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