Out and About

ALLEY CATS: Pretty early this morning we went out to the alley for some recess time. Christian was out there working on the bowling-lane-to-maple-butcherblock-countertop conversion, so I thought it would be nice if we hung out with him for awhile.

The kids raced around on their Razor scooters a bit and I suggested CJ give his Moon Shoes a go. In case you're not familiar with the product, they're like mini trampolines you strap on to your feet.


I also took a short video of Annabelle in the alley, under the canopy of a mammoth willow tree. In it, she's trying to explain how the tree functions like an umbrella when it's raining. But really all you can hear is CJ in the background, clomping around on his Moon Shoes.

GRAMMAR GORILLA: Back inside, the kids did a couple of math worksheets and some reading for comprehension. They asked to play FunBrain, and I gave it the thumbs up. They both started with The Grammar Gorillas. As the game explains, "Our friends, the Grammar Gorillas, need help identifying parts of speech. If you click on the right word in the sentence, our friends get a banana. And you know, a gorilla with a banana is a gorilla with appeal."

For their first round, they started with the beginner level (nouns and verbs only). After acing that, they moved onto advanced (nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions). They did well with that, too. (Thank god for "Schoolhouse Rock.")

MONSTER MAKER: Around midday, Annabelle said she wanted to draw a monster. I suggested that as an alternative she might like to use some of the craft supplies we have to create one. She was all over that and spent the next 45 minutes or so gluing googly eyes, feathers and pompoms to a page.

TRAIL MIX : Early afternoon we decided to take a mini field trip to the west shore of Lake Union. It's maybe 5 minutes from our house by car, and for whatever reason, we've never even been there. We loaded up the bikes and the kids rode on the nice, flat wide sidewalk while we trotted along side. We passed business after business related to the water (yacht dealers, moorage places, ) and saw a good number of houseboats.

Along the trail, once in awhile we'd encounter words in the concrete underfoot or plaques along the waterfront. Wonder how the houseboat dwellers like this one (right).

We had a nice view of Gasworks Park at one point.

When we reached Mercer or the southern shore of Lake Union, we were disappointed to find the park there completely gated off. The good news is, the park is being extensively renovated. It looks like this current phase of construction is supposed to be completed by the end of this summer.

On our way back toward the car, Christian noticed a sculpture of sorts. Embedded in the sidewalk were the words, "Stop, look and LISTEN." And so, we did. The pipe on the left was engraved "storm water" and when you stuck your ear up to it, you could hear the running water. The right side was another line to listen to. Sculpture with a soundtrack - pretty cool!

We'll definitely be back to this trail in the future - though we'll likely stay away on weekends when it just has to get super crowded given its proximity to the water, all the restaurants, lake cruise operators, boat rentals and so on.

WHALE TALE: This afternoon I was feeling like we hadn't done quite enough "schooly" stuff so I fired up Comcast's OnDemand and looked for a little something.

We settled on an origami project - whipping up a little whale. It was pretty simple as far as the number of steps it required and the directions to follow, but for whatever reason, the kids weren't at their best when it came to precision folding and creasing today. It all turned out OK in the end, however.

SWINGING IN THE RAIN: Late this afternoon, CJ asked to go outside and play. It was raining lightly and we'd already had two protracted exercise/play sessions outside today. However, I didn't hesitate in saying, "OK!" Because really, on most days, I think most of us spend way too much time inside. Spending a good part of the day outside is a good thing.

So out we went. I did a few little tasks around the yard and he ran around. It started raining a little harder and soon we found ourselves sitting on our swinging couch, enjoying the scenery and some conversation (about Donkey Kong, of course). The boughs of the towering cedar tree and the canopy over the couch kept us dry and we had a nice time. I think we need to hang around outside in the rain more often. :)

In fact, just this weekend I was reading about "nature deficit disorder" on the Children & Nature Network's Web site.

Children & Nature Network is building a movement to reconnect children and nature. Their Web site is full of articles and resources to that end. It's definitely worth a look. They even have a toolkit online for starting a Nature Club for Families. Cool! Maybe I could do that in my spare time. ;)