Friday Follies

PICKIN' AND GRINNIN': I asked the kids what they did at music today when I wasn't there and Annabelle told me they strummed something while pushing a button. I'm guessing they played an auto harp.

When I was there for the parent participation part, we sang along to a seashells by the seashore song and passed shells back and forth in time with the rhythm. It was actually a very relaxing exercise.

I gotta say, though, that during music, I was starting to get my Worry on. The kids' music lessons are in a basement level space. There's really only one small window to the outside world and this morning CJ's gaze was fixed on that light nearly the entire time I was there (outside of my prodding him to look elsewhere). I'm a big BIG fan of daylight, too, but sheesh, pay attention, Dude! I couldn't help but wonder how this would translate come science class time ...

ZULA PATROL: After music, the kids had a snack and I gave them the Big News that one of their favorite shows, "Zula Patrol," has launched a new and much improved Web site. (I'm a "Zula Patrol" fan, too. In fact, I'll probably always have a soft spot for it as last year, after I'd pick CJ up at lunch time to remove him from the chaos and danger and pain that was his public school experience, and we'd come home and watch "Zula Patrol" and all would be right with the world. )

CeeJ and Bee were very excited to give Zula World a go. According to it's "About" page, "ZulaWorld is an immersive environment for the exploration of science, math and astronomy that stimulates curiosity, promotes discovery, and inspires imagination among children! ZulaWorld also provides a place for parents and educators to engage with their children, students and each other."

In ZulaWorld, "Kids can build their own spaceship and alien and customize them by earning points and playing games."

They poked around a bit and I could tell it was still a beta version (lots of bugs). But before too long, it was time to take off and go experience some science firsthand. ...

pHantastic: This was our fourth in a series of six science classes arranged through a Seattle Homeschool Group parent.

Regular readers will know that for the last couple of weeks, the class has been Super Cool but CJ has been, uh, well, Lame Brained.

Today, on our way to class we, of course, had The Talk about listening with the ears and keeping the eyes on the teacher and peers. I also reminded CJ that last night at bedtime I unplugged the video card in his brain to make way for other thoughts. ;)

Today's session was all about the pH scale - the range of acidity to baseicity. The kids learned that the spectrum ranges from the most acidic (battery acid, stomach acid, Coke - in that order) to middle of the range (pure water @ 7.0) to the alkaline end of the scale - bases like soap and Windex and Borax.

Teacher Kate made downright magic when she poured a series of vials one into the other changing them from pure water to 'grape' juice to '7up' to milk to ...etc., by introducing different ingredients to the mix.
The kids' first task was to paint a piece of paper with a solution of rubbing alcohol and tumeric. It turned the pages bright yellow and smelled awful. :)

Those pages were set aside and then the kids took cabbage leaves, mixed them in hot water and created an acidic violet liquid. That solution was split amongst four cups and into each one a different ingredient was added (vinegar, baking soda, etc) and the solution changed in color each time. Here's a short of CJ adding vinegar to his mix ...

At the end of the class, the kids got to paint on their tumeric tinged sheets with Q-Tips dipped in either a vinegar bath or a baking soda solution. There were some subtle changes in color, but it was definitely lacking the 'wow' factor that the earlier demonstrations had - a bit anti climatic.

But the Really Good News is that CJ paid attention during most of the class ('most' meaning more than 50 percent of the time, right?). But seriously, I could see that he was really trying and while he didn't always succeed, he did try, and that's what I asked him to do.

I also spent some time today not just fixating on CJ and Annabelle, but I made a conscious effort to note how other kids seemed to be paying attention - or not. After that exercise, I felt LOTS better about Mr. CJ's daytripping. He certainly had lots of "day dreamer" company.

In the end, I was pretty proud of his focus, and more importantly, HE was proud of his focus. After the class he pointed out that he had paid attention and sought my reassurance and I gave it to him. Go CJ. :)

FIT TO BE TIED: This morning we checked in on our Painted Lady larvae. They're still larvae, but the cup they're in is full of silk now. Annabelle suggested, "Maybe we can use that silk to make a tie for dad!"

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?: Regular readers know that earlier this spring, the MPA student body planted and nursed from seeds peas, beans, tomatoes, peppers and sunflowers. A couple of weeks ago, we planted our going-gangbusters-sproutlets outside. And then winter came. :( Though we haven't had a frost, it's been c-c-c-cold. Like daytime highs in the 40s.

Our tender little seedlings are hanging in there, but they're not exactly thriving. .. Here's a lonely, stringy green bean we found this morning.

In better news, the lemon tree (indoors, upstairs) looks fabulous, and the blueberry bushes outside look healthy, as well.