Going Viral

THERE IS ANOTHER: Disappointingly, but not too surprisingly, early this morning Annabelle became feverish. That's right - now 75 percent of us are sick. ...

At one point, Annabelle asked if she could use my phone to send her dad a text message. I said sure. I was very impressed that she can dial his number, launch the texting screen and type away all by herself. She wrote: "Hi dad mom says that i might have a virus (my head feels funny)"

Nice use of parenthesis, Bee! When Christian wrote back that he hopes she feels better soon, she responded, "Thanks dad :D..." (She knows all sorts of emoticons, too, of course.)

Though I had all sorts of grand plans for today's schooling, her feeling puny changed that. So instead, we took a low key approach.

ON THE LOW DOWN: We took to the couch and read a trio of new-ish library books (all three titles were published in 2010).
"The Boy and the Moon" was brief but beautiful. It (spoiler alert) involved a crescent moon getting hung up in a tree. To rescue it, a boy feeds it apples from the tree. Soon enough it's a full moon and rolls to freedom. The illustrations - by author James Christopher Carrol - are beautiful (it's worth checking out his Web site).

Next up was "A Not Scary Story About Big Scary Things" by CK Williams. It followed a young boy as he walked home through woods supposedly inhabited by a ferocious monster. The kids found the watercolor illustrations (by Gabi Swiatkowska) a tad creepy - but compelling. The take away for both of them was mind over matter - that imaginary monsters are only scary if you let them be.

Lastly, we enjoyed "Clever Jack Takes the Cake," a tale of a poor boy's quest to take a fitting gift to the princess' birthday party. The storytelling was compelling and the ending satisfying. Six thumbs up. :) This evening, I found a great educator's guide (PDF) and a reader's theater (PDF) on her Web site. We'll definitely revisit those when the troops are peppier.

The kids each took Accelerated Reader quizzes on the books and aced them. Nice!

NOT SO GLORIOUS: While we've been watching the astronauts on the ISS all week on NASA TV, that wasn't the only big NASA-related news this week. In the wee hours this morning, NASA launched a rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California - the Glory mission.

Not a manned launch, this mission was to send an Earth science satellite up on a Taurus XL rocket. Data from the Glory mission was supposed to allow scientists to better understand how the sun and tiny atmospheric particles affect Earth's climate. We checked out a great graphic (in PDF form) all about Glory on NASA's Web site.

We found a nicely done video overview about the Glory mission NASA posted to YouTube and watched it. And then I cued up video from the morning's launch for the kids to watch. It was exciting to see the tall rocket roar off the launch pad and see the stage separations.

And then we watched the post mortem, preliminary explanation of the mission's failure. That's right - Glory never reached orbit. According to a NASA press release, "The launch proceeded as planned from its liftoff at 5:09 a.m. EST through the ignition of the Taurus XL's second stage. However, the fairing failure occurred during the second stage engine burn. It is likely the spacecraft fell into the South Pacific, although the exact location is not yet known."

Can you say BIG, half billion dollar blunder? Yikes. :( What made it doubly painful is that on Feb. 24, 2009, NASA's previous launch attempt of an Earth science spacecraft (the Orbiting Carbon Observatory onboard a Taurus XL) ALSO failed to reach orbit when the fairing did not separate. Same damn thing. Guess their troubleshooting trees didn't work so well. ...

As disappointing as the news was, it was rich with lessons to be learned for CJ and Annabelle. We talked about what should happen next. Should NASA quit trying to launch rockets because of two failures? (The consensus was 'no.') What should they do differently next time? And so on.

IN THE PINK: By early afternoon Annabelle had rallied some. I asked her if she felt good enough to go to Pink Gorilla and import and retro gaming retailer. I'd promised CJ days ago we could go there Friday. I got a quick "Yes!" in response.

We went to their store in the U-District. We parked next to an apartment building that had these great faces staring down at us. Appropriately, there was a cafe called "The Ugly Mug" on the ground floor.As always, the kids enjoyed their perusing Pink Gorilla's inventory. It's a bit like being in a gaming museum, with items running the gamut back to the earliest consoles. Plus, there are lots of interesting Japanese titles to check out, too. CJ came home with a "new" Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom game for the Atari system, and a Mario Kart title for the Game Boy Advance (which he can play on his old DS).

CJ is definitely in his element in that store. It was amusing hearing him asking the store employee for 20-year old games I'd never even heard of. His knowledge of such things is darn near encyclopedic.

Doctor, Doctor

WHITE COATS PART ONE: What a loooooong day.

It started at 9:30 where CJ had an appt. to get a lingering (since Christmas) cough checked. I strongly suspected he has a sinus infection, like me. (Yesterday when I asked him to brush his teeth, he squeezed his head and said his head hurt too much to do it.)

And then in the wee hours of the morning he spiked a fever. Poor CeeJ.

We made good time to the medical center and were in an exam room a good 10 minutes ahead of appointment time. So far, so good. Things started to go not so good when a completely humorless nurse had CJ step on the scale and took his vitals. She never explained what she was doing, she just did it.

I suppose by age almost 8 most kids would be down with the temp in the ear, oximeter on the finger thing, but CJ is just so rarely going to the doctor sick. I can't remember the last time he went - at least a couple years ago. Anyway, every time the nurse started doing something to him, CJ asked her what she was doing and she didn't like that at all. Excuse the hell out of me for having curious children. ... And then she drops a cartoon tiger covered smock on his lap (not telling him what it's for, of course). I told him he was supposed to wear it instead of his shirt for the exam. He recoiled in horror at the tigers and said, "But that's for children!"

That made me laugh out loud. The nurse (naturally) failed to find the humor in it.

With disdain, CJ donned the smock. And then we waited. And waited. And waited. Like a half hour. Finally the doctor came in and after a few quick questions agreed that it was likely a sinus infection. As the Dr. was keying his findings into his computer CJ started whispering to me. "Mom. Mom! Come over here where I am. ... " And so I did. CJ continued whispering, nodding toward the Dr. whose back was toward us, saying, "I can see part of his skull!!!!"

"Aaargh!" I screamed silently while turning bright red! Naturally the Dr. heard CJ's statement, as the room is the size of a closet.

The Dr. is bald and so I immediately said to CJ, "I think what you mean is you see his scalp, and we all have scalps." I kept blathering about scalps, but as I stared at the good Dr.'s scalp, I spied what CJ was talking about. There was a little puckered patch that was white and, well, it looked like it could be part of his skull. No wonder CJ was freaked out!!!

Mercifully, we were soon out of the office, prescription in hand. From there it was down the elevator to the pharmacy, where we had the pleasure of waiting another 40 minutes. Good times. At least we didn't see any more skulls down there. ...

We ripped home to get some lunch and then it was back across town to the dentist.

PEARLY WHITES: The kids enjoy going to the dentist - the office is peaceful and modern, the staff is friendly, and they have toys and prizes!

They were happy we were there early - it gave them more time to play in the toy room.

They got their teeth cleaned and good reports - no new cavities! The not so good news was an old filling CJ had doesn't look good and the dentist suggests pulling the tooth. Stay tuned for that. :(

BEACH BUMS: As we left the dentist, CJ asked if we could go to a playground. I was glad he was feeling up to it, and since there was a temporary reprieve from the wind, rain, hail, thunder and lightning that had been raging eariler in the day.

The dentist's office is just west of Lake Washington, and so we wound our way down from it into the Madrona neighborhood and to Madrona Park, along the shore.

According to the city's Web site, the park is named for the madrona trees at the lakeside and the Seattle Electric Company once operated a private trolley to the beach. The city acquired the property in 1908, and converted the bathhouse (an attractive brick structure) to a dance studio in 1971.

It must be a lovely place on a warm summer day. But even on a frigid March afternoon, the kids had a blast.

There was a long log jutting from the ground. The kids stood on it and bounced for fun, checking out the view of Bellevue's skyscrapers across the way.

The kids checked out a lifeguard chair that won't be seeing any action for at least a couple more months.
There was a hollowed out "log" (made from concrete) they had fun climbing through.
And, of course, there was some running on the beach.
It was, by far, the best part of the day. :)

Seussical

SPECIAL DELUXE A LA PETER T. HOOPER: Today's no ordinary day. It's "Read Across America Day," and darn near a national holiday. The annual event is a reading motivation and awareness program that calls for every child in every community to celebrate reading on March 2, the birthday of children's author Dr. Seuss.

Born in 1904, though Geisel/Seuss has been gone for a few years now, his memory is alive and well!

We started our day with a contest to see who could name the most Dr. Seuss books. I won. :) The kids did respectably though. :)

From there, we moved to the computer to watch an animated version of my favorite Seuss book, "Scrambled Eggs Super." I vividly remember my dad reading it to my sister and me over and over. How I loved the pattern of the silly rhymes and the crazily colored eggs in that book!

Afterward, we moved over to the kitchen island, where I had some hard boiled eggs waiting for the kids. I encouraged them to be inspired by the "super de duper" eggs pictured in the book while coloring them.
CJ chose a red and black striped pattern. Bee was in the mood for polka dots.
SEUSSVILLE: After the eggs, we moved back to the computers. I pointed each of the kids in the direction of the official Dr. Seuss Web site, Seussville.

I told the kids they had 20 minutes to explore the site, and their job while doing so was to write down 5 facts they could share about Dr. Seuss.

Annabelle went straight to the "author" tab and then clicked on "timeline" and quickly found five things to write down. She noted that he was born in 1904, that he had a toy dog as a child in 1910, that he had a sister named Marnie and that Dr. Seuss's ABC was published in 1960.

CJ had a slow start. He seemed to think his assignment was to do a Web site review. He wrote, that it was slow loading and about some of the site features. I reminded him of his assignment, suggested he click on the "author" tab and he finally came up with some facts, such as Dr. Seuss makes up animals, his birthday is Mar. 2, that one of his most popular books is The Cat in the Hat, that he wrote 44 books for kids and that he probably used a "tipwriter" for his books (since he wrote in the pre-computer age).

SCIENCE REPORT: After a week of no Shoreline class, we were back at it today. We got to the school early enough for Annabelle to check out the library. She was still in full Seussian regalia, and attracted a bit of attention there, BTW. ...
In addition to having more fun with marbles, tunnels and tape in science, we got to hear all about their teacher's exciting trip to see STS-133, the launch of space shuttle Discovery. So cool!

FEAST: This evening we made green (deviled) eggs from our colorful hard boiled eggs, and had some ham, too, of course.

Rather unfortunately, I turned my back when CJ was adding the industrial strength green food coloring. Yikes!

Marching In

ENTER THE WET: March 1 - we want to think that spring is justthisclose, but the reality is there's lots of ugly weather to come in the weeks ahead. And that is exactly what this month's calendar craft from the creative folks at Curiosity Wonderment and Exploration Co. illustrates.

These little crafts are never an easy challenge - they require lots of patience and some precision cutting. But the kids are learning the tricks. In fact, today while working on the project, CJ proclaimed himself "The King of the Rough Cut." In other words, he knows to cut away a lot of the excess before getting down to the fine stuff. :)

They were both really happy with their calendars when they were done and played with them lots today (the umbrellas are removable).

Oh, and in case you're wondering, the little poem on the puddle reads, "In a city where rain falls like hella, there's no choice but to have an umbrella, so get down in a huddle, stand in a puddle and let your voice ring out acapella."

MULLING OVER MARCH: It being the first of March, I brought out the white board today and wrote a phrase on it about the month that we've "all" heard - except for CJ and Annabelle.

"People say March is 'in like a lion, out like a lamb.' Do you know what that means?" They each shook their heads to the negative."Good!" I smiled. "I want you to think about it and even if you have no clue, I want you to write something explaining what you think it *could* mean. And it doesn't matter if it's 'right' or not, I just want something that it *could* mean."

Within about two minutes Annabelle produced, "The rain rains like a lion. (Relly hard) The flowers smell soft (like a lamb)."

CJ was having a harder time. He started writing something about a bear, but he couldn't verbalize or write how it connected to March, so he had to start over. After some heavy sighs and complaints, he finally settled on, "I think that you are talking abiout a flaloer because it's petals look like a lion's coat and it looks nice like a lamb."

Good enough.

TAKING NOTE: After a "mid-winter break" from classes last week, the kids were back to classes this week. First up this afternoon, it was music. Before they could go, they had to do homework. This week that meant transcribing a song.

LOW TECH: Shortly after music we headed toward a really big Goodwill store to pick up the latest acquisition for CJ's future video game museum - a pristine 1982 Donkey Kong "Game & Watch" which we 'won' on a shopgoodwill.com auction at a very good (relative to the eBay market) price. My goodness, the thing's graphics are SO primitive compared to even the soon to follow GameBoy. But back in its day, man oh man was it the hot stuff!

And CJ & Annabelle love the novelty of it.

YOGA CAKES: Imagine the kids' delight today when we got to yoga and found out it was a yoga friend's birthday. That = CUPCAKES!WHAT SHE SAID: I came across an op-ed piece, "Changes Schools Should Make to Better Serve Students: A Student's View," on the Huffington Post today about education reform. It's written by a mostly homeschooled 13-year old from Redmond, WA. I found myself agreeing with every point she made. ...

Back at It

Especially for our readers in Canada: The docked space shuttle Discovery and the Canadian-built Dextre, also known as the Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator, are featured in this photograph taken by the STS-133 crew aboard the station. The blackness of space and Earth's horizon provide the backdrop for the scene. Image Credit: NASA

SPACEWALKERS: Once again today, the actions of the astronauts flashed on our television all day. While we certainly weren't sitting on the couch watching their every move, it did have our attention at certain times - one being when astronaut Steve Bowen became stranded for a bit when a robotic system shutdown left him stuck with a 5-by-4-foot, 800-pound pump in his hands for nearly a half-hour (bet he was glad for the weightlessness in space at the time). Bowen was perched on a tiny platform at the end of the 58-foot robotic arm which is used to carry spacewalking astronauts around. The problem started when the work station controlling the robot arm shut down. The astronauts on the ISS were able to get the arm moving again by using another workstation - and a whole bunch of manuals, notes and other computers.

DIVIDED HOUSE: Our math books finally introduced some division today - hooray! The kids were getting super tired of all the x 2, x 3 stuff. When I saw the first division problems, I grabbed the white board and told the kids I was going to show them what has to be the most obvious/used example in the book. I drew a circle and they both declared, "A pizza!"

And so we spent a few minutes dividing the pizza into slices. For the most part, the division went swimmingly. Annabelle missed just one problem out of 20. She quickly corrected it when I pointed out the mistake. CJ missed three.
"Well Mom, I'm not the smartest person in the world," he offered up as an excuse.

I assured him that he wouldn't have to the smartest person in the world to find the correct solution.

"I'm not going to fix them," he insisted. A couple of times. At that point it became clear that he was having a case of Monday Mind Melt.

At that, I told him I hoped he had enjoyed his time with his computer, because those days were over. Within seconds, he fixed the problems. :)

INTERPRETRESS: After lunch, we worked on the Lewis & Clark packets from EdHelper.com. Today's topic: "Sacagawea." The kids took turns reading the article aloud about Sacagawea's childhood, how she was kidnapped from her Shoshone tribe (in Idaho) at 12 and taken to Hidatsa land (east of the Rockies), and how she was somehow transferred to a French Canadian fur trader Toussaint Charbonneau just a couple of years later. Charbonneau and a pregnant Sacagawea joined the Corps of Discovery when she was 15. By all accounts, she seems to have been vital to their success reaching the Pacific Ocean.

There were some comprehension questions afterward, which - despite the fact we've read and watched a substantial amount about the topic now - stymied CJ, whose brain was still in weekend mode. It was like he'd never heard of Sacagawea before. :/

So, we watched another video about her, "The Journey of Sacagawea." I accessed it through Seattle Public Library's Web site, but later discovered people without an SPL card can view it via the Idaho Public Broadcasting System's site. (Idaho PBS produced the documentary.)

The show was well done, with and insightful experts' commentary. (From the 'it's a small world' file, I actually recognized one of them - Barbara Kubik. She and I were both Skyview High School band parents back in the early '00s.)

From the video, we learned more statues, rivers and lakes bear her name than any other North American woman. Strong and intelligent, she is an inspiration not just for women, but also for teenagers. She accomplished her amazing Corps of Discovery feats while just 15-16 years old!

I was going to pepper the kids with questions after the video, to make sure they were paying attention, but occurred to me that I should have them ask each other questions - that way they could demonstrate some knowledge about the topic in the formulation of the question, too.

They were all over that idea and turned it into a face off of sorts. I think they were both winners. :)WEEKEND REWIND: We made another trip down Interstate 5 this weekend for some family fun. Nonnie and Bops were in town for a bridge tournament at the Hilton and invited us to stay there Saturday night, too. It was great to see them, and the kids really enjoyed the novelty of staying in a hotel. (Annabelle was fascinated by the two land line phones in the room. She lives in a cell phone only family.) They loved riding the elevator and, of course, the swimming pool! The motel has nice views of the historic (translation - needs to be replaced) Interstate Bridge, the Columbia River and Esther Short Park. This clocktower in the park features bells and a glockenspiel that play several times a day. Around its lower section there is a three scene diorama depicting a Chinook tribal legend.

Saturday evening, the kids got to see a couple of their cousins in Portland, and Sunday morning we all got together for breakfast at Grandma & Grandpa's home in Vancouver. Good times!

On the way home Sunday, CJ noticed brown and white Lewis & Clark signs along Interstate 5 between Salmon Creek and Kelso. We explained that was because the explorers had traveled the waterway to our immediate west on their way to the Pacific. There are dozens if not hundreds of similar signs marking the Lewis & Clark byway.