Firsts and Last

Circling the Earth in my orbital spaceship I marveled at the beauty of our planet. People of the world, let us safeguard and enhance this beauty — not destroy it!" Yuri Gagarin 

BORN TO SOAR: We'd be remiss if we didn't mention that today is special for a trio of reasons. First (and I do mean first!), because it's Yuri's Night - the annual worldwide observation of the first flight into space from Earth by any human. That human was, of course, Yuri Garagin, and it was 51 years ago today. That event forever changed mankind's horizon.
Garagin's life was short (just 34 years, ending when his MiG crashed during a routine training run), but his memory will live on forever. 

Today also marks the anniversary of the first Shuttle Transportation System (STS-1) launch, in 1981, 31 years ago.

Obviously, April 12 is quite a day in human spaceflight. To that end, we watched BrainPOP's video on the topic: http://www.brainpop.com/technology/scienceandindustry/spaceflight/  The kids got 9 out of 10 right on a quiz afterwards.

UP WITH THE SUN: This morning the sky was a brilliant blue from the get go. SO rare in these parts, especially this time of year. We got up to the kids' north classes early, so we spent some time on the playground. Annabelle decided today would be the day she would scale the old school steel welded dome.

You can tell by the look on her face here (above and below) she was second guessing her ambition. It's hard to see here, given my crappy cell phone camera, but the moon was visible right next to her head/neck in the photo above.  

 I'm happy to report, she accomplished her goal. No doubt she'll be clambering all over the structure from here on out.

FINITO: Today was the last day the kids will be taking their current (well former, now) music class. I won't get into the details or point fingers here; I'll just say it was no longer a good fit or situation for them. Bummer.

Fortunately, as the saying goes, when one door closes, another opens. I've been doing some research and I found a dance class for Annabelle (Bollywood!) and a game and animation programming class for CJ (Scratch, by MIT) via a co-op of homeschooling parents who hold classes at a Seattle Parks & Rec facility in West Seattle. As super good luck would have it, those classes are offered at the same time on the same day (Friday) when we're not already otherwise obligated (Friday mornings). Of course they're going to cost $, but I guess we gotta do what we gotta do, to use bad grammar. I signed them up tonight and feel better already about abandoning the music class.

CARDBOARD + INGENUITY: We watched a great video today about a 9 year old boy in East L.A. who constructed his own arcade. It's a charming story. You'll be glad you watched it. :)
http://www.wimp.com/ownarcade/

Dig It

TWO IN THREE: Annabelle's looking a bit like a Jack o' Lantern these days. She's lost two incisor teeth in three days. Poor girl. Today's tooth was lost during what I will describe as a flossing accident, if you can believe that. (She got a flosser stuck on her lower teeth, I attempted to help her and I wound up knocking an already loose tooth a WHOLE lot looser. Doh!

I must say, she took me knocking her tooth out pretty well. ;) Perhaps it was the $$ signs in her eyes knowing the Tooth Fairy's coming AGAIN tonight. The poor nymph must be all worn out with his/her repeated trips to our place.

I FEEL THE EARTH MOVE: The Big Dig continues on 'campus.' The excavator is (ever so slowly) making a bigger hole on our property to accommodate the addition to be.

When we walked out the door this morning headed for science and art, both of the kids let out a "WOW!" as the hole had grown dramatically. Maybe the digging will actually have an end in the near future. It still just looks like a big mess right now (despite the $$$ being hemorrhaged).

MATH MATTERS: The kids are darn near done with Singapore 3A, so I picked up Singapore 3B workbooks in the curriculum room today. I remember actually being excited when I was a kid and we got new math books. I'll have to ask CJ and Annabelle how they feel about the new texts.

While Annabelle was in art, CJ spent nearly an hour on the CoolMath-Games.com Web site. He started with a long session of The Number Monster for Long Division which, as you might have guessed is a 'game' involving solving long division problems. Not everyone's idea of fun, perhaps, but CJ offered, "You know I'm really good at division" as his reason for selecting it.

THE BEETLES: The insect unit in science continues. The kids all compared notes on their worms' weeks. There were tales of (exoskeleton) sheds and deaths. So goes the circle of worm life.

Today, the class was introduced to their newest (in class) pets - the milkweed beetle. SUCH excitement, words can't describe!

The kids' project today was to build the milkweed beetles a comfy habitat in which to thrive. It was a rather involved process, but the kids were up to the challenge.

POP!: One of the many reasons I love listening to NASA's Third Rock Radio station is because instead of annoying ads between songs, instead it's factoids about the space program or other science-related stuff. Today, we heard a short snippet about a study by scientists at the University of Scranton regarding the nutritional value of popcorn. Per the report, it's the only food that's 100 percent unprocessed whole grain, the kernels are "nutritional golden nuggets," and popcorn has more healthful antioxidant substances than fruit or vegetables. Good news, indeed. Nice that there's a popcorn machine at the kids' school. Now, if it was only an air popper ...

BIG NATE: CJ has read and re-read the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series of books. He owns them all in paperback and hardback (for some reason that was a DIRE necessity), but we haven't found another book or books that he comes close to liking as much. I'm hoping that's about to change. I've been seeing "Big Nate" books here and there (often displayed next to "Diary of ..." books) and think they might be a ticket. So, on a field trip to Target this afternoon, we were going to buy one. Until I saw the price tag was $13 for a book he'd probably read in about an hour. So I guess we'll check the Amazon/resale market. ... The Web site for the series is certainly engaging ...

Worms, Cookies, Sharks and Tulips

ONE WORM DOWN: Sad, sad news to report here. When doing a check on her wormy charges today, Annabelle discovered Toothpick (yes, she has named them), her favorite worm (yes, she has favorites) was stiff and unmoving. As in dead.

Many, many tears were shed, in fits and bursts for the balance of the day.

Completely on her own (I was out of the room), Bee even made Toothpick a pretty little memorial. (In case you can't read it the Popsicle stick on the 'headstone' reads RIP Toothpick.) 

I told Annabelle I thought Toothpick was a VERY lucky worm - he was well cared for and loved and had a nice home and wormy friends, and that's about all a worm could possibly hope for.

IN FOR A LANDING: This afternoon, a little after 3 p.m., we witched live coverage of NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft coming in for a landing at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (NASA 905) is a modified Boeing 747 jet airliner. The aircraft was at KSC to prepare for shuttle Discovery’s ferry flight to the Washington Dulles International Airport in Sterling, Va., on April 17. Discovery will eventually be installed as a permanent public display in the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum Steven

Image Credit: NASA/Frankie Martin

We'll certainly be watching as the plane carries Discovery away to its final resting place. Wish we could be there to see it happen. While we won't be there in body, we'll be there in spirit - and sugar. Some shuttle cookies from our kitchen are currently winging their way cross country, Smithsonian bound. Hopefully I'll have some photos of them at the event.

In the "it's a small world" category, while I was at the post office mailing NASA logo and NASA Tweetup (pictured below) cookies, a woman approached me. She proceeds to quiz me about the cookies and inform me her son in law is an astronaut. Living here in Seattle. :0  She took my name and number and said she'll be getting in touch for cookies when his next birthday rolls around.

PERUSING THE P-PATCH: While CJ was in acting this afternoon, Annabelle and I toured the P-Patch garden on site at the University Learning Center.

Though it's just April, there was lots to look at. Tulips and daffodils were in full bloom.

There was also some pretty produce. I'm thinking this is chard. Any one else want to weigh in?

 SHARK ATTACK: I decided our walls needed some new artwork today, so we fired up an Activity TV cartooning with Bruce Blitz video and the kids drew along. I LOVED the cartoons they produced as a result. Some of their best work yet.

First, Mr. CJ's ... Love his shark's eyes, teeth and tongue!

And here's Annabelle's ... She incorporated all sorts of extras.

STORYTELLERS: We needed to do some writing today, too, of course. We used Scholastic's story starter to fuel the creative fires. The kids each got to spin the 'virtual' wheel and it spun out a story idea for them. CJ was supposed to write a mystery about an unpopular raccoon. Hmm. Interesting. Here's what he came up with ... He chose to present it as a newspaper story.

BREAKING NEWS/WARNING - An anonymous Raccoon who has a secret base in a tree has been suspected of many crimes; On of them being a forest Assassination + Fire. One has said that they saw the Assassination though it spread through 100 percent of the forest. According to research, the fire has injured 78422 and killed 42. According to the City Court, the Raccoon has to pay $999999999999999.99 in fine. Our City Detective says that the only piece of evidence he has is a dead Bull's Horn. In court, the raccoon says that a "look-a-like" did it. After awhile, the judge for unknown reasons, decided that the raccoon must go to the city prison.

Very dramatic read, I thought.

Annabelle was directed to write a 'sword and sorcery' story about a squishy queen who catches butterflies. Oh my. Here's what she came up with. ...

Once upon a time ... there was a squish queen named Globess. Globess loved to catch butterflies. She would go out and catch a white or pink one every day. Then one day she caught a magic one and said if Globess let her go then she would help her on the quest for the golden butterfly! Globess said she would let her go and she did, now the quest begins ...

They made their way to the courtyard and asked the jester witch way to get to the village. For the butterfly had told Globess they need to get help from the townsfolk. The jester told them to go left. They headed left and went into town. They soon encountered the shopkeeper on his way to his shop. He said he had some magical items that he would love to give the queen for he had heard Globess and the butterfly talking together. He gave Globess some kind of magic ring that he said would freeze anything you said to freeze. He said you have to say this: "Oh magic ring, right out your sound. Freeze that X to ice!" Globess and the butterfly thanked him and headed for the cave. Oh, and the butterfly got a magic bracelet that would do the opposite of Globess' ring. It would unfreeze anything! You would just have to say" "Unfreeze that X to burn, burn, burn!"

Soon they arrived at the cave. The cave was muddy and dark and gloopy. They went in and soon stepped on some snakes! The snakes got mad and tried to attack! Luckily, the queen used her ring while they were in the middle o their jump and they fell to the ground. They continued through the cave and finally got out. On the other side there was a paradise. They finally saw the golden butterfly at the top of a cliff. They had to get up there. There was very steep steps up the hill. Yet, the cliff was also part active volcano. The lava rushed down the steps as they climbed. Soon it was circled around then getting closer and closer. Suddenly, some thing scooped them up and brought them to the top. The butterfly said it was her friend, Sally the Squirrel and her friends. They said they saw them down there, found their fishing pole (there was a lake they were fishing in) and grabbed them. They were very thankful and grabbed the golden butterfly. Then everybody jumped into the water and played all day. THE END.

Phew. That was a lot of typing. Wish I could have cut and pasted it!

Sun Returns to Seattle

SUNNY SATURDAY: Saturday started out with blazing blue skies and the sun shone brightly all day. We were determined to get out in it.

We wanted to do something outdoors and something different. Christian suggested we check out Lincoln Park in West Seattle for the first time. It was a good idea. :)

We parked in the northernmost lot and, feeling adventurous, we struck out with no map. Fortunately, it turned out OK.

Our first stop was a playground where Annabelle and CJ tried to recapture their youth on equipment that was much too small for them.

After that, we hiked down a trail through the forest

Oftentimes the path was on the face of a rather precipitous drop off down toward the Sound. We watched our steps.

It was a windy day - so much so that there were whitecaps on the water and the lone sailboat we saw was darn near tipping over.

Other than the lone sailboat and a few ferries, we didn't see much water traffic, but we couldn't help but notice this one cargo ship and it's interesting lines. It was attracting a fair amount of attention from beach goers.

I did a little online research and found out Mermaid Ace flies under a Panamanian flag. It was built in 2010 (making it considerably newer than most of the cargo ships we see). Have to love the Internet - as I post this, I can report as of 16 minutes ago (about 8:23 p.m. my time), it was in California, and its last port of call was Tacoma. It's headed for San Diego and it looks like it will arrive soon - likely while I sleep tonight.

Right on the waterfront, but fenced off for renovations, is an outdoor heated salt water pool. How cool is THAT? Clear Plexiglas walls surround the pool, so when you're in it, you can see the Sound and the Olympic Mountains, but not be subject to the stiff breeze so often blowing at the beach. The pool is set to reopen this June. You know we'll be back to check it out when it does.

Along the waterfront we checked out some tidal pools and the kids made some constructs in the sand.

From there, we headed back uphill, and found a playground at the southern end of the park. And what a discovery that was! The standard clamber on playground equipment was nothing spectacular, but there was a fantastic zipline with a lot of giddy up and a phenomenal view to boot. The kids totally dug it.

HOP DIGGITY: Easter was pretty low key around here. We didn't even dye any eggs. :0. The kids did, however, leave a note and a snack out for the Bunny.

And it's worth noting that the snack was no ordinary treat. Rather, it was a one of a kind taste sensation created first in CJ's brain and then his test kitchen. He announced that he wanted to make something he'd invented called "Christian Sticks." They were to be squared off carrots coated in peanut butter, rolled in mini chocolate chips and raisins. Fortunately, we had all the necessary ingredients.

I must report, the "Christian Sticks" were delicious. I think CJ's on to something. He has grand plans of getting them introduced to school cafeterias across the nation.  

SUNNY SUNDAY AND MONDAY: Mercifully, the sunshine peristed throughout the weekend and through Monday. We took the opportunity to do a whole lot of yard work. Some of us did more than others. For instance, this was Annabelle's 'reporting for duty' get up for Sunday's yard work session.

Cute, but not so practical.

We found so many wonderful worms while digging this weekend. This particular one was the size of a small snake.

Weed pullin' and worm diggin' wasn't the only thing going on outside today. I had the kids bring their schoolwork outside, too. Math is always best enjoyed with a view!

Toddling Along

IT'S FOR THE CHILDREN: As I contemplated this blog post, I was going to say how today was all about fun and how we didn't do much "schooling," but as I took a moment to reflect, we actually did a fair amount of learnin' today.

Our top priority was enjoying a visit from a friend of mine and her adorable soon to be one-year-old. (In fact, his birthday is the same day as CJ's - just a couple of weeks away.)

They arrived around 10 a.m. and CJ and Annabelle proceeded to play host and hostess. They hovered over the youngster rather smotheringly, making sure he didn't get in any kind of trouble. It was pretty funny to watch as the toddler explored with his eyes, hands and yes, of course, mouth. CJ was AGHAST at the baby putting so many things in his mouth. Of course, the baby's mother and I explained that for babies, that's an important part of learning. CJ wasn't buying it. And that made me recall that even as a baby, CJ really did not mouth things much. He's always been (and still is) very particular about what he puts in his mouth.

After playing here for awhile, we decided to strike out for Seattle Center. We were sooooooooo happy to have blue skies overhead. Our first stop was the International Fountain, which was just turned back on this week after a long winter's nap. CJ and Annabelle were clearly thrilled it was back and they were absolutely mesmerized watching the water dance to good ol' Northwest grunge music - Soundgarden and Nirvana.

CJ was bemoaning the fact that he didn't have his bathing suit so that he could splash around in the fountain. I reminded him that although it was sunny, today was nowhere near warm. The bathing suit will have to wait until another day.

Next up, we made our way to The Children's Museum. We haven't been there in months and months. Despite the fact we've done it dozens of times before, CJ and Annabelle insisted I take their photo with the painted plywood outside its entrance.

I'm glad I heeded their request. :)

Once inside the museum, our first stop was the orca. The kids just had to clamber through it. Here are CeeJ and Bee, spouting off. :)

After the orca, they wandered over to a serene room, with books for reading and places for nesting. Little did they know, within about five minutes a storytime was starting. Though they both read chapter books, CJ and Annabelle still love a good picture book, and so they enjoyed the four titles the Children's Museum staffer read with an "It's a Jungle in There" theme.

Thanks to the books, CJ and Annabelle learned dozens of facts about various critters found in the jungle.

After story time concluded, we headed for the kids' favorite spot, Cog City. It's where there are hundreds of pingpong like balls that can be shot through tubes and batted about in various ways - basically it's big time fun with physics. We were in there quite awhile. We also checked out the community section (where there were more reading and climbing/playing attractions), followed by a grocery store mock up. In all, we were in the place nearly two hours.

Late afternoon, it was back home, where they each did more reading and some independent research. And tonight, we're enjoying the first stateside Mariners regular season game. One week from tonight, we'll be sitting at Safeco Field, enjoying the home opener. Let's go Mariners!!!!

Night of NASA

Image: NASA, Landsat Data Continuity Mission Satellite flying over Eastern U.S.

LOCAL EVENT, GLOBAL PROBLEM: This evening we buzzed down to The Museum of Flight for a special event: NASA Climate Day.

On the schedule was a presentation by NASA Solar System Ambassador Merle Hanley in the Murdock Theater and a video chat with Meteorologist/Oceanographer Dr. Michelle Gierach of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Gierach is an expert on the climate’s relationship between the oceans and the atmosphere, and we really enjoyed her hour long presentation and Q&A session.

CJ and Annabelle each had a question to ask her, of course. CJ asked what we can do to help stop global warming (awareness and carbon footprint items are part of the solution), and Annabelle asked her how she became interested in climate science (Gierach's home was destroyed by hurricane Andrew when she was a kid, and that made her want to study weather).

We also enjoyed checking out a number of info tables in the museum's Great Gallery. We talked with folks from the UW, Pacific Science Center, the Seattle Aquarium, Aviation High, Point Defiance Zoo, NOAA, the Burke Museum of Natural History and Puget Sound Energy, to name a few. I'm so grateful each and every time we have a chance to interact with scientists and science enthusiasts.

At various stations we learned about how satellites have helped scientists study climate change, and what that data means to Earth and us. One of our favorite visits was with a UW group that builds rockets - and I'm not talking about the standard Estes kits you buy at Toys R Us. These are rockets that shoot a mile high, and are fueled by the same thing the shuttles used to use.

Here, CJ & Annabelle stand next to the rocket the team will be taking to a competition in Huntsville, Alabama, in two weeks. Cool!

STILL WRIGGLING: The kids checked in on their critters today. As science class homework, they have to keep an observation diary about their meal and wax worms.

The meal worms all looked healthy. Annabelle's seem to have grown rather noticeably since she received them a week ago.

The waxworms have survived the first 24 hours under our 'care,' which is a bit of a relief since the kids' teacher told us she is afraid they're not a particularly healthy bunch. (They've been dropping like flies, er, worms, apparently.)

DIVER DOWN: Today we finally got around to experimenting with the Cartesian diver kit the kids picked up at the Paws on Science event last Saturday at the Pacific Science Center.

The diver was given to us by the scientist manning the booth about tsunamis. What's the connection between Cartesian divers and tsunamis, you ask? Good question - and one that was on the instructional materials that came with the kit.

The way the UW scientist explained it to us was that scientists try to detect tsunamis before they make landfall by attaching sensitive pressure detectors to the sea floor. When a tsunami moves across the ocean, the sensors record a change in pressure and beam a signal to a warning center. Using a Cartesian diver, people can experiment with water pressure.

CJ and Annabelle had fun making the thing bob up and down - AFTER we got it calibrated just right (not too big and not too small an air bubble in the diver).

WOOLLY BULLY: This afternoon we watched a video about the discovery of a perfectly preserved juvenile woolly mammoth (posthumously named Yuka). Found in Siberia, the remarkable discovery is the first instance where one of these prehistoric creatures was found to have something other than dark brown fur (Yuka is kind of a strawberry dark blond).

STAGE IS SET: We're getting ready for our addition, and to that end we now have some heavy equipment on site. Tomorrow, they're going to start cutting into our hillside. Ought to be interesting, to say the least.

When all is said and done, there will be a 2-car garage where the excavator is sitting now, with a living room and bedroom atop the garage and a flat roof deck atop the living areas. The window you see here will be gone, as that space will serve as the walk through connecting the old house with the new square footage. Wish us luck - things are going to get a lot worse (muddier, messier, louder, harder, etc.) before they get better.

When we came home this afternoon and found the excavator digging right next to our house, CJ declared, "I find this rather unsettling. ... It seems like something bad could happen."

As the Worms Turn

FUN AND GAMES: Today we headed north for art and science classes. In between the two, the kids enjoyed the Mac computers in the library, particularly the Photobooth software. Above and below are a couple of self portraits.

EGGSTRAVAGANZA: Between classes, the kids had an opportunity to make an artistic Ukrainian-style Easter egg in the pysanka tradition. It's an intricate art form that involves tremendous fine motor skills and lots of patience.

"I don't want to do it!" CJ declared upon being presented the opportunity.

Unfortunately for him, I wasn't taking 'no' for an answer. And so, we sat down at the egg decoration station and reviewed how you have to scoop wax into the tiny bowl on your kistka, hold your kistka in a candle flame so the wax melts, and then draw the design on your egg. It's pretty simple - unless you don't want to be doing it so you don't listen to the directions. In that case, you might wind up scooping wax, heating it up, and then dumping it on your hand. That would be CJ's experience. And then his reaction? Well that would be yelling at me that it was my fault that he burned himself. I suppose on some level it was, because I "made" him do it, but I didn't take that very well frankly. I told him I was very sorry he dumped hot wax on himself but that he should think twice before blaming someone else for his actions.

So CJ got to sit and watch and pout while Annabelle finished her egg. Mercifully, Bee completed hers without injury.

SQUIRMY WORMS: This afternoon's science class was loads of fun. The kids got their own personal pet meal worms last week, and this week, our pet population grew. Now they have waxworms as well! SO exciting!

First, we learned a bit about where waxworms live (yes, in wax, as in honey beehives), and their stages of life. Next, the kids got to examine both waxworms and meal worms under a microscope.

  It was really interesting seeing their tiny spikes (hair), stripes and such.

And now, we here at MPA have a burgeoning worm population. And this afternoon, when we were out rooting up dandelions, we unearthed so many big meaty earthworms. The kids wanted to capture them and keep them as pets, but I told them I thought it best the worms continue to live with us in the great outdoors, in our yard.

LIVE LONG AND PROSPER: When a question is asked in science class, Annabelle's hand goes up quickly. Always. However, one thing I noticed today for the first time (maybe because her right had was dyed red from the pysanky experience) was that every time she raised her hand, it went up in the shape of a Vulcan salute.  That's my girl! When I asked her about it later, she hadn't even realized she was doing it. :-)