Math & More

BEAR CARE: This morning the kids (especially Annabelle) were still very enchanted by their bears. Annabelle resumed giving her bear skating lessons, and was pleased with Pinkiepie's progress. "Good job, Bear, you got so much better from yesterday!" she praised.

CJ's bear was sporting fur only, and Annabelle wanted to put its Darth Vader costume back on. It wasn't easy. "Wow, CeeJ, your bear has a rather large ass," remarked Annabelle, trying to squeeze the critter into his vinyl outfit. "C'mon bear. Stop eating so much candycorn," she muttered.
Before long, they were ready to bring their bears to life online, at BuildaBearville.com. They had to enter their bear's ID (from their birth certificates) and create an avatar of themselves. (This morning I was thinking about how many avatars they've already created in their young lives. How the times and technology have changed since I was their age. Or even since Rick and Ken were their age!)

Magically, the Web site knew that the bear CJ was toting around BuildaBearville should be the candycorn one, and that Bee's was a fuzzy pink one. The kids were both amazed. :)

They explored the virtual world a bit. Ive got to say, I'm pleased with how good the kids have become at reading maps thanks to the various online worlds they visit. And while it's hardly classic literature, they are also do a lot of reading when they're exploring these worlds, and learning how to follow directions. All good stuff, in my book.

REBEL, REBEL: Apparently CeeJ and Bee were feeling their oats this morning. They staged a minor rebellion while watching an animated program called "Bo on the Go." Really, it's too preschool-y for them, and they almost never watch it any more.

At one point, Bo (a blue haired computer animated character) told the kids to get up and dance, telling the viewers their dancing would help her accomplish some task.

"I'm not going to dance, are you going to dance?" said Annabelle, looking to CJ.

"No, I'm not going to dance," he agreed.

A few seconds later Bo instructed the kids to get a key to help her unlock a door.

"Get the key yourself," replied CJ.

"Yeah, we've done it many times before, and you already know the instructions," Annabelle added.

At another point Bo asked the kids for help bursting some bubbles.

"We're not going to help Bo, right Annabelle?"

"Right" she agreed.

I'm thinking today was the last morning they watch "Bo on the Go."

LAW OF THE LAND: Today is Constitution Day in the United States. It was on Sept. 17, 1787, that the U.S. Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution.

Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States by Howard Chandler Christy

Not surprisingly, I turned to BrainPOP to help explain the United States Constitution to the MPA student body.

There are somewhere between one and two bazillion online educational resources related to the Constitution. I could have spent years looking at all of them. In the hour I did spend, I believe a couple of leading ones to be the National Constitution Center and the National Endowment for the Humanities. And Virginia is home to the Papers of George Washington, a super cool resource that even allows you to see GW's edits to a draft of the Federal Constitution.

MATH MINDED: We had math on our minds today. Thanks to the Seattle Homeschool Group's email list, I learned about a great local resource, Math for Love. It was founded by Dan Finkel, who earned a PhD in mathematics at UW. Rather than become a collegiate math professor, he to reach out to a different audience. He says his goal "is to give everyone the chance to fall in love with mathematics," and so he maintains a blog, tutors, holds math circles and salons. The salons are what I'm most interested in. He describes it as "an opportunity for everyone–children, adults, families, teachers–to come together and play with math. We’ll have different mathematical games, puzzles, books, and inspirations available." He's hosting a salon a couple of weeks from now at a big coffeehouse in Wallingford. I hope we can drop by.

By poking around Finkel's Web site, I discovered Math Playgrounds, a great Web site with lots of math games. It was established in 2002, by math teacher Colleen King, for students in her class. Math topics covered include problem solving, mathematical art and real world math.

CJ found a game called Mathman, inspired by Pacman. In it, he had to first eat a question mark and then go hunt down and eat the ghost that had the right answer. This arcade style game introduced the kids to the fact that in an equation with mixed operators, the division and multiplication symbols must be dealt with take precedence over subtraction and addition signs.
http://www.mathplayground.com/mathman.html

Annabelle played a couple of cool games. One was an online version of Battleship (which involves making predictions and using logic). She also played a SUPER cool online Spirograph game. As the game creator explains, varying radii produces beautiful epicycloids. It really is so much fun - you should give it a try!

BOOKISH: The kids spent a few minutes filling out the balance of their Seattle Pubic Library Summer Reading Program charts. We were hoping to turn them in and claim their prize today, but the Magnolia Library wasn't open when we stopped by. Bummer.

BREAKING THE CODE: As of today, CJ is now the proud owner of a nifty little tool to help him hack into his Nintendo DS games. It's called the Action Replay for Nintendo DS. You slide your DS game into its port and then the Action Replay slides into the slot where the game normally goes. It allows you to enter codes that lets you play your games in ways not otherwise possible (for instance opening advanced levels, giving you infinite lives, changing backgrounds or characters' appearances, etc.).

CJ tried half a dozen codes he gleaned from the manufacturer's Web site before declaring he wanted to make his own codes. I told him I thought that was cool, but that he needed to be careful. When you start messing with a program's codes, bad things could happen.

I managed to find an article online that explained how people actually make hack codes like CJ was pining to do. Tonight, CJ and Christian read the story together. It explained that one way to make codes was by getting the game to glitch and then navigating to the built in debugging menu. From there, you can glean some of the codes used in the game and use those to make combos that mix things up.

In other programming news, yesterday I learned about Scratch, "a programming language for everyone" from the "Lifelong Kindergarten Group" at MIT. According to their "about, Scratch is "a programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web." I think you'll be hearing a lot more about Scratch in the days, weeks and months to come ...

Happy Anniversary

IN THE BEGINNING: Today marks the one year anniversary of the day Magnolia Preparatory Academy threw its doors open to the world via this blog.

Our very first post was picture free and short on words. It read:

Testing 1-2-3

The beginning of a great adventure; This is the chronicle of the Kisky family's World-is-our-Classroom experiment.

We're big on do-it-yourself projects in this household (more on that later), so why should our approach to CJ and Annabelle's education be any different?

At least for this year, we're leaving behind the one-size-fits-all approach and have cobbled together a customized class schedule (yay for yoga, music and movement).

Our curriculum will be eclectic. Certainly there will be some direction and focus, but we're also always on the lookout for teachable moments.

The journey begins ...

And what a journey it has been!

We started our day off by talking about what an anniversary is, and then I played the "Happy Anniversary" song from The Flintstones for the kids. They thought it was hysterical - at first, until the singing police officers wouldn't stop singing.

"I think the cops should arrest themselves because they're being annoying!" said Annabelle.

The kids and I took the time this morning to review of the blog and its contents. We only got through half of the year in 90 minutes because looking at the photos sparked many conversations and pleas to repeat things we did last year.

The kids also wanted to visit many of the Web sites we've accessed over the year. I promised them we'll return to check them out, but we sure couldn't hit them all in one morning!

As we wrapped up this morning's review, CJ said, "That's a lot of history we have!" :)

Personally, I was struck by how much older the kids look now than they did Sept. 16 a year ago, and I felt good about how much ground we'd covered, both physically and academically. When I wrote that first blurb, I really had no idea what the hell we were going to do for our school year, and many days that still holds true. But somehow, it all works out.

I have become a big fan of student-led learning. It just makes sense (especially for kids CeeJ and Bee's ages). The kids are learning and loving it (well, most of the time!) So today was all about looking back and celebrating.

THE TOPS: Around lunchtime we drove over to Queen Anne Hill to one of CJ's favorite places on the planet: Top Pot doughnuts. We haven't been there in ages.

On the drive there, I couldn't help but think how the route we were taking was the same way I'd drive CJ to school every day during his kindergarten year, and how uneasy I felt during those drives, because ultimately it just wasn't a safe or happy place for him to be.

Thankfully, today's drive was nothing but pleasant (what's not to like about a donut run?!)

BEARY GOOD: This afternoon we went on an adventure to the north. First, we swung by and picked Rick up at the school where he works. Then we headed to Alderwood Mall (yes-gasp-a mall). It had been rainy all day, so the kids were itching to play in the indoor play area. It's really not much to shout about (just some pretty small molded objects for climbing on, all with Pacific Northwest or sea life tie ins), but the kids enjoyed them. They both scaled a 3-foot high Mt. Rainier, Annabelle rode an Octopus, and CJ stood atop a Washington State Ferry.
Our next stop was the Build-A-Bear Workshop. The kids have seen ads for the place for years and years and years now and have always wanted to "build" a bear. I figured our anniversary was a good enough excuse.

Let me tell you, that workshop is one well oiled machine. First, you had your pick of bears (or dogs, a moose, an owl and a couple of other alternatives). Annabelle chose a fuzzy pink bear (big surprise!). CJ chose the new candy corn spotted bear. Next, you pick out a "voice" (a sound chip; Bee chose a magic wand sound, CJ preferred his bear remain the strong, silent type). Next, they got hearts for their bear (yes, of course they beat). Then it was time for the stuffing!

And we're not talking shove fistfuls of fiberfill in. No siree! Rather, there's a stuffing machine the size of a minivan. With the help of a Super Friendly store employee, kids step on a pedal to pump stuffing out of the stuff the bears. CJ was fascinated with the stuffing machine (in fact, I think he was more enchanted by it than he was the bears)!

Once the bears were stuffed and sewn shut, the kids got to take them over to the grooming station, where they used blow dryers and brushes to fluff up their fur.

Last but not least, the bears needed to be costumed.

The choices were overwhelming. There was everything from sporty looks to formal wear to choose from. CJ wasted no time in making his choice. His cute little candycorn bear was going to be very nearly completely covered by a Darth Vader costume. Interesting ...

Bee took a little more time deciding. The very first thing she pulled off a rack was pink rollerskates. Naturally, if the bear was going to wear skates, it had to have shoes, so she chose some pink suede boots, which she matched with a peach and pink dress. Last but not least, she picked a pair of pink bloomers, because everyone knows a bear in a dress has to have underwear.

Before we left the store, the kids registered their bears online (they can play with them in a virtual world on the Build a Bear workshop Web site), and they got birth certificates which say at the top "My furry friend is special. I brought it to life. I chose it. I stuffed it. I made it my own. I promise to love it and give it a home."

That they did.

Exploring Options

Annabelle on a recent afternoon, sharing some shoes with some of her stuffed posse

RECONNAISSANCE MISSION: We've had a busy-busy-busy past couple of days and today was no exception.

I spent the past weekend doing more research online about resources available to help us do what we're trying to do here, which is provide the kids with a top-notch education. That said, one of the realities is that we're trying to do all this without paying the $6,000 to $10,000 a year per child a good private school would cost; and right now, for a myriad of long, complicated reasons, Seattle Public Schools isn't an attractive option for us.

I have been looking at a couple of alternative learning programs (which are almost entirely online courses) administered by a couple of school districts in Washington. Upside: curriculum for free and the chance to have some independent classes we take reimbursed; downsides - might be a bunch of busy work we don't want/need, might be more geared to the grade rather than where the kids are at (to use bad grammar).

I also spent time looking at homeschool resource centers of the Seattle and neighboring school districts. They each have some pros, some cons, and some have a whole lot of hoops to jump through. It seems like they might be more "trouble" than they are help.

However, in my research I did come across the Highline Homeschool Center, a program of the Highline School District which is just south of Seattle (it's right by Seatac airport). I almost couldn't believe what I was reading on their site. In part, it said the center offers "a variety of no or low cost classes helping children meet their educational goals each year. In addition, various curricula and educational resources are maintained for parent use and checkout."

Sounds good ... plus there's a computer lab, they do field trips, spelling and geography bees, social events, workshops, testing. And unlike other districts' centers where all sorts of strings are attached, "Students who register with the (Highline) center are not registering with our school district."

As luck would have it, I saw on their Web site that they were having an open house on Sept. 15 (today).

I have always perceived the words "open house" to mean a drop in situation. I wanted to get there closer to 11 than 1, and we did arrive at about 11:15. I was really surprised when we walked into the building, followed the voices and found that a meeting for parents was underway. Yikes! I was not prepared for that (no notepad and absolutely nothing to keep the kids busy/entertained) while big people talked about stuff remotely interesting - at best - to them.

I found a pen and a crappy old scrap of paper in my purse and the kids entertained themselves by playing tic tac toe and taking pictures of each other with my digital camera. While they did that, I listened. ...

And I liked what I heard. Frankly, it sounds almost too good to be true.

After the meeting, I asked the teacher (a bona fide district employee/educator) a couple of questions and sure 'nuff, there are no strings attached. It us open to us, even though we don't live in their school district. Center members can reserve classrooms for meetings, projects. They're open to ideas for classes, field trips, etc.

I didn't hesitate a bit in signing CJ & Annabelle up for the weekly (Wednesday morning) hands on science class. The cost? A $10 suggested donation for the WHOLE QUARTER. And I had CJ and Annabelle sign on the dotted line (so they can use the school computers and other resources).

We start next week! I'm looking forward to seeing if/how this evolves. SOCIAL HOUR: This afternoon a matinee at Safeco Field was on our schedule. Since Christian and his car were already downtown, the kids and I decided to just hop a bus and meet him at the stadium.

As we waited for the bus, CJ struck up a conversation with an older gentleman who was at the stop with us. CJ offered a bit of advice to the man. "You shouldn't just hop on the first bus that comes along. You need to get on the right bus. Last night before the Storm game, my dad hopped on the first bus and it was the wrong one."

The man got a chuckle out of that. :)

So as the bus approached, CJ and Annabelle were careful to check the number on its marquee. It was one of the two buses on our, "This will work" list. It wound up being the perfect bus for us.

The driver was probably in his 40s and he was a big baseball fan. He knew who was pitching today and asked the kids a bunch of questions about the Mariners and baseball.

When someone pulled the cord letting the driver they need to get off, CJ said, "That sounds like a Wii" of the signal's tone. The driver then asked CJ, "Do you know who Mario is?"

Hahahahaha ... that's like asking the Pope if he's Catholic.

Of course CJ launched into a comprehensive but concise list of every Mario game ever made, in order. At that, pretty much the front half of the bus became his audience. It was funny. When CJ was done, I noted that yesterday was Mario's 25th birthday (it was the anniversary of Super Mario Bros. being released on the NES). That got several people chiming in with reminiscences of playing Mario in 1985 or shortly thereafter. Then the bus driver asked CJ, "Do you know how Mario got his name?"

CJ was stumped! The bus driver told him that in the neighborhood of 30 years ago, a farmer in the Kent area either leased or sold some land to Nintendo for their first American division. The farmer was a hyper Italian guy named, of course, Mario. Who knew?

It was amazing how a bunch of strangers age 5 to 50 or so wound up engaged in conversation all thanks to a video game character named Mario.

BAD NEWS BEARS: I suppose I should say something about the Mariners' game. Let's start with the "good" - because the Mariners are so GODAWFUL, we practically had the stadium to ourselves. (Actually, it was us and about 15,000 Red Sox fans. ...)

Because of the lack of crowd, the kids had the run of the playground ...

And there was absolutely no waiting in line to meet the Moose. ...

And I even happened to be standing next to the fountain in centerfield today in the first inning when Russell "the Muscle" Branyan hit a home run. What makes this significant is that when there's a homer by one of the Mariners (a rarity, let me tell you), the central jets shoot water high into the air.

That was the beginning and end of the Mariners' offense today. What a horrible game. Between Casey Kotchman getting picked off on third by the catcher (and for the first out of the inning - moronic!), Chone Figgins going Bill Buckner, and then the Ms' catcher had a chance to gun a Sox runner stealing second - but the shortstop didn't cover the bag to take the throw. He just stood there, in the center of the infield but a million miles away mentally.

Horrible, inexcusable, awful. I guess the kids are learning lots about the game this season - unfortunately it's mostly what NOT to do what you're playing baseball.

PRICE IS RIGHT: Saturday, Sept. 25th is free museum day! This event is sponsored by the Smithsonian. Their Web site has a (long!) list of participating museums from coast to coast in the U.S.

Hoopin' it Up

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES: First thing this morning, we got started on an arts/language arts project. I wanted to have the kids make thank you notes to send to the Puyallup Fair, as this year we benefited from their Educational Ticket Program, which provides free admission tickets to students ages 6 and older and educators (yes, even home educators - hooray!). I helped coordinate the ticket order for the Seattle Homeschool Group, and in doing so I communicated with the folks at the fair who administer the program and provide the tickets and I know that it's no easy task they have. I envision that they are always peppered with requests, but rarely thanked. So, I thought a couple of thank yous were in order.

The kids each used the Puyallup Fair logo and wrote a "thank you" for their card's cover. On the inside, they each wrote a poem. CJ went with a Diamante (something we learned last week) poem. It read:

The Fair
Fun, dizzy
Riding, sliding, jumping
Swinging, thinking, learning
Happy, play time
The Fair

Annabelle wanted to try something new. Happily, I found the very cool Poetry Idea Engine on Scholastic's Web site. There, we learned how to write a cinquain poem. Its pattern is:
Line 1 = 2 syllables telling the subject of the poem.
Line 2 = 4 syllables describing the subject.
Line 3 = 6 syllables telling about the subject.
Line 4 = 8 syllables about the subject.
Line 5 = 2 syllables synonym for the subject

Here's what Annabelle came up with:

The fair
Big fun for all
Riding, walking, looking
Colorful, bright and exciting!
Happy land

And then the kids each picked a photo they liked from the fair yesterday and added those to the cards.

LET'S MOVE: Today I signed our names on the dotted line. The entire the student body of MPA is now signed up to participate in the for the 2010 President’s Active Lifestyle Award program.

The President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition (PCFSN) and the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA) are trying to encourage Americans to harness their energy and get out into local parks, completing 60 minutes of physical activity a day for kids and 30 minutes a day for adults, five days a week for six weeks. Those who meet those goals will earn a President’s Active Lifestyle Award. Cool! I think we're up to the challenge.

There are some pretty compelling reasons for signing up. According to info on the program's Web site, "Over the past three decades, childhood obesity rates in America have tripled, and today, nearly one in three children in America are overweight or obese. One third of all children born in 2000 or later will suffer from diabetes at some point in their lives; many others will face chronic obesity-related health problems like heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and asthma.

"In total, we are now eating 31 percent more calories than we were forty years ago–including 56 percent more fats and oils and 14 percent more sugars and sweeteners. The average American now eats fifteen more pounds of sugar a year than in 1970."

Well that's not good. :/ So as we're making sure we have a decent level of activity, I think we'll also spend some time talking about food-as-fuel concept.

BACK TO MUSIC SCHOOL: Today marked the first day of fall quarter at Musikgarten. It was good to be back!

The unit the kids will be starting with this year is music of the British Isles. They have a new CD to listen to and even homework this year. I noticed there's at least one other girl in the music class this go round. That's nice, as Annabelle was outnumbered 5 to 1 last year.

I was very happy to see CJ very engaged with the music activities when I went for the parent participation part. He was the first to answer most questions teacher Nancy posed.

NEXT UP: Following Tuesday afternoon music is yoga class. The kids were happy to see teacher Nicole back after her month long vacation.

STORM: From yoga, it was straight to Key Arena for game 2 of the WNBA finals pitting the Seattle Storm against Atlanta Dream. This was our first WNBA experience.

The event was sold out, the arena was rockin' and the atmosphere was absolutely electric. I can't remember the last time I've been in a crowd that had that kind of energy. Maybe a Mariners game in 1995? ... And the noise. OMG, the noise. I haven't been in an arena that loud since Queen at the Memorial Coliseum in, what, 1980?

From a multimedia standpoint, the entire game was more choreographed than any sporting event I've ever been to. The music was almost non stop (yes, even during gameplay, which was very un-NBA like), and the announcer was a quasi-DJ, frequently exhorting the crowd. I found it a bit annoying at first, but I got used to it. Over half the crowd was waving white towels a good portion of the time, and many had those noisemaking sticks they beat together. That said, this was by FAR the most polite sporting crowd I've ever been around, and I didn't see a single drunk in the crowd. It was a very family friendly event.At one point Bee yelled, "This Storm game is GREAT!!!!" Even CJ didn't seem to mind it too much. (I think he liked being able to watch the clock count down the quarters - which is very unlike a baseball game!) It was a great game - close all the way - with no sure winner until the final buzzer. Thankfully, the Storm came out on top. One more win over the Dream and they're the WNBA champs!

While Lauren Jackson (#15, below) is the league MVP again, the entire Storm team contributed tonight.

We'll definitely be back to Key Arena for another Storm game next season!

All's Fair

DO THE PUYALLUP: For weeks now, the kids have been looking forward to today, today being Puyallup Fair day for us!

While I went to a quick dentist appointment bright and early, Christian got the kids ready. We pulled out of our neighborhood about 9:20, heading southbound for Puyallup.

IN THE BARN: We arrived at the fair at about 10:30, which is before the rides are operating. This early arrival was by design, as I wanted to tour through some of the agricultural and educational exhibits.

We wandered through a couple of 4-H barns first, checking out the pigeons, a few chickens, and some really pretty rabbits. From there we made a beeline to the biggies - draft horses. Every time I see them, I still marvel over how huge they are. There were and Percherons, Belgians and Clydesdales. I can't imagine keeping those creatures in hay and horseshoes.

The Shetland ponies were in the same barn, offering quite the contrast.

EXHIBITS: We wandered up the midway, and into the "Go Play Outdoors" themed building. There, we found a nice woman from the National Parks Service who assisted the kids in making bookmarks. CJ played a game where he had to ID footprints and scat of various forest creatures. He did really well, getting them all right. In that same building were some nice men from the Audubon Society. At their booth the kids were able to color a template and make a button. Annabelle chose a bird to color; CJ chose a T-Rex. While I initially thought it odd they had dinosaurs to color, I reminded myself - and the kids - that our birds today are avian dinosaurs.

We strolled some more and made a quick tour through the small fair museum. It was fun looking at old ephemera and paraphernalia, including a couple of cars from old rides.

Soon, we made our way to a large pavilion. Inside were all sorts of 4-H fair entries (textiles, photography, mixed media art, canning, and so on). There were also some educational booths, including one by the Washington Geographic Alliance which had a huge map of the state of Washington spread out on the floor. CJ and Annabelle walked around the state and found our home as well as the fair's location.In that same building we chatted with some men from the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field. They are of the opinion that the museum has a pretty good shot at getting space shuttle Discovery for display. Let's hope so!

We worked our way over to the building with agricultural exhibits. We got a chance to see a couple colonies of busy bees making honey. And of course our Bee posed for a picture as a bee.

We saw some really big pumpkins, both natural and carved into a work of art.

We were all blown away by the gorgeous displays created by some Washington state Granges using homegrown produce.
We also toured through the hobbycraft building, where the kids learned you can earn a blue ribbon by building something cool out of Legos. Maybe I can convince them to give it a go next year.

THRILL SEEKERS: Once we got the educational stuff out of the way, we headed for the midway. It was time to check out the rides!

We started "small," with the giant slide. From there we moved over to what used to be called the Yo-Yo back in my time. It's really just an oversized swing. A bit tame, but the kids were just getting started.

There were rollercoasters to be ridden. First up - a dragon coaster that they've ridden for the past couple of years. Despite that, Bee was a bit apprehensive at first. ...
However, she soon warmed into it. After all, it was very a tame dragon now that CJ and Annabelle are veterans of Disneyworld and all!
They rode another oldie but a goodie - the Scrambler.

And they took a leisurely boat ride.
And then there was another rollercoaster ...
Come 2 o'clock it was time to take off. (We had to get back to Magnolia in time for Annabelle's ballet class, which is now on Monday afternoons.)


But there was time for just one more ride ...