Back to Class

OPPORTUNITY: You know all those cardboard boxes you recycle or trash? You don't know what you're missing. :) In our household, each and every one of them gets bedazzled, blinged or somehow otherwise customized. This box turned into "BeeBot." I just regret that you can't hear Beebot's robotic voice - funny stuff.

SPEAKING OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: This afternoon, CJ was playing his Wii. The remote wasn't responding properly and he muttered, "Oh great, this thing's going all HAL on me!"

How in the world does an 8-year old who has never (trust me on this) seen the movie 2001 A Space Odyssey(1968) bust off with a reference like that? Gotta blame/thank the Internets, I'd say.

CLASSY: Today marked the kids' first day back to 'school,' albeit a very non-traditional school. Last year, they attended just a single class apiece (science) there. This year, I've signed them up for science, music, LEGO science/construction and an activity hour (mixed bag). Bee also opted for a 3-D art class. So, this year is shaping up to be a lot more "schooly" than last year was, with the single weekly class.

As we were driving to school, I asked the kids if they knew what making a good first impression meant. They both offered up pretty good definitions. We talked about how you only get one chance to make a good first impression and how they should be on their Very Best Behavior from day one.

The kids had a spring in their step as we headed into the building.We arrived a few minutes before Bee's 11 a.m. art class and went straight to the library, to return a couple of books from last year. CJ also got straight into playing with the Photobooth software on the computers there.

OUT BACK: While Bee was in class, CJ and I went to the field behind the school. He mostly played on equipment while I walked laps around the track. (Too bad Kirby wasn't there for the action.

We also ventured to the forest-y area behind the school grounds. There, we found a fort someone(s) had started to construct. After class, Annabelle reported that she made a volcano and a tank out of clay. She didn't have anything to show us, tho, so I'm guessing they're still in the classroom drying.

SCIENCE TIME: We're happy to be back to a weekly science class. The first unit of the year is on fabrics. There was a fun experiment today - lab partners (CJ and Bee in today's case) were given fabric samples and a blind bag. Five difference fabrics were in the bottom of each bag, and one partner would feed a fabric sample through a slot at the top of the bag and the other partner would feel that sample and try to find a matching one in the bottom of the bag. BIRDS ON A WIRE: This morning we got a chance to observe a pair of hummingbirds for a couple of minutes (which is a long time when it comes to hummingbirds!). They were perched on a wire outside our kitchen window for a bit before taking off and darting like crazy over the houses to our east. Man, those things can move!