Space Case

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY: Ten years ago today the crew of Expedition 1 became the first residents of the International Space Station (ISS). Since then, humankind has maintained a continuous presence in orbit aboard the ISS. The ISS has hosted 200 visitors and more than 600 experiments have been conducted. Fifteen nations have contributed hardware and modules to the ISS.

We watched a video about the ISS. To be honest, it was a little disappointing. A good part of it sounded like a pitch for more funding, which, of course, is important (no money = no space program), but it just seemed a bit off the mark for our little audience.

Fortunately, in past months we have watched several other really great videos about life and activity on the ISS, so the kids weren't completely bored by it. And we did find a fantastic International Space Station Interactive guide online. It's worth checking out.

To mark the anniversary we also read "The Amazing International Space Station," a book by the editors of "YES Mag" (a Canadian publication billed as "The Science Magazine for Adventurous Minds). It is a colorful book, and I appreciate their valiant attempt to keep the text cool, but I just didn't like how the authors kept calling astronauts and cosmonauts 'Nauts. I appreciate the fact that they were trying to come up with a generic that would encompass both astronauts and cosmonauts, but I've never heard them either of them called 'Nauts before. I think there's a reason for that - it sounds dorky. :)

DAY OF DISCOVERY: We have been watching the preparations for the launch of STS-133, space shuttle Discovery. It's the first shuttle mission since we watched Atlantis launched last May. Discovery was set to launch on Nov. 1, but it's been delayed three times now, by my count. It has been one thing after another (leaks, an electrical issue).

No doubt the crackerjack team at NASA will work through it all. When Discovery does finally launch, it will have a special passenger on board.According to NASA, "Robonaut 2, a dexterous, humanoid astronaut helper, will fly to the International Space Station aboard space shuttle Discovery on the STS-133 mission. Although it will initially only participate in operational tests, upgrades could eventually allow the robot to realize its true purpose -- helping spacewalking astronauts with tasks outside the space station." Image Credit: NASA

Isn't it funny how they made Robonaut 2 look buff/like a superhero?

M&M: We did math and music around midday. The kids are plugging along through Singapore Math with no trouble. We also did a few rounds of flashscard addition in the car on the way to yoga today. The kids can always figure out how to add, and have memorized many of the basic addition combos, but they'd be much faster if they remembered 8+7=15, 9+8=17, and a few others.

It was such a nice day here - the high temperature was 63 F- in November! We took the long way to music class and enjoyed the changing colors of the leaves.

During the with parents portion of Musikgarten we played an ensemble piece - half the room playing two notes, the other half playing another couple of notes. It actually sounded pretty good!

NICE SIZE: Today was our second visit to the big kids' yoga class. It's a really nice change. Instead of the dozen plus kiddos, the only ones in this class are CJ, Annabelle, their best yoga buddy and one other, older, girl. It's almost like a private lesson! The time isn't as convenient, and it makes a bad commute a little worse, but overall it's an improvement.

CJ SAYS: Tonight just before bed, the kids and Christian played "Simon Says." Gosh, it's been years since we've played that in this house. It was interesting listening to CJ be Simon. He came up with some good ones, like "CJ says, 'Pile and tickle.' CJ says, 'Lay on the floor and make a snow angel.'