Halloweeny

PUNKINHEAD: Long before Annabelle was up this morning, CJ and I were at work. Our project: Turning him into a pumpkin. We'd done the same for Annabelle a couple of days ago. Today's was CJ's turn.

I opened the pumpkin photo file and the mug shot of CJ he posed for for the pumpkin project. I showed him how you copy a layer in Photoshop, and he used the magic wand and delete to get rid of the area around his face in his mug shot, as well as the eraser tool to clean it up.

Next, he dragged his face onto the pumpkin. We flipped layers so the pumpkin was on top of his face and then he had to use the eraser to find his eyes, mouth and nose behind the pumpkin. I could tell he though the end result was both cool and creepy.

CIVIC DUTY: We've spent some time learning about elections and voting as of late. I thought it would be great for the kids to have an opportunity to have a hand in casting a real ballot. I'm on permanent absentee ballot status, so my ballot comes to our home via the mail.

I showed the kids the ballot and CJ's initial reaction was, "Wow, this is a big long list."

He was right - there were a lot of elected officials on the line as well as initiatives and referendums. I told the kids that voting isn't quick and easy - you have to do your homework, just like they do their schoolwork.

They know from our MPA studies that ballots are cast in private. I told them that I was willingly letting them see my ballot and to help with it, and that was OK, because it was my choice. I told them that in our society it is NOT OK to be forced to let other people know how you vote (or to be bullied into voting a certain way).

I had them read the directions for completing the ballot aloud, and let them take turns filling in the balloon marks. I told them why I was voting the way I did on each person or measure.

It bothered me to see how many people were running unopposed. That just strikes me as, well, kind of unAmerican. I told the kids when someone is running unopposed, I often don't even vote for them. It especially bothered me to see certain someones running unopposed. Say, for instance, State Supreme Court Justice Jim Johnson, who running unopposed.

I pulled up some of the recent news articles about his feelings/quotes about minorities and shared them with the kids and told them why I wasn't voting for him, and that I wished I could vote against him, but no other candidate was listed. That's when we decided to use the write-in option. We talked about some names that we might write in.

CJ said, "I want to vote for Barack Obama." I laughed and told him that Mr. Obama is a bit too busy to be a judge in Washington state. Eventually, we all agreed that writing in MLK Jr's name would be fitting in this instance.

After we finished filling everything out, we put the ballot in a security envelope and then the mailing envelope, on which CJ wrote the our return address and affixed a stamp.
HALLOWEEN IN THE AIR: While Halloween's not until Sunday, we are making our favorite holiday stretch out as long as possible!

We put the finishing touches on costumes today, including downsizing Annabelle's long gloves for her transformation into Princess Peach.

TRICK OR TREAT: Though Halloween is officially two days away, we got a jump start on it this afternoon. Magnolia Village (the business district just a few blocks to our west) holds an annual trick or treat event, usually on Halloween. But since that falls on a Sunday this year, they held it on Friday.

The weather was gorgeous! Not just sunny, but downright temperate. We were ready to go at 5 to 4, hoping to beat the crowds.

We ran into all sorts of characters in the Village, including the Devil himself.

We also saw the kids' Musikgarten teacher, who was handing out kazoos (while tooting 'The Addams Family' theme).

Mummies and More

MUMMY DISCRIMINATION: I can count on CJ for at least one out-of-nowhere question a day. This particular day, I didn't have to wait long. Before 8 a.m. he asked me, "Why don't they make Yummy Mummy any more?"

Me: "Huh what?"

Him: "You know, Yummy Mummy - the cereal."

I have to admit, it didn't ring a bell. I said, "You mean like Count Chocula and Boo Berry and FrankenBerry?"

He said that was it.

I remember Count, Boo and Franken from my childhood, and for the past couple of years, that trio of cereals has popped up on local grocery store shelves around Halloween only. (We always buy it, but the only one the kids really like is Count Chocula, which is why there's no box of that in the photo above.) But Yummy Mummy - hmm ...

After a couple of seconds of Web sleuthing, I found Yummy Mummy and only then did it look and sound vaguely familiar.

Of course the real question is, how the hell did CJ know about a cereal that was made from 1987 to 1993 (10 years before he was born)? I may never know.

I did find on Wikipedia's page about the monster-themed cereals that there was also a Fruit Brute.

OVER THE RAINBOW: Right out of the gate this a.m. CJ asked, "How are rainbows born?" I know we've had this conversation before. I reminded him that it's light reflecting off water in the air. He wasn't satisfied with that. "How do the colors happen?" he pressed.

Mercifully, BrainPop has a video about rainbows, and so we watched that. It did a good job of explaining to the kids that while sunlight looks white, it's really a mix of a spectrum of colors (Roy G Biv). Mix them together and you get white light. And the colors we see in a rainbow are actually our brain's interpretation of waves at different lengths and frequencies.

The kids also learned that a prism is a transparent solid object with some angles. When white light passes through a prism, the colors are bent differently depending on their wavelength (this process is refraction).

People only see rainbows when the sun is behind you, bouncing off prisms in the air in front of you. Since a rainbow is an optical effect rather than an actual object, you really can't reach the end of it, and you'll never find that pot of gold (darn it!).

POLLEN-NATION: As I thumbed through a National Geographic magazine this morning, I came across some stunning macro photography of tiny particles of pollen.

I wanted to share the photos with the kids, so I asked them what they knew about pollen. Both had heard of it and associate it with bees and flowers. I told them that some flowers are self-pollinating - they don't need the bees' help, and that there was another way pollen gets spread. They ventured a few guesses and after a few misses CJ finally hit upon wind as a way to disperse pollen.

One of the photos showed pollen grains stuck on stigma of a geranium. I wanted the kids to have an appreciation of how much the photo had been magnified, so I grabbed a couple of beautiful blossoms from an anniversary bouquet on the counter and let the kids dig in (anything for science, right?). They certainly couldn't see any microscopic pollen, but we did ID some flower parts.

The photos showed pollen that looked like planets, cacti, sponges, sea creatures and more. It was an amazing reminder of all the tiny, amazing things we share Earth with but that are invisible to the naked eye.

COMING SOON: I received an email from Seattle Theater Group letting me know that the presale tickets for Video Games Live go on sale Friday. w00t! CJ started jumping for joy when I told him.

I explained the concert's not until January; he was OK with that. Some things are worth waiting for. (Ignore the first 8 seconds or so of this trailer):

MR. SMARTIES PANTS: There was a breakthrough in the afternoon science class I forgot to report yesterday. It had nothing to do with science, but I think it worth mentioning nonetheless. ...

About a third of the kids were late to class yesterday. Before the stragglers arrived, the teacher chose to award the on-timers with a Smarties candy (you know, those tart little sugar tablets).

We've experienced that 'reward' once before, and it caused CJ to blurt out "I don't like Smarties!" which is very true, but sounded incredibly rude at the time. (A 'no thank you' would have been much more appropriate!) Naturally after that not-so-Smarties incident, we had a Talk.

So Wednesday, when the Smarties jar made its return, I sat in the back of the class, cringing, wondering what would go down. I was hoping CJ would remember to say, "Thanks, but no thanks." He didn't. Instead, he accepted the Smarties. (Surprise!) I watched him study it and press it to his lips and I heard Annabelle ask for it (she sensed an opportunity). I quit studying him at that point, assuming he'd hand it off. But apparently he slipped it in his mouth and chewed it. And almost immediately he started squirming in his seat, he covered his mouth with his left hand and his right hand shot up and he waved it wildly.

The teacher called on him and he asked (through clenched teeth), "Can I go get a drink of water?" She said yes and he shot over to the drinking fountain.

So it wasn't exactly a smooth and graceful Smarties experience, but it was better than the first go round.

AND ALSO: I neglected to mention the kids finally checked out the playground at their Shoreline campus yesterday. It's a throw back. There's a spider-like steel climber that looks like it was welded by parent volunteers.

There are old school metal swinging circles/rings for the kids to try to swing across. There's a balance beam that looks very homemade, and an old steel dome for climbing. In other words, it's the antithesis of the mondo-plastic, bright colored playgrounds of today, which makes it all new and novel to the kids.

SPACE CASE: Yesterday at the Shoreline library we scored a copy of Space Case, a book by brothers Ed and James Marshall. It was perfect for Halloween because the story is about an alien who shows up on Halloween and tags along trick or treating.

After we read it, Annabelle informed me she and CJ have seen a video of the book before. I'm guessing it must have been on a Reading Rainbow DVD.

EAGLE EYE: CJ got the latest copy of "Nintendo Power" in the mail today. While flipping through it he blurted out, "Hey, why are there X Box games in 'Nintendo Power'?"

I thought, "Good question, CJ," since Xbox and Nintendo are big rivals in the gaming world. Turns out it was in an ad for Blockbuster game rentals and in the background were all sorts of games, including Xbox.

ON DISPLAY: This afternoon we went to Albertsons to turn in Annabelle's coloring contest entry. Before we left home she started talking about what the prizes for winning might be. I stopped her there and explained a few things to her about how contests involving subjective judging go down. For example, I told her lots of people will do a technically good job, but there will be differences in the colors they used and where they used them. For instance, Annabelle's pumpkin is pink. If the judge's favorite color is pink, that could help her. If the judge thinks all pumpkins should be orange, she's toast. That kind of thing.

I told the kids it never hurts to enter contests (you can't win if you don't play!), but they should never get too personally, intellectually or emotionally invested in such endeavors.

There were dozens and dozens of entries hung up all over the store. Annabelle was very proud to add hers to the colorful collection.

Plugging Along

SLOW START: We weren't exactly shooting out of the gate this morning. I had a rough, rough night (what is this, day 7 of the Plague?). It's days like these that make me really appreciate our more-flexible-than-most-of-America schedule.

By a little before 10 the kids were finally dressed and ready to learn. We went right back to math, where the kids knocked out yet another addition exercise with no trouble.

GRAND PLAN: This morning CJ announced his future plans. Building upon yesterday's idea of writing a book about number belts (as he called them), now he has a whole textbook empire planned out. He's not just going to write one book. "I'm going to keep making books until they (presumably students) get past college. Then they have to do it all over again, but this time at my school. And they better have been been paying attention. If they didn't they're so doomed. They have to remember all the things they did. We'll be doing my class for a year. After 10 years of building at my school, then they can go to next one (presumably school). First preschool, then kindergarten then first grad, then second grade, then third grade, then fourth grade, then fifth grade, then sixth grade, then seventh grade then eighth grade, then ninth grade and college."

CRAFTACULAR: Our science to the south was canceled today, so we only had the north class to attend. Beforehand, we headed to Michael's - a mega craft supply store - in Lynnwood, about 5 miles north of our Shoreline science class.

I both love and loathe craft stores. There are so many, many things to ooh and aah over and so many things to spark the imagination. But the stores are crowded, confusing (trying to find what's where), there's never any help on the floor to, well, help, and the lines at the cash register are always horrendous. (So many people buying so many little things.)

We were in search of materials to make Annabelle's crown, amulet and earrings. It took us a half hour of hunting, but we finally found something suitable for our needs. The big score was sparkly gold sheets of foam that we could use to fashion the crown. I drew on the template for Annabelle and she cut it out herself. Then we affixed it to cardboard and glued it into a circular shape. Red and blue "jewels" were hot glued on and voila! The perfect Princess Peach crown!

PAPER+WATER: In today's science session, the kids got to experiment with paper. The first exercise involved 8 or so types of paper (everything from tissue to corrugated cardboard). The challenge was to see how many times they could fold each type and record their results.

After that, they moved to the lab tables where they used eye droppers to drop water on the various papers and see how absorbent they were (tissue) or weren't (wax paper).

TAPPIN OUT TUNES: The kids had some fun (and honed their music skills) playing around with a present I gave Christian for our anniversary. It's a fun little electronic music device called a stylophone or pocket synth. It sounds a bit like a theremin when played. They picked out some of their Musikgarten tunes, and did some freestylin' as well.

VOTE FOR PEDRO: For weeks now, we've been inundated with ads about the upcoming election. I thought it would be worthwhile to have the kids learn a bit more about voting, so they watched a BrainPop video on the topic.

I asked them what they learned and CJ said, "People must have their vote cast in privately. They cannot be seen when voting."

Annabelle added, "You have to be 18. It's not fair."

I'll be glad (I hope) when this election's over. With false arrests, physical attacks and hate speech all around, I've never seen more people behaving badly leading up to an election.

I Got You Babe

STILL GOING STRONG: Here are CJ and Annabelle with a pair of newlyweds. The ghoulish bride and groom were from our Halloween costume party themed wedding, Oct. 26, eight years ago.

Grab the groom's hand and they start singing (and dancing to) "I Got You Babe." We all love getting them out every Halloween season. It's always nice to hear them still singing away!

I'VE GOT RHYTHM: Today was Musikgarten. In preparation, the kids did this week's homework, which involved transcribing a song, playing a couple of songs on the glockenspiel and singing along with a CD for a couple of other songs.

One of the songs they had to sing was "Cockles and Mussels." The first verse is:

In Dublin's Fair City
Where the girls are so pretty
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone
As she wheel'd her wheel barrow
Through streets broad and narrow
Crying cockles and mussels alive, alive o!

After singing it, CJ asked me if Molly Malone was a real person. I told him I thought there were probably hundreds if not thousands of Molly Malones, and that there's a good chance that the song was, indeed, written about one of them.
They also had to find note cards that matched measures from "Who's That." Instead of singing the song in correct tones, I had them use their glockenspeil mallets to hammer out the rhythm as they said the song. That was good practice - they could really 'feel' the difference between half, quarter and eighth notes.

The were each supposed to bring something Irish-inspired to class today. Annabelle wore a ring her grandma and grandpa bought for me in Ireland several years ago. CJ wore a "Made in Ireland" t-shirt (which is only a small part true in his case).

We didn't go to yoga today. I just wasn't up to that commute. I'm on day 6 of the plague.

ABCD: This morning, for whatever reason, CJ was asking me about vitamins. He wanted to know which vitamins were good for what and how you get the vitamins.

I went to Thinkquest and found lots of projects about vitamins posted there. We read up on A, B, C, and D and where they come from and it really underscored the fact to me that CJ, especially, should be taking multi vitamins every day. Of course he can't stand taking vitamins.

PUMKINSHOP: Annabelle's been asking to Photoshop for the past couple of days, so today I had the idea to morph the kids' faces onto a pumpkin.

We started by shooting a photo of one of the pumpkins we got on our trip to the farm in Snohomish County a couple of weeks ago. Then we shot mug shots of each of the kids.

First, Annabelle isolated her face in Photoshop, and then we cropped the pumpkin photo. We dragged Annabelle's face over onto a layer behind the pumpkin and carefully erased the pumpkin were Annabelle's eyes and mouth were. We did likewise for her nose, but adjusted the opacity, so it didn't pop like the eyes and mouth.

We were all sufficiently creeped out by the end result. Tomorrow we'll turn CJ into a pumpkin head.

DAMMIT, JANET: Tonight the kids got their first dose of the "Rocky Horror Picture Show," Never too young, right? Tonight's episode of "Glee" had a RHPS theme, so they got a made for network TV at 8 p.m. version.

CJ was highly amused by "Dammit, Janet." He thought it scandalous that they'd use that word in a song - over and over and over - and was grinning ear to ear while listening to it. Reminds me of when I was a kid about his age, how we used to love it when "Leroy Brown" came on the school bus radio and we'd all scream/sing "He's bad, bad Leroy Brown. Baddest man in the whole damn town" and think we were really getting away with something.

Blustery Monday

PINK ON PARADE: Today was the fall quarter's family-gets-to-watch day for Annabelle's ballet class.

It worked out that Rick was able to join us for the big show. Boy was Annabelle happy. She told all of her classmates over and over and over that her biggest brother Rick was there today. Pretty cute.


It's nice to see some new complexity to the lessons - she's definitely come a long way since her 3-year-old ballet classes.


A couple of times today the teacher referred to Annabelle as the "dance captain" and the "senior student." It made us all smile.


Of course after class we reminded Annabelle those titles come with some responsibility. She needs to set a good example for others. We also reminded her that it doesn't mean she's the boss. ;)

FUNNY FACES: Thanks to some thoughtful family (and MPA blog readers), the kids got a super fun Halloween card to play with. It came with three blank faces and lots of fun removable stickers. They had a blast creating kooky, spooky creatures! (Thanks, Ruthie & Bob!)
MATH ADDS UP: We ended up doing a fair amount of math today, probably because I felt so crappy (day five of a horrifically painful cough, body aches and a low grade fever), I couldn't muster anything more taxing or creative.

First, we completed another exercise in Singapore Math, dealing with adding three digit numbers. The kids had no trouble.


On a couple of problems, the ones, tens and hundreds all added up to the same number (say, 7), but the kids had to add the appropriate number of zeros. CJ really liked those problems and said someday he's going to write a book called "The Bigger Number Belt" that's all about problems like that. I'm sure it will make the New York Times bestseller list. :)


Next, we hopped to BrainPop, where we watched a good video about comparing prices. Before I played the video, I said to the kids, "Do you realize that every time we go shopping, we're doing math?" They both seemed surprised. I asked them if they knew what 'compare' meant. Annabelle gave an example that if there are two types of apples we like, we would look at their prices and buy the less expensive one. Bingo! That's comparing.


I told the kids there are other non-math examples of comparing. For instance, I pointed out to CJ he's forever comparing one video game to another (their soundtracks, their difficulty, their graphics, etc.).


Lastly, we read "Double the Ducks," part of the MathStart series. The main character was a cowboy who had five ducks, whom he fed a certain amount of grain, and so on. However, one day each duck brought a friend home and suddenly he had to have twice as much food, etc. It was a good demonstration of the "double" concept.


As the kids were reading the book, they both started reading with a drawl, like cowboys (so as to better represent the main character). It was amusing.


Oh, and speaking of reading books, we also read three more chapters of the Bill Gates bio. Much of it was about what a ruthless businessman Gates is. This book is definitely more warts-and-all than I'm used to in a kids' picture book. I like it.



SEW WHAT?: We are eyebrow deep into a big sewing project for Halloween. We're making a Princess Peach dress for Annabelle. It's very poofy-who woulda thought a short sleeved dress for a 6 year old would take FIVE yards of 60-inch wide fabric?!


This mark's Annabelle's first experience with laying and cutting out a pattern. She seemed to think the process was going way too slowly. I told her that the more careful we are cutting it out, the better the finished product will be.


We've got the bodice, sleeves, skirt, collar and bottom hem done. The zipper is in (but I need to fix about 3 inches of it :/, darn it. We 'just' have the crown left to do, as well as a blue jewel pendant and a puffy pink fabric overlay for the hips/waistline (bet there's a name for that part on a dress - funny I've never heard them mention the term on 'Project Runway').

WEEKEND REWIND: Yesterday afternoon, Christian took the kids to Seattle Center to ROBOTHON 2010. There, they watched robots battle it out in cage matches. Christian said some of the crashes were brutal, with sparks and all. How cool is that!?!

BRR: It was cold and wet today. The high was only 50 and the low as 10 degrees below that. It felt downright wintery!