Bread Head

ALTOGETHER NOW: The kids completed their group build project in LEGO class today. Look at that beauteous shuttle on the launch pad!

I usually go get some work done in the library when the kids are in LEGO class, but I overheard the teacher say she didn't have her usual helpers today, so I stuck around. Man oh man, do those kids have fun. Each kid is working on their own (different) LEGO kit, but they do a fair amount of visiting with one another and admiring each others' projects. It's 50 minutes well spent.

GYM RATS: The kids played in the school gym for awhile today. The game in progress which they joined was a modified version of dodgeball.  There were three balls in play, and everyone is against everyone. The idea is to hit anyone you can. Last man or woman standing wins. If you get hit, you have to sit down where and when you got hit, and you can't get back up until the person who hit you gets clobbered by someone else. The kids had a blast, even when they got hit and had to wait. 



STORE SCORE: We came home from Shoreline on surface streets rather than I-5 because the freeway was so backed up.  Our path went past Value Village so we popped in to see what we couldn't live without. Today's treasure: Anpanman playset, straight from Japan.

Just a few scant hours ago none of us had heard of Anpanman. But when the kids saw the box covered in Japanese words, they simply 'had' to have it. And so, it came home with us. Annabelle got to playing with the set straight away. CJ, however, took to the computer to do some detective work.

Turns out Anpanman is a cartoon superstar in Japan. In fact, according to the Wikipedia article about him/it, Anpanman has been the most popular fictional character among people age 0 to 12 years in Japan in 10 consecutive years, according to research by Bandai.

Anpanman (a superhero with a bread head filled with red bean paste - he's the one with the red cheeks atop the kids' 'new' playset), was created by author Takashi Yanase in 1973 as a picture-book series. Today, it's a popular cartoon that has been airing since 1988 in Japan. 

We hopped to YouTube, where I suggested CJ search for "Anpanman theme song." He did, and when we checked out the link, Annabelle almost immediately said, "I know that song! I played along with it on Pop'n Music (a Japanese video game where the player pushes colored buttons in synch with the music) at Gameworks)!" And sure enough, she was right. I remembered the song, too. Quite a coincidence.

Obviously, we're going to have to try to hunt down some Anpanman videos - maybe from the library? ...

MATH IN MOTION: Today via email, I received a link to a video of a piece of heavy construction equipment climbing a steel tower in Germany. We gathered 'round the computer and watched man and machine work together to defy gravity.

As we watched, I told the kids, "Someone did a whole lot of math in order to make this happen."