Mummies and More

MUMMY DISCRIMINATION: I can count on CJ for at least one out-of-nowhere question a day. This particular day, I didn't have to wait long. Before 8 a.m. he asked me, "Why don't they make Yummy Mummy any more?"

Me: "Huh what?"

Him: "You know, Yummy Mummy - the cereal."

I have to admit, it didn't ring a bell. I said, "You mean like Count Chocula and Boo Berry and FrankenBerry?"

He said that was it.

I remember Count, Boo and Franken from my childhood, and for the past couple of years, that trio of cereals has popped up on local grocery store shelves around Halloween only. (We always buy it, but the only one the kids really like is Count Chocula, which is why there's no box of that in the photo above.) But Yummy Mummy - hmm ...

After a couple of seconds of Web sleuthing, I found Yummy Mummy and only then did it look and sound vaguely familiar.

Of course the real question is, how the hell did CJ know about a cereal that was made from 1987 to 1993 (10 years before he was born)? I may never know.

I did find on Wikipedia's page about the monster-themed cereals that there was also a Fruit Brute.

OVER THE RAINBOW: Right out of the gate this a.m. CJ asked, "How are rainbows born?" I know we've had this conversation before. I reminded him that it's light reflecting off water in the air. He wasn't satisfied with that. "How do the colors happen?" he pressed.

Mercifully, BrainPop has a video about rainbows, and so we watched that. It did a good job of explaining to the kids that while sunlight looks white, it's really a mix of a spectrum of colors (Roy G Biv). Mix them together and you get white light. And the colors we see in a rainbow are actually our brain's interpretation of waves at different lengths and frequencies.

The kids also learned that a prism is a transparent solid object with some angles. When white light passes through a prism, the colors are bent differently depending on their wavelength (this process is refraction).

People only see rainbows when the sun is behind you, bouncing off prisms in the air in front of you. Since a rainbow is an optical effect rather than an actual object, you really can't reach the end of it, and you'll never find that pot of gold (darn it!).

POLLEN-NATION: As I thumbed through a National Geographic magazine this morning, I came across some stunning macro photography of tiny particles of pollen.

I wanted to share the photos with the kids, so I asked them what they knew about pollen. Both had heard of it and associate it with bees and flowers. I told them that some flowers are self-pollinating - they don't need the bees' help, and that there was another way pollen gets spread. They ventured a few guesses and after a few misses CJ finally hit upon wind as a way to disperse pollen.

One of the photos showed pollen grains stuck on stigma of a geranium. I wanted the kids to have an appreciation of how much the photo had been magnified, so I grabbed a couple of beautiful blossoms from an anniversary bouquet on the counter and let the kids dig in (anything for science, right?). They certainly couldn't see any microscopic pollen, but we did ID some flower parts.

The photos showed pollen that looked like planets, cacti, sponges, sea creatures and more. It was an amazing reminder of all the tiny, amazing things we share Earth with but that are invisible to the naked eye.

COMING SOON: I received an email from Seattle Theater Group letting me know that the presale tickets for Video Games Live go on sale Friday. w00t! CJ started jumping for joy when I told him.

I explained the concert's not until January; he was OK with that. Some things are worth waiting for. (Ignore the first 8 seconds or so of this trailer):

MR. SMARTIES PANTS: There was a breakthrough in the afternoon science class I forgot to report yesterday. It had nothing to do with science, but I think it worth mentioning nonetheless. ...

About a third of the kids were late to class yesterday. Before the stragglers arrived, the teacher chose to award the on-timers with a Smarties candy (you know, those tart little sugar tablets).

We've experienced that 'reward' once before, and it caused CJ to blurt out "I don't like Smarties!" which is very true, but sounded incredibly rude at the time. (A 'no thank you' would have been much more appropriate!) Naturally after that not-so-Smarties incident, we had a Talk.

So Wednesday, when the Smarties jar made its return, I sat in the back of the class, cringing, wondering what would go down. I was hoping CJ would remember to say, "Thanks, but no thanks." He didn't. Instead, he accepted the Smarties. (Surprise!) I watched him study it and press it to his lips and I heard Annabelle ask for it (she sensed an opportunity). I quit studying him at that point, assuming he'd hand it off. But apparently he slipped it in his mouth and chewed it. And almost immediately he started squirming in his seat, he covered his mouth with his left hand and his right hand shot up and he waved it wildly.

The teacher called on him and he asked (through clenched teeth), "Can I go get a drink of water?" She said yes and he shot over to the drinking fountain.

So it wasn't exactly a smooth and graceful Smarties experience, but it was better than the first go round.

AND ALSO: I neglected to mention the kids finally checked out the playground at their Shoreline campus yesterday. It's a throw back. There's a spider-like steel climber that looks like it was welded by parent volunteers.

There are old school metal swinging circles/rings for the kids to try to swing across. There's a balance beam that looks very homemade, and an old steel dome for climbing. In other words, it's the antithesis of the mondo-plastic, bright colored playgrounds of today, which makes it all new and novel to the kids.

SPACE CASE: Yesterday at the Shoreline library we scored a copy of Space Case, a book by brothers Ed and James Marshall. It was perfect for Halloween because the story is about an alien who shows up on Halloween and tags along trick or treating.

After we read it, Annabelle informed me she and CJ have seen a video of the book before. I'm guessing it must have been on a Reading Rainbow DVD.

EAGLE EYE: CJ got the latest copy of "Nintendo Power" in the mail today. While flipping through it he blurted out, "Hey, why are there X Box games in 'Nintendo Power'?"

I thought, "Good question, CJ," since Xbox and Nintendo are big rivals in the gaming world. Turns out it was in an ad for Blockbuster game rentals and in the background were all sorts of games, including Xbox.

ON DISPLAY: This afternoon we went to Albertsons to turn in Annabelle's coloring contest entry. Before we left home she started talking about what the prizes for winning might be. I stopped her there and explained a few things to her about how contests involving subjective judging go down. For example, I told her lots of people will do a technically good job, but there will be differences in the colors they used and where they used them. For instance, Annabelle's pumpkin is pink. If the judge's favorite color is pink, that could help her. If the judge thinks all pumpkins should be orange, she's toast. That kind of thing.

I told the kids it never hurts to enter contests (you can't win if you don't play!), but they should never get too personally, intellectually or emotionally invested in such endeavors.

There were dozens and dozens of entries hung up all over the store. Annabelle was very proud to add hers to the colorful collection.