Busy Friday

PRETTY IN PINK: Our "home ec" project for the day involved making some delightful strawberry cupcakes with pink frosting for a neighbor's prom-themed party this evening. I wish the Internet had smell-o-vision. These things are dangerous, I tell you. 

WALK AND LEARN: We try to get a good long walk (well, at least 40 minutes) with the doggies in every day. Today, we parked in 'The Village' and walked several/many blocks toward Discovery Park. We made some of our own discoveries along the way. It always amazes me how educational our walks can be. Naturally, we always talk about landscaping "dos and don'ts" (one of the don'ts is concrete lions flanking your front porch, BTW). 

Today, we spied some 'helicopters' - the maple trees' castoffs, their attempt to perpetuate. There were hundreds of them on the ground just outside the tony Metropolitan Market grocery store.

There are some interesting articles online about how their seeds fly, including this one: http://www.livescience.com/3672-secret-flight-helicopter-seeds.html

Annabelle reminded me of a paper-folding craft project she and CJ did in science class that mimicked a maple 'helicopter.' It's much like this project: http://www.kodeescanoe.com/craft-maple-seed-helicopters/

The walk also provided a vocabulary lesson. We passed this sign along the way. ... 

I asked the kids if they know what 'venerate' means. They didn't. And so, when we got home they looked it up. A new word for their toolbox. 

BRITISH BROADCAST:  A couple days back I got a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/newsletter/. I get them regularly. And I regularly fail to really read them. Sigh. However, I have determined to do better, and today, that resolution started to pay off.  

During lunchtime, the kids listened to a wonderful, 16-minute story from the BBC's "Just Think" series. Per the BBC, "Just Think... is a series of five comic stories, each exploring a philosophical 'big question', like 'what does it mean to be brave?' " The episodes are designed to help students "develop articulacy, ask high-level questions and explore a range of ethical issues."

The story we listened to today was "Sir Alvin and the Dragon…or What Does it Mean to be Brave?" In it, a cowardly medieval knight is called upon to save a village from a dragon. "But what exactly is the bravest course of action?" asks the BBC.

Here's CJ's take, after listening to the tale. ... 

Today, I listened to an audio recording called "Alvin And The Dragon." Alvin And The Dragon is about a knight named Alvin The Brave, who is forced by the villagers in the story to go up and fight a dragon under the name of Roger. Alvin thought he was going there to judge a cake baking contest, but the villagers decided that he should go fight the dragon that was terrorizing them.

The villagers told Alvin about the story of a "girl" named "Susie Peabody" (who turned out to be a lifeless ragdoll), who was supposedly kidnapped by Toger during an invasion of the village. The villagers mocked Alvin with sayings such as "Says Alvin The Scared!", which showed that they thought he was a coward. When Alvin went up to fight the dragon, the dragon told Alvin that his name was Roger and he was actually more friendly then what Alvin had thought based on what the villagers had told him. Not only that, but Roger told Alvin that Susie Peabody was not much more than a lifeless ragdoll.

My own interpretation of the story is that the villagers were really the cowards of the story, due to the fact that they sent the one labeled "The Brave" right up to the dragon without thinking about any other ways to solve the problem. Not only that, but they failed to tell Alvin that Susie Peabody was really just a ragdoll. Seriously, what kind of person would fear for their lives if a dragon who has not physically attacked anybody in that village decided to steal a lifeless ragdoll? A coward definitely would.

Annabelle's take ...

Alvin and the Dragon was a recording by BBC that was about a man named Alvin the Brave, but he doesn't necessarily live up to his name. When he is walking through the forest and sees a squirrel, he claims that it could eat a whole man in one bite! He gets to a village to judge a cake-baking competition and attend a feast. When the village asks him to slay the dragon that stole "Susie Peabody", he refuses because he isn't brave. The village urges him to do it, and he is forced to go. He gets to the top where he encounters the dragon. "D-d-dragon!" he exclaims. The dragon replies, "Everyone says that. They don't stop to ask my name, just run away. My name's Roger, in case you were wondering." Then Alvin discovers the dragon is nice, and that he was trying to return a doll named Susie. So he doesn't kill the dragon, and proves to the village that looks aren't everything.

The moral of the story was stand up to a challenge, even if you think you can't do it, and partly that looks can be deceiving. It was a fun story and I would definitely listen to it again, because there are no pictures. 

MORE TIME: The kids read and worked their way through four Time for Kids issues today. One was mostly about the re-opening of the Washington Monument, which closed to visitors in 2011, due to damage from an earthquake. It's set to reopen this month. Another issue was about Author Lois Lowry. It occurs to me the kids haven't read any of her books yet. We have to fix that (not to self, find 'Number of the Stars'). They also read an issue with "Mind Games" as a cover story, It was about "how video game makers get inside your head." And they read an issue about Little League's 75th anniversary. (Interestingly, a TFK they read earlier this week had a story on the same topic.) At the end of the issue, there was a "Talking Baseball" quiz, noting how common expressions from the sport, like 'to throw a curve ball,' someone who's out 'in left field.' 'to hit it out of the park,' and 'to step up to the plate,' have made it into our everyday language. They also did a worksheet involving reading a map of the National Mall, and "Be An Author!" where they had to outline characters, traits, settings and a plot for a story they'd like to write. (CJ's was about a couple of Mormon missionaries and a time machine, Annabelle's was about interplanetary penguins.) 

MORE = BETTER: If you can't get enough of the new "Cosmos," you should probably check out a space-y lecture series starring Neil deGrasse Tyson, "The Inexplicable Universe."

You can buy it on DVD from the Hayden Planetarium, or through Great Courses, but the really good news is, it's now available for streaming on Netflix, per a Facebook post from NDTyson himself.  

FIRST CLASS: We test drove a new to us Coursera class today,AstroTech: The Science and Technology behind Astronomical Discovery . We managed to watch all of Week 1's video today. I could tell you what it was about, but it's more fun to share some of the factoids we learned via Annabelle's doodlings.

We found out that there are at least 50 stars in the Milky Way galaxy for each Earthling.  

We also learned about light. 

And one of the professors noted the fact that we are all star stuff (as Carl Sagan liked to say), composed of universal elements that got their start a long time a go, in a far away place. 

SCRUBBED: We were looking forward to watching a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch tomorrow, but it's not going to happen. It was set to deliver six ORBCOMM OG2 satellites into orbit, but on Thursday they had trouble with umbilical connections between SLC-40 pad and the rocket, so Thursday and Friday's static fire tests were scrubbed, leading to the postponement of the launch until late May. Bummer. SpaceX has already come a long way in the commercial space race, but they're not to the point where things are routine, if there is such a thing when it comes to launching rockets.

JUST FOR FUN: Our 'art appreciation' education today included watching a parody of the song "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" from Disney's smash hit "Frozen."  

You can listen to the original song here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZOI1yUGPBQ (It's super sweet, by the way), or skip it and just listen to the "Do you Want to Go to Starbucks?" parody. It's funny enough to stand alone. :) 

http://youtu.be/6SDIc6bGw9w

QUESTION: Did you hear about the restaurant on the moon? Great food, but it has no atmosphere.