consonants!" How sweet is that?

SKIP TO THE VILLAGE: While Annabelle pranced in pink (at ballet), CJ and I went to library where we were just droppers (we still have too big a stack of books to get to at home, so I forbade myself to check out more this week). During the "free dance" finale at ballet, Annabelle wore a "new" uber pink-and-frilly Disney Princess dress scored from the Goodwill outlet for less than a quarter. She was a Discount Princess. :)

HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD: After ballet we made a maiden voyage to Hollywood Video in the village. For a few days now, CJ has been asking about these magical places he's heard of. Places you can go in and get movies and - more importantly - video games! And so, for the first time in seven years (how is that possible?), I found myself standing in a video rental store. It was like stepping back in time. I can't even begin the calculate the hours I spent in video stores with Rick and Ken when they were kids. (And today I recalled once when Rick was about 6 he started running - well walking - away from home. He told me he was going to the video store. He was a moviephile from birth, I swear.)

Anywho, we quickly found the video game section of the store, and I thought CJ's head might explode with all the possiblities spread out in front of him. He eventually decided on a SpongeBob game and then we had to do the first timer sign up and check out thing. I made certain to explain to CJ it was just a rental, that even though cash (well plastic) exchanged hands, we were not buying the game. The occasion gave me the opportunity to talk to the kids about the differences between borrowing (like items at the library or tools from neighbors), renting (paying to keep something awhile) and buying (paying money so something's yours for keeps).

&*$%# ?s: One of the library books we're trying to finish is the chapter book "All About Sam." In the most recent chapter, Sam took his pet worm to a pet show at the "liberry." Unfortunately for Sam, before the judges got around to his worm's box, the thing had squirmed away. Sam was, of course, beside himself. In an attempt to calm him, Sam's older sister told him that King of Worms was probably tunneling his way home right underneat their feet. At that Annabelle asked, "How do worms dig through the dirt?"

"Um, with invisible shovels in their invisible hands?" I feebly suggested. Neither Bee nor CeeJ would accept that, though. I will admit to heaving a sigh and having a fleeting thought along the lines of, "Why oh why must you be so damn inquisitive? Can't we just read a book for fun and lead an unexamined, unquestioning life for five flippin' minutes?" Sigh again. Of course, I didn't say any of that. Instead, I smiled and trudged over to the computer and found out that the muscular contractions of worms sends them forward and little hair-like structures (setae) dig in to hold them there until the worm contracts again. They also have a muscular piece called a prostomium that protects the mouth while they're boring through the earth. And I also discovered a new Internet resource:"The Yuckiest Site on the Internet." A Discovery Kids product, there's even a cute interview with Eddie Earthworm, who dishes dirt (get it? get it?) on himself and other worms.

So, obviously, we are all better off for Annabelle having asked the question. Even if it meant I had to get my a*& off the couch.

REAL SCHOOL NEWS: Last night, via a unanimous vote of the school board, Seattle Public Schools decided to return to a neighborhood based model of assigning students to schools. The action means the end of what has to be viewed as a very noble idea (desegration, increased diversity and opportunity), but it turned into an experiment gone horribly, terribly, awfully awry in the execution. So much went so wrong with the assignment system. (In fact, one school assignment tiebreaker they used was deemed unconstitutional by no less than the United States Supreme Court. (And needless to say, defending their practices all the way to the highest court in the land was supremely expensive. That $$$ could have bought a whole lotta books or bricks and mortar. ...)

Only after we moved to Seattle did we learn about the school district's completely wackadoodle system of supposedly letting families choose to send their kids to any school in the district, with the key word being "supposedly." As we learned from personal experience, their anyone-anywhere system involved ridiculous amounts of hand wringing and wrangling on parents' parts, crazy 'tie breaker' algorithms, smoke, mirrors, money and completely off the hook expenditures on transportation.

Under the new plan, students still can apply to attend any school, but they supposedly won't get in if the school is filled by those who live within the school's boundaries first. (One odd aside, in the last draft I read, if you don't enter a school at an entry grade level - kindergarten, sixth or ninth grades, you could be SOL even for your neighborhood school, which seems ridiculous and bizarre and potentially discriminatory to me.)

On paper, neighborhood schools seem like a great idea for a number of reasons, a couple being saving big $ on transportation, it's "greener," it creates a sense of community beyond the school walls, and it's logical/easier to understand. There should be a whole lot less waiting and frantically wondering where The Powers That Be will decide to send your kid to school. Instead, you can know that if nothing else, they will have a seat in your neighborhood school. What a concept.

That said, this district already has such a great divide between the haves and have nots and it's quite possible the chasm will get even deeper under the new plan. And IMHO, Seattle Public Schools were already a big, hot mess. Even if the change is for good intentions and the longterm betterment, this wholesale shift is going to add some big time tumult to a district already on shaky ground.

Magnolia Preparatory Academy is growing more attractive by the day.

I Want Candy!

CANDY COATED FESTIVAL: As regular/longtime readers may recall, last month MPA held a Corn Festival, where the day's theme was corn facts, fun and food. The kids still talk about it frequently, and a couple of weeks ago, CJ started lobbying for an M&M's Festival. Well, after much ado, today was the day.

LOOK THE PART: The first thing we had to do was get the gear ready for CJ and Annabelle to get into the spirit. So, before the sun and kids were up, I had to reconstruct a green M&M costume we found months ago at a garage sale, and I had to (dramatically) size down some red M&M's lounge pants I found at the Goodwill outlet last week (for around a quarter!). I also "staged" our work table with a host of M&M props (toys, decorations, candy). When they awoke the kids slipped into their 'uniforms' and were raring to go! I surprised them with M&M's pancakes for breakfast. CJ loved them and suggested I post the recipe to the M&M's Web site. :)

GAME ON: We started our brain work with a fun and challenging game on the M&M's Web site, "Flip the Mix." It was a grid of dozens of M&M's and the challenge was to create at least 3 of the same color in a row or column by swapping horizontally or vertically adjacent M&M's. It was harder than you might imagine. The three of us worked together, and Annabelle had a real knack for it.
TAKING STOCK: The first tablework I had the kids do was count (6) and list (almond, milk chocolate, peanut, peanut butter, dark chocolate, holiday mix) the different types of M&M's we would be working with today.I created a worksheet with four columns: Type of M&M, Guess Rank of Weight; Actual Weight; Actual Rank in Weight. CJ guessed the Peanut butter M&M bag was heaviest, Bee guessed Holiday Mix. They then listed their descending order guesses. Next, we carefully weighed each bag (on a postal scale). Based on those numbers, the kids recorded the actual rank by size (Holiday Mix was biggest).

ART IN THE ROUND: For our creativity fix, I had the kids turn a paper plate into an oversized M&M in a favorite color (pink for Miss B and red for CJ).

M&MOVIES: We turned to the Internet for some M&M enlightenment. On YouTube, we found video from M&M World in Las Vegas. There, they have M&Ms in every color of the rainbow and then some, as well as a stunning array of M&M branded merchandise.

We also watched a cool M&M's ad: River of Chocolate and "went" (with Martha Stewart, no less) on a tour of a factory where they make customized M&Ms.

My favorite video was of an M&M's sorter some geeks made which was able to sort the candy by color with 98 percent accuracy at a speed of 2 M&M's per second.

TALLY HO!: It was time to do some M&M sorting of our own. We opened the ginormous bag of peanut butter M&Ms. I poured them out onto the table and the kids separated them by color, with a goal of seeing how they ranked based on frequency of color. We counted them by fives, and the kids used tally marks with proficiency. As it turned out, there were 46 brown, 37 yellow, 29 orange, 28 blue, and 27 of each green and red. Based on these tallies, the kids ranked them using ordinals (first through sixth).

After breaking for lunch (M&M yogurt, of course) Next, we visited the M&M's Web site where CJ and Annabelle made M&M's to look like themselves. It was pretty sophisticated software. For instance, you don't just pick your arms and legs, you pick the limbs and then can modify their length and color.

ALLEY CATS: For P.E. (we had to burn some of those M&Ms off!) it was out in the alley. The kids rode scooters and ran around with Kirby while I raked wet leaves.

TALE OF THE TONGUE: This afternoon, it was time for the long awaited blind taste test. We devised a sophisticated :) rating system: Two thumbs up for "reeeeally good," one thumb up for "like it," hands flat on the table for "OK," one thumb down for "not so great" and two thumbs down for "ewwwwwwwww."

I had the kids wearing knit caps pulled down over their eyes as a blindfold. Peanut butter, milk chocolate and dark chocolate both got two thumbs up from both (in fact, Annabelle voted two thumbs up on 'em all). CJ gave peanut and almond M&M's two thumbs down. They guessed the correct flavors 80 percent of the time.

MAIN MEAL: No, M&M's were NOT on the menu for dinner (I have my limits). As an alternative, I let the kids make M&M-shaped pizzas. They 'branded' them with an M out of olives. Dessert was an M&M ice cream treat. Our festival was complete.

& A BONUS: The kids learned what an ampersand is today!

Come on Down!!

MORE MORE: Yesterday we hit a brick wall when CJ was trying to figure out how many more 6 is than 4 (even though he totally knows 6-4 = 2). Not one to shy away from a struggle, we were back at it this a.m. first thing.

I wanted the kids to be involved in breaking down every step of this concept, so I got out some Play-Doh and asked them to slice a log into 5 pieces and make balls out of those pieces. We lined 'em up by color (5 pink and 5 green) and noted that they were equal in number. I had the kids close their eyes and I took one pink away. Then, the grilling began. :) Are there more pink or green balls? Are there fewer green or pink? Easy stuff, they both nailed immediately. And now, for the tricky part - how many more green are there than pink? Aaaaaaaaaarghcrashbang (sound of CJ's brain seizing). No, it's not 5. Or 4. Or 9. Sigh. So we worked through it and he did come to realize that there was one more green than pink. And we did it over. And over. And over, with different combinations of colors and numbers. The good news is, he caught on about 100x quicker today, no tears were spilt, and I'm guessing he'll catch on even quicker tomorrow. Stay tuned. ...

STICKY SOLAR SYSTEM: Fresh off watching Space Shuttle Atlantis launch yesterday, I thought it would be cool to keep exploring space, so to speak. Fortunately, last week at Goodwill, we scored a great "Magic School Bus The Secrets of Space" activity kit (for 99 cents - and every piece was there - wOOt!).

Today's activity from the kit was affixing planet stickers to a poster of our solar system. The kids took turns affixing the stickers to their proper orbit and reading some quick facts about each planet. During the exercise we talked about which planets astronauts would be more or less likely to visit. For instance while Venus is relatively close, its yellow clouds of poisonous sulfuric acid don't sound too inviting. (Of course, CJ proposed a workaround: "I'll make a poison gas get-rid-er-of-er machine!") We agreed that the surface of Mars sounds somewhat hospitable because, as Annabelle pointed out, astronauts could melt the ice to use for water while there.

I also asked them, "Why doesn't the sun have a sticker?" for the planet poster and they both responded because the sun isn't a planet - "it's a mass of incandescent gas" - a lyric straight from "Why Does the Sun Shine?" on a favorite CD, "Here Comes Science."

When they were done reading and stickering, we did a quick creative writing assignment. I asked, "If you could visit any planet, which planet would it be and why?" Annabelle, who loves an underdog, wrote, "I would like to visit Pluto to not hurt his feelings." Translation: She feels sorry for Pluto, as some/many scientists are now saying it's not a planet at all.

CJ immediately said he wanted to go to Mars because it's red. Putting that on paper became a bit of a struggle, because, well, he doesn't know how to spell "because." I assured him (around 38 times) that it is totally OK if he doesn't know how to spell "because," because this assignment is about the idea of planetary travel, not a spelling test. But he sat there and sat there and sat there, as if he could wait long enough and the sky would open up and a giant BECAUSE would fall on the table. Finally, to put him out of his misery, I put a kitchen timer on (timers ALWAYS get his attention - it's like a Pavlov's dog-type response from his video gaming). Miraculously, within 60 seconds he had written, "I want to visit Mars becuz it is red." Yay CJ!

Next, we slid on over to the computer workstation and got ready for liftoff. Thanks to Spacewander, we were able to take a ride through our solar system and beyond. The scenery (shots from NASA) was downright stunning and our spaceship's display panel gave us lots of information about the great "out there" along the way.

OUTTA THIS WORLD GAME SHOW: For weeks now, I've been thinking about a game show that was a childhood staple for me: The Price is Right. I used to LOVE that show. (In fact, it was the only good part of a sick day home from school.) The reason I've been thinking about it so much is that as I'm working with CeeJ and Bee on concepts like estimating, more and less, addition, subtraction, rounding and so on, I realize that TPIR is largely responsible for teaching me these skills - though I had no idea at the time it was math, I thought it was just fun Fun FUN!

For whatever reason, I decided that TODAY was the day. We were going to watch TPIR, gosh darn it. The kids were hooked from the get go. The show's fast and flashy and people are ridiculously excited - what's not to like?

As we watched, I explained some of the game's nuances to them. For instance, when bidding on a prize to get on stage, you want to be close to the price of the prize, but if you go over, you're out (concepts of less, equal, more). Those same concepts were used in various ways during the individual games. When it was time for the contestants to spin the big wheel to see who goes to the finals, I explained that they were each shooting for $1 or 100 (cents), and they had two spins to try to achieve that. The tricky part was after their first spin, they had to decide if they wanted to take their second spin, knowing they will add that # to the first spin's # and risk going over 100. (An aside: After the show was over, I was able to find a TPIR wheel online, and we played a few rounds. The kids dug it.)

Finally, it was time for the Showcase Showdown. The first one was the usual stuff - bedroom furniture, a hot tub - pretty bo-ring to a 5-year-old. Then the second one came along and wait, what's this? There's a special guest to describe the prizes? And out walks astronaut/moonwalker Buzz Aldrin! Are you frickin kidding me? I think. Here we've been studying space stuff the last couple of days and we finally watch The Price is Right today, and there's an astronaut on? How often does THAT happen? Once in a lifetime.

Anyway, the showcase included an authentic lunar landing spacesuit from Spacetoys.com (which has, I have since learned, many, many toys 2 die 4), an autographed copy of Buzz's book, "Magnificent Desolation - Long Journey Home from the Moon," a trip to Space Camp, another trip - this one to meet an astronaut and see a launch at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and a Saturn Sky (automobile).

Happily, the woman bidding on the space showcase won (around $42k price tag, by the way).

Needless to say, The Price is Right was a huge hit with the kids. We certainly won't watch every day, but we'll check in from time to time. Oh, and FYI, CJ now wants a custom Price is Right shirt. He noticed right away that the people with wacky get ups are called down to be contestants.

OUR READERS ROCK!: Today the beauty of this here blog became very apparent. First thing this a.m. I check my Facebook wall and a reader in Montreal (hi Undine!) had posted a link to a great story on Telegrapha.co.uk. It was a list of their editor(s) picks as the best education Web sites. Each one listed is a fantastic new resource for us, and each of those resources points me to other resources. And heck, just reading readers' comments on the story pointed me to yet more fantastic resources.

Then when I checked the good old fashioned mailbox this afternoon, there awaited a bright red envelope addressed to the Science Department of Magnolia Prep. It was a care package (from Ruthie and Bob - thank you!!!) containing some cute Thanksgiving stickers (which Annabelle has already put to very good use) and creatures that will grow when placed in water. We can't wait to experiment with those and practice our measuring skills!

How cool is it that Annabelle are CJ have all these people helping out with their education?

Hail Atlantis!

image: NASA

THE COUNTDOWN'S ON:We awoke this morning to find out that all systems were go for today's launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis (Mission STS-129). It was set to blast off at 11:34 a.m. our time. That gave us a good couple of hours to do some brainwork and launch preparation. :)

PILED IT ON: Last Friday, we scored a couple of big thick age appropriate worksheet books at the Goodwill outlet for 29 cents apiece. Excellent. Today we delved into them.. Withouth a question or a hitch, Annabelle completed a sheet where she had to fill in a blank using either "you" or "me" and another one where the options were "is" or "are" (We are going, Pedro is coming over, etc.) She also worked on penmanship, beginning sounds, more than and less than, including the > and <, both new concepts to her.

CJ worked on penmanship, capitalization and punctuation, a little reading comprehension, place value (to the hundreds), counting by fives. Last was a worksheet on more, fewer and equal to; it was a bit of a train wreck. These are not new concepts to him whatsoever, so it was a bit frustrating for both of us that he was struggling. For example, there was a row of 6 feathers and a row of 4 feathers. The directions told him to circle the row that has more feathers. No problem. The next question was "How many more feathers does this row have?" Well, it was like he was being asked to design a rocket to fly to Saturn's rings. He read it and re-read it. He squirmed and he whined and yes, he even wept. I tried to talk him through it. Christian tried to talk him through it. I got him manipulatives to try to demonstrate it. It went on and on for probably 20 plus minutes. He kept trying to answer "6," which was the row with more, not the amount more it had than the row with four. Or he'd try to answer 10, which was way off (but the combination of the two rows). Finally (by using the manipulatives I'd laid out in front of him), he could see that the row with 6 had 2 more items than the row with 4, but he was still pretty shaky with the idea/answer. (For the record, I attribute his struggles to him playing Wii this morning, which is normally verboten before brain work time.)

Tomorrow I'm going to work on this same concept with him until he (hopefully) gets to the point where it's readily apparent to him. Wish us luck. ...

ATLANTIS: While waiting for Atlantis to lift off, we enjoyed several Our World "eClips" on NASA's Web site. They're 5-ish minutes, very engaging and packed full of information. We learned about the importance of exercising in space (to keep astronauts' bones and muscles healthy), about how space suits are designed, made and how they function (the kids were especially interested to learn that astronauts don' t have bathrooms like we do here on earth). We also watched a video about "space grub" and learned that NASA chooses food carefully for its missions. How much the food weighs and how long it will keep are two very important factors (for that reason, astronauts might enjoy raisins on Atlantis, but they're not gonna get grapes). The process of dehydrating and re-hydrating food was discussed.

We watched MSNBC's coverage of the launch. After the spacecraft reached orbit, I thought it would be nice if the kids learned a little bit more about the astronauts circling our globe. So back to the NASA Web site and watched STS-129 Behind The Scenes . By doing so, we learned that Leland Melvin was a former football standout - and even drafted by the Detroit Lions! He's got a football on board the Atlantis with him which (once it's back earthbound) will be on display at the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

At about the 6 minute mark, astronaut Barry Wilmore (who's piloting Atlantis on this mission) tells a fantastic story about being cut from his middle school football team. It was such a great life lesson about the importance of determination. I'm so glad the kids and I watched it - it's highly recommended viewing.

HOST WITH THE MOST: This afternoon, unprompted, CJ decided to host a game show of his creation. It involved the alphabet. He would give the contestants (Annabelle and Mom) clues and we'd have to guess which letter he was talking about. To mix things up, once in awhile he'd throw in a letter pattern, and we'd have to repeat it, or he'd tell a story and we had to recall specific details from the story.

CJ led another round of the game show after dinner tonight.

IN THE VILLAGE: One of the very first things CJ said - blurted really - this morning: "Are we missing 'The Prisoner'?!"

We started watching the miniseries on AMC last night and, obviously, he's hooked.

Be seeing you. ...