The Sound of Silence

IN SERVICE DAY: Back when I was in elementary school (a long time ago in a galaxy far far away), there used to be "teacher inservice" days. It was a day when the teachers were at school - usually undergoing some kind of special training or prepping for report cards or conferences - but the students weren't on campus. These "in service" days almost always fell on a Friday or a Monday.

Well, today wound up being MPA's first "teacher inservice" day (and yes, "inservice" was one word). Christian took the kids to a post-funeral reception (one of his longtime friend's father died). Me, I stayed behind, trying to recover from a weird double whammy hybrid of what I think was a poisonous spider bite and some other kind of bug (the virus type).

Boy, was it quiet 'round here. I tried sitting down for awhile and even turned The Price is Right on but it went off pretty quickly. All the ads for mobility devices and prescription drugs and life insurance were bringing me further down.

I decided that it would be a good day to repot our rapidly growing peas and beans. A few minutes into the project, potting soil seemed to cover the entire kitchen, and I was thinking it was a crappy idea. (Seriously, why the hell did I do that inside? Stupid, stupid, stupid.)

So I repotted the veggies and then cleaned the kitchen. And the bathroom. And the other bathroom. And the couch (shampoo, the works). And I dusted and dusted and dusted. I even did some drywall and grout touch ups. It definitely was an "in service" day.

A funny aside - once, I had to stop by school on an inservice day to pick something up. I was in middle school. It was kinda freaky being there with no other kids around, and the hallways were deserted, not a teacher in sight. Of course, once I got to the school's courtyard, I found out why. The teachers were all out there, having a squirt gun fight.

ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING: While reading the Web site of Michelle Garcia Winner this afternoon (a speech/language expert who is doing ground breaking work regarding helping people for whom social thinking doesn't come naturally), I found a link to a video of a presentation given by Temple Grandin. It's called "The World Needs all Kinds of Minds."

Grandin was diagnosed with autism as a child. But she's hardly handicapped. Rather, she's a uniquely gifted woman. An expert on animal behavior, Grandin is renowned for designing humane handling systems for cattle processing facilities. (A movie based on Grandin's life was recently aired on HBO.)

The video from TED (a non profit devoted to "Ideas Worth Spreading") is of Grandin speaking at a conference. It's definitely worth a watch and listen. There's much to be learned from the amazing mind of Temple Grandin.

Taxing Situation

BOOK 'EM: CJ was itching to get at the computer today. More specifically, itching to get at YouTube. Instead, I directed him toward PBS Island, a great site for learning. (One of the neat features is you can track your child's progress toward meeting certain literacy goals.)

Naturally, once he got to the "island" he was quite happy there. He decided to use a book-creating feature there. By following prompts, "You got to change the words," he explained, which crafted the story's outcome.

In some cases, "They were action words, also known as verbs," Annabelle clarified for me.

CJ's book is titled "The Three Blue Pigs." It reads, "There once were three blue pigs. They built a brick bed. The Big Bad Spider tried to blow it down. He cried but it never fell down."

I guess bricks don't have much sympathy for crying spiders. :)

CJ carefully cut out his 6-page book and then (for the first time ever, I believe) used a paper punch to make holes for binding it.

GETTING TO KNOW GOVERNMENT: This morning I was working on our 2009 federal income taxes. The kids were curious what all the forms and Web pages and swearing were about ; ) so I explained to them that paying taxes is a civic duty and that we do it on order to maintain the "common good" stuff, like roads and parks and fire and police protection.

I was looking for a Web site to help demonstrate/explain taxes to the kids and came across DirectgovKids. It's a beautiful, bountiful virtual world to explore, and has lots of interactive activities and games that help users understand more about how government works. The Web site is U.K. based, but a lot of the concepts are similar as here in the U.S.

There is a community on the Web site, complete with a hospital, a city hall, a fire station, and Internet cafe (of course!) and school. The kids chose to explore the primary school first. There were several exercises to choose from, but they opted for one where they got to vote in a student council election. Before voting, CeeJ and Bee read each of the three candidates' "manifestos" and then decided whom to vote for. After their votes, the school was fast-forwarded one year and the result of the elected candidate's actions were revealed. Some changes were positives, others weren't. I thought it did a good job of demonstrating that outcomes aren't just black and white. It also helped the kids realize how important it is to know something about whom you're voting for - where they stand on the issues - and that there are long term ramifications resulting from the outcome of a vote.

Next, CJ chose to play "Petition Mission," where he had to collect signatures and then go through the steps to properly deliver a petition to a member of Parliament (it's Great Britain, remember?) so that it could be considered for enacting into law. He was pretty proud when he accomplished his mission. Annabelle played a rather complicated budget balancing game. She had X amount of tax dollars to apportion between different services. If you look at the screenshot closely, you'll see yellow happy faces - those represent the programs that feel they're adequately funded. The reddish orange orbs are not-so-happy faces, crying for more tax dollars.

Annabelle was getting frustrated, trying to keep everyone happy. I'm guessing politicians would tell her it was an accurate representation of the way things really operate.

Later, Annabelle used the DirectgovKids' site to write a fairy tale about a dragon, a prince and a princess.

OFFLINE: This reads like we spent all day on the computers 'round here. That's not entirely true. While today was more PC focused than usual, we did read a couple of books, talked a little math and did manage to go to ballet, the library and do the Magnolia Village stroll, too. And tonight after dinner there was a protracted period of charade shenanigans.

Gettin' Loose

This just in to the MPA newsroom at 7:44 tonight: Annabelle has her first loose tooth! Warning alarms have been heard sounding at Tooth Fairy Central.

Stay tuned for further developments!

MIME TIME: Still wearing her PJs this a.m., I caught Annabelle quietly going through some interesting poses. When I asked what she was doing, she explained she was being a mime.

(Hey, anyone out there besides me remember Shields & Yarnell? I couldn't help myself - I had to Google 'em and found out they're still at it. How 'bout that.)

ONLINE ADVENTURES: Looking for something new and different to do, I pointed my browser to Scholastic's Online Activities and Interactive Learning. I selected the Maggie's Learning Adventure option and found a couple of math exercises that looked good. I also spied a rather unfortunate typo:

Hmm. Maybe the misspelling is on purpose - just part of editing Dan's copy?

The kids each played "Dude's Dilemma" and "Around the World in 80 Seconds," testing their addition, subtraction and multiplication skills. It was fun and really great flash-card like practice.

FLOATING ON AIR: One of Annabelle's favorite things is balloons. She's constantly blowing them up and batting them around the house. This morning one of her balloons got away from her, landing on a plateau she couldn't easily reach. So she found some kind of rod laying around the house and used it to fetch her balloon. "Hey look! I made a simple machine!" She declared.

Later, we played "monkey in the middle" (a/k/a keep away) with the balloon.

SUM MOHR SPELLING: Today we debuted a new list of 26 frequently used words. I had the kids write them twice and then we did a pre-test spelling bee. They did great, with only a couple missteps. CJ, especially, was on fire. ;) I suggested if he got stuck, he try to write the word in the air with his finger. It really seemed to help him out.

PILING ON: Because we already have so many plant starts I don't know what to do with them, we decided the prudent thing to do would be to plant more stuff today. : /

But seriously, CJ had scored a pack of free seeds at Sky Nursery last week (thanks to a Jr. Gardener coupon), and we have to get those going. He chose a hybrid mix of sunflowers, so we'll see what transpires. Sunflowers are so showy - and I think kids, especially, love 'em because there's something sort of magical about a flower that's taller than you. : )

ONLY IN SEATTLE?: I get a daily email offering one hugely discounted Seattle activity a day (for instance, the helicopter ride I bought but we've yet to redeem). Today's special - trapeze lessons. That's right, you too, can be a circus freak, er, I mean circus artist!

Believe it or not, Seattle has not one, not two but at least three circus schools that I know about. Christian and I were talking about the circus school proliferation just this weekend, so I forwarded him the email. He replied that as a result of the email, the lines "He floats through the air with the greatest of ease, the daring young man on the flying trapeze," were going through his head all morning, and noted those are the only lines of the song he knows. I had to imagine those are the only two lines of the song most of us know. So, of course, I had to do some research. I found the Burl Ives version lyrics and it turns out the song's about the trapeze artist stealing a girl away from the songwriter: "He flies through the air with the greatest of ease, The daring young man on the flying trapeze, His movements are graceful, all the girls he does please, And my love he has taken away."

Turns out the 1868 song is about Jules Léotard, the famous French trapeze artist who made his music hall debut in 1861 in London's West End. These days, he's probably most famous for the attire he invented and which bears his name - the leotard.

(In case you're wondering, Léotard died at age 28 - but not from a trapeze fall. An infection did him in.)

GETTING HIS 'GOOGLE' ON: We recently bought three cacti, and CJ is mildly obsessed with them and cacti in general at the moment. This afternoon, he kept demanding to know how many types of cacti there are. "Is it dozens? Hundreds? Thousands?" Yes, probably, maybe ... I was elbow deep in something in the kitchen so I suggested he type in 'cacti how many types' as search terms and see what he could find out searching the Internet. The inquiry turned up dozens of articles, but as we scanned the first three or four, none of them came out and definitively said how many types there are. And the one that did stick in a number ranged from 200 to 2,000. Hmpf. Not very helpful. We'll have to dig deeper, clearly.

The real point of the story is, I do believe this marks the first time CJ has Googled something himself. He's performed similar operations (searching for a YouTube video about video games), but this is the first time he's flown solo on a WWW search. I suspect there will be lots more of this to come, as I'm trying to instill in them the fact that "don't know" isn't a very good answer. Much preferred is, "Don't know, but we can find out. ..."

$TORY $TARTER: I was going to use a Scholastic story starter today, but instead decided to use a line that had been rolling around in my head all morning, that being the Barenaked Ladies' "If I Had a Million Dollars." So when I had some 'alone' time with each of them during swimming lessons today, I asked them to write a couple of sentences about what they'd do if they had a million dollars. Annabelle wrote, "If I had a million dolers, I would buy toys. I would buy action figures for CJ." Sweet. :) Later in the day, during Annabelle's lesson, CJ wrote that if he had a million dollars, he'd buy three more Legendary Pokemon action figures (the ones he needs to complete his collection). Not a bit altruistic, but honest. ;)

Growing Up

MIND YOUR PEAS: First thing this morning, Annabelle exclaimed, "Look at the PEAS!!!!"

I could see why she was so excited - they appeared to have nearly doubled overnight. (They get much bigger and we're going to have to start stringing them up pretty soon!) And the beans are busting out all over, too - to the point we've got a bit of a problem. It's too early to put 'em in the ground, but I think they need bigger pots. So I guess we're going to have to do some kind of intermediary potting.


CJ's apple seed experiment continues to impress us, and Annabelle's watermelon seems to be off to a good start, too. No sign of tomato plants yet, but hopefully something's happening under that potting soil.



WORD UP: It was a little cold outside today, which meant it was a little cold on the main floor of the house too (our basement is still uninsulated, and that makes for a cold main floor on many days). So, we headed upstairs to do some word work - specifically spelling. They both aced the spelling bee we held. So tomorrow, it will be time for a new word list. Onward, upward!


RIGHTEOUS RAILROAD: Part of celebrating women's history month, BrainPOP Jr. is offering a video about Harriet Tubman, a hero of the Underground Railroad. We watched the animated biography twice, and then the kids took two comprehension tests. Fortunately, Super Fail didn't quite make it back, but CJ, especially, could have done a whole lot better on the test. I think I need to talk to CJ about test taking strategies.


One thing I learned in the film is that Harriet Tubman's name was not originally Harriet Tubman. She was born Araminta (Minty) Ross, in Maryland around 1820. Tubman was her married name, but apparently she also chose to change her first name around the time she married a free black man, John Tubman.

We talked about what it meant to be a slave, and how Harriet Tubman took huge risks and broke the law, and how sometimes breaking the law can be the right thing to do.

SPRING TRAINING: For get up/get out/get moving time today, we headed to nearby Bay View Park. The kids played on the playground for about a half hour while I walked Kirby. Then, we moved to the upper park, where the baseball field is.

Crews have been working hard to get the field ready for baseball season. It looked great. There's even a fully enclosed (netted) batting cage. The kids played in the cage for awhile before moving to the field for a simulated inning or two. We really need to remember to take a bat and ball and some mitts with us next time.

WHOOO: Tuesday is yoga day. One of the things the kids learned this afternoon is the owl pose, which Annabelle demonstrates here. I think perhaps it's called the owl because her head is turned around so far. ...

Ground Cover

HERE, FISHY FISHY: I woke up this morning thinking about steelhead. "Isn't March when the steelhead run?" I pondered. Seems like that was the case all the years I live in Clark County. Perusing the Internet, Christian found a chart that backed up my inkling (it showed February and March as the height of steelhead migration season at the locks). So we decided that today we'd take a field trip to the Hiram Chittenden Locks - a couple miles north of our home.

To date, we've always done the shove and shuffle to the locks (translation: Christian and I pushing CeeJ and Bee in strollers). Today, by god, I declared the kids were riding their bikes to and fro - about a 4 mile round trip (our route on the right, in blue).

We struck out in 40-degree temperatures, feeling the chill having been spoiled with nearly 60 degree temps this weekend. We got down to the Locks certain we'd see steelhead galore. Yeah, well, notsomuch. We didn't see so much as a fingerling of any sort. That said, it was still totally worth the trip. Since we were the only ones (and I mean The Only Ones) down at the Locks today, we were easily able to hear the educational audio tracks playing in the underground fish ladders.

On the way home we came across a crew of workers repaving a street near our home. We stopped to watch part of the process, including a roller, a double-trailered truck with hydraulic lifts, and the asphalt spreading machine. It was a fascinating, loud and stinky process. (I can't help worry/wonder about those workers breathing that all day long. That can't be good for you.)

BROWN-EYED GIRL: Annabelle has mentioned from time to time that her eyes feel "blurry" whe she's using the computer. So we thought it prudent, of course, to take her to an optometrist today to see how bad things are or aren't.

Christian took Bee to her eye appointment (she's 20-20, yay!) while CJ & I wandered the Capital Hill block. Happily, we discovered Red Balloon, a great toy store. Within the store was an m&ms station - featuring all sorts of "exotic" colors the kids have never seen before.

When we got home, we took stock of our exotic inventory, and found that we had purchased 14 different colors of m&ms. We made a list of each color and the kids ranked their favorites from 1 to 14. CJ's favorite was dark blue. Bee's was dark pink. Interestingly, both CeeJ and Bee's ranked yellow as their least favorite. Personally, I'd rank teal/aqua as my fave. Christian opted for maroon.

LET IT SNOW: One of the cool things we found at Red Balloon today was Insta-Snow, which says it expands 100 times its original size. I thought it an appropriate purchase since we actually had few hundred snowflakes fall today! It was a test tube with a mystery ingredient. Christian read the fine print and found out it is the same ingredient that are used in ultra absorbent disposable diapers. That took some of the magic out of it. ;)

After the toy store/eye appointment, we made it a point to stop by Cal Anderson Park - a spot we'd never been before. It was deserted in today's frigid temperatures, but it wasn't hard to imagine why Forbes called one of the nation's best parks in 2009. It's an expansive oasis in the middle of a very densely populated neighborhood full of condos and apartments.

CJ & Bee checked out the water volcano, and desperately wished it was upwards of 60 degrees out instead of in the 40s. In addition to the volcano, there were multiple large wading pools that I have to imagine are packed in the summer.

The kids checked out the playground equipment, and on our way out we found a pair of oversized chess boards.

GETTING HIS GEEK ON: We stopped by McMenamins in the Fremont neighborhood for a late lunch, early dinner. While there, because we're nerds, we were discussing the fact that Pi Day (3/14) is coming up. Using French fries, CJ provided a visual for us.

PUZZLE PEOPLE: I got an email today from http://www.download-jigsaw-puzzles.com/, letting me know he'd used a picture I took of an orangutan during a field trip we took to the Woodland Park Zoo recently. So, we gave the easy (100 piece) version of the jigsaw a shot.