This week

There are many things I missed with the camera this week. Jewel signed "dada" and "more please"! I didn't get a picture of the "solar flare" and "comet" pancakes. Also, managed to miss all of Jewel's new climbing ability. Mostly because I was too busy saving her to capture the moment. I took the side rail off of her crib so that she wouldn't fall trying to climb over it. So, she spent all week trying to climb over the headboard of her crib, instead of through the open side. :} She also started reading her fave book in spanish, "Oso Pardo, Oso Pardo, ?Que ves ahi?". Next week we expect to recieve a few more, including "Huevos Verdes con Jamon","Donde Viven los Monstruos" (which I think is better translated as "Donde estan las cosas salvajes"), and "El Gato Ensombrerado". Oh, that gato and his sombrero. Trevor told me that, "He found his first clue." Over and over again, all week. I wish he would find the second now. =) The funniest thing Trevor said this week (we voted) was when he didn't want to lay down for bed the one night I didn't read him to sleep. So, he ran to Dad and said, "It's a huge spider!". When Trent got to his bedroom, he said "Just a few minutes ago, right there, and he pooped." =)Then, he colored in maroon crayon on the art desk that Trent built. We had to paint it again anyway. And, I somehow didn't get a picture of the measuring cup shattered in the nursery floor. Probably on account of all the babies trying to crawl in a pile of broken glass. We made it out with only one small cut; thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week. Taylor set a record on the treadmill, running for 18 minutes straight. And, he set a record on the new game, almost doubling his exp. pts and knollars in one day. He also added his fourth instrument, bass guitar, to his skills list. I ranted about the UN and their Environment Day, Trent ranted about the Confederate Flag and what it does and doesn't mean, among other things. Also, Trent proved that while not extremely loquacious, he nevertheless has verbal skills all over. Not only did he get out of a ticket (without crying or batting eyelashes), but, he also gave our bank a training call that I am sure will be referred to by future trainees as "the nightmare, when the bank is wrong", or maybe "when the customer really is right", and they refunded the fees. Whew what a post, now it's Friday and the maid is due. I better go grab my/her apron. =)

Here is what I did manage to catch on "film".

He was supposed to water the garden. Trevor is under there. Without his brother's help his "tent" falls a little short. Jewel has taken up the time honored tradition of our family. Leaving books everywhere.

Taylor started learning a little bass guitar this week. Great, now he can be a one man band. Oh, and see, Jewel does own clothes. She gets dressed every night to go to the gym. We're conserving water, less laundry. ;) A little impromtu wrestling. And, Trevor "blows his nose". I missed the best part; right after I stopped the camera, he held the tissue out and said, "Look, I made you a present." I don't know where he gets this stuff from. Jewel learned to tickleAnd, yes thanks, I know my hair is a mess. This is Taylor's debut video on the blog.

what's funny to us this week...

Does Darth Vader have CO2 emmisions?

It's World Environment Day! So says the UN...

It has been happening since 1974! Not enough attention or progress, but there it is. This year's theme is "CO2 Kick the Habit- Towards a low carbon economy". Here are the themes from previous years. They made a video highlighting the ways you can contribute. Here are some of the "highlights" of the day. I really don't think this gimmicky day is doing much, but maybe spreading the word is a step in the right direction. At this point by the time the fundies come around it will be too late. I was once of the "live and let live mind", now I say screw it. Make 'em change. Turn all of America into "environmentalists" against their will. And, are you kidding me, the UN video is still encouraging us to switch to biofuels. Granted some are made ok, but the overwhelming majority cause more harm than good. I don't understand why the UN is allowing us to cause one huge problem to fix another huge problem. As soon as the problem was noticed they should say, "oops went the wrong way on the ethanol idea, let's see what else we can try." GRRRR! Ok, I have things to do. Peace 1 comments: Chervil said... YES, Yes, Yes, I totally agree with you! Yet, changes seem to come so slowly - and the issues at hand are so huge. In my family, we have made many concious decisions to change what we do and how we do it, but sometimes I wonder whether I am fooling myself thinking we can turn society around. Maybe the high oil price - difficult as it is to deal with for many of us, including myself, will provide the incentive to change. June 8, 2008 7:15 AM

I "heart" Sheldon!!

Day 5

Today was the day that I have been waiting for. My hope was that Taylor would begin to research slips of knowledge and try to explain his understanding of them in an effort to include them in the web report. And, today he did. He was brilliant. My only rules are that he understands the general meaning of the word or phrase on the slip, and that his explanation of the connection has a base in fact. That allows him to stretch for connections, but there are a lot of slips to get through. This worked very well today. This report was worth 147 K and 16 exp. points. Amazing. The best part is that he had to contemplate each slip, then review what we covered through the day, and then explain how the two could be related. It was a wonderful conversation. This is the webreport. (Please excuse the handwriting.)
We continued with the Camelot theme and another DaVinci space. So, we explored the internet links from the Ten Terrific Weeks Adventure, and we continued with activities and reading from the book, How to Think Like Leonardo DaVinci. We also read from the Arthurian legends information on the Cliffnotes website. Then we spent a fair amount of time defining and researching some of the slips. Then, we added more spaces inside the castle and learned about chance and probability, just a little. I describe this process more in the next section.

Here are some notes on the planning and changes that we are making for the game as we go along. Because I added the castle in a small corner, there isn't much path around it. And, Taylor needs an introduction to chance, probability, etc. We decided to assign a color to each number on the dice and roll. We added that color path inside the castle walls. So, there is a great math activity. Then, I will make the part of the path that is made of the wall, going in and out of the castle, a special space. We are going to use those spaces to discuss a little rock identification and properties. We'll talk about what rock would make a good castle and what wouldn't. Until we get there, I will gather some activities to include. Let the research begin.

Math for the day

We just finished our first Mersenne number primality test (M39594419) with the program our computer runs! One down, infinity to go! If you find one with 10 million digits you can win $100,000. Oooh, here's to the dream. ; ) For some reason the link won't insert now, so the information on the search is at http://www.mersenne.org/.

Lazy Weekend

Weekend Reading

More from Michael Pollan. What about the European Union? This is a blog, so I would read all the links and follow through to the sources if you can. What the EPA says about nanosubstances in our products. I don't really think they have the funds to properly monitor the chemicals they already haven't been checking out. When they say they intend to check the chemicals on a case by case basis, I think what they mean is "when people start dying we'll move it up the list of things to look into."