11022011

We started the sunny Tuesday off by completing some science homework. The kids were to read "A New Coat for Anna" by Harriet Ziefert. Based on a true story, it takes place during wartime and tells of a poor girl and her mother who have to trade treasured item after treasured item (something to the farmer, the spinner, the weaver, and the tailor) in order to get Anna a new coat. The kids' assignment was to illustrate their favorite part of the story. Annabelle wrote, "When Anna got her new coat" and drew a picture of a girl twirling in front of a mirror. She was careful to try to draw an accurate reflection in the mirror, which I thought was pretty cool.

CJ drew a picture of a farmer shearing a sheep with a little girl watching and asking, "Does it hurt?"

ENGAGE SHIELDS: Today in her art class, Annabelle got to play around with some terracotta clay. She tells me one of the items she made was a sumo wrestler. I'm looking forward to seeing that. At the end of class the kids were allowed to scrounge through the leftovers bin and make anything they wanted. Using some stiff cardboard and what looked to be an empty tennis ball canister, Annabelle fashioned a shield. This afternoon she and CJ played knight v. knight.

BACKWARD: How shall I put this? Hmm ... let's just say science class was pretty much an unmitigated disaster for CJ. I'm not sure why. He's been doing so well in there with his attention/focus, following directions and classroom manners. Today? Well, not so much. I'll spare you the details. And so, he is enjoying (well, not really) a quiet, unplugged evening of reflection. Tomorrow will be a better day.

That unpleasantness aside, the kids did a neat experiment testing the absorbency of various fabrics. Some (like terry cloth and silk) were very absorbent, while others (nylon, for one) were not.

DOCKED: Maybe the best news I got all day was that the Russian capsule with three tons of supplies successfully docked with the ISS this morning. We have to hope the Russian supply missions are a success because we aren't going to be supplying the ISS or flying any manned missions anytime soon. :/

Interestingly, the supply ship happened to arrive on the 11th anniversary of the arrival of the ISS's very first residents. Which means that for every second of the past 11 years, mankind has had representatives floating up there in orbit. Remarkable.

HALLOWEEN REWIND: I forgot to include these reviews in yesterday's blog post:

Halloween 2011 by CJ Kisky - Yesterday it was Halloween. My costume was a NES controler (sic). We went to businesses on round 1. We went to only 12 houses on round 2. We had lots of fun and candy. But anyway THE END.

My 7th Halloween by Annabelle Kisky - On October 31, 2011 was Halloween. I was Nyan Cat. I also saw a Spider-Man, Bat-Girl and a Hersheys Kiss costumes. That Halloween we got tons of candy and a lot of fun. The End.

WALK THIS WAY: Today we got a largish parcel via Amazon, which meant we had a largish cardboard box to dispose of which meant that Annabelle had to fashion something out of it. Since it also came with a long, wrinkly piece of kraft paper, she transformed the thing into a baby elephant. She and CJ provided the horse, er, elephant power. It was rather hilarious listening to them trying to navigate around the house. While they ran into stuff, I played Henry Mancini's "Baby Elephant Walk" for them. Great tune, and I loved it when I was a kid, but something tells me it wouldn't be a Top 40 hit today.

MINE, ALL MINE: Lately, CJ has been asking lots of questions about diamonds - things like where they come from, how they're mined, what they're worth. I have no doubt this sudden interest is due to a game called Minecraft, where one of the activities is diamond mining.

One excellent resource regarding diamonds is the American Museum of Natural History. On their Web site we learned that "a diamond is carbon in its most concentrated form. Except for trace impurities like boron and nitrogen, diamond is composed solely of carbon, the chemical element that is fundamental to all life."

While diamonds have lots in common with graphite and lonsdaleite - both also composed of carbon - a diamond is unique because of its crystal structure, or the arrangement of the carbon atoms. The diamond's unique structure is what makes it hard and clear, as opposed to graphite, which is soft and opaque. According to the AMNH site, diamonds were formed when once-living carbon from Earth's surface worked its way deep into the mantle.

Today, we also learned about the existence of one of the nation's most unique state parks - the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. First, we watched a short, informative news video about the park on YouTube.

Then, from the park's great Web site, we learned more about diamonds and exactly what goes on there at the park. First off, CJ wanted to know exactly what a carat is. According to current measurements, it's 200 milligrams. What was interesting to learn from the CoDSP site is the word may have derived from the carob tree, which has uniformly sized seeds. For years, gemstones were weighed against the carob seeds. Fascinating!
The park's Web site has a page where the latest diamond discoveries of note are listed. Darn near every day someone's plucking a decent sized diamond out of there!

At the state park, visitors typically employ one of three methods to search for diamonds. Some surface search, which means simply walking the grounds and looking for diamonds lying atop the dirt. Most visitors dig down 6 to 12 inches and screen for diamonds. The most hardcore searchers dig deep holes, remove the soil, separate it and search for diamonds.

Three colors (white, brown, and yellow) are found at this park, and finders keepers! Digging at the Crater of Diamonds is definitely on the kids' 'to do' list now!

SHHHH!: Why does anyone let their toddler(or in this case twin toddlerS) roam a library at large, letting them scream and carry on and on and on (we're talking 45 minutes here) like they're in their own living room? It's just so, so rude. People are trying to study. And write. And think. Even very little kids can and should be taught what a "library voice" is. It's not the kids' fault, of course. It's their inconsiderate parent's shortcoming. And this is priceless ... when I did a walk by to gawk and maybe give the mother pause to think about why someone would be gawking, I found the woman was wearing HEADPHONES listening to her iPod while working on a craft project on the floor while her kids are loudly spazzing here there and everywhere. Incredible.

When they finally left (for the preschool next door), I felt like standing up and applauding.

Don't get me wrong, I like kids and absolutely think they SHOULD be in a library. I just can't stand clueless, careless parents. End of rant.