One of Those Days

A COUPLE OF CARDS: We decided to mix our math time up a bit today by playing card. I fetched the deck of cards we got from the "Explorations in Math" at the Seattle Science Festival a couple months back. 

As a side note, when I visited the "Explorations in Math" Web site today, I learned they're now Zeno and "Math Powered" is their tagline. They explain the name change as "the next evolution of Explorations in Math" and reports "Zeno is about the infinite possibilities that arise from an individual's relationship with math."  

ROBOTIC: This morning we struggled valiantly to try to get the DVD player and TV in the living room to properly play "Robot Adventures with Robosapien (TM) & Friends."

For whatever reason, we just couldn't get the audio to work on the TV. I was SUPER frustrated and trying to troubleshoot the situation and have I mentioned I was SUPER frustrated? As I'm muttering Bad Words under my breath and the video is playing silently on the screen, I couldn't help but laugh at this exchange.

CJ:  It's going to be really hard to read lips during this.
Annabelle:  Yeah, especially since robots don't HAVE lips.

We went to Plan C (when Plan B, playing the DVD on the laptop didn't work, either), and played it in the kids' bedroom. The third time was a charm.

The kids really enjoyed the program and talked about it off and on for the balance of the afternoon. (At one point Annabelle declared her intentions to not only be an astronaut to Mars, but to design and build robots on Mars and send them off on explorations.)

Here are their reviews. Annabelle's is first. 

   Robot Adventures with Robosapian™ & Friends was a part-cartoon video (on DVD) that I watched in the bedroom (for some reason, living room sound wouldn't work) and it was very good. It was about toy robots that would wake up at night, and on Fridays they said it was "movie night." This was presumably the first episode, because they had a new toy in the toy shop and wanted to start from the beginning (of the history of robots, that is) and there were video sections with questions to see if you were paying attention. We *almost* answered all the questions right, and there were three "D" words to describe robot's jobs: Dirty, Dangerous, and Dull. these were called "the three D's" sounds like the three R's, doesn't it? Well, these three D's have NOTHING to do with those.
   We also learned about the main parts of a robot, axis (ack-zeez), motor, and wheels. These parts help the robot move and do it's job. You can also program the robot to have senses, and even give it artificial intelligence, sight, and lasers that can sense how far or close it is to (or from) an object.
   As you can see, robots have many complex parts and can do many, many tasks. In fact, you are using one right now to view my message. and, I think you can stop using this robot for this task, because my message is over.

And here's CJ's report ...

In Robot Adventures with Robosapien & Friends, it starts in a factory, with a woman picking up things, and then leaving. after that, a whole bunch of robots (and a newcomer) turn on. After that, the robots tell the newcomer (roborover) that Friday is movie night, and it is a blue face(?) that comes on the screen. The face tells the robots about how it has access to a different factory, so it knows about that factory. It first tells the robots about how robots are not machines. It then tells them about the earliest robots date back to the 13th century, to make music. 600 years later, in Japan, another robot was made to serve tea. Both are still used today. Near the end, the face told about Asimo, 20-year project humanoid robot made from a Honda. Asimo is currently working with humans now, and he can even interact with "Just Dance." At the end, there was a trick question asking what robots are used for. (It had all the things robots are used for and no "All of the above/below answer.)

DARN IT: Today we FINALLY got around to something that took 60 seconds, but we've been putting it off for days. We sewed up a hole in Annabelle's brand new and beloved footie pajamas. The hole was a factory flaw - just about a three inch section of leg seam someone in China missed. 

We also did a little maintenance to her Vanilla Cupcake hat and scarf combo which she made a year or so ago.

Feels "sew" good to have that done. :)

TIPPING POINT: Perhaps it was three non-stop days of dealing with puppy pee and doggie defecation that finally sent me over the edge, but after a series of Really Lame and Unhelpful actions (or inactions) from the kids, by midday when they somehow couldn't find their frigging math books by themselves (they were approximately 1.5 inches from we normally store them on the shelf after all), I'd had enough. Enough of picking up everyone else's dirty dishes. And dirty clothes, And cleaning up after their dirty shoes. And being the only one to ever replace a roll of toilet paper ... I won't bore you with the rest of the long, LONG list. 

And so, the kids got a "bonus" writing assignment today. I asked them each to write about what "responsibility" is and how they can/should be more responsible. Annabelle came up with this essay, which she titled "What Responsibility is and What it Looks Like." 

Responsibility is when you do what you're supposed to do, when you are supposed to do it. Responsibility makes a clean home and tidy surfaces all around. Responsibility is when you see something that you were supposed to do and didn't do it, but then do it, or in case if you forgot last time. Responsibility can be shown in many ways, for instance, cleaning up your room without even being asked! Being a good family member is also part of responsibility, even if it means tidying up the bathroom and cleaning after your pet. Responsibility is a good thing that all people should have, including manners! Manners are part of responsibility, because you're in control of yourself when you say "please" if you want something and "thank you" when you get it.

CJ's interpretation why (somewhat hysterically) different. Here it is, for your reading pleasure. ... 

Sorry for the things that happened today. I will improve my behavior really soon. One way to be responsible is this: when you are searching for something, (such as a book or pencil) do not look in ridiculous places. (such as under your couch, in your bathroom, etc.) Also, you should not ask someone something as soon as they come through your door. (only do it if it is EXTREMELY important.) A responsible person is someone that is not rude, and they will usually attempt to avoid bad behavior, such as farting in public, and will not hurt people, unless they are defending themselves. People that are responsible will also look in places where the thing they are searching for would be (example: if the thing they were searching for was a book, they they might look in a bookshelf or a business area.) An example of a situation with a responsible person might be this: for a task, a person might get a book from a school, and if they forget to read it on the last day they might say this: Oh my! I forgot to read my book! I need to read it now!.

Oh, CJ. So, so interesting, as always. And so, we had a talk about  the difference (and similarities) between a polite person and a responsible person, and I suggested he read both definitions on Dictionary.com

LITTLE EINSTEINS: Thanks to an email from the National Science Foundation today, I read an interesting article with the headlind "Babies are Born Scientists." 

The article is about new research methods revealing that babies and young kids learn by rationally testing hypotheses, analyzing statistics and doing experiments. Sounds very scientist-like, doesn't it?  The NSF article centers on findings of Alison Gopnik, a professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. Gopnik is one of three authors of The Scientist in the Crib, first published in 1999 by William Morris.