Corps of Discovery

Photo: Astoria column

WESTWARD HO: I'll admit, I didn't have a Big Plan when we upped this a.m. (all 4 of us before 6 a.m., might I add). But after a pre-dawn breakfast, the kids were rarin' to go, so I thought we'd go ahead and tackle a big book/subject I'd been sitting on for awhile. ... It was time to cover the Lewis & Clark expedition. We pretty much spent our whole day on the topic.

We had a wonderful book, "How We Crossed the West - the Adventures of Lewis & Clark" to get us started. Written by Rosalyn Schanzer and published by the National Geographic Society, it's a colorful, engaging introduction to the Corps of Discovery, their journey and important place in U.S. history.

The book starts off with a map, and we spent some time studying it. Where did their journey start. Where did they end? Why did the make the trip? We asked lots of questions and got many of them answered as we read the story.

One of the things I made sure to point out with the kids was that without Thomas Jefferson's vision, there would not have been a Corps of Discovery. He's the one who asked his private secretary Meriwether Lewis to conduct a passage to the western ocean. Lewis, in turn, contacted his friend William Clark who jumped at the opportunity.

Clark's diaries were the basis for most of the book, which added to its authenticity. We read our way from Missouri up through Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota and then westward across Montana, Idaho and Washington and Oregon.

One of the things we talked about was how important map making was to this venture. We studied Clark's famous map of the expedition closely, following every bend of the Missouri River.

We talked about how this famous map of William Clark's showed the whole journey, but it's certainly NOT the map they started with. Rather, this map made subsequent expeditions feasible.

ONWARD: To augment our experience reading the book, we hopped online. We found a super cute, very low tech stop animation production of the Lewis and Clark expedition produced by a young girl named Sarah. I hope by watching stuff like this, lightbulbs go off in CJ and Annabelle's heads (that they, too, could take on such a project).

We also played a game based on the book we read. The goal was to make friends with natives, open the West to trade, and look for a Northwest Passage. We made some good decisions - and some not so good decisions. Fortunately, we eventually had "Ocian in view!" just like Lewis and Clark.

TURNING A NEW LEAF?: Tonight at dinnertime, CJ colored his menu (a novelty) and painstakingly so (also a novelty). Coloring has never been his favorite thing, but after the dragon yesterday and Mr. Krabs today, I'm wondering if a lightbulb has gone off in his head - that effort in = satisfaction out.LETTERS: Tonight, before and after dinner, we played with a deck of Scrabble cards. It was really fun!

Rabbit Season

KUNG HEI FAT CHOI: Fairly early this morning, I surprised Annabelle by saying, "Happy New Year!"

"Hooray! It's 2012!" she said excitedly.

CJ laughed and corrected her. "It's not 2012, it's the Chinese New Year."

At that I laughed, because just moments before Annabelle had walked into the room, I'd said "Happy New Year!" to CJ and he, too had said, "Wow! It's 2012!"

We talked a bit about the Chinese calendar and how it's different from ours. We also learned that it is the year of the rabbit, and we talked about how the Chinese assign different animals to various years. Naturally, that led us to wonder what the animal was in the year the kids were born.

We learned CJ was born in the year of the ram, and, according to one Web site, "The ram is said to be proud and a bossy animal. A person born in this year should be a good doctor. The ram is known for gentleness and kindness. They also worry."

Annabelle was born in a monkey year. According to that same Web site, "The monkey is funny. It is not likely for a monkey to mind his own business. The person born this year would be a loving parent. People born in these years tend to be quick witted, clever, and creative. They learn quickly and are good at solving problems."

The kids learned a bit more about customs surrounding the holiday by playing nine different games on the "Countdown to the New Year" portion of the PBS Kids Web site. And we found book publisher Grollier had a page full of info and fun related to the Chinese New Year.

Some of the things we learned are that red, yellow and orange are are considered lucky colors and that on the third day before the New Year, Chinese people clean their houses so that they are prepared for the New Year with a clean home. On the second to last day before the New Year, Chinese people decorate their houses with lucky wishes written on red rectangular paper and flowers to welcome the New Year. We also learned people often greet each other by saying “Kung Hei Fat Choi,” which means blessing people to be richer.

Via the Seattle Public Libraries site, we read a non fiction title, "Chinese New Year" by David Marx, and a fictional picture book, "Sam and the Lucky Money." The second book was about a young boy who gets some lucky money (leisees) and him deciding how to spend it.
When we clicked on the "Meet the Author" tab for the second book, we learned that author Karen Chinn was born in Seattle, Washington and she attended UW.

We found a PDF of a Chinese dragon for the kids to color and cut out. I was really happy to see CJ was very interested in the project (as it's not usually the type of thing he's thrilled about). He paid painstaking attention to where and how he was using colors. The kids were both really happy with their dragons when they were done.Later, we made some fortune cookies, as they're probably the #1 food Americans associate with Chinese culture. However, I did point out to the kids that they probably wouldn't see a fortune cookie in China. The cookie's roots are really in Japan, and only here in the U.S. are they considered popular "Chinese" food.

The first step in our cookie process was making some strips with fortunes on them. Dweebs that we are, we used mostly video game quotes.
Even though it's hard on the hands (because the cookies are so damn hot), Annabelle insisted upon helping fold them.TWISTED TALE: We read down a sizable stack of books today. One of the titles was "Kate and the Beanstalk." It presented a feminine twist on a very old fairy tale.

At its conclusion, we talked about how it can be fun to "fracture" fairy tales. In that vein, I asked the kids to write something to go with the title "The Fourth Little Pig."

CJ wrote, "The 4th Little Pig had a house made of these three things. Hey, stiks and briks. Nothing can destroy that!"

Naturally, his writing prompted a lesson on iCk words.

Annabelle wrote: "Once apon a time there were three little pigs, then they heard that there was another little pig living next door. He had a house made out of concrete."

WHERE THE DEER AND THE ANTELOPE PLAY: We also read a book titled "Home on the Range." It was about the landscape and critters living in the Southwestern region of the U.S. The book could be (and was!) sung to the tune of the song by the same title. After we warbled through it, I played a golden oldie version of the tune for them on YouTube.
THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH: This afternoon we made time to have fun with magnets, using a kit we'd bought for a song at Value Village awhile back.

For starters, we learned that we could magnetize steel (in our case, a bolt), by striking it against a magnet. By doing so, we got its jumbled, tiny magnetized regions (called domains) lined up/pointing in the same direction, making it magnetic. By hitting the bolt with a hammer, we knocked its domains around, jumbling it up again, and causing it to start to lose its magnetism. Fascinating!

In another experiment, we took a small magnet with clearly labeled north and south halves and broke it up into about 6 pieces with a hammer. Before trying anything, we speculated whether the three small formerly all north half pieces would remain north pieces only, and if, likewise, the south would be strictly south, or would each little magnet piece have its own north and south ends?

When we started shoving them around near each other, we learned that they each, in fact, had their own north and south ends - and those tiny pieces would even flip over when attracted to the pull of its opposite.

The kids also had fun learning that the force of magnetic attraction is strong enough to work through paper and cardstock. CJ zoomed a rocket around using a magnet while Annabelle did the same with a butterfly.


OVERHEARD: Tonight, as Christian was prompting him through the bedtime routine, CJ said, "Your wish is my command. At least for now. I'll tell you when it isn't."

About 30 seconds later, when Christian asked him to turn off his computer, CJ declared, "Your wish is NOT my command any more."

Nice try, CJ.

Shadow Watch

Annabelle saw her shadow today. I think that means it's sunny ...

PHIL 'ER UP: Of course the first thing on our minds this morning was, "Did he or didn't he?" - as in Punxsutawney Phil see his shadow.

The actual shadow casting (or lack thereof) took place at 7 something Eastern time, so we missed the live event at Gobbler's Knob in Pennsylvania. But we cued up The Official Web site of the Punxsutawney Phil Groundhog Club about 7:30 our time. The static banner on the site told us right away that he did NOT see his shadow, which, per tradition, means there won't be six extra weeks of wintry weather. Naturally we wanted to see the prognosticating Phil call it himself, so I clicked on the link to play the video and we waited ... and waited ... and waited.

We tried on and off for two hours and the blasted video never did load. Pretty lame, if you asked me. I mean, c'mon - this is The Day. Not having the Phil footage on Groundhog Day is like not having live coverage or highlights on Super Bowl Sunday for Pete's sake. (Finally, around dinnertime we did get to see and hear the video.)

Inspired by the day's excitement, Annabelle (who has a penchant for boxes) drew and cut out her own groundhog and made him a makeshift home. She called it her "portable Punxsutawney Phil." Annabelle was very proud of her creation. So much so, she took it to the park with her this afternoon in Magnolia. There, I saw more than one Magnolia mom push their $600 stroller s-l-o-w-l-y past the beer box on the park bench, looking furtively about, clearly wondering who might be polluting their children's playground with malt beverages.

THE REAL DEAL: Something tells me Punxsutawney Phil doesn't live the typical groundhogs lifestyle. To give us a better idea of a more authentic groundhog experience, we checked out the groundhogs at HogHaven, or Lums Pond State Park, which is located near the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal in Bear, Delaware (US).

Thanks to their great Web site, we could view photos and live videos, listen to recordings, take a crash course on Groundhogs -- even attend a Hoggie Hoedown! Visitors can tour the burrows with Thor (a Rottweiler) or explore on their own.

QUICK DRAW: After our groundhog studies, we took some time out for art. The kids drew a Valentine's Day picture using good ol' Bruce Blitz as their instructor.

It was a very worthwhile lesson, as he started off by explaining how helpful guides are in cartooning, and how the position of your guides can make the drawing appear 3-D.
CJ struggled at first, but three sheets of paper later, he finally came around. And he was happy enough with his finished product to present it to his friend later in the day.

RAMPED UP: Science today came with a bonus! CeeJ and Bee got to see Grandma and Grandpa for five whole minutes before class. :) G&G were traveling I-5 from Vancouver (BC) to Vancouver (USA) and the timing worked out so that they could stop by for a leg stretch right before the kids' science class. While CeeJ and Bee were settling in to science, the guests got a quick, semi-tour of the campus before they were back on the road again.

Today in class the kids had all sorts of fun working with wheels and axles and ramps, trying different configurations with their components to see what worked better.
It was so much fun with such simple "ingredients" and lots of good scientific experimenting going on (even though the kids mostly thought of it as play).

THE GREAT OUTDOORS: We stopped home for a few minutes after science to say 'hi' to Kirby before we were off to more fun - playtime at a park with CJ's BFF from kindergarten.

The kids spent two full hours in the park, which was great. We just aren't outdoors enough this time of year. CJ spent most of his time and attention with his friend. Meanwhile, Annabelle alternated between working the crowd (everyone else at the park) and playing with this big Tonka toy truck.

February First

Image credit: NASA
The crew of STS-107, Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, Laurel Blair Salton Clark, Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, Michael P. Anderson and Ilan Ramon

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER DISASTER: Today marked the eighth anniversary of the loss of space shuttle Columbia. I remember that day well. I was very pregnant with CJ (he was born about 10 weeks later) and in the Burlingame Fred Meyer in Portland with Christian. It was a Saturday morning, and we were standing in the home electronics section and saw news of the disaster on the bank of TVs there. Awful.

We spent some time on NASA's Web site today, looking around the special pages devoted to the Columbia. After a successful 17-day mission, the crew was just 16 minutes from home when
the Columbia orbiter suffered a catastrophic failure due to a breach that occurred during launch when foam falling from the External Tank struck the Reinforced Carbon panels on the underside of the left wing.

CUCKOO FOR KOKOPELLI: This morning's Musikgarten homework was drawing a picture from the Kokopelli story that teacher Nancy read the kids last week.

There was just one problem. Neither one of the remembered the story or what Kokopelli was.

Naturally, we hopped on line. There, it took us all of two seconds to be reminded that Kokopelli was a prankster, healer, story teller and fertility god in Native American tradition.

Kokopelli was especially widely known in the Southwest region of what's now the U.S., where petroglyphs of him date back over 3,000 years. Kokopelli often played his flute, which prompted Annabelle to go retrieve a flute like instrument and start parading around.
We found a couple of Kokopelli takes on YouTube. The first one we watched was a bit odd. The music was blaring Rhythm & Blues and seemed to have little, if anything, to do with the story being told.

Fortunately, we found a more traditional Kokopelli tale, and the music and narrator both sounded Native American.

It was the last day of the Native American unit at Musikgarten. To celebrate, teacher Nancy served corn and some buffalo meatballs. Annabelle ate three. CJ, not so much. This blurry photo is him recoiling in horror at the smell and taste of the buffalo ball on the toothpick in front of him. STORYTELLERS: Our writing today was just for fun. I gave the kids a story title - The Day Mario Met Mega Man - and told them they needed to produce at least four sentences.

Annabelle wrote: "Once apon a time ..... Mario went out of the castle to go stop Bowser (again). Then he saw a person standing on top of a building. He said Hello up there! But he could not hear it. But then he noticed it was just Mega Man so they went out to go get Bowser together. The end.

CJ wrote: "Mario he 1 day saw Mega Man runing. Mega Man looked at Mario. Mario looked at Mega Man. And the bolh of them went on a journey."

OVERHEARD: At one point this afternoon Annabelle was drawing some kind of creature for CJ and I heard her say to him, "I need you to make enormous decisions." I asked her what the "enormous decisions" were about and she replied, "I'm making CJ's creature," she explained, and needed guidance regarding its various body parts.

AGE OLD BATTLE: Today CJ started talking about Spy vs. Spy. I asked where he'd heard of them before and he said on a TV show called "Mad." Turns out the Cartoon Network has a MAD magazine TV show on regularly.

I told CJ Mad magazine was my favorite when I was his age, and that I still had some old issues upstairs. That excited him greatly. He hunted through them looking for Spy vs. Spy cartoons, and, happily, found some.

Wait until I tell him I found a "What, me worry?" game online!

OH SO AWFUL: On our way to yoga we listened to the CD for the next unit in Musikgarten: It was supposed to be full of African American music. And, I suppose technically it was, but OMG, honestly, it was just awful. The arrangements and vocals made the songs sound as if they were produced for some flippin' "Barney" the purple dinosaur show. "When the Saints Come Marching In" sounded like elevator music. The songs were completely devoid of soul, rhythm, blues - everything that would have made them sound they represent the roots of Aftrican American music. What a disappointment. So, I'm going to have to right that wrong and find some good versions of those songs for the kids to listen to.

GROUNDHOG EVE: We spent tonight watching "Groundhog Day." It's still funny after all these years.

Let's Go

ON THE GO: We started our morning by diving into a themed bag of books from Seattle Public Libraries. Transportation was the topic, and we read five picture books about going places. One was called "Go!" and had a couple dozen poems about different modes of transportation. Likewise, "Bunnies on the Go" was about a family of rabbits traveling via various means. And then there was "Duck Rides a Bike", a silly-but-lovable story. "Fast Food" was a hit - it had pictures of food - mostly vegetables - fashioned as vehicles and/or drivers. Very cute!

I saved what I knew to be a favorite of the kids' for last: "Larry, Lost in Seattle." It's a cute book about a dog who gets separated from his owner while visiting the Emerald City. It's fun for the kids to see some of their stomping grounds (Kerry Park, the Fremont Troll, the Ballard Locks) showcased in a picture book.

They each took Accelerated Reader tests on the books, and then later in the day I asked them each to write a four line with an A-B rhyming pattern about the mode of transportation of their choosing.

Wanting to keep it as simple as possible for them, as an example, I wrote:

They float

They go

The boats

They row

Within a couple of minutes Bee whipped out:

Scooters glide

Scooters roll

Scooter ride

Race to the goal

CJ, on the other hand, decided to make it reeeeeally hard on himself by opening his poem with:

There has to be two people.

"How many words do you know that rhyme with people?" I asked him.

"None," he deadpanned.

I told him when I have to write a poem, I usually choose words I know will be easy to rhyme, to make it easy on myself.

But CJ does things differently. :) So differently, in fact, that apparently he doesn't feel the need to follow the constraints of a typical A-B rhyming poem. He wrote:

There has to be two people

One of them has to pull the wagon

Be careful

Make sure it doesn't get burned up by a dragon

ZOOMING: The kids are now "zoomer" making veterans, but they still enjoyed watching this tutorial we found on YouTube today.

In the process, we learned about the Steve Spangler Science YouTube channel, which has lots of other science-is-cool type videos. Nice!

From the videos, I could see Spangler appears on The Ellen Show once in awhile. I watched a clip from one of his appearances - it was pretty entertaining. And it's nice to see Ellen promoting the cool science cause!

ROLLING, ROLLING, ROLLING: This evening we watched some of the coverage of space shuttle Discovery being rolled from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad.
Image: NASA
We started out watching it online, but then I realized we could probably catch it on NASA TV (which is channel 76 for Seattle Comcast subscribers). So, we switched to the big screen. What a sight it is to see. That said, we didn't watch the entire 7-hour move (5 p.m. to midnight). Image: NASA
This mission (STS-133) has been a long time in coming - it has been delayed multiple times for a whole host of reasons. However, NASA seems to have things back on track. Its new launch date is February 24. You know we'll be watching. :)

A side note - it was 40 years ago today that mankind returned to the moon. Apollo 14 was commanded by Alan Shepherd, the first American in space. I certainly remember watching coverage of that on the news! Image: Apollo 14 on the lunar surface, NASA

TWIRLY SKIRT: Bee had ballet today. I think there are more girls in this session of her class than ever. For her free dance she wore a skirt we fashioned yesterday from a pretty, colorful curtain valance that Grandma gave Bee for just that purpose.WEEKEND REWIND: Sunday was another soccer game for Annabelle. Per usual, they were pitted against another vastly more experienced and slightly older looking team. Good thing there's no official score being kept. It wouldn't be pretty. But she had fun and played a tad bit less tentatively this week. I'm still hoping to see her play as aggressively as she does vs. Christian, CJ and me during our Saturday schoolyard scrimmages.

During the soccer game, CJ got to enjoy climbing and jumping around on the mammoth inflatable slides and such they have in one section of Arena Sports at Magnuson Park. He had a blast.