Map and Mats

THEY DID THE MAP (THEY DID THE MONSTER MAP): It's been awhile since we've done a straight-up geography lesson, so I thought this morning would be a good time to break out the map-of-the-50 states jigsaw puzzle.

It's actually not the easiest puzzle to put together as the individual states' pieces don't have any tabs on 'em, they're just state shaped and slide all over the place. That being the case, I told the kids the HAD to do the border first, and once they'd done that, then work on finding the states that are on the Canadian and Mexican borders, and then fill in the middle.

Once they had our entire nation assembled, I suggested we play a game. We'd take turns choosing a state and then we'd give one clue about that state. For instance, I picked Florida and I said, "Oranges grow there," and the kids each took a guess. If there was no correct answer after the first round another clue was given until the correct state was guessed. This activity was made possible in large part by the fact that the map had icons on on them representing things each state was famous for (apples and salmon on Washington, for instance).

After the structured fun, CJ and Annabelle morphed into map-eating monsters and they set about deconstructing the nation one state at a time. It was a pretty protracted, involved game, and their reasons for eliminating states was interesting. (Texas was the first to go, in case you're wondering.)

EGBDF: When I went to the tail end of Musikgarten for parent participation time, I was happy to see that the kids were working with the musical staff. Teacher Nancy had a big one on poster board on the wall, and told us that earlier she'd had an even bigger one on the floor, made out of black straps and the kids got to be the "notes" hopping around from line to line.

She then brought out yet another version - this time a felt rectangle the size of a placemat with five horizontal black lines on it (of course). The kids were given felt circles and then their task was to match the pattern of dots (notes) she put on the big board. CJ and Annabelle handled the exercise with precision and confidence. They're getting such a good foundation in music through Musikgarten.

Later today, while waiting in an entirely too long and slow line at Safeway, the kids started singing and doing rhythmic hand clapping to a song they learned at lessons. I love it when they spontaneously do things like that.

Oh, and it should be noted, that while we did NOT see a dead fish in the alley as we have the last 3 or so Fridays, this afternoon, when we went on a ride/run to Lawton, CJ did spy one - a lunker this time. A couple of birds were enjoying the find (a mostly intact fish, the same type of fish, but 3-4x bigger than ones we'd seen in the alley on Fridays before). I honestly don't know what to make of the Friday-fish phenomenon.

THE ROOT OF THE MATTER: This afternoon we were back out in the yard, fighting the good fight. Yesterday the kids spent about an hour out there while I mowed the weeds and mud. Today, weeding and pruning were on the 'menu.' In what I consider to be a stroke of GENIUS on my part, I reminded the kids that when we were studying dandelions, we learned they sometimes have massive taproots. And wouldn't it be interesting to see if they could find some really big dandelion roots of their own?

And that was all it took. For the next 45 minutes or so they were weed pulling madmen - even fighting over use the one weed-digger-outer we had handy. They saved a few of their specimens and we compared and contrasted them (root size, shape and structure - that sort of thing).
Do you suppose I'll be able to get them to fall for that more than once?

STEEL TRAP: One of CJ's first requests this morning was to go to "iTunes-dot-com-slash-adventure-time" on the Internet. I was impressed that he remembered the entire URL which he heard, no doubt, when watching the new "Adventure Time" show last night.

TO THE MAT: Tonight at dinnertime, I FINALLY remembered to break out the wonderfully nerdy placemats I scored during our April Fool's Day trip to Archie McPhee. I placed the Periodic Table of Elements under Annabelle's dinner. CJ got an anatomy mat.

Annabelle was absolutely entranced by her mat. "Look, here's nitrogen! And here's aluminum!" she exclaimed. Soon, she was noting the elements' weights and other info. In fact, within a couple of minutes, she'd shoved her dinner and water all the way off the mat, so as not to obscure it in any way.

CJ wasn't as gun-ho about his. When Annabelle tried to coaxed him to move his plate off his mat, he said in a serious tone, "Not while I'm eating!" (Let this be a lesson - nothing comes between CJ and his bacon.) He did, however, eventually at least shove his plate to one side, so he could see most of his mat.

Rewind

BITE SIZED: We started this morning with some language arts, British style. We used the K-1 level "Bitesize" educational activities on the BBC's vast educational Web site. Such fun (and so much learning!) to be had there. The kids had a smorgasbord of tasty choices - everything from enticing "Kung-Fu Sentences" to intriguing "Alien Punctuation."

It's kind of fun using UK-based literacy exercises, as we learn terms they use. Yesterday it was the fact that a period (.) here is called a "full stop" there. Today, Annabelle was 'playing' "River Rhyming" and asked me what a "pram" is. :)

BACK TO BALLET: After a week's layoff, Bee was back to ballet this morning. There were quite a few new faces in her class, so hopefully she was a good role model to the newcomers. ;) While she was doing the tutu, CJ and I went for a stroll, and hit the hardware store. Normally that wouldn't pique my kids' interests, but this hardware store has pretty pet parakeets and free popcorn, so it's actually a treat to go there. This hardware store (Magnolia Ace) also has the odd distinction of having a whole aisle of fancy cupcake foils/fun cookie cutters and fancy sprinkles. Go figure. We bought some cupcake wrappers (naturally) and pads for the feet of our furniture (gotta protect those new wood floors at MPA!).

KIRBY TROT: We took Kirby for a stroll around noon and enjoyed the bounty of beautiful tulips that are popping up all around our neighborhood right now.

HAIL-OH: This afternoon we headed out to one of my favorite places: Swanson's Nursery, just west of Ballard/Crown Hill. It's a sprawling urban nursery, with excellent plant stock and really cool gardening-related supplies accessories. In one of its buildings there's even a ritzy little garden cafe and a good sized koi pond.

Of course, the koi are a a big draw for the kids. These fish are incredible - bigger than our dog, I swear and SO colorful. And I take it they're hungry, because any time a human approaches the pond, they practically crawl out of it, looking for a handout. (Unfortunately, this photo doesn't give you any sense of scale at all. Other than the fish scales of course, haha. Sorry. Couldn't help myself!)

While at Swanson's, we had to look at every cactus we came across (cacti being one of CJ's "things"). A bit later, while we were admiring $500 palm trees, a hailstorm started. Not sure why, but it was kind of fun to be standing amidst all the beautiful flora and fauna with pea sized ice pellets storming down. The kids took refuge in a funky little playhouse on site and enjoyed the weather show.

TESTING 1-2-3: This afternoon, I wanted to paint an upstairs bathroom, so I brought the kids and some worksheets upstairs so I could semi supervise them while I work. The worksheets were from the back of a second grade math book and I liked them because it wasn't just straight up computation. In fact, most pages were just ONE problem to solve, but a whole lot of words proceeding it, detailing what the student had to do to arrive at the correct answer. I'm happy to report, the kids both aced their tests - even though the one involving adding up the value of coins pictured. Initially, it gave CJ fits because, "They're all gray!!!" he wailed at the black-and-white worksheet. ;) I reminded him that he could figure it out if he noted the coins' size and graphics, and that's just what he did.

MEMORY LANE: While the kids were working on an unfamiliar desk upstairs, they spied small photo albums from their baby years. They started thumbing through them and reminiscing. I was in the adjacent room, listening, and it was so entertaining.

Realizing most of the photos in the two books found upstairs were of CJ's baby years, Annabelle demanded to know where her "memory books" were. I told her where she could find them downstairs and she would up making 6 trips up and down the spiral staircase, toting the photos up. Once they had all the books together, they spread them out on the floor and started poring over them. "Here's my first birthday cake. It's Tinky Winky, a Teletubby," CJ noted (rather than recalled.)

"Here's me getting a bath in the sink!" said Annabelle.

"Here's me with Rick!" said CJ.

"Here's me with Ken!" exclaimed Annabelle.

They spent a good 30 minutes just paging through the albums, remarking upon what they saw. At one point, I heard CJ say softly, "Ah, good times. Good times." How cute is that? :)

Eventually the reminiscing morphed into a game, where they were hosting a program and narrating the stories that were represented by the photos in the books. It was fascinating to listen to. I leave you with a few of their favorites ...

Twinkle Toes

PRETTY THINGS: Today I was cleaning out a bench where we store the kids' shoes. During the process, Annabelle rediscovered her collection of dress up mules. She slipped on some pink ones (of course), and tried to convince CJ to try some on, too. He would have none of it. "But CJ, don't you like my shoes?" she implored.

"Yeah," he begrudgingly said, "but they're princess-y. Too girlish."

At that, I told the kids that it's OK for boys to wear "pretty" things, too, if that's what they want to do.

Annabelle thought that over for a minute and then replied, "Oh, so some boys love girls, but maybe some boys just like girls, because of what they wear. ..."

And while he didn't don the shoes, Annabelle did manage to talk CJ into dancing with her. :)

BOOK 'EM: Today we read "Safari Park," another title in the MathStart series by Stuart J. Murphy. This story followed five children to an amusement park. Their grandpa had given them each 20 tickets to spend, and they each had to figure out how to best use them by considering combinations of rides, games and food. It was easy to follow, and the concept held my kids' interests. This book got 6 (out of 6) thumbs up.

AFTERNOON SOCIAL: This afternoon we also read "You are a Social Detective!" Actually, I almost hesitate to just use the word 'read' because it was more than that. The book sparked many conversations, analogies, realizations, inspirations and more.

Subtitled "Explaining Social Thinking to Kids," it's written by speech/language pathologists Michelle Garcia Winner and Pamela Crook. The illustrations by Kelly Knopp are fun, colorful and Simpson-esque (to my eye). As it's described on the book's promotional Web page, "We are good Social Detectives when we use our eyes, ears, and brains to figure out what others are planning to do next or are presently doing and what they mean by their words and deeds." The book also talks about expected behaviors (which make people feel comfortable) and unexpected behaviors (which can make people uncomfortable). CJ started gasping-for-air hysterically laughing at one point when, for no good reason, one boy blurted to another, "You have six cats." The other boy became uncomfortable, thought the blurter odd, and said bewilderedly, "Huh? I don't have any cats."

This book is a great teaching tool. I think we need to buy a copy (ours was a library check out). There's lots more information about the book on Garcia Winner's Social Thinking Web site.

PIER PEER: Tonight we all went on a field trip. The location wasn't all that exotic - Elliott Bay Marina, which is right next to Smith Cove Park and Terminal 91 - destinations we ride/run to often. However, this trip was different. We were there at night, to see things we don't see on our daytime trips down there.

Hosted by People for Puget Sound, Pier Peer event is billed as "Family-friendly night explorations: marine naturalists drop a light off a dock. We'll see what arises out of the deep dark and talk about the critters." Who wouldn't want to be a part of that!? (Yes, even on a night when it's about 44 degrees?) It was cool - we saw some crabs, colorful tube worms, a sea cucumber, urchins, a couple of fish, lots of plankton, and the biggest starfish any of us had ever seen. (It was the size of a dinner plate, at least.)

The photo above is from P4PS. I took some pix tonight and if there are any good ones, I'll share 'em tomorrow. If you want to see a short (90 second) video about a Pier Peer event produced by P4PS, click here.

BY POPULAR DEMAND: Per Nonnie's request, here is CJ's swollen-stickman-superhero

Reflections along Lake Washington

LAZY MORNING: This morning got off to a slow start. The kids had their agenda (doing no "school" work) and I had mine - sanding drywall in the upstairs bathroom. We all accomplished our missions. ;) In the photo above, they are bonding over a Nintendo DS game. Before that, they were actually reading a magazine together. OK, OK, so it was a magazine about the history of Mario in Nintendo games, but hey, they were reading! (I recall hearing more than one 'expert' say as long as kids are reading something it's a good thing.)

DONNING THE CAPE: Since they'd spent much of the morning battling foes, I decided that for some writing practice I'd have them complete the following sentence: "If I were a superhero, I would ..."

I asked them to write three sentences apiece, paying attention to capitalization and punctuation. At one point I ventured upstairs to check on something. As I descended the stairs, I heard one of them hiss at the other, "Hurry, get in our seats!" (Not sure whom it was - their voices are remarkably similar when in a panic.)

Without much haranguing, Annabelle wrote, "If I were a superhero I would look like a cheetah and I can run really fast! And I have super powers. I could run so fast I could pick up something when I was running." She drew a figure wearing a mask, a spotted body suit and with pointy ears.

In fits and starts, CJ wrote, 'If I were a super hero, I would look like a tiger. My spelxl (special) powers ware running. This is what my super hero would look like." And he drew a picture of what appears to be a stick man suffering from an allergic reaction, causing his limbs to swell. ... :)

THE SCENIC ROUTE: Tuesday is yoga day and I decided that we'd leave early. Like TWO HOURS early. Instead of heading through Sodo and along Beacon Hill, I wanted to take a very scenic route. We headed as far south as the stadiums, but then we cut a couple blocks back northward before heading eastward on Jackson. While in the heart of old town, I pointed out the huge clock tower on the King Street (Amtrak) station. I asked both kids if they knew the name of the building and without missing a beat they chimed in stereo, "Big Ben!!!" Um, not quite. I also pointed out the Smith Tower, which was the tallest skyscraper in Seattle for many a year.

We drove eastbound and before too long found ourselves closing in on enormous Lake Washington and the Leschi neighborhood. We quickly spied Leschi Park, named after Chief Leschi of the Nisqually tribe. There was no playground, but the kids enjoyed playing beneath a gigantic Sequoia tree - a tree with a history. It was planted by Seattle's Johnny Appleseed of sequoias, Jacob Umlauff. The German born Umlauff was originally hired by the Seattle Railway Company as the neighborhood's chief gardener. His specialty was planting sequoia trees in the park and around the surrounding hillsides. Umlauff eventually became Seattle Parks Superintendent.

It took the kids 34-steps to make their way around the trunk of the tree!

We headed north along the lake for a couple of miles, noticing that much of the lake shore was public land/parks. Eventually we ran into a neighborhood of stately homes. There, we found
Viretta Park, a 1.8-acre parcel in the Denny-Blaine neighborhood. It's named after the wife of Charles Denny (yes, the Denny of Denny Way fame). With just two park benches and no view to speak of, it's unremarkable as some parks go but it draws people from around the world. Why? Because it's adjacent to the house where Kurt Cobain lived - and died, 16 years ago this week. So Nirvana fans flock to the park and cover its benches with messages. I suppose this would be considered graffiti in any other Seattle park, but here, it's tolerated. In fact, each bench had a brand new Magic Marker sitting on it, begging you to pick it up and use it. (And yes, I did.)

After looking at "Kurt's" park and house, we headed southbound, along the lake, toward yoga and Columbia City. I have to admit, I was astounded all along the way. We traveled several miles and it sure seemed like the vast majority of the lakefront was a public park, pathway or docks. What a debt we owe to the city forefathers who had the foresight to keep these properties open for all to enjoy. Way too often in communities, the waterfront is for the few, the privileged. In Seattle, so much of it has been preserved for all to enjoy.
YOGA INVASION: Today there were lots of unfamiliar faces at yoga. It's a drop in class so you're never quite sure who will be there. It was a different group of parents than usual, for sure, the usual being more "earthy" types. Today, there was a glut of parents with 3-year-olds in French immersion preschool. I could relay sooo much more, but I'm just going to leave it at that.

A**HOLE OVERHEARD: We went to McMenamin's in Fremont tonight for a cheap (happy hour) dinner. Dining nearby was a large group - about 12 to 14 in total. Toward the end of our dinner, one of the group said very loudly, "I'm a teacher. I know who knows how to learn and who doesn't."

Christian and I immediately looked at each other and checked to see if we'd each heard the same thing. Yup. And we both immediately jumped to the same conclusion. That being, "What a friggin JERK!" And to that I'd like to add, he's a baaaad teacher. I won't dispute the fact that maybe the students in his class can't all learn from him, but I'd like to suggest that it's because he only knows - or cares - how to teach one type of learner. I wonder how many students he's victimized so far over his career ... how many kids he's made feel like they're stupid or can't measure up.