Put to the Test

DIG IN: Not sure what you were doing 15 minutes out of bed, but Annabelle was out digging in the dirt, still wearing her pajamas. It's never to early to be doing a soil science experiment, right?
The kids had some homework to finish up before their science class this afternoon. Their task was to dig two holes in two different types of soil and compare the porosity of the two.

First, they dug into the raised flower bed. It took each of their 2-cup deep holes there 20 seconds to drain one cup of water. Next, we moved over to some dirt with a heavy clay content. Having learned about clay, they know it's denser, and both predicted the water would take longer to drain. Seemed reasonable to me.
And sure 'nuff, CJ's hole took 50 seconds to drain. Then Annabelle poured a cupful of water into her hole in the clay. It drained rapidly - in about 15 seconds. We were surprised. We'll have to dig some more holes and do some more experimenting when we have more time than we had this morning, when we had to hustle off to school for ...

PIZZA WEDNESDAY!: Today is the kids' favorite day of the month - the Wednesday where there's a pizza feed at their school.

The kids enjoyed pizza while they reviewed their science notes for the final starting at 1 p.m. After they ate, I suggested they go outside to get some fresh air and wake up their brains. TEST TIME: At 1 p.m. it was time to find out if the kids' hours of studying would pay off. They were excited they got to use handheld computerized units to record their answers. The teacher took them through a thorough tutorial about how to use the units. Each child was assigned a numbered (1-12) unit and after the question you could see on the screen who answered when, and before moving onto the next question, a bar graph would pop up and show how many people selected each answer. Pretty slick.

I don't know for certain yet, but based on how and what they studied, I think both kids probably did great on the test, and they think they did, too. Annabelle did have one technical difficulty. On one question she pushed the wrong button, so the wrong answer recorded. The end result was she said an apple is made out of rock. I assured her we know that she knows that's not true. :)

The last question of the test was a True or False one. The statement in question was something like "Rocks are amazing, interesting things." Of the 12 kids in the class, there was only one who answered "false." I, of course, knew immediately who that was.

On the way to the car CJ said to me, "I said 'false' on the last question." I laughed and said, "That's OK."

A bit later in the day when we were reflecting on the test, he said to me, "They should have an upgrade to that test, because that's an opinion question." I told him that I happened to agree with him. Granted, some people find rocks fascinating (CJ says, "Hi Uncle Jim (the geologist)!" Other people, well not so much. And I think that's OK.

SWEET 16: For whatever reason, today CJ was ruminating about what it will be like when he's 16. For example, he asked, "When I'm 16, will I get my own breakfast?" I told him yes, that would probably be the case. "But if I break a bone or something, you'll get it for me?" he quizzed. I reassured him we would help him out should he become infirm. :)

Then out of nowhere he adds, "16-year-olds probably watch Monday Night Football, because they're almost grown ups." That made me laugh. I told him he could watch that now if he wanted to.

"When I'm 16 I'm going to drive you places," he continued. "And if I see a car coming I'll put on the brakes." I shared with CJ that when his brother Kennedy was 16, he was the World's Worst Driver and that he nearly killed us more than once.

At that he said, You're lucky you weren't killed, because if you were killed, I wouldn't be born." So true!

CJ continued, "There might be someone so worse at it that it makes Ken's driving when he was 16 look great." I told him if there was someone worse than Ken, they likely didn't live to tell about it. ;)

THERE IS ANOTHER: Today at the library I spied a series of books called "Great Illustrated Classics." Titles on the shelf included greats like "Huckleberry Finn" and "Journey to the Center of the Earth." I'd love for the kids to read them all - but which one best to hook them? I decided "The Wizard of Oz" was my best bet.
Turned out to be a good call! CJ was engrossed in the book from the second he laid hands on it. He read the first 30 pages on the way home from school and was up to page 80-something by this evening. This thrills me, as I was afraid his reading kick might have started and ended with the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series.

Not to be outdone, when CJ wasn't reading it, Annnabelle was. She's in the 180s and should have it finished before 9 a.m. Most excellent!