Big Muddy

PEDAL PUSHERS: I had to go to the dentist this afternoon. The office is near Green Lake, so while I was indisposed, Christian and the kids played at the Green Lake Park playground. They had a grand old time for about an hour and then when I was able to join them, we rented a pedal boat and hit the water.

It was a gray day and for most of our 45 minutes on the pond, we had the lake entirely to ourselves - if you don't count the ducks following us around, hoping for a hand out. One of them seemed to be smiling. As always, lots of joggers and walkers circled the lake. We also saw several fishermen, though no one appeared to be catching anything.
Eventually, we were joined on the water by a few rowing club crews.
On our way out of the park, we discovered an old training station. Bee hung from the rings for awhile.
CJ tried out some stretches.
RIVER WATCH: Due to widespread flooding, the Mississippi River was all over the news today. As we watched a bit of video on CNN about the trouble, I realized the kids probably had never even heard of the mighty Mississippi before today. Fortunately, just last week I'd pick up "Mark Twain and the Queens of the Mississippi" from the library. Written and illustrated by Cheryl Harness, it's a visually captivating book. It managed to share important facts about the river (its size, source, surrounding geography, and such), as well as the history of steamboats on the river and biographical information about the life of Samuel Clemens.

As Mark Twain wrote in "Life on the Mississippi," "The Mississippi is well worth reading about. It is not a commonplace river, but on the contrary it is always remarkable." I would say Harness' book proved Clemens' claim.

After reading the book, I found an eight-paragraph long article about the Mississippi River on EdHelper.com. The kids read it and answered eight comprehension questions that followed, and then a couple of micro essay questions, the first of which was, "At some time in the river's history, you could have been an explorer, steamboat captain or a pirate. If you had to be one of them, which would you chose? Why?"

Annabelle chose a pirate because "I would have pockets full of gold."

CJ responded, "I would be a pirate if I had to be one of them because I would be rich with my mates and I could use my money later on ."

Another question asked, "Do you think you would enjoy the slow travel of a paddle wheeler?"

CJ answered, "I would not like it because it would take a few hours to get home."

Annabelle wrote, "I think I'd like it. I've been on a fairy before!" LOL.

While they worked, I had "The Mississippi River of Song" playing in the background for them to listen to. It's a PBS documentary about music of the region. The part we watched and listened to featured a group called The Bottle Rockets. Good stuff!

We also enjoyed a wonderful old (1936) version of "Old Man River" sung by Paul Robeson, as well as Andy Williams crooning "Moon River."

Until today I'd never known that Moon River was about the Mississippi. Now the lyrics "my Huckleberry friend" make more sense to me. :)

ON THE INSIDE: For the past couple of days, CJ has been asking questions about floppy disks. No doubt he's heard tell of them in a book or video about old video games.

CJ asked Christian if we have any floppies. Though we couldn't scare up an old 5.25 inch one, Christian did find a stash of 3.5 inch ones. CJ wanted to see the inside of it, so Christian helped him crack the case. Once he got to the innards, he had fun flapping the floppy. :)