Let's Play

Please note - In this a.m. performance (above), the part of Bunny is being played by Turtle

ANGRY: Via a Facebook post, I learned that anger is the topic of Brain Pop Jr's (free!) movie of the week. CJ had (very uncharacteristically) been a little snippy with Annabelle yesterday, so I thought we might as well avail ourselves to it.

The short video talked about why people get angry, how you can tell when others are angry, suggestions about what to do when you're angry or what to do when you've made someone else angry. Good life skills stuff, really.

Afterward, the kids had a blast completing the suggested accompany activity - writing a skit "where one person gets angry and deals with it in a healthy way. Then, act it out."

I had them choose one of the IKEA finger puppets strewn across my desk. Bee opted for a bunny, CJ a shark. Their play's setting, per the kids: "Bunny's house, during a sleepover. The shark is in his tank."

Here's the script they came up with, dictating it to me. (Annabelle scripted Bunny's lines, while CJ wrote for Shark).

Bunny: Where's my carrot sandwich?
Shark: Uh. That was good, what I ate.
Bunny: Did you eat my carrot sandwich?
Shark: Yes, I did. I'm sorry I ate your carrot sandwich.
Bunny: Yeah, but I'm still hungry.
Shark: Sorry about that. Um, I hope I can make this ... (slicing sounds)*.
Here it is - a carrot sandwich.
Bunny: Yeah! I love you!

*(Yes, CJ actually said "slicing sounds" parenthetically. Too funny!)

Tonight they performed it for Christian, complete with the new wooden "action!" board we scored at Value Village today for $2.

SHUTTLE SIGHTINGS: I keep forgetting to post about recent space shuttle sightings we've had. At Seafair this past weekend, the Museum of Flight had a booth. They're currently conducting a huge push to bring one of the retired shuttles here. In their booth, the kids got to 'ride' a shuttle. Perhaps a little overwhelming after having walked inside the real thing at Kennedy Space Center. ;)
And a couple of weekends ago, as we were driving on Mercer, we happened upon the lineup to the Seafair Torchlight Parade. Fortunately, when a light turned red on us, we found ourselves stopped next to the Museum of Flight's float - a space shuttle!

DOT DOT DOT: "What does three dots at the end of a sentence mean? CJ asked me this morning.

I told him it's kind of like a "to be continued," that there's more to the thought.

"Could it mean someone's worried?" he asked.

I told him it could. I then informed the kids that three dots used that way is called an ellipsis. "Kind of a weird word, isn't it?"I asked.

"You used alliteration!" Annabelle pointed out.

Ah, my little grammar geeks. :) STRINGING THEM ALONG: Another Value Village score today - a full set of real wood beads for stringing by Melissa & Doug, whose products are really great, but usually fairly spendy. In fact, I found our set on the M&D Web site. It retails for $16.99. We paid $2.99 - w00t!

The kids spent about an hour playing with the beads and strings. CJ fashioned a Mario vs. Wario design (careful to incorporate the characters' colors), and Bee worked on two projects. One that reads "Bee ♥♥♥♥♥♥s MOM" and another for a birthday gift. Plus, there are still lots of beads left over for future projects. We definitely got our $3worth out of the set! Oh, how we ♥♥♥♥♥♥ Value Village.

MULLING MILLIONS: This morning's reading was "How Much is a Million?" by David M. Schwartz. (Now that I think about it, it doubled as a math lesson, too!)

In its pages we learned that if we wanted to count to a million, it would take about 23 days. I asked the kids if they wanted to try it. They both declined.

We also learned that a bowl big enough to hold a million goldfish would be big enough to fit a whale in.

The book is a great example of how a non fiction book all about math and still manage to be very entertaining and engaging. I really think the more books like this kids see at an early age, the better.

KICK UP HER HEELS: Today at noon Seattle Parks & Recreation registration for fall classes opened. I was online, ready to commit. ;)

I signed Bee up for Pre-Ballet III, which she'll be doing Monday afternoons come September. I also signed her up for a several session long soccer workshop. In recent weeks, she has been asking to join a youth soccer or baseball team. I'm very glad she's interested in sports, but I have to admit, that given our schedule and her age (she's only 5), I'm not quite ready for once (or more) a week practices, plus a game every Saturday that signing up for a league very well could entail. So, our compromise is a once-weekly session (Thursday afternoons). According to the course description: Players will learn dribbling, passing, receiving, shooting, age-specific defense, etc. Fun skill games are played at every session, and every participant will have a ball at his or her feet. Small-sided soccer matches will be introduced gradually."

Sounds reasonable. Bee's got her pink shinguards (from a garage sale), so she's ready to go. It starts Nov. 18 (which sounds far away, but will be here before we know it).

CJ is choosing not to do soccer. Or ballet.

BATTY: For whatever reason, this afternoon Annabelle was wondering how bats eat. She wondered if they grabbed food with their "hands" at the end of their wings. I told her I thought not, but wanted to show her something more concrete.

For answers, we turned (of course) to the Internet. We found a video from Discovery New's "Why? Tell Me Why@" series about bats. We learned about their evolution and how some of their body parts work. For instance, that bats are related to lemurs, but somewhere along the line, their fingers fused and they developed wings. Bats use their thumbs to hang on to branches, where they live - they do NOT stand - they don't have the muscle structure for it. They have a special valve that stops the blood from flowing to their heads while they're hanging. Bats are the only mammal that takes to the sky on flapping wings. (Why I'd never realized that before, I'll never know.)

We also resourced Animal Planet's Web page on bats, which taught us about echolocation.

PARK PITSTOP: I promised the kids that today we could go to a park we'd never been to before. We wound up at Soundview Playfield, just west of the borderline between Ballard and Crown Hill. An expansive place covering 10.5 acres, there are multiple baseball and softball fields, and soccer and football fields.

There's also a play area that is probably a real gem in a summer with no budget cuts. You see, the large and lovely wading pool area was nothing but a sea of concrete. I'll bet it's a beauty and bustling when it's open - it's surrounded by several cool, mosaic covered columns and the park has lots of shade and places to picnic. (In checking the city's Web site, they only fill the wading pools when it's 70 and above. This afternoon was very sunny - clear blue skies - and 69 degrees.

The park's play structures aren't much to shout about. We only hung around about a half hour. Before we left, the kids rolled down a couple of hills. They are novices at hill rolling, and wound up going mostly sideways.

THE TRUTH HURTS: Today marked our second jaunt with training wheel-free kids out in the great wide open. We took the paved path down to Terminal 91 - on the south shore of Magnolia. The kids are embracing their new speed and freedom. We made the quickest trip down there we've made since the kids were in strollers - a long time ago. Christian and I were both winded at the turnaround point. ...

On the way back, Christian and Annabelle were in the lead, while I ran alongside (well, mostly behind) CJ. Sweet boy that he is, he kept looking back. I presumed he was checking on me to make sure he didn't get too far away from me. ...

Then, on about his 25th check he innocently says to me, "Why can't you keep up?"

In my head, my immediate response was, "Well, because I'm old, overweight, have a bad hip and a bleeding ulcer ..." However, what I said to CJ was, "Because you're so darn fast, CJ! Good job!"

And then I told him to ride on ahead. :)