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. 

Pop, Plus

                 Library of Congress collection photo "What Flavor Shall I Make It?," circa 1900

COKE & A SMILE: Every so often (but not often enough), I remember to check out the Library of Congress' great "Today in History" Web feature. It's always full of interesting info, and today was no exception. For instance, on this day in 1846, General (and future president) Zachary Taylor defeated the Mexican army in a two-day battle at Palo Alto,  

But the factoid the kids were more interested in was today marks the day the first Coca-Cola was sold. The concoction of Dr. John S. Pemberton, the tonic contained extracts of coca leaf, including cocaine, and the caffeine-rich kola nut. Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia, was the site it was first sold, in 1886.  (Coke headquarters are still in Atlanta, BTW.)

There's a nice little album of (19) vintage Coke photos on the company's Web site: http://www.coca-colacompany.com/history/history-of-coca-cola-trucks. Here is one photo from the album (I'm assuming it's OK to share it, as they had lots of 'share' options on the pages, and a download image option, too. 

Per the photo's caption on the Coke site, "The Rapid Truck, made by the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company in Pontiac, MI, was the first truck in Knoxville, TN. This photo was taken in 1909."

MAJOR BUMMER: For whatever reason, while I was standing out in my front yard watching the dog do nothing this morning 'round 7:30 a.m., I had a bolt from the blue. "Hey?! Shouldn't I have heard about the Seattle Science Festival for 2014 by now?!" 

We have been HUGE Science Festival fans since its inception in 2012. That year we saw Stephen Hawking and an all star cast of scientists at the "Luminaries" event, attended a function at The Museum of Flight with a panel of astronauts, and enjoyed the festival day at Seattle Center, with hundreds of science-related activities.

The following year, we thoroughly enjoyed astrophysicist Brian Greene and others at the Luminaries event, and had a great time again at the Seattle Center festival day.

Half panicked that I had missed an announcement for this years event, I cut short the dog's milling about and hopped to the computer, only to see this on the SSF Web site:
After two successful Seattle Science Festivals in June 2012 and 2013, Pacific Science Center has determined it will not be leading a Seattle Science Festival in 2014 due to budget limitations. A subset of our Seattle Science Festival Advisory Council has been working with Science Center staff to identify other regional community-serving organizations that might lead the Festival and several promising next steps are currently being explored. It has been determined that there will not be a Science EXPO Day, Signature Programs or Luminaries Event in 2014.

Darn it! Guess we didn't miss out - everyone is missing out. :(

I do hope it's back for 2015 and beyond.

LATE NIGHT SCIENCE: I often start the day with a clip from The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. This morning, I was happy to find "Science Experiments with Kevin Delaney" in my feed. 

I called the kids over and we watched it - twice! And parts of it four times. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OELiqiIHZEI&list=UU8-Th83bH_thdKZDJCrn88g&feature=share&index=12

I do believe the kids got to see some elephant toothpaste in person at the (now defunct) Seattle Science Festival in years past. They desperately want to make some of their own, so we combed the Internet for recipies. We found one on Steve Spangler's site: http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/elephants-toothpaste. We need to round ourselves up some industrial strength hydrogen peroxide. 
CREATIVE FRONT: Today CJ "penned" a couple of diamante poems, with the help of a nifty ReadWriteThink template here: http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/diamante/

Meanwhile, Annabelle designed a couple of (template-free) Mother's Day cards.

JUST DUCKY: Amazing the things I learn every day from the kids. For instance, this afternoon, vocal hysterical eminated from Annabelle at her computer. She's accidentally closed her Internet browser, losing all of her open tabs, and she was in the middle of a project. However, she quickly regrouped and just and just seconds later was happily trumpeting, "It worked! It worked!"

"What worked?" I asked.

"Control-Shift-T!" she shared. It reopened the browser and all of the tabs. She says she learned it from a meme, "Actual Advice Mallard." Sweet!

In case you're wondering, Actual Advice Mallard is a photo of a duck with a helpful 'life hack' (as the kids like to call them). Here's an example. ...

Word to the wise: Actual Advice Mallard (green head) is not to be confused with Malicious Advice Mallard (a redhead).


CANDIDATE FOR IMPEACHMENT: CJ spent some time this afternoon playing "Executive Command" on iCivics, a non-profit organization dedicated to reinvigorating civic learning through interactive and engaging learning resources. They have a number of great learning games on their site, and CJ is an especially big fan of them.

Today, he was having a little to much fun being our nation's top executive. Instead of aspiring for excellence, he was trying to be the worst president ever (I could insert a certain snide comment here about how hard it would be to be worse than a certain someone who couldn't, say, pronounce 'nuclear,' but I'm refraining, snicker).

Seconds

TESTING, TOO:  Today marked CJ's second day of mandatory annual state standardized testing. He had a science test to take. We met in the library again, where Annabelle enjoyed a book, and a 'float' in a boat.

While CJ was in testing, Bee and I took the pups for an hour long walk. 

We returned to the wooded area behind the school. There, we made notes about the ecosystem and subsystems, and hoped CJ remembered those terms while testing. We found a fallen tree that is acting as a subsystem in the stand of trees' ecosystem, hosting fungi and countless insects.

While walking, we skirted a Shoreline School District rule at times.

CJ was done about 11:30, ending the annual tests until next year.

TIME OUT: This afternoon, the kids read the May 2 edition of Time for Kids. It included topics such as kids using crowdsourcing to fund projects, an update about the World Cup coming up, news of Kepler-186f, a 'cousin' planet to Earth, a graphic about popular youth sports, an article about Little League's 75th anniversary, and a feature story about an organization creating jobs and other opportunities for women in Afghanistan. After they read the articles, the kids completed some comprehension and opinion questions, and we watched a video about crowdfunding (www.timeforkids.com/crowdfunding) and about the non-profit working to help Afghani women, Arzu, which means 'hope' in Dari, a language spoken in the country (www.timeforkids.com/arzu). 

TALE OF THE TAPE: I'm in the process of migrating decades-old home movies from VHS to DVD. This process includes lots of me cursing my 1991-era self for not taking those 12 seconds to label the tapes' contents right before or after I recorded them.

Today's mix tape was a Halloween party Rick and Ken went to in 1991, followed by "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" (which CJ and Annabelle didn't mind watching in May), followed by a kindergarten classroom Halloween party for Rick (with him dressed as Spider-Man and Kennedy was The Hulk, seems like I made this costumes just yesterday). Next up was the Disney's animated version of Robin Hood from 1973. We didn't watch but 5 minutes total of that. However, that was followed by a classic Disney cartoon where Mickey Mouse kills seven flies with one blow. When "The Brave Little Tailor" trumpets his 'seven-with-one-blow' feat to some guys standing nearby, they misinterpret him, thinking he killed seven giants with one blow. Mickey goes along for the ride, embellishing his story with every retelling. CJ, of course, wanted to know what year the cartoon is from. We found out the answer is 1938. 

Someone (other than the Disney Co.) has uploaded the nine-minute cartoon to YouTube, in case you're interested. (In fact, there are multiple uploads, one being here: http://youtu.be/GT5ucWolPhw)

WORLDWIDE: A couple weeks ago, we participated in NASA's #GlobalSelfie social media campaign, submitting a photo of the kids in front of the Fremont Troll on Earth Day. It was cool, people from all over the world 'liked' their photo on Facebook, and we enjoyed looking at others' photos. Today, NASA released a neat-o video showing just how far and wide the #GlobalSelfie day spread!
http://youtu.be/lbtjx8XgDvs

In all, they received around 50,000 photos, which are being assembled into a mosaic image of Earth to be released later in May. The Global Selfie event was designed to encourage environmental awareness and recognize NASA's ongoing work to protect our home planet.

CALLED TO DUTY: Christian spent all day yesterday in a holding pen, waiting to be called (or not) for jury duty. This morning, he sat there again. At least his view was phenomenal!

Finally, just before noon, he was called into service and he is now Juror #5 on a Seattle municipal court trial. 

Working and Waiting

PUT TO THE TEST: This morning, we were very mainstream - up and at 'em early and hustling out the door for school just a few minutes after 8 a.m. Glad we don't have to do that every morning. :) 

We had to be up in Shoreline a bit after 9 for the kids to take the mandatory Measurement of Student Progress test for the state of Washington.  Today, they each took their grade level test for reading and math. 

Students pow-wowed in the library and then proceeded to the testing rooms, grouped by grade. 

CJ emerged about an hour and a half later, while Bee took two hours to come out. I was surprised it took her so long, really. However, she told me that she had finished early, but stayed in the room to read her book while another student was finishing up. She felt bad about leaving the girl in the room alone. I thought that was sweet. 

We went and grabbed the kids some lunch (pizza, pizza), and returned to campus to go for a half hour walk. We hit the trails in the woodsy area behind the school.

We saw all sorts of points of interest, including some cool shrooms.

And this crappy cell phone photo didn't do a good job capturing it, but we came across a distinctly crater shaped spot. 

It looked like it had been there for a long time, and we couldn't help but wonder what (or whom) created it.

We also encountered two tree trunks sticking up, completely denuded of bark and a good portion of the wood fiber beneath. This stand of woods is not a wetland at all - no beaver habitat whatsoever - so we had to surmise a human had done it.

Before too long, it was time for the kids to report for their afternoon (math) tests.  Annabelle was out in about an hour. CJ took about 90 minutes. 

Then, we were southbound. The kids have a new, 6-week session of 'social studio yoga' starting in West Seattle. We had a little time to kill, so we decided to stop downtown for a bit. Christian was summoned to jury duty this week, and we knew he was in a 'holding cell' waiting to be called as a potential juror. He had to report at 8:30 this morning, and by 3 p.m., when we got to downtown, he was still in a holding pattern. 

We decided to kill some time and hope he'd be released in time to go to West Seattle with us.

We stopped at Columbia Tower first, and killed a little time in the atrium of the city's tallest skyscraper. This is how they enjoyed the view, LOL. 

Next, we drove over right next to the courthouse on 5th Avenue and Yesler. In the photo, Yesler stretches toward the waterfront.

Out front of the courthouse, there was a huge steel sculpture. We searched the area for info about it or its artist but found nothing. 

At 85 feet high, it's pretty hard to miss. ... 

I poked around (more than I should have had to, IMHO) online tonight to find out about it. Turns out it's Songbird by John Henry.  Though the artist lives in Chattanooga, Tenn, now, his local history stretches all the way back to 1962, when he sold paintings outside the World's Fair on Seattle. 

The Force and the Fifth

MAY THE FOURTH: We had lots of fun observing Star Wars Day on Sunday, May the Fourth (be with you). 

The kids donned Star Wars t-shirts, we put Annabelle's hair in Princess Leia buns, and the kids played "The Saga Continues," a clever ditty by Weird Al Yankovic. He manages to tell the story of "Star Wars I The Phantom Menace" to the tune of "American Pie." Here's the kids' take on it: http://youtu.be/3uCCag6zGC0


We hit up a local 'cantina' and played some games. Christian quaffed a "Wookey (sic) Jack" CDA from Firestone brewing in California. 

At home, they played Star Wars Operation. When you miss, R2D2 sound effects and a couple of C-3PO lines are the alarms. Very entertaining.

My Facebook feed was full of Star Wars Day references. This one from NASA was one of my favorites. ...

We also watched the masterful "John Williams is the Man," a tribute to the composer of the wonderful Star Wars soundtracks' music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk5_OSsawz4

52: It was two score and 12 years ago, on this day, that the United States first launched a man into space. Alan Shepard was that man, aboard the Freedom 7.

Shepard spent a long four hours in the tiny cockpit of the capsule. Growing a tad impatient, he famously urged mission control to "fix your little problem and light this candle." And that's just what they did!

Speaking of spaceflight, we missed Friday's live "Music in Space" broadcast, but the program is now available online, here- http://youtu.be/jvESKWJYCJg


CINCO DE MAYO: We didn't do much to observe the day, other than have delicious chicken tacos for dinner. Not sure that's a fitting way to 'celebrate, a Mexican army fighting off French invaders at Puebla in 1862, a victory that became symbolic of Mexican resistance to foreign domination, but that's what we did. 

IN REVIEW: This evening, we went over the practice tests the kids took in preparation for the Measurement of Student Progress state standardized test they're taking Tuesday and Wednesday. They're ready, now fingers crossed that they perform up to their abilities on the tests.  We also made a triple batch of the 'cookie dough' dip to take for the snack sharing table at school tomorrow.  (It's blended garbanzo beans, oatmeal, peanut butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and a pinch of baking soda and salt. The kids love it!)