Frigid Friday

THE BEAT GOES ON: The kids continued their percussion unit at Musikgarten today. During the parent participation part, teacher Nancy showed us a video of her son's senior project - an hour long percussion performance. He was playing everything from tambourine to marimba, tympani to snare drum.

During the video, I leaned over to CJ and asked him if he thought he could ever play instruments like that. He said, "No way!" I told him I thought he could, and that his brother Ken had done just that. CJ was wide eyed at that bit of information - and I reminded him that when he was a baby, we'd take CJ to football games where we'd watch Rick play football and Ken perform with the marching band. I don't know if CJ has any recollection of that at all. He was awfully young!

Watching the video definitely made me miss the football games and marching bands days when Ken was in the marching band "pit." doing likewise.

PHOTO JOURNALISTS: Yesterday, I had decked our spiral staircase with dozens of ornaments, turning it into a steel Christmas tree of sorts. This morning I had the kids pick their favorite ornament on the staircase and then had them each take its photo.

Next, we downloaded the photos to the computer (I showed them that process), and together we cropped them a bit, and then I showed them how to insert them into a Word document so that we could print out the photo and leave space on the page for them to write why they picked that particular ornament. They were instructed that kidnappers' notes (mixing upper and lowercase letters) and caveman language (poor grammar) were not acceptable. Bet you won't have too hard a time guessing which ornament CJ photographed, and which one Bee chose.

ROLLIN', ROLLIN', ROLLIN': This morning we watched the live rollover of Endeavor on NASA TV. A rollover is when the space shuttle leaves its hangar and is transported to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The rollover is a major milestone to get a shuttle ready for its next mission.

We'll be following the shuttle launches in the coming months closely - in preparation of when we go to Florida in May to see a real live launch in person!!!

FROSTY STROLL: Despite the fact that the temperature was still well below freezing, we ventured out on foot today. We didn't go far - just to grand Bay View Park - but the kids were having a blast, running off steam, and we were out in it long enough for the cold to hurt!

FERTILE GROUND: Today we took a little field trip to the Ballard Library. It used to be a regular haunt when the kids went to preschool in Ballard, but we haven't been there in ages.

We made pigs of ourselves, checking out a boatload of books, CDs and DVDs. I am both giddy and ashamed with our haul.
HOMEBUILDERS: This evening, Christian took the kids to the Magnolia Community Center where, for a donation of canned food, they got to build 'gingerbread' (graham cracker) houses free of charge. They both came home smiling, pleased with their sweet creations.

PHONE HOME: Tonight Annabelle was carrying around an old, non-working phone and asked if we had another one so that she and CJ could pretend they were calling each other. I suggested that they use Christian and my cell phones instead and really call each other. So they made a couple of clumsy calls. Frankly, they both should know by now how to use a phone proficiently and they don't. So that's something we'll do more of in the future. (I should probably teach them how to text message while we're at it!)

BILL NYE THE BEDTIME STORY: Before bed, the kids watched a Bill Nye the Science Guy DVD about the seasons, which fits nicely with the BrainPOP work we've been doing on seasons lately. The DVD was one of the treasures we scored at the library today. His programs are so great - entertaining but really informative. It's also fun to watch because the show was filmed in Seattle, so familiar sites pop up inthe footage.

Just moments ago, Annabelle came tearing out of the bedroom, "Mom! Come quick!! It's an experiment!!! It was a demonstration much like we did a week or so ago, how the weather is warmer when an area is in direct sunlight (summer) as opposed to sunlight at an angle (winter). And she came out again, begging to do an experiment with a sundial. I promised we'd recreate it in the days to come. It's great to see them so excited about science.

Ballet Day

PINKADELLIC: This morning was the final session for Bee's fall ballet. (Winter session starts in January). We're allowed to sit in on the final class, so I was there camera in hand and CJ was there Pokemon book in hand (and I have to hand it to him, he stayed perfectly quiet, reading the entire 50 minutes).

This time (and for the first time) I could actually see some improvement in her technique from last session to this one. She follows the teacher's directions and cues much more closely and some of what she's doing actually resembles ballet now.

SLIP SLIDIN' AWAY: For today's fresh air session we went ice skating. Well, ice sliding. The hillside in our neighborhood leaks water darn near all year long, and with the sub-20 degree weather, some pretty significant sheets of ice that have formed on the street. Kirby and I stood lookout while the kids shuffled and slid down a two block swath of ice. CJ had no trouble staying upright. Annabelle, on the other hand, fell three times. Neither of them has ever been ice skating. I'm hoping we can take them to the seasonal ice rink at Seattle Center sometime between now and New Year's Day.

Afterward, the kids were super helpful picking up piles and piles of leaves in the alley. I was impressed with (and surprised by) their dedication to the task.

DEAR SANTA: Today's writing exercise was crafting a short letter to Santa. Capitalization and punctuation were stressed, and I'm really starting to hammer the kids on their tEnDeNcY to MiX UpPeR aNd LOweRcaSE LeTteRS, making their writing look like a ransom note. It was also good practice writing/remembering their address (I told them they had to include it so Santa knows where to bring the presents).

Bee finished in short order. CJ alternated between being pained over getting every letter correct and being completely distracted. He took a loooooong while, but he finally completed it, address and all.

A bit later, Annabelle said, "We should make Santa a present." I told her Santa likes chocolate cookies. CJ agreed that we should make some. "I'll taste them to make sure they're OK," he volunteered. How unselfish of him. ; )

LET'S GO TO THE TAPE: Yesterday we read four books about fire safety. Today, the kids and I reviewed the DVD "Lots & Lots of Fire Songs and Safety Tips." In the opinion of this reviewer and my two co-reviewers, it was short in length and in content. Annabelle was quick to opine, "The books yesterday were better." I told her I agreed with her, but that the video has a place too - some people would probably prefer the movie, in fact. Overall, I'm glad we watched it. When it comes to fire safety, more information is better.

A CHANGE OF HEART: Our reading this afternoon was a turnabout fairy tale, "Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig." Like the original story, the book features the message of being prepared and persistence, but it also brings to that people (or at least pigs) can change. The wolves keep building stronger and stronger houses, but the pig still finds a way to destroy them. Finally, the wolves decide to build a simple cottage from branches and flowers and hope for the best. (Spoiler alert!) The pig has a change of heart when he sees the natural wonder and winds up living in peace and harmony with the wolves.

SOME SCIENCE: This afternoon the kids went back to the BBC's education site. This time, they explored the science portion of the site. We spent an hour or so there, including learning about plants and animals in the environment and growing plants, and we really haven't even scratched the surface regarding what's available.

Movin' on Up

HEAT RISES: It was cold this morning. Again. Tired of the less than cozy temps on our main floor, I had a revolutionary idea. MPA was going to move to a place where there's a floor to ceiling view of the sunny landscape and picturesque Queen Anne Hill, and peek-a-boo views of Puget Sound and Mount Rainer. A place with beautiful bamboo floors, abundant heat and insulation, plenty of comfy seating and free wireless Internet. That's right kids, we're heading upstairs!!!

For you see, the main floor, where we do 95 percent of our living, is just above the basement, and the basement has zero insulation. Therefore, the main floor is the first line of defense in the cold battle, and the last couple of days it has been losing.

FROSTY FLAKES: Once settled in upstairs, we revisited the BrainPOP lesson plan about snowflakes. Our goals today were to come up with in-their-own-words definitions for some of the new/biggish words the kids encountered (things like molecule, vapor, symmetrical and humidity), as well as record some of the facts we learned about snowflakes from the BrainPOP video and supporting activities. We learned: - Snowflakes grow and change as they fall toward earth
- H2O is two hydrogen molecules, one oxygen molecule, and H2O = water
- Colder air produces snowflakes with sharper tips
- A snowflake's shape is determined by conditions under which it forms
- If it's warmer, snowflakes grow slower and in more subtle shapes

BRITISH INVASION: This morning's math activities came courtesy of the British Broadcasting Corporation, which has an astoundingly comprehensive educational Web site. (In fact, I think a person would keep busy even if this was the ONLY site they used to support their classroom/curriculum .)

We hopped over to "Number Time," the "numeracy" ("math" here in the States) portion of the site, where there are online games, printable worksheets, songs, videos and more. (Have I mentioned the BBC site is fantastic?)

This morning, the kids played a great game called Dartboard. It has three levels - the first level gives you a number and you have to use one dart to get to get that value. Once in awhile it's as simple as putting a dart on a number that matches it, but other times, it involved addition or multiplication - more specifically, doubling (a new concept to the kids). For instance, if the target score was 10 and the inner ring of the dart board only features the numbers 2-9, you have to figure out which one of those numbers doubled = 10. The kids caught on really quickly and finished the first round in no time. The second round was more challenging - every problem required adding values, some inner rings and some outer rings (which were the numbers' doubled values). By the third round, they were working with target scores in the 30s and 40s, and it involved doubling numbers, as well as adding three numbers together to get a sum. We used all sorts of tools to make that happen (a number line, tally marks, a number table, fingers ...). In all, we spent over an hour on the "game" that was really hardcore, above grade-level math! When we were done, Annabelle said, "Let's dance for joy!" For inspiration, we played three math songs from the BBC site.

RUBY PROBOSCIS: For a musical interlude, the kids sang along with a karaoke version of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. Afterward, they read along with a wonderfully narrated version of the Rudolph story.

STOP, DROP & ROLL: I've been planning to do a fire safety day for a month now (well, maybe two - October was fire safety month). The fire safety books I checked out to help make that happen are due back to the library tomorrow, so today was Fire Safety Day at MPA. Interestingly enough, Annabelle happened to be wearing a sweater today (for the first time in months) that had a fire truck on it.

Together, we read three books about fire safety and one (really, really wordy) book about daily life at a fire station. The kids paid close attention, and we didn't just stick to the text, we took every point and talked about it in the context of our house and our lives. I kept asking the kids for their ideas and their input and what they'd do in various scenarios. At one point, CJ suggested that if he was in his bedroom and he smelled smoke he would put a blanket at the bottom of the door to help block the smoke from entering. "That's an idea that wasn't in the book!" he said with a sense of self satisfaction.

After the books were over, we went into each room of the house and talked about what we'd do if we were in that room and heard a smoke alarm. I had the kids practice crawling toward safe exits and unlocking and opening windows. A couple of times Annabelle got panicky because she couldn't get them open, but waaaaay better that she become frustrated during a harmless drill than a real life emergency. Eventually, she and CJ got them all open with little trouble. We also talked about how if they think there's a fire, it's their job is to get out of the house and to a safe spot and to wait there. Under no circumstance are they to return into the house to get someone or something else.

MEANWHILE, ON MARS: We here at MPA get all sorts of daily updates from NASA. This morning's big news was a cool photo the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity took of a rock informally named 'Marquette Island' (island names are used for all isolated rocks the rover finds on the Martian surface). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

COVER GIRL: We got notice today from editor Stavroula Kousta, Ph.D that a baby photo of Annabelle will be on the February cover of a scientific journal, "Trends in Cognitive Sciences." Pretty cool!

Blue

QUESTION AUTHORITY: This morning we did a quick re-visit of coin value and alphabetical order before moving on to something more challenging: Sentences. More specifically, types of sentences and their appropriate punctuation. We've dabbled in this before, but CJ and Bee are definitely ready to be pushed a bit further, and on a more frequent basis. So we're going to be doing more sentence writing - complete with proper capitalization, punctuation and solid spelling, too. Today, we talked about the difference between a "telling" sentence and a sentence that asks a question. Then, I had the kids take some simple telling phrases and convert them into questions. So "He is cold." became "Is he cold?" - you get the picture. CJ was all over it. Annabelle, not so much. It wasn't that she couldn't do it. She just didn't want to. We've all been there, eh?


RANKIN/BASS O-RAMA: Tis the season for stop action animation. Last night the kids watched "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," a Rankin/Bass gem from 1970, narrated by no less than Fred Astaire! I explained to the kids how stop action animation is accomplished (set the scene, snap a shot, move the object(s) slightly, set the scene, snap a shot, move the object(s) slightly - over and over and over and over). I was really happy (and amazed!) to find on YouTube that some dude had done his own stop action animation of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." He's no Rankin/Bass, but it was pretty darn respectable, and the kids got a better sense of the craft. The guy even uploaded a video of his version playing right alongside the real deal. Damn, I ♥ the Internet.


LAME BRAIN: At lunchtime, we had to run and pick Rick up to take him to get his truck from a local tire store. So we headed to Green Lake Elementary. While we were waiting, we checked out the architecture of a church across the street. It looked like a castle, much to CJ and Annabelle's delight. Finally my phone rang. It was Rick, asking where we were. I told him right by the school's flagpole. He said that's where he was, too. Problem was, he works at GreenWOOD Elementary, not Green LAKE. Doh! So we rip a couple miles over to the correct school, singing a spontaneously composed "Lame Brain" song on our way. Pretty stupid mistake on my part - but at least the kids got to see a 'castle!' ; )

MAJOR FLAKES: This afternoon we revisited the BrainPOP site and availed ourselves to their free lesson on snowflakes. The kids watched a video about the conditions necessary for snowflakes to form, and learned about snowflakes' characteristics. Afterward, we took a quiz to test our comprehension. Then we completed the unit's corresponding activity - making a snowflake, of course. The kids both had a hard time cutting through the multiple layers of paper at once, and it brought back memories for me. I recall having that same problem as a kid. However, they made it work and had lovely snowflakes to show for it.



BONK: Tuesday = yoga, so we made our 35 minute drive to Columbia City for the 45 minute class. I go for a walk around the (not so good) neighborhood the kids are getting their yoga on. When I came back, Annabelle was in class, crying. I could tell she'd hurt her head. (And I'm of course thinking, 'Isn't yoga supposed to be calming and peaceful, not painful and hysterical?') As it turns out, she'd hit her head on a column in the middle of the studio (you can see the column in this grainy photo - Annabelle's at 12 o'clock in the pic, and CJ's right next to her). Fortunately, Bee rallied and was able to finish the class. Wonder if I should buy her a yoga helmet. ...


THAT IS SAD: This afternoon, I turned on coverage of the memorial for the murdered police officers. It was a spectacle, what with 20,000 plus law enforcement officers from near and far, plus the families and friends of the fallen gathered in the Tacoma Dome for the service. Annabelle lamented "That is SAD" over and over. Seriously, she must have said that 100-plus times today.


There were signs of support all over town today, including lots of blue lights - the Pacific Science Center arches, the Space Needle and Qwest Field were all bathed in blue). Driving by Safeco Field tonight, I took a quick pic of their blue lights outside, and the stadium glowed an eerie blue. When I got home I found out (via Facebook, of all places) that the blue glow was from the scoreboard inside, which featured the officers' names on a field of blue.

Baby It's Cold Outside!

SLOW MOVING OBJECTS: A bit sluggish from nearly 7 hours in the car yesterday (funny how doing nothing makes a person tired!) MPA got off to slow start this a.m. The kids watched "In Search of Santa," a (really weird and lame, IMHO) Christmas special about "Penguin princesses Crystal and Lucinda try(ing) to return a sleigh bell to Santa at the North Pole." Once that monstrosity ended, we shifted gears and moved into a mix of brain work. On tap were worksheets on consonant blends, telling time, fractions and some math (in the form of a coin value exercise). The kids whipped through those in no time flat. Time to find something new and more challenging ... Flipping through a workbook I realize we haven't worked on alphabetical order yet, so that it was!

First, we talked a bit about what alphabetical order is. Then I gave them some from-their-real-world examples of why it would be practical to use alphabetical order, such as finding a library book and picking tickets up at will call. Then they each had a couple of worksheets where they had to put words in alphabetical order. To be honest, I was expecting there to be at least a bit of a struggle with the new-to-them concept, but they both breezed through their work with no trouble whatsoever. Cool!

PA RUM PA PA PUM: Continuing our percussion/drum theme from last Friday, and given that it's December, we listened to a few versions of "The Little Drummer Boy" today. One from the Christmas special of the same title, another was from the late great John Denver (sung at the Vatican, interestingly enough), and I saved the Best Ever - Bowie and Bing for last. Annabelle felt compelled to drum along for much of the songs.

CHRISTMAS STORY: We used the Scholastic Web site today to learn a little bit more about Christmas and Christmas traditions. I found myself disagreeing with their definitions and explanations almost immediately. For example, they said that Christmas is a holiday celebrated by Christians - as if it was Christians and only Christians who celebrate it. I think it's fair to say it's a holiday rooted in Christian traditions, but you're telling me that every shopper at Wal-Mart on Black Friday is a Christian? And that only Christians have Christmas trees and stockings hung by the chimney with care? I hardly think so ... Anyway, I let the footage roll, so to speak, and then put in my 2 cents with the kids. And it wasn't all bad - there was some good cultural knowledge to be gleaned from the slideshow - like the story of the Christmas star, the three wise men, the manger story, Christmas tree and Santa Claus origins and so on).

ON TOP O' MAGNOLIA: Our chilly but refreshing PE today was trudging up to Ella Baily Park at the summit of "Mount Magnolia." It was a beautiful, clear day and oh-so-cold. The kids spent more than half their time 'ice skating' atop frozen puddles.

IT'S THE (SNOW)PITS: After lunch and warming up a bit, it was back at the "books." This time we watched a NASA-produced video about snow pits and animals living in snowy conditions. It was fact filled and fascinating. We learned that a biome is a major regional or global biotic community characterized chiefly by the dominant forms of plant life and the prevailing climate. And we learned that adaptation is key to survival for animals who are inhabitants of snowy/frigid areas. For instance, a snowshoe hare has big, wide feet which allow it to run atop the snow, and frogs have a chemical, internal antifreeze that keeps their cells from exploding even in freezing water. We also learned about NASA's HOW (History of Winter) program. (Who knew that NASA was studying snow and ice here on earth?)

CRAFTY SANTA: Throughout the day we worked on an art project - cute Santa faces from paper plates and assorted items found around the house. This morning the kids painted the plate back a flesh tone. After that dried, they carefully stretched cotton balls out so that they were a little bit flatter and varying shapes, to be used to make Santa's beard, moustache and eyebrows. After we glued on the facial hair and it dried, they glued on hats, complete with fuzzy pom pom and hat band. More dry time. Then it was time for eyes and a mouth and more dry time. Lastly, they fashioned glasses from pipecleaners and glued them on. Clearly, it was an exercise in patience, not just artwork! In the end, their sticktoitiveness (or should I say gluetoitiveness?!) paid off. They were pretty pleased with the Jolly Old Elf project.

BONUS SHOT: The kids this weekend @ (the nearly vacant) Jantzen Beach (is it still even called that?)