Getting the Garden Going

GETTING GROWING: Though heavy rain and not-so-warm weather has been the norm as of late, we are optimistic that we will actually have a summer this year. With that in mind, we got a little herb garden growing this morning.

It came as a cute little kit we bought at Lowe's. Called "Growums," the "Pizza Garden" kit included basil, peppers, roma tomato and oregano seeds. There weren't planting instructions, so we hopped on their website, http://growums.com/ where we registered our kit.

The Web site had a video about how to plant the seeds. The kit has a growing tray with eight 'pellets' in it to which we added water. Boy, did they swell up! Then, as directed, the kids put three seeds in each pellet, about a finger tip deep.

After planting, the kids spent some more time on the Growums site playing games. Apparently we'll be receiving a weekly email about our garden, and we can track it online. I think we'll also be tracking it right here on our kitchen counter.

IMMIGRANTS' ISLAND: This morning, we took a virtual field trip all the way across the country to New York's Ellis Island via the Scholastic Web site. (The tour was actually live yesterday morning, but we couldn't participate then due to the kids' music class.) Before we tuned in, I asked the kids if they knew a) what immigration is and b) what significance Ellis Island has. Since they didn't have answers for either, apparently our field trip was definitely overdue.

Today, they learned that between 1892 and 1954, more than 12 million immigrants made their first stop in America at the Ellis Island Immigration Station. And, according to Scholastic, more than 40 percent of Americans can trace their family history back to Ellis Island.

The field trip consisted largely of a host interviewing Ellis Island park rangers. CJ and Annabelle paid attention, but I wouldn't call them 'rapt'. After the 30-minute video, they explored Scholastic's other Ellis Island-related features, including an interactive tour. The kids seemed to enjoy the interactive tour more than the video tour. The interactive tour had featured stories told by people who came through Ellis Island, historical photographs and video, facts and more.

The site also has a feature about young, recent immigrants, as well as immigration data.

PEEPERS: We took a second virtual field trip today, this time Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was our destination. It's home to the Just Born factory. The manufacturer's name may not ring a bell, but I'll bet y'all know their signature product - Peeps! The tour was brought to us by a PBS program, 'America Revealed."

JUST DANCE!: This afternoon we made our way to a Red Box where we found Just Dance 3 for the Wii. Once we had it home, the party started. I think Annabelle danced for 90 minutes, which is great. CJ was enthusiastic for about 20 minutes. It was loads of fun and good exercise. We might have to break down and buy the game.  

WORM SQUIRM: For science class, the kids are supposed to keep an observation diary associated with their meal worms. And so, today (and every day) we remember to check in on them. They were hiding in their little containers. The kids used paintbrushes to reveal them for a look-see.

Entertaining

GET YOUR MOTOR RUNNING: Thursday means music and LEGO classes for the kids. CJ built the nice ride above, while Annabelle worked on more pixel art.

Between music in the morning and LEGOs at 2 p.m., we did some math and ran some errands and hung out in the library. About 1 p.m. a parent announced there would be math games in one of the classrooms down the hall. Intrigued, we wandered down and found several board games to choose from, including the classic Milles Bornes (French for "thousand milestones"), which I haven't played in probably 35 years and which CJ and Annabelle have never played.

After today, CJ has still never played it (he chose to go back to the library and do some math games online). Annabelle and I gave it a go, though, along with three other players (all under the age of 12). I fumbled my way through it and, truth be told, didn't enjoy it all that much. I didn't like how much of the game hinged upon having to draw the right card which could come on your next turn or never. The poor kid playing next to me never even got to lay a single card down and get started because he never drew a green light. Brutal. He was a good sport about it tho - mad props to him.

MOISTURE FESTIVAL: As rain cascades in sheets from the sky, it seemed an appropriate night to attend the Moisture Festival.

Held at Hale's Palladium in Ballard (just 5 minutes from our home), it's an old school variety show and new school freak show. ;) Presented as a variety show, each act has a 3-15 minute window in which perform. The festival runs for about 3 weeks, with entertainment changing for each show.

The evening's long list of talented performers at our show included AJ Silver, a world class trick roper with bullwhip artistry. The kids both named him as their favorite act. There was also Bill Robison, a physical comedian; Dana Smith, a "circus arts as accident,"; David Deeble whirlwind display of exotic skills laugh-out-loud commentary;  Eric Schwartz, a really funny dude; Kevin Joyce,  host of the variety show Big Night Out on the Seattle Channel; Lelavision, a couple from Vashon Island combining with home made instruments and performance art. The kids also LOVED Rubberband Boy , from New Zealand. He's the holder of The Guinness World Record for facial contortion and they were thrilled to get keepsake rubber bands from him. We enjoyed Sara Felder, a solo juggler and comedian, and we all appreciated Tank Karo  a dancer turned aerialist who was a wonderment on the trapeze. The house band was Doc Sprinsock and the SANCApators and the emcee was the wildly entertaining Kevin Joyce. Of course, CJ wound up being a part of the show on stage.

The Moisture Festival couldn't be any more awesome or entertaining.
 

CHARACTER: Lately, CJ has been semi obsessed with Shift JIS and ASCII art. Per Wikipedia, "Shift JIS artwork is created from characters within the Shift JIS character set, a super set of ASCII intended for Japanese usage."

Who wouldn't be ultra interested in THAT?! ;)

CJ spends 30+ minutes a day trying to create faces and other artwork using characters. Here's one of his recent creations, the "ROFL-copter."

   ROFL:ROFL:LOL:ROFL:ROFL
                 ____^___
    L         /               \
  LOL===               [] \
    L         \                  \
                 \__________]
                        I     I
                     -----------/

Nice work, CJ!

JUICED UP: Last night while watching the news, CJ learned that Starbucks is using extracts from  cochineal, a bug native to Peru, to color its strawberry drinks. The color, approved by the Food and Drug Administration, is extracted from the bug's skin and body, and Starbucks is hardly alone in using it to enhance food color.

For whatever reason, though he's not a Starbucks consumer and he's probably unwittingly ingested a fair amount of cochineal himself in his life, CJ was incensed. He declared, "This madness must be stopped and I am going to help in it. We can't let them get away with this!"

And so, the 8-year-old activist did what he could. First, he hopped online and signed the "Starbucks: Stop using bugs to color you strawberry flavored drinks" petition on Change.org. Then, he took to Facebook to warn his friends of the insect peddling, writing, "Hey, friends, help me stop what Starbucks is doing. They are using Cochineal (a species of Bugs) to color their Strawberry drinks. This must be stopped. Do it for health. Do it for anti-gross!"  And he posted a link to the petition.

Christian and I both told CJ that we'd both personally rather ingest the bug derived coloring than artificial coloring, and that we weren't so stridently anti-cochineal, but that we respected his passionate feelings and actions regarding the topic. Never too young to be an activist. :)

Let the Games Begin!

WE'RE NUMBER ONE!: In the wee small hours of Tuesday morning as most of Seattle slumbered, our favorite baseball team opened their 2012 season across the Pacific in Japan. And they won!

And do you realize the ENORMOUS implication of that win? ... That's right - the Mariners are the number one team in all of baseball right now. Yahoooo!

To mark our happiness, we all donned team gear today. Go Ms. And clearly, I need to start researching World Series tickets.

ON THE EDGE OF SPACE: I've reported on these 'pages' that we've been keeping an eye on NASA's "Launch Madness" event, launching five rockets in a little over five minutes from Wallops, Virginia. Early Tuesday, just before 2 am, the launch, which had been stalled for days and days, finally took place.

image credit: NASA

The launch involved five suborbital sounding rockets as part of a study of the upper level jet stream. The rockets released chemical tracers, which can be seen in the photo above. Per NASA, "Tracking the way the clouds move can help scientists understand the movement of the winds some 65 miles up in the sky, which in turn will help create better models of the electromagnetic regions of space that can damage man-made satellites and disrupt communications systems."  Once it started going down, they didn't waste any time in getting those five rockets launched. The video was a sight to behold, but what a sight to see that would have been in person.

PATHWAY TO THE STARS: This morning we enjoyed another live Web cast in the NASA Digital Learning Network's STEM Through the Eyes, Ears and Heart of a Woman series. Today's host was Bridget Ziegelaar, an ISS External Communications manager for NASA.

Ziegelaar shared her preschool-through-college path with viewers. She says she toyed with everything from being a pitcher for the Red Sox to a 'major soap opera star' (LOL) but when she saw the movie "Space Camp" in the 1980s, she was instantly convinced a career with NASA was the way to go. She worked long and hard to make that dream a reality, including majoring in mechanical engineering (she was the only woman in her freshman class). 

She loves her job and we would have loved to hear more about it, but we had to leave to get to Annabelle's art class.   

PET POPULATION: And suddenly, the pet population in our household has EXPLODED. We have eight new mealworms to "thank" for that. (All together now, "Ewwwww!")  It's part of the insect unit the kids are studying in science.

The mealworms are lovingly ensconced in two plastic condiment containers. Apparently they're ours to lovingly tend to for the next 2.5 months. Today we learned that these mealworms are the larval form of the mealworm beetle. Wonder if we'll have them long enough to see the metamorphosis. Per Wikipedia, they typically spend 10 days as an egg, 12 to 54 days as larva, 20 days as pupa and then 60 to 90 days as an adult. 

BONUS SHOT:



Fly Time

FLYING HIGH: Midday, we accompanied Kennedy on a trip to iFly, an indoor ''skydiving" facility. CJ and Annabelle have both enjoyed the thrilling experience before. Today, it was Ken's turn.

We got there about noon, and while Ken was going through orientation and suiting up, the kids and I watched the antics in the wind tunnel. At first, some customers were having varying levels of success floating on air. When they were done, three of the 'flight instructors' went into the tunnel and conducted some physics experiences.

They turned the wind speed way down - to under 20 mph. One of them had a cup of water and he poured some of it out into thin air. Instead of dropping down, as you would expect, the blob of water broke into hundreds of tiny droplets, which danced around on the air. This photo doesn't capture the phenomenon very well, but look closely and you'll see them. ... They kind of look like rice.

Next, the guys brought out a bunch of different sized balls. It was interesting watching them float on air, and how they could manipulate the balls by blocking or redirecting the air flow underneath them. Then, they brought out a stuffed moose the size of an 8-year-old and had all sorts of fun with him. It was pretty entertaining - we'd never seen a moose fly before.

Before long, it was time for Kennedy's 'flight.'

He did well, and judging by the look on his face, I think he enjoyed himself. :)

THROWING OUR BONNET IN THE RING: Today, I put in for the White House Tweetup for the Easter Egg roll on April 9. This year's theme is “Let's Go, Let's Play, Let's Move." The online submission form took just seconds to fill out - except for one part. Entrants were to state in 140 characters (the Twitter tweet limit) why they wanted to participate. That was hard Hard HARD. I wrote a dozen or so different versions of our reasons and after spending way more time than I had to spare on it, finally chose one. I'd say our chances are infinitesimal, but we had to at least try! One way or another, one day we WILL get to D.C. We just have to see our nation's capital and all its treasures.

NEW TOOLS : Over the past couple of days we've experimented with new types of writing tools. Yesterday, I introduced them to the thought bubble/brainstorm/mind map concept that can be so helpful in pre-writing.

I showed them an example from a book where a little girl is preparing to write a story about her mother. She puts her mom in the middle bubble and then all around it writes words and phrases  about her mom.

I asked the kids to pick a person or character to write about. Bee chose Spongebob; CJ chose Mario. Here's a pic of their bubbles. 

With their bubbles done, I suggested they look 'em over and then number them in the order they thought they should appear in their short essay. After they numbered them, they wrote their paragraphs. Their writing went really quickly, which demonstrated the value of the pre-writing.

Annabelle wrote:

Spongebob is a cartoon character and is silly. He also loves dancing and catching jellies. Spongebob has buck teeth and holes. He also has a friend named Patrick Star and loves his job at the Krusty Krab. The Krusty Krab is a cartoon restaurant. He is very happy almost all the time. Only in a few episodes he would cry. He is also square. And that is my story about Spongebob.

CJ wrote:

Mario is a fictional character in a video game who stomps creatures known as Goombas. He rides a pet dinosaur called Yoshi. He wears red and blue. He has a mustache that looks curvy. He throws Fireballs at enemies. He loves a damsel named Princess Peach. He has a opposite named Wario.

Today, I introduced them to the idea of doing a research paper. I asked them to pick an animal that they liked during our zoo trip yesterday, and then write a report about that animal. I told them that I wanted them not to just talk about what they saw, but that they needed to include facts they'd researched. I told them they could use the Internet, but they could NOT use Wikipedia. You should have seen their jaws hit the floor at that, ha ha.

And so, they used The Google to generate a list of potential resources. We talked a bit about assessing hits returned via an Internet search, and how some are much better than others.

We also talked about how it's just fine to copy and paste facts from a resource into your pre-writing, but that you can't just copy words verbatim without attributing them. That's plagiarism - a new word for them.

Here's what CJ wrote:

Siamangs are a species of animals that are related to us humans. According to Point Defiant Zoo, Siamangs are found in tree tops of tropical rain forests and monsoon forests on the island of Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. According to the Honolulu Zoo, the Siamang is a gibbon and like the latter, it is an ape, not a monkey. Siamangs can sing, (sort of) and swing. according to Woodland Park Zoo, Siamangs are 30-37 inches long (75-88 centimeters long).

And Annabelle:

This is my report about Humboldt penguins. Here is what the Woodland Park Zoo said about them, for they were right in front of the entrance: The Humboldt penguin lives on rocky mainland shores, especially near cliffs, or on coastal islands. So these types of penguins love rocks, i guess. Humboldt penguins are very small looking, and you can barley tell the adults from the children. here is a picture from the zoo

They eat tiny fish. That is because they are so small. Here is another fact from a website that is all about penguins, "An average sized penguin with a full grown weight of no more than 13 pounds. When they mature they will develop a black breast band. It will extend all the way down to the thigh region. They only have one band around their neck which is an easy way to tell them from the Magellanic Penguins that live in close proximity to them."

And that is my report on Humboldt penguins.

Obviously, I need to talk to Bee about the format of a report. (No need for the "this is my report" "that is my report," for instance. That, and she needs to name her second resource. She reports it's "penguin's world something." By pasting the quote above into a browser, I found it to be Penguins-World.com

ETC.: We also tackled math and CJ had acting class today. Good times. :)

Do the Zoo

LET'S GO!: Today we decided to make our learn-by-doing, let's get moving activity a trip to the Woodland Park Zoo.

The forecast was for a cloudy and cool a.m. followed by better weather later. That was a good enough reason for us to get out and get in it. Above, Annabelle tortoise gets the party started. ;)

As usual, touring the zoo made me feel both good and awful. I always feel particularly bad seeing the primates boxed off and caged up. That said, I'm glad endangered species are being protected, of course.

For a $5 donation, the kids got to feed the penguins 4 fish. The $5 went 'up in smoke' in about 1-second, but it's worth it to help support the zoo.

It wasn't very warm today, so many of the animals weren't active, but we still hand a grand time. I'll let the photos do the talking.