Are We There Yet?

OVER THE RIVER AND TO THE WOODS: Apologies for the tardy post, but yesterday was a loooooooooooooooong day. A very looooooooong day. Three hundred and ten miles long, to be exact.
We left Seattle just after 8 a.m. and for much of the 175 mile drive to our lunchtime destination - Vancouver, WA. - we listened to and sang Christmas carols. I told Christian that I don't want "Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg" to be the only holiday tune they know all the words to.

We arrived at our first stop, Grandma and Grandpa's house, a few minutes after 11. We were happy to see them and stretch our legs.

By around 2:00 it was back in the car for the second leg of our trip, south through Portland, through Salem, through Corvallis and then onward toward the ocean and Nonnie and Bops' place. Part of the way, Rick, CJ and Annabelle amused themselves by drawing completely inappropriate though pretty darn funny pictures in dry erase markable book.
We got to Nonnie and Bops just before 5 p.m.

By about 6 p.m. CJ started crashing hard. What was a stuffy nose has bloomed into a full fledged horrible cold. He's hurtin' for certain. :(

IN THE MORNING: CJ slept through the night, but he's no better today. :( He did rally for a Christmas cookie decorating session this morning.
He was pretty proud of his cookie that had a spider on it.
Bee made faces on more than one of her cookies.
TRACKING DEVICE: this afternoon we checked in with NORAD to see how Santa's journey is going so far. It's cool - on a world map, you can see all the places he's already been (as indicated by gift icons), as well as where he is right now (as evidenced by a Santa icon). You can click on any of the icons and see photos of his stop, and there's even video of some of his deliveries!
There's also a cool, interactive "Kids' Countdown" portion of the Web site. It's a section of the village at the North Pole, and there are many games to be played there.

In case you were wondering, (I was!) NORAD stands for North American Aerospace Defense Command, and it's the bi-national U.S.-Canadian military organization responsible for the aerospace and maritime defense of the United States and Canada.

First Christmas

BY DAWN'S EARLY LIGHT: Long before Annabelle was even up today, CJ was poring over the latest "Highlights" magazine (thanks, G&G). He spent a good half hour reading and then finally he moved over to the table to take on a "hidden picture" puzzle. It was still so darn dark out, I had to monkey with a floor lamp to get some light shining in his direction.

TOUGH AUDIENCE: This morning a special "Mickey's Adventure in Wonderland" was on the Disney Channel. CJ kinda sorta watched the whole show. Apparently he was none too impressed. As the credits rolled he yelled, "You mean I've wasted 60 minutes of my life watching this?!"

LOL!

GOLDFISH GEOGRAPHY: This afternoon both kids took a virtual trip around the world with a goldfish as a tour guide. Earlier in the day I'd bought them some Pepperidge Farm Goldfish as a snack, which reminded them that they have enjoyed tooling around the PFGoldfish.com Web site in the past.

While some games are pure silly ("Operation Underpants" comes to mind), others had some educational value. For instance, Annabelle spent the bulk of her time playing "World Treasures," which required some geography knowledge. The player has to play detective as one of the goldfish collects souvenirs and four of his souvenirs are missing. The detective has to scour the globe using goldfish provided clues to find the missing treasure.

HAIKU REDUX: I kept our writing assignment today short. I asked the kids to write a haiku about Christmas. I was happy they were each able to recall what a haiku is and how it's crafted.

Annabelle:
Christmas toys for all
A time of year for giving
No taking away

CJ:
Christmas is so fun
Decorations on the walls
It is like winter

YEAR IN REVIEW: We received a Christmas card from the family of the kid's BYB (best yoga buddy). It included a "first annual" family letter. CJ was especially intrigued by it, and took it upon himself to read it out loud to us.

He and Annabelle were very flattered to learn they had been named in the letter as a highlight of their BYB's year. Nice. :)LATE REPORT: I neglected to report that this past weekend the kids went to another play. This time it was "Red Riding Hood & The 3 Little Pigs," performed by the Fremont Players at Hale's Palladium.

The play was billed as a British Panto, which the Fremont Players described as a production with a 300-some year history in Britain. This type of play is apparently always put on around the holidays, always based on a fairy tale, and interactive play is the norm. (For instance, the audience is encouraged to boo the villain, cheer for the hero and if a character says, 'Oh yes I am,' the audience is expected to reply, 'Oh no you're not.') Men often play women and vice versa.
Christian and Kennedy took the kids and all four thought it was a great show. There was lots of slapstick and even a live band accompanying the performance. Cool! Sounds like it's going to have to become a MPA holiday tradition!

ROUND ONE: Christmas started for us tonight. We had a Christmas dinner with Kennedy, whom we are going to miss on Christmas Eve and Day proper. We had a lovely vegetable lasagna and there were presents, much to the kids' delight (the presents part, I mean; the veggie lasagna, notsomuch).

The kids were happy to receive some Pluto Plasma from Ken. They also had tons o' fun playing with other people's gifts - including the (South Park) Kenny mask we got Ken.
And they had lots of fun with the high tech LED candles Ken got us. They conducted spooky tours of their bedroom.
THE MATH WARS RAGE ON: The debate about math (pro and/or con) is still going on on one of the homeschooling email mail lists I read. I'm digging the debate, because people continue to post links to math resources that are of interest. Case in point, today, a gentleman suggested we check out a YouTube video, "Why the other line is likely to move faster." It's short and interesting, and it turns out its author/star/poster is an engineering prof at the University of Illinois. He has a whole bunch of videos on his YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/engineerguyvideo, and his own stand alone Web site, too. We'll definitely be checking out more or Mr. Bill Hammack!

Winter Arrives

ANOTHER DANCING DAY: Annabelle had yet another special dance "camp" this morning. Today's theme: "A Ballerina's Christmas."

Annabelle spent 90 happy minutes dancing, drawing and watching a video. The special classes are always fun for her because she gets to meet new people.

POETRY BY NUMBERS: I thought it would be good to mark the first day of winter with a poem. I haven't had the kids write haikus before, so to help explain what one is, I thought it would be fun to write a haiku about haikus.

Very short poem
Easy and fun to write
Won't you try one now?

We went over the 5-7-5 syllable pattern, and then they took a crack at it. Annabelle whipped one out in short order.

Winter is so fun
I like playing with snowballs
Snow is really fun

Unfortunately, CJ found the process painful. He was so fixated on the 5-7-5, he couldn't think about actual content for the poem. I suggested he just forget about the numbers for a minute and tell me one thing he likes about winter. He immediately said, "Making snow angels." Well there you go, CJ, there's your first line! How easy is that?

Afterward, his attitude improved and he finished the haiku painlessly.

Making snow angels
People having snowball fights
Winter is so fun

While the kids wrote their wintery haikus, I on Vivaldi's "Winter, Allegro" from "The Four Seasons." I love it! If that won't get you going, nothing will!
.
I also played an Elvis version of "Winter Wonderland."

TIMES TWO: Our new Singapore math chapter is about multiplication. Hallelujah! The kids were getting really tired of just addition and subtraction.

That said, I explained to them that multiplication is really just addition - but it's a quicker, easier way to add. For instance, 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 = 16, and 4x4 = 16. I explained to them when they have the multiplication tables memorized, they'll be able to solve multiplication problems super quickly. Another thing I pointed about about multiplication is that you can flipflop the order and still get the correct answer. For example, if the problem says 6x3, but you haven't memorized your 6s yet, you can flip it to 3x6 and solve for it.

They whipped through two pages of simple multiplication questions with no problems or errors.

SEASONAL SONGS: Awhile back, I scored a Raffi holiday song book at the library. Today Annabelle was perusing it and decided they should play some carols on their glockenspiels. They plunked around playing "Jingle Bells" by ear, and did pretty well. HI-TECK HIJINX: Today we used a couple of really cool online tools to have some holiday fun. First up, we "Elfed" (or would it be Elved?) CeeJ and Bee. This tool came from the folks at JibJab. We had to select mug shots of each of them, upload them to Jib Jab's site, adjust the mugs for size and rotation, and then we got to choose the type of song and dance we wanted them to do. The choices ranged from country to hip hop to the Charleston. It was great fun! Here's a link to the traditional dance and a video of the elves surfing. By choosing the "Try Another Dance" feature, you can plug the kids' faces into any of the other styles. I think the Charleston was my favorite.

Next, I discovered the Portable North Pole site. Thanks to the folks there - and a little input from a Santa helper - Old St. Nick delivers a very customized video to children in just a matter of minutes. CJ and Annabelle were mesmerized when watching the videos Santa emailed them. (Annabelle's video; CJ's video). I'm so amazed that people are able to produce something like this.

LEFTOVERS: I forgot to include in yesterday's post the fact that the kids got to decorate cookies on the Space Needle Observation Deck. YOGA A GO GO: We did make it down to Columbia City late afternoon for yoga. We went about 15 minutes early so the kids could have a very mini birthday pow wow in the bakery across the street from the studio. Their best yoga buddy's bday is tomorrow.

There was a substitute teacher today. During class they apparently traveled to the moon. I'm sure CJ was Quite Worried as there's no oxygen there, and everyone knows we can't live without oxygen. ...

All of the kids emerged from class sporting bindis. Bee's was on her chin. CJ's was, not surprisingly, on his fingertip (he's not the sticker on your face type of guy).

Moon Shadow

DARK SIDE OF THE MOON: Today dawned dark and grey and that was more depressing than usual. Why? Because tonight there will be a lunar event of remarkable rarity - and we're afraid we won't get to see it!

How rare is tonight's event? Well, Geoff Chester of the US Naval Observatory inspected a list of eclipses going back 2000 years and since year 1, he said, "I can only find one previous instance of an eclipse matching the same calendar date as the solstice, and that is 1638 DEC 21." And having a full lunar eclipse on the date winter solstice won't happen again until Dec. 21, 2094. I'd say that's a pretty big deal. That's why we spent over an hour this a.m. talking about it.

But before our talk, I spent a good hour mining resources. I really wanted something dynamic to help them "see" what a lunar eclipse looks like. Reading about it is fine, but visuals help drive the point home.

Fortunatley, I found the Shadow and Substance Web site, which says its aim is to display popular astronomy both visually and entertainingly. There, we found a really cool animation which I used repeatedly today as we talked about about what a lunar eclipse is.

We also rounded up our own visual aids. I had the kids get their globe, and then a rather rotund squeaky toy frog served as our moon and we used a floor lamp as our sun. Via these primative props, the kids learned just how a lunar ecipse occurs.

We talked about how the Moon orbits Earth every 29.5 days, and the Earth orbits the sun every 365 days and that a lunar eclipse is when Earth blocks direct sunlight from the moon.

We talked about why there isn't a lunar eclipses every month during a full moon. For an answer, we turned to Mr. Eclipse, who said, "I'm glad you asked! You see, the Moon's orbit around Earth is actually tipped about 5 degrees to Earth's orbit around the Sun. This means that the Moon spends most of the time either above or below the plane of Earth's orbit. And the plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun is important because Earth's shadows lie exactly in the same plane. During Full Moon, our natural satellite usually passes above or below Earth's shadows and misses them entirely. No eclipse takes place. But two to four times each year, the Moon passes through some portion of the Earth's penumbral or umbral shadows," and an eclipse occurs. (image from NASA)
We learned that when an eclipse of the moon takes place, everyone on the night side of Earth can see it. About 35% of all eclipses are of the penumbral type, which are very difficult to detect, even with a telescope. Another 30% are partial eclipses which are easy to see with the unaided eye. The final 35% or so are total eclipses, and these are quite extraordinary events to behold (like tonight's eclipse, cloud cover permitting!).

I love the fact that after today my kids know what 'penumbral' and 'umbral' mean in reference to a lunar eclipse. :) And we also learned that the moon is rust-colored during a lunar eclipse because of matter or debris in the Earth's atmosphere. Fascinating.

CHRISTMAS AT THE CENTER: Christian and I have decided to make visiting Atomic Santa atop the Space Needle the annual tradition for CeeJ and Bee, and we decided today was the day. The kids and I went to the Center early.

We left home at 2:10, parked for free several blocks away and speed-walked to the Center House. By the time we got there it was 2:28. With "normal" (translation = not ours) schools on winter break, the Winter Fest at Seattle Center has ramped up their WinterFest entertainment schedule. Case in point, a pair of magicians, Budd and Durgin - was appear on the stage in the Seattle Center (food) court at 2:30 today. The place was packed.

We found a spot on a little landing stage left. The first magician, Durgin, was funny and skilled, but he mumbled. It was hard to understand him. The second magician, Budd, was funny and skilled and I was enjoying the show until I wound up being part of it.
For you see, for a few of his tricks he needed an assistant from the crowd. In those instances, about 200 (mostly kids) hands went up. However, for one trick he needed an adult's help and (unfortunately) he wasn't asking for volunteers. Being the pro he is, he chose the most convenient female adult. And MOST unfortunately, that would be ME, hard stage left. OMG, I was MORTIFIED when he asked me to come on stage. I can't imagine anyone being LESS happy to be featured in production than me, but fortunately for Magician Budd, I am also totally someone who understands the need to Git 'er Done in live time. And so I went. I had the distinct displeasure of fitting Mr. Budd in a straight jacket (including an awkward strap that ran between his legs. (Out of mic's range, I told him I felt like a TSA agent.) And since he was in straight jacket, I had to hold his mic for him while he was escaping it.

After the show we moseyed over to the Space Needle and took the 45 second ride up to the Observation Deck where Santa was waiting for us. There were cool Christmas decorations all around.
The coolest of all was Santa's retro rocket!
It was funny listening to the kids tell Santa what they wanted - and where he could find it. CJ pointed Santa to an action figure on eBay, while Annabelle told him about an accordion at Value Village.
We, of course, walked the entire outside deck of the Space Needle to enjoy views from every direction.
We stayed through sunset in order to appreciate the city changing from daylight to night time.
The kids always enjoy the interactive displays at the Space Needle, and they have added a few new ones since our visit last Christmas.
We made our trip down the elevator and exited the Needle. I darn near forgot to look up at it when we were at its base. Glad I remembered at the last second - it's such a cool vantage point. The grounds of Seattle Center were decked out for the holiday, too. All in all, it was a really wonderful afternoon and evening. Merry Christmas to MPA. :)