Sunny Day

SLUGGO: CJ took this photo so he could share this rare, exotic creature with you. It's a leopard spotted slug and he's certain that it's worthy of a scientific journal. Or at least the MPA blog. :)

If you look closely, you can even see its slimy, sluggy trail - cool!

TO THE TEST: Thursday typically means two classes in Shoreline for the kids - music and LEGOs. But this morning we had to skip music so that Annabelle could take a Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT), the "easyCBM" (Curriculum-Based Measurement), an assessment for math, and
"Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS)," an assessment for reading. Why all the testing? Good question. It's to see if she qualifies as Highly Capable under Shoreline Schools guidelines.

For a lot of families, this test would be a Really Huge Deal, as it could change the trajectory of where their child goes to school and the curriculum they'll be studying. For us, well, not so much - at least not at this point. We'd just be business as usual. But first grade is when Shoreline tests students whose families are interested, and I figured there was no harm in having her take the test. There's nothing wrong with keeping our options open for the future.

Annabelle thought the two hour testing was lots of fun. She got to hang out with some kids her age and she said the questions were easy. :)

While Bee did her thing, CeeJ and I hung out and did our thing. We surfed the 'Net on my phone and read some magazines. One of the mags prompted us to discuss whether or not we'd really care to spend "Every Day with Rachael Ray." We both decided that would not be the greatest thing in the world. We went for a long walk around the expansive Shoreline Center campus. We made our way to the football stadium and found a long jump pit at one end. CJ gave it a go. A couple of gos, actually. There was definitely more jump than long.

MR. GOLDEN SUN: When Annabelle finished up at 11 a.m., we headed back to Seattle, did some math, Halloween costume work and then we enjoyed lunch with  Dr. Jonathan Cirtain, a solar scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. Lucky for us (and the couple dozen others logged into the NASA Chat Web site), we got to ask questions of one of the world's preeminent solar scientists from the comfort of our own home. What a fantastic educational opportunity!

We watched others' questions and read (and often re-read) Cirtain's answers for about the first 20 minutes. We learned so much about solar flares, sun spots, magnetism, and more. Fascinating stuff- and a lot of it pretty heady for a 7- and 8-year-old, but I think the kids actually understood most of it. They were especially interested in what Cirtain had to say about our sun eventually turning into a brown dwarf (and the inner planets of our solar system being toasted in the process) several billion years from now.

I asked the kids if they had any questions they'd like to ask the solar scientist. They came up with, "What gives the sun its color?" Happily, our question made the cut. You can read Dr. C's answer below.

I was happy they thought of the question. I'd never even stopped to wonder why our sun is yellow before. :/

In case you're wondering, here's a bit more about Dr. Cirtain from the NASA Web site: "Dr. Cirtain is an expert in Heliophysics and is the Hinode project scientist as well as the co-investigator on Hinode's onboard X-Ray Telescope. He also has served on the science team for the Atmospheric Imaging Array, an instrument on the recently launched Solar Dynamics Observatory satellite. Additionally, Cirtain serves as the principle investigator for two sounding rocket experiments: the High Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) and the Solar Ultraviolet Magnetograph Instrument, or SUMI. Hi-C will be launched from White Sands Missile Range on June 19, 2012 and SUMI will complete its second launch on June 12, 2012, also from White Sands." 

An impressive lunch date, wouldn't you say? How cool is it that we could be sitting here at our home in Seattle tapping into a resource like him in real time?

The entire transcript of questions and answers will be available on the chat page soon.

NORTHBOUND: After the NASA chat, we ripped back up north for their LEGO class. We took Kirby with us this time, much to the dog's delight. While Annabelle worked on a boat of some sort, and CJ finished up a battle ship and then worked on a "free build" (making whatever you want), Kirby and I walked the perimeter of the campus for 45 minutes.