History Lessons

RUNNING AND RIDING: We were hitting the pavement by about 10 this morning. We have actually gone for a ride/run TWO days in a row now. It's unfortunate that this is remarkable. We used to run and ride four or five days a week before the doldrums of December and January.
We headed for Smith Cove/Elliott Bay. Once there, we found a NOAA vessel was docked. We also saw preparations at the port for the cruise ships that will, no doubt, be coming soon. That's definitely a sign winter is on its way out.
The kids checked out tidal pools, clambered around on big boulders and even did some beach cleanup.

PRESIDENTS DAY: We would have been remiss if we didn't touch upon the reason today's a holiday. I asked the kids if they knew anything about President's Day. They each said they didn't. I had them get out a calendar and find the day/date and by doing so they learned that it's very near George Washington's birthday (February 22). I explained that Presidents Day is a federal holiday, on the third Monday in February, and it was initially an observance of Washington's birthday, but since its inception, many states have renamed their Washington's birthday observances as "Presidents' Day," giving nod to Lincoln's birthday (Feb. 12), too.

After that I quizzed the kids to name as many presidents as they could. They took turns. It didn't take long before they were stumped, so we need to do some more learnin' about presidents. To that point, I pulled out "A Boy Named FDR - How Franklin D. Roosevelt Grew Up to Change America," written by Kathleen Krull, illustrated by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher.

It's an illustrated biography, the bulk of it focusing on FDR's childhood, teen and college years. We learned that FDR was the only child of an extremely wealthy family. Their estate had 9 bathrooms, lots of servants, and sat on 1,000 acres. For fun he loved to sail. Young FDR was homeschooled by his mother and tutors who were brought in, until he went away to an exclusive boarding school at 14. He went to college at Harvard, where he served as editor in chief of the Harvard Crimson newspaper. From the get go, FDR aspired to a career as a politician, with his eye on the White House. His role model was Teddy Roosevelt, his fifth cousin. And speaking of cousins, turns out he married a cousin (fifth, once removed), Eleanor. She didn't even have to change her last name ...

The book covered his being stricken with polio at 39, and his remarkable rehabilitation efforts. Roosevelt's presidency (12 years, the longest in U.S. history), is summed up on one page.

After the book, we turned to BrainPop, where the kids watched a video about FDR. And because I'm a fan for going to the primary source, I also played a couple of FDR's speeches for the kids, one being his address following the attack on Pearl Harbor. I also played oh-so-interesting speech of his how the Republicans blamed him for the Great Depression, when nothing could be further from the truth. Roosevelt was the one who brought the country OUT of that awful time. Listening to the speech was fascinating, because, in so many ways, it sounded so eerily familiar to today's politics. It's definitely worth a listen.

INTREPID EXPLORERS: To expand upon our recent readings and activities regarding Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, today we headed to the Eames Theater at the Pacific Science Center to see "Lewis & Clark: Great Journey West."
Man, those guys covered an amazing amount of ground, in great peril nearly all the time.
I was glad we'd read up on the Corps of Discovery ahead of time, as the movie brought the fact we'd learned to life in full color, on a huge screen. They were both rapt for the duration of the 45 minute film. CJ proclaimed it "GREAT!" on the way out.

Tonight I found several educational activities on the movie's Web site. We'll have to check some of those out tomorrow.

Naturally, after the movie, we took a stroll through Pacific Science Center.
It was super crowded, no doubt due to people on their mid winter break and/or Presidents Day holiday from school. Anticipating the larger crowds, PacSci had all sorts of special intereactive displays with people staffing them. We spent several minutes at one all about acidity. The kids got to experiment with some pH strips in various solutions and learn about how acidity in the water could affect sea life. For that lesson, there was a fun LEGO activity. They also spent some time talking about how carbon emissions affect the environment. There were some interesting maps to go along with that.

Annabelle enjoyed controlling this dinosaur's jaw.

And, as always, the kids loved playing with the water powered machines outside.


HBD2Z: Today I came across a news story that Feb. 21 marks the 25th birthday of the Legend of Zelda video game series. (Wow. That makes me feel old!) An adventure game with a (then) unique roleplaying nature and top-down vantage point, Zelda was remarkable for being the first Nintendo title to sell in excess of 1,000,000 games.

CJ and I read the story and then we watched a YouTube video featuring all of the boss battles from the very first Zelda game.