In which we get pizza from Chicago and therefore do science

Does that even make sense?

Let me explain. My Dad had a box of deep dish pizzas and cheesecake from Chicago delivered to us. (OMG! So delicious! Thank you, Dad!) 

The food came packed in a styrofoam cooler in a box. Inside the cooler, along with the food, was a nice big bag of dry ice. 

 We can't resist doing science experiments any time we find ourselves in possession of dry ice. It's what former science center employees and homeschoolers do. 

Because Dry Ice. 

Because Science.

When I rewatched these videos, I found several places where my brain was working faster than my mouth could and I said the wrong thing.  That happens to me.  Anyone else?

Solar Eclipse 2017

We decided to stay in Amarillo for the eclipse today, where the sun would be covered about 80%.

Connor and Lex tried on their solar eclipse glasses at home before we left for the viewing picnic at the park next to the science center.

There was a pretty good sized crowd at the park, but we were able to find a great place to eat and view the eclipse.

Bonus?  The park had some great Pokemon around.

Pirate Lex with his Psyduck Pokemon Parrot

Photo by Connor

We had a great view.  The clouds moved out of the way as the eclipse was beginning, and we were able to see the sun get smaller and smaller, until there was just a nice yellow banana in the sky.  Then, we watched as it got bigger again.

The kids were happy to see the sliver of the sun this time, but they want to make sure to be in the path of totality next time, on April 8, 2024.  Cities in the path of the total eclipse for that one include Austin, Dallas, Indianapolis, and Cleveland, so that should be fine.
 

Don Harrington Discovery Center

This afternoon we visited the local science center with some friends, and we were pleased to find some new things, like this giant version of soccer billiards:

In keeping with the giant theme, Connor spent a long time playing this giant xylophone.

This dog skeleton was not giant.  

In fact, it was about the same size as Tik, maybe a little smaller.

Giant Blocks

Giant Letters

It was a big, big day!

Friday Field Trip

After a good week of homeschooling, I took the boys to the Don Harrington Discovery Center with some friends on Friday afternoon.

Once we were done playing at the science center, we went outside to the park, where the ice cream truck was waiting for us.

Top Secret: License to Spy

We went to our local science center to check out their new travelling exhibit, Top Secret: License to Spy.

It's a high tech spy exhibit, with lots of fun gadgets to test out.

There is even a mystery to solve.  Lex didn't use the paper guide at all, and he solved the mystery after about the third exhibit.  Connor played along even after he had figured it out, but he had cracked the case after the first few exhibits, too.  I think they would make good spies.

In fact, they even designed some spy disguises for use in all their sleuthing.

I have no idea who this guy could possibly be.

You can totally tell this is Lex because of the Darth Vader Ugly Christmas Sweater. It's a dead giveaway.

Uncle Kevin and Nana tried out some disguises, too.  Can you tell who is who?

Another favorite exhibit was the laser maze, and there was also a voice changer.

Lex kept going back to play with the voice changer, pretty much between every other interesting exhibit.  It's what he was doing while Connor was going through the paper guide to solve the mystery, even though they had both figured out who the bad guys were.

Of particular note was an exhibit where you had to sit at a person's desk, and using the personal information they had on their desk, such as the calendar, photos and books, try to hack into their desktop computer password.  Connor tried it first, and he got the computer to open on the first try.  He claimed that the exhibit was broken, because there was no way it could have been so easy.  So, my brother sat down, and he tried it.  And he couldn't get it at all.  Connor really just did hack the password on his very first attempt!

We should send him to spy camp.  Or Vegas.  Or both.

In which we go to COSI

They boys love COSI.  They have very fond memories of our trips there. They still say it is the best science center ever, and we have been to a lot of science centers.

We took Nana with us this time.

The first thing we did was explore Adventure.  The boys did a terrific job solving all the puzzles, and they found all the clues that they needed to unlock the observatory and discover the treasure hidden within.



After Adventure, we watched Rat Basketball, in which real rats really play basketball.

After lunch, the boys were basically just running around the entire museum trying to find all of their favorite things from long ago.  And it turns out that COSI is a really great place to play Pokemon Go, so I was pleased.

Lex loves to ride this rocket ship in the 1962 side of Progress.




We all really love the mythological side of the Ocean exhibit.







These giant blue foam blocks were new, and we have seen them at many science centers, but the building wall that goes with it was a first for us.

Lex found Optometry Brutus in the Life Exhibit.  Go Bucks!  Three cheers for COSI.  We left before the museum closed for the day, but the kids were totally exhausted when we left.  Tired, but very happy.

First Day of School

Today was our first day of school for the 2016-2017 school year.



I offered to take them to Cadillac Ranch to let them spray paint their grades and school year on the cars for a photo, but Connor declined, because doing the chalk thing is tradition.  I appreciate his love for our family traditions.

He did say that it looked like they were both in 24th grade.  Sorry about that, children.

And here I thought just saying that Lex was in 2nd grade was easier than saying that he was doing 2nd in some subjects and 3rd in others.  And that Connor is just in 4th instead of 4th/5th would make things more clear.

It's like a one-room school house here, with students ranging from 2nd to 5th grade.

These are their common core workbooks.  They are each doing four this year, being Phonics, Geography, Science and Math.

We are also doing a ton of subjects that aren't common core.  Like cursive and Latin and Greek:



We reviewed the Greek alphabet this morning.



We also had story time.  After we read the Magic School Bus book about reptiles, Lex colored this scientifically accurate flying snake:

Can we just appreciate the perfect points on all the brand new crayons for a moment?  Swoon.







Another first day of school tradition around here is the Lego Mini Figure prizes at the end of the day.  This year I opted for some of the new Disney series.  I love them.  Lex was excited to have gotten a Mickey.

Ursula is such a baddie, that she already stole herself a sweet new ride:



I'm actually still waiting on some of the curriculum that I ordered to arrive.  Our new scanner/copier/printer arrived right in the middle of our school day this morning.

Books that we do already have for this coming year:

We did zoology as our big science topic last year, and we are going to finish it up with this living science text book.  Then, our big science topic for this year is going to be anatomy:

I'm really excited for this constellations book, because it reminds me of when I used to work in the Planetarium.  It's science and mythology, and it coordinates with our Latin and Greek stuff.

Cryptography is going to be an elective for Connor, and maybe even Lex.  Connor is also doing an online Java coding course.

These Egyptian books are going to go with some other things that haven't arrived yet.

Connor completed this United States workbook about two years ago, and now Lex is going to have his turn with it.  They are both going to do the mazes.



Finally, our modern history lessons are going to revolve around the US Presidents, because they form a natural timeline that makes it easy to place events, and Connor has a wonderful knack for all sorts of presidential trivia.



Hopefully the rest of our curriculum gets delivered soon!  I was expecting some of it by today, but our mail is frequently late because we live so far from any other big cities.