Friday Afield

GLASS ACT: I was feeling downright normal this morning. There it was, about 10 minutes before 9 a.m. and we pulled into an elementary school parking lot like millions of other families in America. ...

What had us out and at school so "early"? We were on a field trip to learn about glass and make a fused glass tile.

The workshop was at Echo Lake Elementary in Shoreline, just a couple miles from the school where the kids' take science on Wednesdays. Artist Bill Ayers led the workshop. Ayers told the gathered students (about 140 in all, I'd guess), that he's been making a living at art since 1978 (good for him!). He has a studio in Redmond, rattartart Studios.

Before we got to the fun/hands on portion of the program (making a mosaic to be fused into a glass tile!), first we learned about how glass is made.

We found out that the three primary ingredients are sand, salt, and calcium (to give it strength). Ayers told us that metals are often used to give glass color (copper = green, magneseium = blue, gold = yellow and so on).

He showed a short video of of a tour through Spectrum Glass, a manufacturer in Woodinville, WA. He also showed several slides of different glass art objects being constructed, pointing out the differences techniques, for instance fusing, slumping and sagging.

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And then finally it was time for instructions about how we could make our own works of art. We had plenty of raw materials to choose from. There were over a dozen choices of colors, and sizes ranged from grain of rice to a silver dollar.
Each person got to go pick out the colors they wanted and then return to their seats to arrange them to their liking on a clear glass tile. Once you were happy with your design, you were supposed to use tiny dabs of glue to hold each little colored glass piece in place on the clear tile.
With his mind set on making an 8-bit appearing Mega Man tile, CJ chose lots of blues. Annabelle chose to do "a self portrait of me" as she told everyone within earshot. (It appears at the top of the page.) Bee was done first.

I did a mid-century modern-inspired design using colors in our kitchen (teals, greens, golds and browns).

CJ worked long and hard on his Mega Man, and was the last of our trio done. He was meticulous about glass placement, and at one point even consulted Mr. Ayers about how to get a 3-D effect. Here's a photo of his Mega Man in progress. If you look just above the flesh colored square of glass, you'll see a tiny Mega Man that helped inspire his design.

Our tiles will be taken to Mr. Ayers' studio and put in a kiln at about 1500 degrees for a few hours. We're supposed to get them back in about a week, so stay tuned for the final product.

FRESHEN UP: As we were driving home, the sun shone brightly. I decided that we'd be spending the balance of our afternoon outside. We have been inside waaaaaaay too much for the past weeks/months due to crappy weather.

We started here 'on campus.' The kids played in the yard while I mowed the lawn (that's right, in February). After I finished that chore, we headed up the street to the aptly named Bay View Park, where we had the place to ourselves.

We discovered a new swing had been installed since the last time we were there. It was so new, there was still a sticker on it!

CJ and Annabelle clambered about, both on the big boulders ... ... and on the steel play structure.
After the playground, we went to the upper park, where there are soccer and baseball fields. There, they did some "spring training" CJ & Annabelle style.
The park was such a nice break from the computers and books - not that we don't love computers and books. But we've been missing the outdoors something awful.

Westward Ho the Wagons!

BEGIN WITH A BOOK: Last week we spent time time studying Lewis & Clark, and talked about how their journey and map making opened the gateway for others to head westward in the years to come.

So, when I spied the picture book "Wagons West" at the library a couple of days ago, I thought it would be a nice way to continue down that path, so to speak.

The book's narrator was a young girl whose family made their way from their home in the midwest 2,000 miles westward, in 1850. Along the way they encountered bad weather, bandits, and lots of geographical obstacles. But they found fertile ground in their new home, the Willamette Valley.

We talked a bit about what it would be like to make that trip and how much planning it would take and how hard it would be to be successful. Then I asked the kids, "So, do you want to try to cross the Oregon Trail?" They both answered with an enthusiastic 'Yes!' and so we did just that - at least virtually. Right after we sang "Home on the Range." :)

THE OREGON TRAIL: If you had an interest in computers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, you most certainly knew about the PC game "The Oregon Trail," made by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (later Corporation), or MECC.

While The Oregon Trail is still being made in the here and now (in fact, I saw the lastest PC version for $20 at Fred Meyer today), I wanted to show CJ and Annabelle the old school version. After a little hunting around, I managed to find a great Apple II emulator via which we could play it online. Hooray!

First we had to list five members in our party, which meant Kirby got to go along, too. Then we were told the year was 1848, and we had to decide what month to leave Missouri for our 2,000 mile trek to Oregon. If we left too early, rivers might be swollen with winter runoof and there might not be enough grass for our oxen. Leave too late, and we risk being stuck in inclimate weather at inopportune times down the road. We talked it over and chose to leave in June.

Next, we were given $400 and were told to visit the mercantile for provisions - clothing, ammunition, spare parts for the wagon, oxen, and food. The merchant suggested 3 sets of clothing apiece (we opted for 2). He also suggested 200 pounds of food per person. This made the kids put pen to paper for a story problem (200 pounds per person x 5 people = ?).

We came to regret a couple of the merchant's recommendations. For instance, we found out later that bullets are relatively cheap and CJ's a crack shot - we could have forgone the expensive food we bought and should have bought more bullets.

Provisions laid in, we hit the trail. The travails started almost immediately. On Day 1, one of our oxen was injured. "Oh god, ALREADY?" Annabelle protested.

Just a couple of days later, we were faced with crossing our first river. We had to decide whether to pay to take our wagon on a ferry, to try to ford (roll across) the river, or to caulk our wagon and try to float ourselves across. We decided to cross our fingers and float. "I hope we don't get ourselves killed!" CJ said nervously as our wagon rolled into the river. Mercifully, we made it across unscathed. There were other bright spots. We made it to forts and major landmarks. We met Native Americans. We never ran out of food or clothing.

The challenges came one after another - there were rivers, bandits and curve balls (random notices popping up about blizzards and getting lost on the trail). And there was lots of disease- namely cholera, dysentery, measles and typhoid. Poor Annabelle was the first victim - a creepy message suddenly popped up on the screen telling us she was snakebit. Soon after, an even creepier message let us know she was finito. Kirby was the next to kick off - measles got her. Dad went next. He broke his leg and then some disease got him. About 1,000 miles into the journey, it was just me and CeeJ. Then dysentery and something else got me, and CJ was on his own. He made it through the Rockies and even managed to carry on when the oxen ran out (by trading with another pioneer).

Traveling alone, with just one ox remaining, CJ contracted cholera. It was the beginning of the end for him. Soon after he broke his leg. But to his credit, he made it 1442 miles.

While it sounds like a whole lot of grief, really the game was fun. All along the way the game kept changing. We had to hunt, we had to trade, we had to change our pace, modify our rations (eating), talk to people we encountered, broker trades, and more. It was a wonderfully educational experience, covering geography, math, history, lots of reading and more. We're all looking forward to trying our luck on the Oregon Trail again.

A BIT BETTER: Annabelle tried her hand at dressing herself again today. This outfit was definitely more coordinated than her last attempt. :)

GOODWILL HUNTING: We dropped a a trio of bags off at Goodwill today and you know we had to go in to see what we couldn't live without. The answer to that question was a $1.99 'plug and play' Naimco Classics game, featuring Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Galaga and a couple of others. CJ was quite pleased and couldn't wait to show it to Christian when he got home. He asked Christian to share this review of the unit: "The Naimco Classic has excellent joystick action. The box was a little awkward in my hand but the game itself was spot on - almost an exact duplicate (of the original system)."

Responding to Christian's complaint, CJ created a makeshift "game console" for him by placing the unit on a wood TV tray. By bedtime tonight, CJ was talking about building a game cabinet for it. Gotta appreciate someone who thinks big.

Wednesday

BREAKFAST: While some of you may have spent breakfast paging through a newspaper, CJ and Annabelle enjoyed cereal while watching spent theirs staring at our triops.

We put the triops eggs in water on January 14 - just a month and a couple of days ago. The "living fossil" has a fossil record that reaches back to the Carboniferous, 300 million years ago, according to Wikipedia.

We finally decided to read up a little bit more on this creature, and learned that it breathes through its 140 feet (?!). We also read that it likes to eat carrots, so tomorrow we'll throw one in there and see what happens.

Annabelle's eagle eyes noticed something that looked like another triops floating around in the water. I told her that wasn't likely since we were definitely down to just one, but she was right - there was something that looked like another triops in there. Upon closer examination, I determined it had to have been shed by our triops. We talked about how since it's an arthropod, the triops needs to shed its exoskeleton in order to grow.

Unfortunately, when I scooped the cast off out of the water, it pretty much lost its shape, but it was still interesting to look at. I was able to find a cool video on YouTube of someone else's triops shedding its skin. Cool!

BOOKISH: We read a couple of books together this morning. One was "Pet Boy," about a boy who collects (and then quickly forgets about) all sorts of pets. When, after being abducted by aliens, he found the tables turned, Pet Boy had a change of heart. It was a cute story with engaging illustrations.

We also read "The Hippo Hop." It was pretty forgettable, according to my resident critics.

After our group reading, the kids each started a chapter book from the fun Geronimo Stilton series. Annabelle managed to finish her book by plugging away at it through the day. CJ was satisfied to get through two chapters, and that's fine, too.

HISTORY LESSON: CJ especially enjoyed our history lesson for the day, as it was a retrospective of "The Evolution of Fighting Games."

CJ has a pretty broad (and largely self taught) knowledge of video game history, but this lesson expanded that base. For instance, today he learned about Heavyweight Champ, a Sega arcade game from 1976, that featured two boxing gloves (one for each player) which could be used to punch high or low. It's believed to be the first hand-to-hand fighting video game.

We also learned that Midway's Mortal Kombat (1992) is pretty much the game that brought about the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) system, thanks to its bloody, gory features.

MARBLE MANIA: In the kids' science classes this afternoon they had all sorts of fun experimenting with marbles and pipe insulation. I know, it might not sound like much - but rolling marbles and foamy tunnels = tons of fun if you're, say 5 to 8 or so. Initially the kids were working in pairs, but pretty soon they realized it could be more fun if they started connecting their tunnels, so soon they were working in quads, then groups of eight and then the whole class was working together, which was great.

CITY IN THE CLOUDS: On the way back from Shoreline to Seattle, you could barely make out downtown through the low-lying clouds. Annabelle said there was a rainbow behind us, too, but I couldn't safely turn around to see it.
PARK PAL: Rather than going home, we buzzed up and over the crest of Magnolia and down to the park in town to meet CJ's BFF from kindergarten, exchange Valentines and play until the rain started coming down. It was c-c-c-old. I can see why snow is in the forecast for the next couple of days.

GRAPE FACE: Though it looks like a case of the mumps, it's really just Annabelle chimpmunking some grapes. :)

Another Tuesday

LOTSA LEGOS: The kids spent a fair amount of time today at the LEGO table, building objects and constructing stories.

WAKING UP IS HARD TO DO: We read a library book this morning penned by Neil Sedaka - remember him? Until I spied the book on a shelf at the Magnolia library, I hadn't thought of Neil Sedaka since grade school. Entitled "Waking Up is Hard to Do," I thought it especially appropriate today, since Annabelle didn't roll out of the rack until 9 a.m.

The book is basically a re-write of the lyrics of Sedaka's catchy chart topper from August of 1962, "Breaking Up is Hard to Do."

Naturally, I had to show the kids a video of Sedaka singing his original version. Not surprisingly, we were all singing, "Comma, comma down do be do, down down" all day long.

TABLE TIME: We worked on standard schooly stuff at the table today, including more multiplication in our Singapore Math books and for their language arts lesson, I used a Valentine's themed worksheet from EnchantedLearning.com we never got around to yesterday.

The first part of the exercise they had to come up with synonyms, antonyms, homonyms and compound words. That was good practice. They also had to read some really poorly written sentences and write them with correct spelling, capitalization and punctuation.

THE HIP BONE'S CONNECTED: Today was Musikgarten and part of the kids' homework for their African American unit was learning and singing "Dem Bones." I found a great old version on YouTube by the Delta Rhythm Boys.

YOGA STORIES: As part of yoga today, the kids were asked to draw a picture of something they love and then the group would share their drawings and the group would all try to do yoga poses based on those images.

Annabelle drew a unicorn, a star, the Earth, a horse, and herself at a park.

Valentine's Day still weighing heavily on his mind apparently, CJ decided to draw "Mr. Love Monster." He proudly pinted out that its feet, body, head, hands, eyes and even all 10 fingers were hearts. I can only imagine what a Mr. Love Monster yoga pose looks like. ...

Happy Hearts

HEARTY BREAKFAST: In honor of Valentine's Day, the kids had pink tinted pancakes for breakfast. I doubt they tasted any different than normal pancakes, but they dug them. :)

The kids had noticed some mylar balloons at area stores recently that they thought were The Best. I took note and dispatched Christian to bring them home last night. So , the kids woke up to those and their great delight.

A TO Z: For a good language arts exercise, I had the kids arrange some words (bouquet, candy, card, flowers, gift, heart, hugs, kisses, love, rose) in alphabetical order. That was both fun and frustrating. :)

I also found an exercise on EnchantedLearning.com for them. It was called, "My Heart, A Book About Feelings," where they had to complete sentences. Here's Annabelle's, with her writing in quotes:

I feel happy when "I'm having fun."

I feel silly when "I laugh."

I feel sad when "I'm crying."

I feel scared when "it's dark in my bed."

I feel angry when "CJ doesn't play with me."

I feel good when "I'm happy."

I feel bad when "I'm sad."

I feel; loved when "I'm with my family."

And here's CJ's take:

I feel happy when "I see my favorite cartoon."

I feel sad when someone's bid is better then mine." (Damn you eBay competitors!)

I feel silly when "I see MAD (TV)."

I feel angry when "something takes so long!"

I feel scared when "I see a snake in a Dora episode."

Ifeel good when "I get a toy I want."

I feel bad when "I get hurt."

I feel loved when "I see Camille." (his BFF from kindergarten)

MIGHT AS WELL JUMP: Our Valentine's Day treat for the kids was taking them to Sky High - a trampoline lover's dream. Locally (Bellevue) they have a homeschooler's special of $7 per hour on Monday afternoons between 1 and 2 p.m. It was awesome! :)

GRIM REALITY: As sweet sounding as Valentine's Day is, the reality is that it has rather grim roots. As it turns out, on February 14 around the year 278 A.D., Valentine, a holy priest in Rome in the days of Emperor Claudius II, was executed.

Cladius the Cruel had banned all marriages and engagements in Rome. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret.

When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Valentine was arrested and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off. The sentence was carried out on February 14, on or about the year 270.

When told of the origins of Valentine's Day, CJ said, "It's more bloody and gruesome and glory (sic) than romantic."

Flying South

PREPARE FOR TAKE OFF: I roused the kids (well Annabelle, at least) a little early, so that we could get our acts together and hit the road for a quick trip down south. SpongeBob was playing in the background until 8 a.m., at which time I thought to flip it over to the news. At that very moment, the VP of Egypt, looking rather ashen, came on and delivered about a 12 second message announcing Mubarak's departure.

"Freedom!" Annabelle declared as the people in Liberation Square rejoiced.

I told the kids that it wouldn't mean Egypt gets a truly democratic government immediately - but Mubarak's departure at least made that a strong possibility. Time will tell. ...

We watched the coverage for a bit and then loaded up and hit the road by 9 a.m. It was a nice day for a drive. We could see snowy Mt. Rainier as we made our way south of Seattle. Kirby was along for the ride. She and "Pinky Pie" rode shotgun.

For most of the journey, Annabelle and CJ enjoyed "The Cat in the Hat's Quizzer." They took turns trying to stump each other. It was the perfect road trip book.

TO WORK: Once in Vancouver, we had work to do. The reason for our trip was to attend the 50th anniversary celebration of an aunt and uncle, and we had some treats to create for the occasion.

CJ and Annabelle helped paint some pretty heart-shaped cookies. Annabelle helped mix the bright red frosting.

They both did some painting, with Annabelle being MUCH more interested in that task than CJ.We also made three kinds of deviled eggs, about three dozen fortune cookies, a few pounds of Bloody Mary steak bites, some super yummy shrimp roll ups and some really cute heart shaped hand sized, portable pies. After about 5 hours of nearly non stop kitchen work, we headed out to our old stomping grounds.

OUR OLD BACKYARD: We headed over to Felida Park, 17 lovely acres which used to be literally in our backyard when we used to live in Vancouver. Our first stop there was the brickyard, where CJ and Annabelle hunted for their names. They each found each other's.

Afterward, they enjoyed the playground.

Before leaving the park, we walked its perimeter, strolling especially slowly by our old house. It was a good opportunity for me to coach the kids on how to "act casual" while surveying a scene. :)

We had a relaxing evening, and then the next day enjoyed a lovely party before heading back home.