What Time Is It?

Nicholas is working on how to read time on clocks. We were working on the concept of "half past"
this morning. I showed him 2:00 on our play clock and asked him to tell me the time. He answered correctly. Then, I showed him 2:30 and asked him to tell me the time. His response was, "Almost snacktime."

Tall Buildings

How tall is the empire state building?
1250 feet
102 stories

It currently ranks 10th among the world's tallest buildings. There is a new tallest building to be completed in 2009 called the Burj Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. It will be 2313 feet high and
167 stories high.

Click here for more tall building facts.

Jokes

The boys learned how to write jokes this week using baseball homonyms. Here's the final product:

Evan
Why was the outfielder's glove disgusting?
Because he caught a lot of pop flies.

Why did the pitcher break his leg?
Because his coach told him to.

Nicholas
1st boy: Why did your dog chase that man all the way to the ball?
2nd boy: The dog can't dance.

Kitchen Math

Today the boys completed an entire recipe without help. Cranberries for Thanksgiving. We'll see how it turns out :)

2pkgs cranberries
zest of one orange
3 cinnamon sticks
2 c. orange juice
2 c. brown sugar

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan. Add enough water to cover the cranberries. Heat on high until boiling. Reduce heat, simmer uncovered for about an hour or until desired consistency.

Enjoy.

**Aunt Maggie's recipe

2000 Jesuses?

Nicholas: Mom, there are 2000 Jesuses in heaven. A new one is there every Christmas because every Christmas, Jesus is born.

Mom: Are there 6 Nicholases? A new Nicholas comes to our family every year on your birthday?


After a discussion about birthday celebrations, which he is always happy to have, he got it. Then, he proceeded to let me know that Jesus could have 2000 of himself if he wanted because "he can do things magic."

Right.

Party On

At yet another Mitchell family dinner political discussion, Evan asked, "Have there ever been any presidents who were not Republican or Democrat?" While Jon and I knew that the Federalists and Whigs were parties at some point in history, we weren't sure who was what and when and if there were any more. These are the parties that have gained the presidency over time:

Federalist
Democratic-Republican (which split into the next two later)
Democratic
Whig
National Union (coalition between Democrats and Republicans to save the union)
Republican

A 6 Year Old's Politics

During a lull in our daily evening political discussion at dinner, Nicholas asks:

Who are you voting for?
We tell him "Obama" and Jon said, "When you are old enough, you'll be able to vote, too."
Nicholas: You get to vote when you're 18. I know that because I read it in a book. If I were 18, I would vote for Obama too.
Mom: Oh really, why would you vote for him?
Nicholas: Because John McCain is the whitest guy ever.

Engineering Project #2

A bag of marshmallows
10 paperclips
5 pieces of spaghetti
2 plastic cups
1 inch of tape
10 inches of string

Challenge: How many marshmallows can you suspend at least 1 inch above the table?

Heaven

Nicholas: Some people believe that there is the earth, then the sky, then space, then heaven, then the high heaven.
Mom: And who lives in high heaven?
Nicholas: Only a few angels. But a lot of angels live in heaven.
Mom: How does God decide which angels are in high heaven and which go to regular heaven?
Nicholas: They are just always there. But sometimes, they like to go to heaven and then back to high heaven.

Ok.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches

Nicholas: Peanut Butter was invented in 1886, Evan.
Evan: Mom, when was peanut butter invented?

We learned that peanuts may have been used by the early Incas to make a paste as early as 950 B.C. The first peanut butter machine was patented by Dr. Ambrose Staub of St. Louis in 1903 and some unkown doctor invented peanut butter in 1890. By 1914, peanut butter was made by a number of different companies.

Mummy Brains

This is "Ginger," the oldest known mummy. They think he was alive in 3300BC. Appropriately for the Halloween season, we are studying Ancient Egypt. The question from Nicholas today was:

Who removes the brain of a person before it becomes a mummy?

First, we learned that a mummy's brain was not considered important. They thought that thinking was done in the heart, which was the only organ left in the body when mummified. They removed the brain through the nose, usually with a long wire with a hook on the end. The brains were removed by embalmers.
If you want to learn more, check out this site:
http://www.schoolsliaison.org.uk/kids/egyptmummy.htm

I Second That!

Evan (walking in the door with two water bottles, a peanut butter sandwich, and a wipes container): I wonder why I'm doing a two-man job when I'm only one man.

Bridge Building

We attempted an engineering question today: Can you build a bridge out of six pieces of spaghetti, two plastic cups, two pieces of paper, and 15 inches of tape which can hold a maximum amount of weight in quarters?
Evan's was able to hold 6 quarters. He had no braces under his bridge made of paper folded and taped into a "T" shape. He learned that distributing the bulk of the weight in the center of the bridge with no braces is probably not a good idea.








Nicholas' bridge held 15 quarters. He had success by creating braces under the center of his bridge with spaghetti noodles. He then turned his into a working city bridge, with police boats (quarters) underneath, pedestrians (pennies on the sides of the bridge), and cars (more quarters) driving through the center of the bridge. The investigators (dimes) stood off to the side.

Mount Everest

Evan wanted to know how many people had climbed Mount Everest.
1924 ascents by 1300 climbers (successfully).
179 have died in their attempt.

Who Wrote Genesis?

The answer is: Bible scholars aren't 100% certain, but believe it was probably Moses.

Days of the Week

We worked on building a calendar today. Evan wanted to know how the days of the week got their names.

Here's what we found out:
In English, the days of the week come from either Norse or Germanic gods and goddesses.

Sunday: "Day of the Sun" going back to pagan sun worship rituals
Monday: "Day of the Moon"
Tuesday: "Tyr's Day," refers to Tyr, a god of combat and heroic glory in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism
Wednesday: The day of the Germanic god, Wodan, more commonly known as "Odin," who was the highest god in Norse mythology.
Thursday: Named for Thor, the Norse god of thunder.
Friday: Named for Frige, the Germanic goddess of beauty, who is a later incarnation of the Norse goddess Frigg.
Saturday: The only day of the week to retain its Roman origin in English, it is named after the Roman god Saturn.

If you look back at the Old English way of spelling most of these days of the week, you'll see the god or goddess' name in the word. Also, in many other languages, the days of the week mean different things, but are most often connected with Roman gods and goddesses.

The Food Chain

We were reading a book about the food chain at the Claude Moore nature center today. The kids wanted to know if Tigers had any predators. The answer is that tigers are apex predators. Say what? We learned a new term. Here it is:

Apex predators (also alpha predators, superpredators, or top-level predators) are predators that, as adults, are not normally preyed upon in the wild in significant parts of their range. Apex predator species are often at the end of long food chains, where they have a crucial role in maintaining the health of ecosystems.

Of course, this takes into account "the wild." Their only predator, we determined, is a human hunter.

Some questions from the car

Nicholas: Do rich people burp?

After reading a book about Barack Obama (Yes, they are reading one about John McCain, too!),
Nicholas leans over to Evan and says:

"Evan, I think he's really "Black Obama," but they call him Barack Obama."

tee hee

Books

The kids got some new books from the library this afternoon from a serious called,
"Great Illustrated Classics." In the car on the way home, they started reading them and Evan wanted to know if Sherlock Holmes was a real person. I told him I didn't think so, that it was a fictional character made up in the imagination of the author. He then read me the back of the book, which discussed how there are apparently Sherlock Holmes fan clubs around the world.
Then, he thought he MUST be real if he has fan clubs because Hannah Montana has a fan club and she's real.

Of course.

Vampire:Blood::Baby:____________

Nicholas: A baby and a vampire are like the same thing, right?
Mom: What do you mean?
Nicholas: They both suck, so they are the same, right?
Mom: Not really. Vampires suck blood and babies suck toys and bottles and mama's milk.
Nicholas: Yeah, but they both suck stuff. So they ARE the same thing.
Mom: Ok, I guess you are right if that's the only thing you are comparing.

**Is this preparation for the SAT's?
Vampire:Blood::Baby:________

God's Food

Nicholas: How long can God not eat?
Me: What do you mean? (this seems to be my response most of the time to his questions)
Evan: Like how long can God not eat before he dies?
Nicholas: Yeah...how long can God not eat before he dies.
Me: (perplexed at why he'd like to know this) Do you think God eats?
Nicholas: I think God has like a magic sort of way of being full all of the time. He can just be full whenever he wants, all of the time.
Me: Yes, God can do whatever he wants. He's God.

*I think this is Nicholas' secret dream...to be full all of the time.

Map Work

Evan and I were looking at the US map in preparation for our trip to New Hampshire and Boston in a couple of weeks. He will be helping to plan our route, figuring out mileage, etc. His question today was:

Which state has the most people?

I asked if he meant which state was the most dense or has the most people overall. He wanted to know the state with most people, regardless of size.

The answer is: California, with 33,145,121 people.

Good to know :)

After reading about plant parts and what attracts birds and insects to plants:

Evan: Does Honeysuckle really have honey in it?
Can you eat it?

After a wikipedia investigation, we found out that they do not produce honey, but do have a sweet nectar that is edible and a red, black, or blue berry. Some of the plants have poisonous berries and one variety does not. The flowers from the honeysuckle are used to flavor wine, syrup, sorbet, and other sweet dishes.

On Skin Color

On a bike ride, while stopping for water:
Nicholas: What do black people do?
Me: What do you mean?
Nicholas: You know, black people, with black-colored skin. What do they do?
Me: What do you mean by 'what do they do?'
Nicholas: What do they do like during the day and stuff?
Me: It really depends on the person. People of all different colors do all kinds of things during the day. Some people work at jobs, some people are at their houses like other kids and mommies. It just depends on the person, but black people work as engineers and teachers and lawyers and doctors and artists and police officers. All kinds of things.
Nicholas: Are there really detectives?
Me: Yes.
Nicholas: Do you know any?
Me: Yes. Alexa's dad, George, works as a detective for the FBI.
Nicholas: What do they do?
Me: They investigate things...mostly crimes.
Nicholas: Oh, like Carmen Sandiego.
Me: Yes, like Carmen Sandiego.

1000 miles

Nicholas: Where do you go if you are 1000 miles from here?
Mom: (doing very quick math in her head) Maybe the very southern tip of Florida
Evan: Which direction do you mean Nicholas?
Nicholas: (points out window)
Evan: No, Nicholas, you have to say "North, South, East, or West."
Mom: That way (out Nicholas' window) is east. You mean east Nicholas?
Nicholas: Yes, east.
Mom: Let's guess. I guess somewhere in Europe. Maybe France?
Evan: I guess the U.K.
Nicholas: I don't know.

Answer: Middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

Caterpillars

Are caterpillars worms?


Appparently, a worm is a legless animal with a slender, soft body. True worms are made up of many cells. But they do not have a backbone. Most people think of the worm-like larvae (young) of butterflies and other insects as "worms." But scientists who study animal life consider only certain adult animals as true worms.


So, I guess the answer would be no. Caterpillars have lots of legs.

Snakes

On a couple of recent hikes, we have come across some slithery snakes. While I detest snakes and my skin crawls thinking about them, the boys (especially Jon) love them. They take pictures of them while I walk the other way. So, here are two snakes we recently identified.
We think the one on the top is a timber rattlesnake and the one on the bottom is a black ratsnake.

Sticks

Nicholas likes to sit at the top of the slide at the park and collect sticks as "payment" for going down the slide. Then, when we leave the park, he tells me he has a stick collection. I call it
the "lazy man's stick collection." Upon leaving the park today, an argument ensued in the car.

Evan: Mom, do sticks come from rocks?
Mom: What do you think?
Evan: (with confused expression on his face) No...they come from trees.
Mom: That's true. They are parts of branches, usually.
Evan: See, Nick, I told you so.
Nicholas: Then why do trees have circles around them.
Mom: You mean the landscaping dirt piles?
Nicholas: Oh. That's not a rock.

How far

Hunter and Nicholas while digging a big hole at Dinosaur Park:
Maybe we can dig to China. How far is it to the middle of the Earth?

(Note: Adults had to figure it out. It's approximately 4000 miles to the center of the Earth.)

Would You Rather...

Their game...

Would you rather be hole-punched to death or be eaten by a ferocious lion?

On bees

Nicholas: Do bees have brains?


(Note: Bees do have very small brains with very terrific memories to be able to perform their
hive duties)

On toilets

Upon looking at a great book called, "Material World," which explores exactly how people live in various parts of the world. Yes, there is a whole page devoted to toilets around the world.

Evan: Some people have toilets made out of just clay? There's no top? Is that just a hole?

On Ladybugs

Not so much a question as an answer:

Nicholas: We can't kill ladybugs. Ladybugs eat aphids that are in our garden and if we don't have ladybugs to eat aphids then we have aphids. Can you buy ladybugs? Can we buy ladybugs? How much do you think they cost?

On God...

Nicholas: Can you really live until 250 to 251 if you obey God?

(note: I assume this was in reference to the long lives of some of the strong figures in the Old Testament, including Moses, Abraham, and Noah)

Questions

With this new homeschooling venture, I'm finding we have lots of questions to answer about how life works...from the perspective a 6 and 8 year-old. This will be a blog to record their questions. Sometimes the questions demand answers...sometimes not.

We'll begin with questions or the last few days.