In like Flynn

AMAZING GRACE: Before 8 this morning, the kids were playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl (what? that's not what YOU do before breakfast?). The game has a great soundtrack - very nuanced, with wonderful orchestral/operatic qualities. At one point Annabelle said to CJ,"This is a more graceful theme."

"What do you mean 'graceful'?" he countered.

At a loss for words, Annabelle decided to dance. "Like this!" she said, doing some ballet-esque leaps for him.

TO THE TEST: We here at MPA have loads of fun and love student led learning, but, by god, I want my kids to know how to do math. And since I don't really picture them beseeching me to learn math, this is going to be a teacher led part of their education.

To that end, this morning I went online and started poking around looking for standardized math tests for second graders. Not surprisingly, the magical Internets had a boatload of info for me. One of the things I discovered was a Michigan-based Math Test Generator. It's cool you can choose your grade level and choose the type and quantity of questions you like and it generates a very official like PDF test for you. Nice! We did a few problems from that, but we spent most of our morning math hour working on addition and subtraction of triple digit numbers. I asked the kids to keep these things in mind - do it right, do it fast (which really means don't dilly dally) and do it quietly. They managed to follow those guidelines for the most part.

Also, instead of just giving them problems to solve, I had them copy problems down from the white board. I wanted to do this to underscore how important it is to copy numbers correctly and how important it is to keep those numbers in the proper columns because if you don't, you're screwed.

After the + and - I introduced <>. They've solved word problems involving greater than/less than before, but I don't think they've seen the symbols before. I told them the way I have always thought of the symbol is as an open mouth, and the mouth always wants to talk to the bigger number. They picked up on that right away.

SEATTLE INK: I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that most K-2 grade Seattle students did not go on a field trip to a tattoo parlor this afternoon. Well, MPA kids are not most students ...

Several weeks ago, we met a mother and daughter during a jaunt to Discovery Park. We've had one play day together and have communicated a few times since. The mother asked if perhaps I'd be interested in an "educational outing" - supervising my kids and her daughter while she got a tattoo. My answer - of course!

So we met today at a supercool tattoo studio on Capitol Hill. It was in a basement space, but it didn't need windows - there was enough awesome artwork adorning the walls to feast our eyes upon. They also had a mini store in there with vintage comics, old albums and toys. The kids were in heaven. :)

Truth be told, we spent little time in the parlor. Mostly, we roamed Capitol Hill. Fortunately, gorgeous Cal Anderson Park (named as one of the nation's best parks by Forbes) was just a few blocks away, and it was a lovely, sunny afternoon. The park was busy, as always.

The park sits atop one of the city's water reservoirs. As you might imagine, there are some cool water features in the park, including a water volcano and a big reflecting pond. After the water, we hung out in the playground for awhile - until it was besieged by about 100 kids from a nearby school. There was no way I wanted to try to keep track of 3 kids amidst that crazy scene, so I shepherded us to the west edge of the park, with the homeless people. It was much easier to keep tabs on the 7 & under set there. ;)


Mercifully, I had a bag o' tricks with me and over on the west side, we blew thousands and thousands of bubbles, and then the kids went (harmless) graffiti artist, decorating a rock with some original artwork.

It had been about 2 hours since we checked in on the tattoo parlor, so we went back. We found it to be a work still in progress, and we had another half hour to kill. So, we wandered (doing the can can part of the way) down to a mini market, bought some cool drinks and snacks, and found a shady spot on a sidewalk to partake.

It's amazing what can occupy kids. I showed them how to make 'leopard spots' in their skin by pressing their hands on the exposed aggregate concrete. I also explained what exposed aggregate concrete is and how it's made. :) We also found some cool spiky green pod/burr on the sidewalk and made some sculptures from the burrs. We're pretty sure they're from Mars. ;)

Eventually we made our way back to the tattoo parlor. We still had a little time to kill, so I brought out the markers, chalk and construction paper and the kids and I did some crafting.

MORE MATH: Tonight, we went to one of our favorite places for dinner, Hattie's Hat. It was the whole fam damily - we four and Rick and Ken. So that was nice.

I brought a couple of math worksheets with us. Annabelle chose to draw instead, but CJ was up for a multiples of 5 challenge. He read the directions completely by himself and completed the worksheet. Biggest bro Rick checked his work and Voila! - A+ for CJ!

FAMILY BAND: After dinner, we all convened in Magnolia for a (Wii) Rock Band session. It was fun, as family members took turns singing, drumming and strumming. Kennedy is the drum major, for sure. Annabelle was very thrilled with her "flawless" scores on the super easy setting of vocals.

The only song CJ was interested in singing was "The Final Countdown" as the dramatic score is a backtrack of many of the video game videos he watches on YouTube. He nailed it. :)

SIGNED, SEALED: Yesterday afternoon we dropped off paperwork in Shoreline School District for their Alternative Learning Environment, Home Education Exchange, after openings for our kids seemingly miraculously materialized.

I have been waiting for the call or email that says, "Oh, sorry, there's been a mistake." Instead, today, I got an email from our new Student Learning Plan Consultant, followed by an email from someone else with our family's login to the system. So there you have it. We're IN! I see this as a medium-sized miracle.

This evening we got our kids and their student learning plans updated in HEE's very user friendly interface. Our accounts already show up in their database a surplus as far as $$$ for educational endeavors (yes!!!!). And within a couple of days we should be able to sign up for a class or two at their center (tho we're late to the game for this quarter).

It will be interesting to see where this open door leads us!