Climb Every Mountain

INSIDE THE HELMET: First thing this morning, we spent a little time thinking like Space Shuttle mission specialists. Specifically, we were thinking and talking about water on the Space Shuttle. Having read up about the space missions on multiple occasions, the kids know that cargo space is at a premium and that carrying extra weight up into space is a drag (literally!).

Obviously, astronauts can't live without water, but water is heavy. So conserving and recycling water is a paramount task of theirs.

I visitied the Kennedy Space Center's Web site and there found several Educator Activity Guides. I selected the K-2 level one and found 33 PDF pages of neat-o stuff, including a water conservation exercise called "Washing Your Hands in Space." Our experiment had two parts. First, we were instructed to wash hands with a bowl under the faucet to catch the run off. CJ went through his standard 20 second hand washing routine (he's pretty religious about that, having seen a Voice of Authority poster at the community center telling him that's How to Do It). The runoff in our bowl was very nearly 1 cup of water.

The second part of the experiment was to take one cup of water, immerse a paper towel in it, and use that to wash hands. Annabelle handled that portion of the experiment. After she'd cleaned up, we were to note how much water was left in the measuring cup. Only a trace of water had been used - less than one tenth of a cup. Which means, that using the paper towel approach used only about 1/9th as much water.

We talked about the pros and cons of each method and which would be best for shuttle astronaut. "Hands down" the paper towel approach got our vote because it used so much less water and so it would mean less waste and hauling less water up into orbit on the shuttle.

FOOTSOLDIERS: For weeks now, I've been thinking about taking the kids for an on-foot trek to 'the Village,' or Magnolia proper. We go there all the time (Ace Hardware, for ballet, Albertsons, the post office, the library and more), and it's not that far, but it's also not super close and it's a big hill to climb (and, therefore, not somewhere we'd ride bikes or scooters to).

This morning I decided today would be the day. We were going to walk to the Magnolia library! While it wasn't sunny, it wasn't raining and it looked OK outside and today was a rare day we didn't have any outside commitments. We outfitted ourselves with essentials: a debit card, a water bottle, a grocery bag and a portable radio (the Ms were playing the Royals @ 11:10). We were ascending our stairs just before the first pitch, at 11 a.m.
I reasoned that even though it was bit of the trek, the kids would be buoyed by the fact that we'd be hitting three parks (Bay View, Ella Bailey and West Magnolia) on the way to the library AND on the way back! That's right, SIX, count 'em, SIX park stops today. What's not to like about that?

Our first stop was Bay View Park - barely a block from home. We didn't spend much time there but the kids did climb (and jump off) the big plasticene boulders.

Next, we trudged up, up, up to Ella Bailey (more commonly known as 'Hilltop Play Park' in our home). About halfway there, Annabelle said, "I know I can, I know I can" in the spirit of the Little Blue Engine.

Once we'd 'crested' Ella Bailey, I pointed out to the kids it was all downhill to The Village. Once we made it to the hamlet, we headed south a couple of blocks to hit a secure mailbox, and then we headed further west and north, to the park (West Magnolia Park) next to the community center. Unlike some other parks in our 'hood, this park always has people in it. Today was no exception. There were many babies/toddlers and their moms or nannies there. And then me and my Big Kids. I'm pretty used to this at this point - when we go to a park during the day, all the school aged kids are, well, in school, so it's my "Gulliver" kids and the Lilliputians.

However, I did notice that there was a cute little boy there with curly hair and he had an older sister who was getting two new top teeth. That meant she was definitely beyond kindergarten age. I immediately wondered, "Homeschooler?" and will admit that part of me was wondering if there's some secret "homeschooler handshake" I should know. ...

The kids' mother was on her cell phone and then I was on mine but after I got off my phone she approached me and said, "So I noticed your kids are older ... do you homeschool?" BINGO! I told her we did and she confirmed that she did. She also told me she's active in the Seattle Homeschool Group and I told her we're in the midst of our first SHG activity (the Friday science classes). We talked a bit about parks in the area and bid farewell as we struck out to the library.

We headed north to the library. CJ and I have made the walk from the community center to the library numerous times; for Bee it was a bit of an adventure. When we used the crosswalk across the main drag, Annabelle was especially excited about getting to hold a visibility/safety flag up. The library was pretty darn packed. We didn't stay there long as I'd noticed some not so friendly clouds to the west, and truth be told, I didn't want to have to haul a whole bunch of books home. We did, of course, find a half dozen DVDs the kids felt like they needed to check out.

On the way back eastward, we stopped at West Magnolia Playfield again for a couple minutes. From there, it was on to Albertsons to buy the kids a lunchtime snack and supplies for an afternoon project (CJ wanted to make lemon Popsicles, which is interesting, given that he doesn't like any citrus fruits that I know of. ...)

In Albertson's, CJ charmed the cashier with his tale of and recipe for lemon slushie Popsicles. From there, it was straight uphill for a "good" five blocks. The kids were troupers, though. They didn't complain once. I think it helped that along the way we stopped to check out plants. I feel pretty confident that CJ and Annabelle could ID azaleas, rhododendron and dogwoods on their own (those three are all in full bloom round here).

Finally, we crested the hill (again) and made our way back to Ella Bailey Park. There, we sat at a picnic table and the kids hopped on the treats they selected at Albertsons.

We hadn't been sitting out our picnic table for 60 seconds when a woman came over and said, "Do you remember me?" uhhhhhhhhhhhh. ... "We met at a Seattle Homeschool Group park day," she reminded (thank god). At that, I did, of course, remember her. It was the first (and only) SHG park day we've attended, and it was the first time she'd gone to one, too. It was frigid - maybe February - and we were practically the only ones there!

I asked her how her year was going and she told me that she was "almost done." At that, I couldn't help but wonder how one ever really gets done with learning/school. I have to presume perhaps she has a pretty set curriculum she's following for the grade her child is in, and once you're done with a certain grade level, you're done. Unlike my poor children, who will never be done. ;)

We didn't linger at Ella Bailey Park too long, as the cottony white clouds overhead had been joined by as-far-as-the-eye-can-see blocks of bluish grey clouds screaming "You are going to get sooooooooo wet." We stopped briefly at Bay View park - so very close to home! - but when the wind started kicking up, I told the kids that we were going to head home and arrive triumphant over the rain! No one rains on our parade, doggone it!

And sure enough, we did beat the weather. As we descended the stairs at home, the Mariners and Royals were in the 8th inning and the Ms had regained the lead, 6-5. We were home no more than 5 minutes when the skies opened up and it dumped buckets.

All in all, the trek was a wonderful success and we will undoubtedly undertake it again.

LEMONHEADS: This afternoon we absolutely had to complete a project in the kitchen. For whatever reason, for the past 2 days CJ has been talking about making lemon slushies. When he described the process and the end result (a lemony frozen treat on a stick), it was clear that he actually meant a lemon frozen Popsicle type treat.

During our outing today we bought a big beautiful lemon. I sliced it up and let the kids squeeze the juice into a bowl. During this process we learned that CJ is apparently allergic to lemon juice. He was complaining of his hands itching and burning.

The kids were surprised by how little juice the lemon produced and lamented that it wasn't going to be enough to make more than one treat. I informed them that lemon juice was not going to be the only ingredient. I had them dip their fingers into the juice and taste it and asked them if they thought it tasted good. :) As you might imagine, they found it a tad sour. I asked them how we could make it sweeter. Annabelle suggested sugar. I told her that would work, but that I'd like to suggest organic blue agave syrup as an alternative (which, I'd also like to suggest to readers as a great alternative to granulated sugar. It is a wonderful, tasty, natural sweetener that doesn't cause a big blood sugar spike like other sweeteners).

We put the agave in, stirred it, and I had the kids taste it again. They thought it was much better. I poured the liquid into a clear bowl and asked them if it looked like what they expected it to. CJ said he thought it would be more yellow (it's lemon after all). I told the kids that so much of what they eat and drink has been artificially colored. I asked them if they wanted their treats natural, or if they wanted color. Yeah, well, as you might imagine, they wanted pizazz. So we broke out some yellow and red food coloring. I separated the sweetened lemon juice into two bowls, the kids added the coloring and then we carefully poured them into an ice cube tray. By tomorrow, they should be solid enough for a taste test.

In the meantime, I let the kids take a swig of the leftover juice, of course. Annabelle LOVES lemonade and love Love LOVED the concoction. CJ, "Mr. Water Guy," well not so much. I'll give him mad props for taking a full on taste of it - that alone is so against his character. That said, he didn't like it one bit. "This is why I only drink water," he informed Annabelle and me, a bit haughtily.

WEBINAR SCHEDULED: Note to self - today I registered for "Take Off, Migrate to Another Homeschool Option." It's presented by BrainPOP, and you know how we here at MPA love us some BrainPOP : )

It's scheduled for Wednesday, May 26, 6:30 PM EDT. Here's the Webinar description: "Why do some birds remain on resident grounds for four seasons, while others only survive by wintering in one location and bringing new life into the world at another site? That’s just one of the topics you’ll hear about when homeschooling mom Sue Ferrara, PhD, and BrainPOP's Allisyn Levy team up. Join them as they show you how to “migrate” to a new educational playground and bring new life into your homeschool curriculum."