Spring Break

This image came to me via an email from The Learning Network, a fantastic service for educators from The New York Times. The photo is of students enjoying spring break in Daytona, April 1972. Awesome, isn't it? :)

What do you suppose they're listening to? Could be Neil Young's Harvest, the best selling album of 1972 ("Heart of Gold" was its most famous single). Or maybe they're still listening to Led Zeppelin IV, '71's best selling LP that has gone platinum 20-times over since then. But I digress. ...

The point I was going to make is that while many are enjoying spring break away from all things academic, we here at MPA are taking no such vacation. It's hard enough for CJ to get back into the swing of things when we don't do a single worksheet on Saturday or Sunday. I shudder to think how flummoxed he'd be with a week-plus layoff.

KNOW WHEN TO FOLD 'EM: To help us get into a listening-and-following-directions frame of mind, I thought it would be good for the kids to take on an ActivityTv tutorial. Annabelle lobbied for an origami swan, so that's what we chose. (We viewed the tutorial via Comcast's OnDemand feature, but it's also available on ActivityTV's Web site, here.)

It was a good project for origami rookies and the kids were both pretty pleased with and proud of their swans.

IMAGINE THAT: In my email inbox this morning was a lovely photo of Annabelle that a graphic artist had found on Morguefile (a repository where people park digital photos they're OK with other people using for projects or whatever).

Anyway, the artist had taken a photo I'd shot of Annabelle running through shallow surf at Discovery Park well over a year ago. I love what she did with it - it's gorgeous!NIMBLE FINGERS: Today via the Seattle Homeschool Group email list I'm on, I was made aware of a Web site with a plethora of typing tutors/teachers/games listed. What a goldmine! Annabelle chose to play a game called barracuda. The challenge was to type words as they appeared underwater, before some sea creature came and ate 'em. You can set the game to flow at slow, medium and fast speeds. It was a bit too difficult for her, even on the slow speed and she got a little Nervous. So we'll try another game on another day.

JUST FOR FUN: Annabelle drew a picture today of one of the kids' favorite cartoon/video game characters, Kirby (a round pink thing). What I loved most about her picture is that she (of her own volition) wrote the word NOUNS on the sheet and drew an arrow pointing to the elements (a person, place, or thing) in the picture that are nouns. Go Annabelle!

EARTH HOUR REVISITED: We studied up on Earth Hour on Friday, and come Saturday evening, it was observation time.

At about 8:10 we started our walk up, up, up to Ella Bailey park, at the top of Magnolia. From there, we'd have a great view of the Space Needle, which we knew was going to be participating. We hoped we'd see lights all over downtown go dark. At 8:30, the lights on the Mariners' and Seahawks' stadiums went dark, as did the Needle, and presumably some other homes and businesses.

Here's a "before" Earth Hour photo - you can see the Space Needle at the left and the stadiums (especially the green arches of Qwest) at the right are all lit up.
Imagine our surprise that at the very moment the Space Needle went dark, a fireworks show started over Elliott Bay. As it turns out it was not an Earth Hour celebration, just a happy coincidence (the fireworks were for a construction company's celebrating its 100th anniversary).
In the photo above, you can make out the silhouette of the Space Needle to the left and the fireworks at the right, over the water. The stadiums, now dark, are harder to spot.
We stayed up at the park for nearly the full hour. Christian got some charcoals going in a barbecue and we made s'mores. We started walking home at about 9:25 and on our way back down the hill, we watched the Space Needle and stadium lights come back on.

For some really fantastic photos of Earth Hour around the world, check out this link on Boston.com. In many instances, you can click on the dramatic before photo and it magically changes into a dark, during Earth Hour shot.

Also, I found footage of the fireworks show we saw on the West Seattle Blog. If you listen to the video, partway in you can hear sea lions barking their protest or alarm at the fireworks. Funny!

Earth Hour Eve

ALLEY CATS: This morning we walked down to our alley to make the one block trek to music. As soon as we got to our herb planter box, Annabelle exclaimed, "I see a snail!"

"Really?" I asked (a bit skeptical). I've seen around a gazillion slugs in the PacNW in my lifetime, but never a garden snail. But sure 'nuff, Bee was right. How she spotted it is a mystery to me. It was significantly smaller than a penny and its shell the color of the dirt it was sitting in.

After appreciating the snail for a whole 30 seconds, we continued northbound, toward the music studio. But we didn't get more than 20 feet further before encountering another oddity. This time it's a dead, half eaten fish lying in the alley. What mades this even oddity-er is that a week ago (on music day) we say another dead fish, same size, same species (about 4 to 5 inches long, very flat and silver), in damn near the exact same place we saw a fish the week before.

All I can figure is that some sea bird dropped it/them. (We live right between Puget Sound less than a mile south and the Ballard Locks less than a mile north. Hundreds of fish-eating birds fly overhead daily.)

LITTLE STARS: Marvelous Musikgarten ended with a fun activity today. Teacher Nancy had a big (6-foot diameter) circle of elastic with a total of 10 safety pins attached, the pins alternating gold and silver in color. The kids and parents were instructed to hold onto a pin and take turns walking into and out of the middle of the circle. So, for instance, on the line "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" the silver would go in and the gold would stay out and the result was the elastic formed a big star. On "How I wonder what you are," the gold would head in and the silver would back out, and another star would form. Pretty cool choreography! : )

IT'S A JUNGLE IN HERE: OK you gardeners out there. Give some neophytes a (green?) hand. Our peas and beans are growing like CrAzY. You can barely see the poor Elvii amongst the jungle. (Can you find 'em all? There are three - Young Elvis, '68 Comeback Special Elvis and Aloha from Hawaii Elvis.)

So can I/dare I move these things outside now? I'm thinking it's still early, but what do I know?

HOUR OF NO POWER: Tomorrow, March 27, it's time for international Earth Hour. As explained on the Earth Hour's kids' Web site, it's an event where millions of people from around our globe "will come together to take a stand to protect our planet against a problem called climate change. They will do something quite simple - turn off their lights for just one hour and show that one person can make a difference and millions of people working together can change the world."

I started our lesson off by showing the kids this absolutely magical video made to promote Earth Hour. (Make sure you click on/flip the switch in the lower lefthand corner while the video's playing!)


The kids were all in for Earth Hour after watching the video. :)

The event's kids' site is really wonderful. First, we watched an animated slideshow 'hosted' by a World Wildlife Federation climate change expert. Next, we utilized one of the comprehensive lesson plans (K-2 in our case) offered to learn about Earth Hour. In a kid-friendly format it presented information about energy consumption and its effect on climate change, including a really clear, age appropriate explanation of the greenhouse effect. There was also a maze and a bingo-type game to help raise awareness about energy used by household items and transportation modes. The kids had lots of fun with that, and they learned a thing or two, too!
Another activity asked them to list five ways to make Earth Hour "a night to remember." Of course, their ideas had to be things that wouldn't require electricity or gasoline. Together they came up with: 1) Play with Toys; 2) Play outside; 3) Use candles; 4) Use campfires; 5) Trun (sic) lights off.

We talked about these ideas and more, and our tentative plan is to walk up to Ella Baily Park (atop Magnolia) just before 8:30. The park affords a stunning view of downtown Seattle. We know the Space Needle and Pike Place Market are on board for Earth Hour. Hopefully there will be enough others to make it dramatic come 8:30. And unless it's pouring rain, we're going to stay at the park for awhile and use one of the barbecues there to roast marshmallows and make s'mores!

SWEET, SWEET VICTORY: Today will go down in the annals of MPA history as a great accomplishment for CJ.

After two or so weeks of practicing, playing, planning and plotting, it's the day he beat Kirby Superstar Ultra.

Really, the tenacity with which he has approached this goal has been pretty impressive. He's been patient, disciplined (he gets a half hour a day, tops to play), and logical. He's studied written and video analysis, applied what he's read and seen (and based on what I've read and seen along with him, beating the 'True Arena' in the game is a damn hard thing to do).

I assure you, I don't think beating a video game is remotely the be all/end all, but I think that the types of learning and tactics he used to do so = good stuff that could positively be applied to other areas of his life. So CJ, I salute you! :)

RUNAWAY: Though most of the day had been gray and dreary by the time Christian got home 'round 5 p.m., it was sunny out and was good jogging weather. Before we even walked out the front door, Annabelle was insisting she wanted to run along with us rather than sit in the jogging stroller. Naturally, we said that was fine - in fact it's great - but I pushed her empty stroller along, certain she'd poop out on us within a couple of blocks.

But run she did. She ran and ran and ran, darn near all the way from our house to Lawton Elementary, about a mile and a third. Granted, it's not the NYC marathon, but I think that's pretty good for a 5 year old. She only took one break, for one block.

I had to laugh at one point, because as Annabelle was huffing and puffing to keep up with us and Kirby, CJ was sitting in a stroller, enjoying the scenery. At one point he even started muttering something about wanting some Reeses Peanut Butter pie. There's so much, so wrong with that ...

When we got to Lawton, Christian and the kids played basketball while Kirby and I walked some more. At one point, we had a cool bird's eye view of our trio.

FYI, Annabelle also ran all the way home. As much as she and I love pretty shoes, if she's going to keep this up, we need to get that girl some running kicks! ;)

TODAY'S "SAY WHAT?!?!" This morning, as Mr. Smarty Pants was cutting out pictures of energy-sucking icons on an Earth Hour activity worksheet I'd printed out, he protested, "Homework kills trees, and we need trees to live!"

Nice try, CJ.

Actually, his first 'funny' of the day was pre-dawn, as he was watching a Pokemon cartoon. In it, the human hero is named Brock and he's a bit, well, sappy, when it comes to the ladies. Brock was mooning over some girl and CJ bemoaned, "Brock, this is no time for marriage!" Then he turned to me and said with disdain, "Every time he sees a woman he falls in love with it." :0

I agreed with CJ, but did, of course, inform CJ that the proper pronoun would have been her.

Tiny Dancer

ON HER TOES: Today was one of those rare occasions where family gets to sit in on ballet class. When I told CJ it was a viewing day, he replied, "I'll be happy to watch it - even though I'm a boy." Super. ; )

As it turns out, CJ sat silent and rapt the whole 45 minutes. (Books he'd brought along in case he got bored sat untouched next to him.) I was pretty darn entertained, too.

I was so, SO pleased at the progress Annabelle has made since the last time we got to watch. Her attention to detail was remarkable. Case in point: the photo leading this entry. All of the kids were just sitting on the floor and their teacher hadn't given them any specifics about how to sit, but Annabelle sat the "right" way the whole time - straight legs, toes pointed, spine tall. (Can you pick her feet out in the photo above? I'll bet you can!)

And then when they were going through their exercises, she listened, kept her mouth shut (not an easy feat for that girl, believe-you-me), and again, her attention to detail was fantastic. For instance, she was almost always mindful of having 'ballet hands' no matter what they were working on.

For the last five minutes of class, the students get to don a frilly something they've brought from home and do a free dance. Once again, I was thrilled at Annabelle's progress. The vast majority of the girls in the class always wind up doing laps, running around the studio counterclockwise. In the past, Annabelle has been running right along with them. But today, she was definitely dancing and mostly to the music playing. ;) Let's roll the film ...

As we were on the way out, the teacher came up to me and said, "She's a good, strong student. Keep her dancing." :)

BOOK REVIEW: We read a couple of books from the Math Start series by Stuart J. Murphy, a visual learning specialist whose books attempt to teach math while they tell stories.

The first title we read was "It's About Time." The story followed a young boy through his day and noted what he was doing every hour on the hour, using both analog and digital clocks to show the time. The kids' favorite part was the child's fantastical dream-time adventures, which definitely had a "Where the Wild Things Are" feel to them.

Next, we read "Dinosaur Deals." According to the notes at the end of the book, its goal was to illustrate the math concept of comparative value - that "a certain number of one item can be equal in value to another kind of item."

The author chose to illustrate the concept by having the book's protagonist, Mike, go to a dinosaur card trading show. Are you thinking, "Huh? What's a dinosaur card trading show?" Well, that's what I was thinking. It seemed unnecessarily contrived. There are real-world situations that could have been used more effectively, I would think. (For instance, how about a family needing 5 pounds of produce for a fruit salad, and having to combine, add and subtract everything from strawberries to grapefruit to reach the correct weight?)

Anywho, Mike was trying to acquire a Tyrannosaurus card, and the holder of the T Rex card wanted 3 Allosaurus cards in exchange, so Mike had to make other trades to acquire the 3 Allosaurus cards from other dealers. Unfortunately, there were a couple spots in the book where the trades were hard to follow because of the layout of the illustrations and dialogue.

I'm a big fan of Murphy's body of work, but "Dinosaur Deals" missed the mark with me and my kids.
BOOK 'EM: While reading up on the Math Time series, I discovered that publisher Harper Collins (HC) has a lot of wonderful educational features on their Web site. There's a Listening Room, where you can hear HC books read by narrators, there are games with tie ins to popular children's books, printables (like mazes, bookmarks, word scrambles, etc.), online quizzes about HC books and characters and more. We spent about an hour on the site today, listening to stories and playing games. Good stuff!

MOMMY MATH: When I told the kids it was math time this afternoon, Annabelle replied, "How many worksheets do we have to do?"

"Can we do fun math?" CJ chimed in.

Hmm. Their questions kind of bummed me out. I did go grab a math book off the shelf, but instead of ripping out sheets and telling 'em to get after it, I asked them to join me on the couch, and we just kind of read the math book and talked about math. And yes, we did math, but I don't think the kids even suspected they were doing worksheets. :) It was a nice change, and we'll do it that way again, for sure.

SAY WHAAAAT?!?!: CJ, about 9 o'clock this morning: "Hey Mom, did you know once agents complete their mission, they can hang with a hot lady?"

"Um, oh, really?" I stammered. Of course, that was immediately followed by my asking, "Where did you learn that?

As it turns out, CJ hasn't been watching James Bond - though apparently the writers for Johnny Test, a cartoon CJ and Annabelle sometimes watch, have. CJ's comment aside, it's a pretty cute cartoon. Johnny has older twin sisters who are super geniuses and are always subjecting Johnny to experiments.

BONUS SHOTS: Here are a couple of extra ballet shots I took today ...

Bottles, Buoyancy & Brains

Good morning, sunshine!

HAPPY DANCE: CJ & Annabelle got their hearts pumping this morning by dancing to music by big brother Rick's band, Bottleshock, which has a bunch of photos and videos posted on their Facebook page.

When Annabelle heard "China Girl" she asked, "Is Rick singing that? Wow. He's a good singer!"

"Flagpole Sitta" always gets people up and moving and CJ and Annabelle were no exception. It was a fun way to start the day!

T-E-A-M-W-O-R-K: We debuted a new spelling list yesterday. It includes a few tricky words, such as the ridiculously-spelled "because" and "could." After they wrote them a couple of times, I had them stand up and spell the words in tandem. In other words, one would say b, then the other e, then c then a ... you get the picture.

It worked great - when they knew how to spell the word. ;) I think this particular list is going to take us longer than what has been a 3 day average to master.

PASS THE KETCHUP: It just felt like it was time for a hands on experiment today, so we hopped back to handy dandy ScienceBob and perused the experiment offerings. The Cartesian Diver - ketchup experiment grabbed my attention because a) CJ LOVES ketchup and b) I knew I had water, a couple of ketchup packets, and I just happened to have two clear 1-liter bottles sitting on my counter. A literally "just add water" experiment - yes!

As Science Bob explains, "This experiment is all about buoyancy and density. Buoyancy describes whether objects float or sink. This usually describes how things float in liquids, but it can also describe how things float or sink in and various gasses. Density deals with the amount of mass an object has."

I had the kids take the labels off their bottles and fill them with water. I gave CJ a ketchup packet from Burger King and Annabelle had one from McDonalds.

They squeezed the packets through the bottle opening, put the lids on their bottle and started squeezing. CJ's started sinking immediately. Annabelle's just floated on the surface. "Burger King wins!" CJ declared gleefully.

We swapped Annabelle's packet out with another Burger King one and voila! Hers started sinking and rising, as well. Success!

The reason the ketchup floats, explains ScienceBob, is because "there is a little bubble inside of the ketchup packet. As we know bubbles float, and the bubble in the ketchup sometimes keeps the heavy packet from sinking. When you squeeze the bottle hard enough, you put pressure on the packet. That causes the bubble to get smaller and the entire packet to become MORE DENSE than the water around it and the packet sinks. When you release the pressure, the bubble expands, making the packet less dense (and more buoyant) and, alas, it floats back up. This demonstration is sometimes known as a CARTESIAN DIVER."

Easy for Science Bob to say.

SPLASHDOWN: Another Wednesday, another pair of swimming lessons. Next week is their last lesson of this session and I didn't re-up. To me, it doesn't make sense to drive to and from Ballard twice a day to the same place, same pool. It should be one trip. Also, it is not a good use of our time to have CJ standing/bobbing by the side of the pool while the other 7 or 8 kids in his class do what the teacher tells them to do - one at a time. I can understand the need for the individualized instruction, because they have kids on every level in this one class. But really, that doesn't work well for anyone. (For instance, the advanced swimmers have to bide their time while CJ and another beginner level swimmer are blowing bubbles into the water. Bo-ring.)

So I'm thinkin' that after next week, hopefully either Christian or I can take the kids to a public swim once or twice a week and work with them. We'll see ...

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: MPA's account is on the short side today, as I was away from the computer for most of the evening. However, MPA was definitely still on my mind!

Tonight, Christian and I went to Seattle Town Hall hear a lecture by Dr. John Medina, a developmental molecular biologist, affiliate professor of bioengineering at the UW School of Medicine, and director of the Brain Center for Applied Learning Research at Seattle Pacific University. He's also author of "Brain Rules," a New York Times best seller.

The promo materials said Dr. Medina would "explain the 12 essential brain rules every parent needs to know. Learn what your child’s brain needs—as well as your own—to function well. Discover the critical parenting practices that set children on the path of lifelong happiness. Find out how wonder, curiosity, exercise, and stress shape the biology of the developing brain."

And that's pretty much what he did. It was insightful and inspiring and I took some notes, which I'll share tomorrow. Stay tuned. ;) In the meantime, you can learn lots more about Dr. Medina and his 'Brain Rules' science on his Web site and his blog and a Seattle Times interview with him, that is a micro version of the talk he gave tonight.

Spring Water

MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE: A couple of days ago, we began following the travels of The Plastiki, a 60-foot catamaran that gets 68 percent of its buoyancy from 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles. It set sail from San Francisco on March 20, bound for Sydney, Australia, on a mission to bring attention to the belief that "waste is fundamentally a design flaw" (one of many bullet points in The Plastiki's philosophy.

As of this morning, they were 4 days and 265 nautical miles into their 11,000-mile journey. The boat's mast is made of of recycled aluminum and its sail is recycled PET cloth . The project's Web site is AmAzInG. There's an especially cool feature where you can take a tour of a computer generated 3D model of the boat. The kids spent quite a bit of time exploring it this morning.

H2Oh!: Today is World Water Day so we spent most of the day learning more about the importance of water conservation.

According to National Geographic, nearly one billion people around the world don't have clean drinking water, and 2.6 billion still lack basic sanitation. It's estimated that by 2050, one-third of the people on Earth may lack a clean, secure source of water.

Through April 2, National Geographic has made available a special issue of "Water: Our Thirsty World" online. It's definitely worth taking a peek - even if you only have time to check out the great photos. Coincidentally (?) we received a hard copy of it in the mail today (we're NatGeo subscribers). We paged through it a bit and we'll be back to it in the days and weeks to come.

Next up: a Water Conservation for kids Web site from the Utah state government. There, the kids took turns reading water conservation facts aloud. Then we hopped to an online game from the folks at Seattle Public Utilities. Called Water Busters, it featured characters named Bert the Salmon and Phil Dumpster. In the game, you followed Phil around his home, trying to locate places water was being wasted. CJ LOVED this game. (Look out the window of the room Phil's in - you can see the Space Needle!)

For completing the conservation tasks, the kids were rewarded with a Waterbuster certificate, which we printed out. CJ was especially proud of his new status as "a top Water Smart student." We also printed out Bert & Phil's Waterbusters! checklist where kids are instructed to "find out how Water Smart you are by answering the questions below and counting the 'Yes!' answers for your score.' CJ took it upon himself to answer the 16 questions (which also involved peppering me with questions like how many gallons per flush our toilets are and if our shower heads are water efficient).
A Canadian Web site, EcoKids, had a number of fun and informative features, including a Water Conservation Around the House game. We also checked out the North Wales' (Pennsylvania) kids' water conservation Web site, where the Water Wizard was featured in a trio of games.

Water Use it Wisely's Kids' site had links to several water conservation activities and games, including The Water Family. A UK based Web site, the kids got a kick out of it - they got to create avatars to represent each of us, and then our family played out various water conservation scenarios.

The EPA had a list of links to water-related educational sites for kids we could spend the next couple of weeks exploring. For today, we limited ourselves to the Drinking Water & Ground water activities.

WISHFUL THINKING: The kids are still on a heightened dandelion awareness kick since reading "Dandelion Adventures" last week. Today during our Kirby walk/park outing they were actively seeking dandelion "wishes" - ones with parachutes ready to blow out into the atmosphere.

Also, grassy hills were just begging to be rolled down, and rocks were asking to be climbed.

SILLY STORY: While the kids were in yoga class, I popped over to the nearby Columbia City branch of Seattle Public Library system. There, I scored several DVDs and some books, including "What Do Parents Do? (when you're not home)."

The kids read the book (by Jeanie Franz Ransom with illustrations by Cyd Moore) on the way home from yoga and loved its silliness. Colorful illustrations show a mom and dad acting very kid-like in the absence of their children. They jumped on beds, ate huge quantities of horrible food, dressed up the dog, watched too much TV, and played too many video games (CJ's favorite part, as the TV in the illustration showed a Super Mario like character). Cute story.

Under Construction

POWER TOOLS: Today was not a normal day around the MPA campus. The entire main floor - where we spend 95 percent of our waking hours - is torn apart. We're putting a new hardwood floor down (a lovely cinnamon toasty maple) and that means we have to constantly shuffle and move things out of the way. EVERYTHING is in disarray and we're still in the midst of putting it down, which meant I had to juggle piecing and hammering with schooling. Which, of course, meant lots of worksheets!

Actually, it wasn't as bad as it sounds. The kids started off with some worksheets about maps - reading and using them. They both did great on that. Honestly, I credit the video games they play for that. On so many of the games they have to navigate through various communities or worlds - keeping track of directions, looking for landmarks and following paths is old hat to them. The map work was followed by some grammar (identifying nouns in a sentence).

Next, I had them break out their glockenspiels and we reviewed some of the songs they played during their music class last Friday. That was followed by about 15 minutes of them taking turns playing original compositions for one another.

Afterward, I got them away from the table and had them drill each other using addition flashcards. They had some fun with that and I think them asking each other the problems actually helps them learn the math.

After the flashcards, we migrated to the computer where they read along with four or five books online via the Seattle Public Library's BookFlix subscription. There were sequencing and vocabulary activities to go along with the books, so that kept them busy for about a half hour.

YARD BIRDS: A good bit of morning work under their belts, I told the kids to head out and enjoy the sunshine. They played on the grassy hillside, and probably went down the slide a couple dozen times apiece (while a concerned Kirby looked on).

After awhile they migrated to the alley and rode scooters (while a concerned Kirby looked on).

While they were outside, I whipped them up a very orange lunch. CJ thought it was amazing and that we should put the recipe on the Internet, so here it is: Cheddar cheese, Cheez-Its and carrots. ;)

The kids had an hour or so of free time this afternoon. Annabelle spent most of it painting. CJ spent most of it studying game tutorials on YouTube. No surprises there.

UFO SIGHTING: By 3 p.m. Christian and I desperately needed a break away from hard labor, hunching, kneeling, hammering and cursing. So we all set out for Ella Bailey park, about 7 (steeply uphill) blocks away.

We all love it there - the view of the sound, the Space Needle, the stadiums and downtown is breathtaking. However, what caught everyone's attention today was a big black floating object hovering over the park.

It had the words UFO Solar on its sides. I watched a guy set it up - it looked like a huge garbage bag. He held it over his head, opened one end of it, and let a gust of wind fill it up. He then tied off the end, tied a string to it, and I'm guessing the sunlight on the black plastic-y material heats it up enough to keep it aloft. It sure was a kid magnet. Every kid in the park ran toward/after it once it was aloft.

I went on YouTube and found a video posted by a guy who made his own solar UFO with 11 garbage bags and a couple of rolls of masking tape. Potential future MPA experiment!!!