I'm All Ears

Nicholas: I figured out how you can clean your ears.

Mom and Dad (thinking this will be good): Really, how?

Nicholas: Just put a thread on a needle with a kleenex and put it through one year and then pull it out the other.

Dad: There's just one problem with that, Nicholas. Your brain is in between your ears and it's not good for needles to go into your brain.

Nicholas: Oh.

Uncle Brent, what do you think? Have you ever used a kleenex on the end of a needle and thread on a patient?

Naked Sister (and brother) Band

I've been meaning to post this pic for a little while now. Today I finally have some time. Evan is learning the recorder this year. Sarah has found an interest in joining him. To prevent injury, the Easter bunny brought her a baby-size version of the recorder so that she can "practice" too. The picture is of her joining Evan with my recorder.

What is a spine? (Evan's post)

We are learning about the human body. Today, we made a model of a spine. There are 26 bones (cheerios) and 25 pieces of cartilage (blue paper) between the bones which protect the bones from rubbing into each other. Your spinal cord is protected by your vertebrae, like your brain is protected by your skull.

Suess Goose (story by Evan)

This is a story about Suess Goose and his "migration vacation."



One cold autumn day in Canada, there lived a goose. His name was Goose Suess. Suess for short. He was going to migrate in two days because it was getting colder every day.
On the day of the migration, it was exactly 32 F, freezing point. It was so cold the grass was frosted and white. Suess and his friends were about to leave when, "BOOM!" a rumble of thunder came. "Uh-oh," thought Suess. "We better get out of here before we get struck by lightning!"
Suess and his friends zoomed through the air. Then, lightning struck! It was exactly one mile away and Suess could feel its heat. "Go, go, go!" he shouted. Next it started pouring rain.
Finally, the geese made it to Minnesota, where they would stop for a snack. They stopped at Lake Minnetonka to catch some bass. When they were done eating, they flew off. Their next destination was Mexico.
They made it to Mexico City the next morning. They were very tired, so they stopped at Embageese Suites to rest. When Suess woke up, it was 7:00 a.m. in the morning. "Rise and shine!" he said. His friends barely woke up. "We have a long day ahead of us," said Suess.
They were at the beach in record time, swimming in their swim trunks and having lots of fun. They swam and tanned and were flying back home in an hour. By the time they reached Minnesota again they were sweating like donkeys. They got a drink, had a snack, and before they knew it they were home.

It's All Greek To Me (post by Evan)

My brother and I have been learning about the Greeks and my, have we learned a lot! Some of our government ideas came from them. The style of columns on the Abe Lincoln Memorial, the Capitol building, and the National Building Museum all are from the Greeks. The word "marathon" comes from a man who had to run 26 miles from Marathon to Athens to tell them they beat the Persians. But unfortunately the man died because he had run to Sparta the day before and didn't rest in between. The Parthenon was a temple where they worshiped their goddess, Athena, which is how Athens got its name.

Is there any thing else you'd like to know about the Greeks?

Hello? Who's There?

Today, we spent some time learning how to properly answer the phone and respond to a caller's inquiries. I used my cell phone to call the home phone and the boys took turns "answering" the phone. Here's how it was supposed to go:

Boy: Hello?
Me: Hi, is your mom there?
Boy: May I ask who is calling please?
Me: Jim Jenkins
Boy: Just one moment please. (tell me who is on the phone and ask if I can speak)
She is not available at the moment, may I have her call you back?
Me: Yes, please have her call me at: 800.888.8888
Boy: (wait to hang up until the other person has hung up the phone)

Then, we switched it up some to try to throw them off. Here's what I got after a few rounds:

Nicholas: Hello?
Me: Hi, who am I speaking with?
Nicholas: (giggle and look of mischief) Abe Lincoln

Nice.

National Building Museum

Field Trip Week included a trip to the National Building Museum. We spent a couple of hours in the construction room, where there were a variety of building materials for the kids to use. Unfortunately, the Cherry Blossom 10K expo was set up in their main area, so many of the usual hands-on exhibits for older kids were not available. We look forward to returning soon. Here are some photos of the busy builders:

GRACE (Greater Reston Arts Center)

One of the places we've been eagerly waiting to visit this year is the GRACE center. They moved it to Reston Town Center into a beautiful, loft-like space with a lot of light. We saw an exhibit by local high school kids on "Roots." After looking at their work, Evan and Nicholas each had an "art bucket," full of supplies to create their own art inspired by the exhibit. While they worked diligently at their art, I chased the girl all over the museum. She made her mark on the "Collaberative Art" wall.

Evan's finished work








Nicholas' finished work






Sarah

Naturalist Museum

We are having a sort of "catch up/field trip" week this week. We have some work to finish from previous weeks, some areas of study we wanted to explore more fully, and many field trip locations in the area to explore. So, we took a week to accomplish some of those things. Yesterday, we spent some time at the Smithsonian Naturalist Museum. This is one of the best educational museums I've been to anywhere and it's 15 minutes from our house, in Leesburg! While here, we looked at a full-size grizzly bear skin (see photos), classified spiders and insects, learned about microscopic insects which live on animals (rabies, scabies, fleas, oh my), searched for arthropod homes amongst a huge pile of shells, and learned about quartz and jasper. That was in an hour and a half. Whew.