So there I was zooming down the neural pathways and superhighways of my brain and I remembered that I’d seen somewhere that the insides of our brains look remarkably like the vastness of the universe. Continue reading The Universe Inside
Yesterday, after completing Tax Season, and being home again, I was able to finally put into place our new Eat Art feature. Ben and I figured it out on one of our recent walks. We decided on the following schedule for feeding ourselves a rich diet of Art. Monday – Murals Tuesday – The Universe Wednesday – Wonders of the World Thursday – Theater … Continue reading Big, Giant Love and the Theatrics and Science to Make it Happen
To preface, let me say that some people will be offended by this. Others will be horrified. I was horrified, to be honest. I could barely watch. I got up and started folding laundry, but Ben watched intently through the whole first and second videos. But first, a little background. Ben has been building werewolves lately. In fact, he spent a solid ten hours on … Continue reading Freakiest Science Day Ever – My Hairs Won’t Stop Standing on End
The boys had a friend over to spend the night, and one of the things they just HAD to show him was the Diet Coke and Mentos Science Explosion we’d done together a while back. This one just doesn’t seem to ever get old! Continue reading Science is so Much Fun – the Boys Share it with their Friends!
Because we had only had moments to play with the new PURO game on Tuesday, the boys requested that they be able to play with it some more for Science night. It is rather scientific in a design/build/engineering sort of way. Continue reading Design/Build for Science Day by Request
Recently, we did the Diet Coke & Mentos deal for Science Night. The same night my Lab Coat arrived in the mail so I could completely nerd out for fun. Ever since, we have been trying to figure out how to rocket propel other things. At the bus stop yesterday, Ben came up with a crazy idea for next week’s Science Night. He wants to … Continue reading Nature’s Diet Coke & Mentos
Tonight, when I got home, I told the boys that the plan for the night was to build a tower using spaghetti noodles. Ben’s eyes got huge, and then warm, and then delighted. He hugged me with everything he had, and I felt like a cool, hip, awesome mom. I have my moments! We didn’t watch the video until after we’d worked on our own … Continue reading The Marshmallow Challenge
Thursday night, my new lab coat arrived, all crisp and white, with pockets. Scott called to tell me I had a package at the house, so on the way home, I picked up this mess of things! We watched the Mythbusters video explaining what is happening and why Mentos shoots like a rocket of foam out of a bottle of Diet Coke. Then we ran … Continue reading Real Quick – Let’s Explode Something!
The other day, I quoted something about the literati during the time between the two world wars. My dad commented that the revolutionaries used to be educated, and that it didn’t seem like that anymore. My first response was that we have more free time than ever before, and yet, we see that (primarily, as a Nation) as leisure time, time for television, time for … Continue reading Practice, Routine, Habit, Skill, Discovery, Invention
It dawned on me recently that I have really been slacking off when it comes to Science Night. We’ve watched a few YouTube videos of the science of flight, or time lapse photography of plants growing. We’ve done little things. But, where’s the adventure? Where are the explosions and loud noises? Clearly, these boys are old enough to start doing some serious experiments. All of … Continue reading Gratitude and Lab Coats and Miniature Explosions
In a radio interview with movie director Robert Zemeckis, I learned about the origin of the movie, Back to the Future. Robert and his writing buddy were talking about their fathers, and their relationships with their fathers, and wondering if they had met their dads when they were kids, if they would have been friends. That was the seed, he said, from which sprouted the idea … Continue reading Would we have been Friends if we’d Met when we were Kids?
Nearing the very edge of space, the outer reaches of our galaxy, is NASA’s Voyager 1 – coming close to the Magnetic Highway, the point at which the direction of the push of the wind from the strength of our sun finally fades, and the wind from the stars pushes back. In a radio interview, Ed Stone, the chief scientist of the Voyager mission described … Continue reading Nearing the Outer Reaches of any Semblance of the Known World
We ended up talking a lot about Cause and Effect at dinner tonight, because we’ve been having a hard time getting the boys to do what they’re told. And all this time, we are doing super cool things. Scott has been working on Bean’s mini-bike with him… the parts just came in this week, and they were putting it all together. I’ve been doing pretty … Continue reading Science and Laughter in the Midst of Bathroom Humor
We pulled out the book, “What Your 3rd Grader Needs to Know” again last night to work on some Math. Somehow, reading Narnia before bed has taken precedence in last week or so over Random Educational Exploits. I say we get random, because, we always start with a certain part of the book that is talking about a specific thing we should know, and one thing leads … Continue reading Random Educational Exploits and The Tallest Building in the World
Over dinner we got into a big discussion of not judging a book by its cover. We talked about the people we met at the Art Gallery, who were disabled, and how some people would look at them and think that their life is difficult, and they wouldn’t take the time to get to know what is inside that person. We don’t want to look … Continue reading Classify, don’t Stereotype – Sort, don’t Judge
For History night, we watched this amazing animated video of The History of Flight. It is a short video, but with our download speed, it took a bit of time to get all the way through it. Hmmm. After last Friday’s look at what it takes to fly, Ben came up with the following plans to build himself wings. Luckily, he is thinking about safety, … Continue reading Animated History of Flight
What was I thinking – teaching my kids about Bugs? Seriously, did I contemplate the repercussions of this wise move for even a moment? As we got started on the Classification of Animals section of What Your Third Grader Needs to Know, the part my kids got all wound up about was learning to tell bugs apart from each other. I had heard there was a Bug … Continue reading I have boys. I will get used to bugs. I just will.
Ben has been building, drawing, creating various versions of Iron Man since he was three years old. He has watched Iron Man and Iron Man 2 a couple of times each. As I get caught up with photos, there will eventually be an entire category here on this blog of pictures of his creations. Hence, the idea that M.I.T. is where he wants to go … Continue reading Our Little Crush on the Whole Idea of M.I.T.
We did this on the wrong day. It’s okay. I’m going to date this so it looks like I’m way more organized than I am, there, at least I’m honest! Science really isn’t my forte. But, I want my kids to see Science as this magical discovery of things that they are interested in, things that matter, things that go boom and light up the … Continue reading Smithsonian Institute Paper Airplane Challenge
Bean a few days ago, striking a pose with a scarf. He likes to help accessorize me. Tonight, Ben wants to learn about the History of Toilets, and thinks that we can do a little research on the internet to learn about that amazing subject. When Bean heard this, he piped in that he would like to learn about the History of Beds. Then … Continue reading Children Assigned Research Topics
