Light Duty

LOOPY: I was feeling the need for some science today. I remembered that I'd scored a brand new electrical science experiment kit for $3.99 at Value Village awhile ago and decided that today would be the day we gave it a go.

The kit, "Electricty" in the ScienceWiz series, is fantastic. It came with this great book that really spells out concepts step-by-step. For instance, rather than just diving right into the "light a bulb" task, it started by talking about the concept of a loop, and how electricity flows in a loop to light a light.

The kids were sitting at the kitchen island and I told them to look up at the pendant lights, which were off. I told them they were off, because electricity wasn't flowing to them - the loop wasn't complete. I walked over to the switch, flipped it and the lights came on. I explained that when they flip a light switch, what they're doing is completing the loop. I think they really got it!

Next, we discussed a diagram the book had of a lightbulb, two wires and a battery making a loop. The kids traced the components with their fingers, like a dot-to-dot puzzle. Then for the real fun stuff - making our own loop!

First, we wrapped a rubber band around a battery. The band would help hold the alligator clips on the positive and negative ends. Next, it was time to make some connections. Annabelle clipped the negative wire to the battery and a terminal on an LED bulb holder, and CJ handled the positive connections. And lo and behold, when he completed the loop, that bulb started glowing (and the crowd goes wild!)

They were pretty pleased with their work. :)That under our belts, we were ready to move on to running a motor. It was the same setup - battery and two wires - but this time instead of a bulb, we had a tiny motor to power up. At first it didn't work : / which was incredibly disappointing. But I gave it a couple of taps and then spun the shaft sticking out of it with my fingers and it took off running! That meant we could go to the next step - adding a pinwheel - woo hoo!

LUNCHEON: This afternoon, Rick and a couple of his Americorps co-workers stopped by for lunch. The three of them work as tutors at a Seattle elementary school.

In preparation for their visit, Annabelle helped me make a 7-layer dip. It was delish. :)

As everyone was lunching, Rick's friend Suzy told CJ and Annabelle that at summer school this week, they asked the kids to think up/create an animal that is two different animals combined. Suzy asked CeeJ and Bee what animals they'd combine.

I was shocked when CJ IMMEDIATELY responded, "A rhinoceros and a fish." For whatever reason, that struck us all as pretty damn funny and we all busted out laughing.

I was surprised for two reasons: 1) CJ was actually listening to the conversation/question and 2) He usually is so slow to answer to kind of nonsense questions (he's a concrete type of guy).

Suzy asked him what the animal's name would be and he said a "Rhish." More laughter ensued.

I asked CJ why he chose those animals and he explained that he thought it was something no one else would say. Very interesting.

Bee's hybrid animal was a cross between an elephant and a zebra. It was called an "ebra."

LOGGERS: As regular MPA readers know, the Seattle Public Library system is offering its summer reading program again this year. If the kids fill out a log with 10 books they read, they get free passes to the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, on the UW campus.

So today, before we returned some books, I had the kids list them in their log.
A couple of the books we read today were "America Is" (a wonderful, poetic, patriotic picture book) and David A. Adler's "Fractions, Decimals and Percents" (I think it's good to just read/talk about math concepts instead of just doing worksheet after worksheet).

INTO THE DRINK: It was nearly 80 degrees today and the kids have been jonesing to go the (outdoor) Magnolia pool. Tonight there was a public swim from 6:35 to 8 p.m. and so Christian took the kids. It's the first time they've been swimming since our swimmingly wonderful Florida trip.

Though it's nothing remotely close to the awesomeness that was the Nickelodeon water park in Orlando, FLA, the kids enjoyed the pool's slide. Below are pix of Bee and CJ at the slide's bottom.