Up and at 'Em

MORNING MATH: We do and talk about math every day. What we don't do every day is put-pen-to-paper math. And now that I think about it, we didn't technically do that today, either. But we did do pen to glass math, which is close, right?

Since I had some painting to do upstairs, I grabbed the window markers and told the kids we'd be doing math up there this morning. C-mind-is-a-steel-trap-J asked suspiciously, "Are you going to make us do big numbers?"

His question reminded me that last time we did window math, I had them (for the first time), add numbers in the tens and hundreds. I told CJ that we would indeed be using 'big numbers' but that it was no big deal, because as long as he knew how to add combinations of numbers 0-9, he could add any numbers together, no matter how 'big.' To demonstrate, I wrote a couple of 7-digit numbers down and explained that it was really just like doing 7 small math problems. Together, we added the columns - the ones, tens, hundreds, thousands and so on. The kids saw that it definitely was a snap - even the "carrying" part, which just meant they had one extra number to add, no big deal.

After about 20 minutes of math, we moved on to some spelling. For fun, I thought I'd let the kids give each other words. That mostly worked. ...

After that it was back downstairs and I suggested they check out "The Price is Right." We haven't watched that show in a couple of months, and I think it's a pretty decent way to practice some math and money skills.

EWWW GROSS: From a Facebook post, I saw that BrainPOP's featured movie of the day was about, well, hmm, how to put this nicely - nasal mucus? (They titled their video "Boogers," which, of course, the kids found hysterical which, of course, was BrainPOP's intention.)

And so, the MPA student body learned what happens when slimy mucus dries in the nose and how specialized hairs in nasal passages move the, um, boogers, to the front and back of your nose. The video also explained why picking one's nose is a bad idea. Important stuff. :)

YOGA PLUS: This morning I got an email from a mother of a yoga friend saying they needed help. Help killing off an ice cream cake, that is. Selflessly, CJ and Annabelle were up to the task. :) After they polished off the cake, they had time before yoga to play a board game called Round Up. What a great game. Instead of competing against one another, the kids take turns working toward a common goal -getting four horses safely back to their stable.

It was nice to see that a cooperative game could still be exciting and suspenseful - that those things aren't exclusive to a competition. It's also nice that it's a quick game - taking only about 15 minutes to play.

ON THE WATERFRONT: Another day, another waterfront for us. Looking at a map of our yoga friend's neighborhood, I realized how close they were to Genessee Park, a place I've been wanting to check out for awhile now. We did find Genessee, but we only did a slow drive by. I could see lots of grassy expanse and a play structure, but it was a beautiful, sunny day, and the shores of Lake Washington were just a block away, so I headed the car that direction. We found ourselves at a spot where there are multiple boat launches. We could see that it was home to the Mount Baker Rowing and Sailing Center - and several ducks. A pair of mallards honed in on us quickly. It was clear to me these waterfowl are used to a junk food diet - that human visitors to the park routinely feed them. They were very bold in approaching us and I half think they would have gotten into our car had they been given an invitation.

Much to Mr. and Mrs. Mallards' disappointment, we had no scraps for them today.

Only after we got home did I learn we had visited Stan S. Sayres Memorial Park. The park is named after the man responsible for bringing hydroplane racing to Seattle. Sayres (1896-1956) was a championship racer himself.

The park, about a mile south of I-90 on Lake Washington, is also known as "Sayres Pits" and is the staging ground of Seattle's annual Seafair Hydroplane Races.