Falling Arches

ROUND TWO: We got the tank ready two days ago, but I've been putting off pouring the Triops eggs in because, well, I'm afraid of another failure.

As you may recall, we managed to kill and entire Sea-Monkeys colony in less than 24 hours in the not too distant past.

However, we can't just have the tank sitting there forever, filled with nothing but water, sand and a plastic castle. So this morning we took the plunge.

Precisely per directions, we poured one half of the eggs into the tank. And now, we wait. The directions said they'd start hatching in the next day or two.

Fingers crossed. ...

MORE TRICKSTER TALES: This morning we started a new book, Virginia Hamilton's "A Ring of Tricksters." This 111-page book has animal takes from America, the West Indies and Africa.

Today, we read four tales from America. The animals featured included a rabbit, an alligator, a buzzard, a wren, a cat, a rat, a fox and a wolf. There were tricks aplenty, as well as morals to the story. In one, the moral was "Bruh Flop ears is always asking for help. Then he helps himself!" In another, it was, "Never call in a bigger rogue to add, subtract and divide for you. For there's always less than honor among thieves."

WITHOUT WORDS: We also "read" a book called "Time Flies." Before I opened its cover, I asked the kids, "Do you think a book can tell a story without using any words?" They were skeptical.But together we paged through the book. When it was over I gave them a sheet of paper and asked them to write the words describing what it was about.

CJ wrote, "There once was a bird. He/she went to the museum. The bird thinks the dinos are real."

Annabelle wrote, "It's about a little bird traveling through time. Characters: Bird, dinos. The bird flys into a museum then travels in time to when the dinos were alive!"

I pointed out to the kids that oftentimes animation tells a story without words, and I turned to YouTube. There, I showed them three funny shorts in the "Simon's Cat" series. This one was CJ's favorite ...

ON THE INSIDE: CJ asked if he could check out Capcom's Web site, as he was curious about a new Mega Man game coming out. We checked out the fan forums and official Capcom blogs, and didn't find a specific answer to his question, but we did make another amazing discovery. We found photos of some cool sculptures people had created doing cutaways of oversized video game character toys. We found one of Mega Man, revealing his robotic inside; a neat-o one of Mario, guts and all, done by artist Jason Freeny, and then we hopped for Freeny's Facebook page where he posted a step by step of a Yoshi statue.

WADDLE, WADDLE: We headed to the Seattle Children's Museum this afternoon for Art Club. Imagine our surprise when we found out the museum was celebrating National Rubber Duck Day today.
We were there just in time for a Ducky parade. The kids were all issued blower beaks (courtesy of Ride the Ducks, a super fun city tour/attractions). And so a couple dozen kids waddled and flapped through the museum. We had to cut CJ and Annabelle's waddling short, so they could make their way over to Art Club on time.


CASTLE HASSLE: Today's advertised theme at Art Club (a one hour workshop that's free with museum admission), was building a castle. When we checked in, the two women leading the workshop both told me that I didn't need to stick around, that I could wander the Museum, but I had to stay on site. I found that kind of funny, because like your average adult is just dying to get time in the Children's Museum alone. ;) My first inclination was to stay in the room, but I reminded myself I don't need to be hovering over the kids all the time. That said, part of me thinks I should have gone with my first inclination. ...


I sat outside the workshop, surfing the Web on my cell phone. About 25 minutes into class, I notice CJ is roaming the room, definitely not castle building. I decide that would be a good time to check in. ... When I went in he was teary and stiff postured. Everyone else was sitting around a table, trying to build an arch out of croutons and clay - an odd combination, to be sure. And one that didn't work well for any of the kids, might I add. The crumbly croutons did NOT stick well to the terracotta clay. CJ was super frustrated, which I get, but his reaction to that frustration (tears and belligerent "I quit!" type talk) was completely unacceptable. He was acting about half his age, maybe less. We had a little Talk and I worked with him to try to build an arch, but honestly, it was an impossible task given the materials at hand. I told CJ it's not that he can't build an arch, it was just that these materials were troublesome. I told him we could have all sorts of fun building an arch out of marshmallows and toothpicks at home.


The next task at hand was drawing a castle. CJ's creative juices had pretty much run dry during the arch debacle. All he drew was a door. However, as we talked about his door, he explained it was a door to "a magical, mystical castle." I asked who lived in the castle and he said it was a fierce dragon. I asked how people get into the castle (hoping he'd draw a door knob or something) and he said they don't. :) I suggested that maybe people tunnel in. At that, I was told the castle has a metal floor. He did finally decide that smoke from the dragon's fire breath might be leaking out from around the door, so the castle did get that bit of embellishment. (Bee's is left, CeeJ's is right.) Once art was over, the kids had lots of fun in the museum. They spent a lot of time in the multi cultural villages - especially in the Japanese house, where Annabelle whipped up "sushi soup" and they enjoyed it sitting on pillows at a low table, Japanese style. Before leaving we also swung through the theater - an exhibit we'd never seen before. The kids had fun operating the backdrops and curtains and the theater lights. Here, CJ's commanding the stage. ..