Being Productive

Looking at my day today, I was feeling a bit down that I hadn't gotten more accomplished. I managed one small work meeting and an errand to the bank. OK, I also battened down the hatches at the dock as the lake began to flood- this time, *before* the boats floated away. ;) . . . but that's pretty much it. I didn't even make the kids do all their chores. My miles-long to-do list looks pretty much untouched since yesterday.

But wait, I realized: today was extremely productive on the homeschooling/kids front. I started my day with an extended wrestling/tickling/cuddling match with my oldest, who seldom wants to do that anymore. Then he asked to make us waffles from scratch for breakfast, and I said "yes". I walked him through the recipe. . . which meant a lot of concentrated instruction on fractions. (I even used the math manipulatives!) Julian worked on an alphabet puzzle and asked me to help him with flash cards, which we used to work on number recognition, counting and beginning phonics. This video (shared by a friend) then led to a discussion about genealogy:

(I wonder if she's right?!?)

Both boys had some outside time to run in the rain and gawk at the flooding.

While we were out running errands (including a stop at the post office so Simon could mail his first letter to his new pen pal in Japan) I stopped at the bookstore, where they browsed. Simon chatted with the saleslady, she helped him find what he was looking for, and he made his own purchase. On the way home, I spotted something interesting and turned around to check it out- it turned out to be a whole parking lot full of restored antique working steam engines! Apparently there is an annual 4th of July steam engine parade here. Who knew? We walked around and looked at them all, and smelled the wood fires burning, and listened to the (VERY LOUD) train whistles blow.

(photo credit Nicole Gustin)

Back at home, Simon volunteered to make dinner (frozen pizza and fresh fruit), and spent some time reading his book. Then we had an impromptu detailed exploration (sparked by a small query) of astronomy topics, in which I answered questions, explained, and we looked up answers together on the internet. Some topics covered include:
- What is a light year?
- How do you say 6,000,000,000,000?
- What does the sun sound like? (This was the golden question of the night, which led us to this very cool 10-minute documentary about a project to sonify solar data, which sparked many more interesting questions)
- What is a sunspot?
- Can solar flares and coronal mass ejections harm the Earth?


- What is Earth's "magnetic field", and why does it protect us from solar wind?
(Did you know other planets don't have a magnetic field? I feel like I should have known that, but I don't think I did.)


- If we could be right next to the sun without burning up, what would the sun *really* sound like?
(The answer, of course, is that we wouldn't hear a single thing. Which of course leads to the question,
- "Why?" Which leads to a discussion of sound waves and how they are transmitted.)
We both loved all these explorations and questions, and dug into our ice cream tonight feeling energized and inspired by our learning.

I read Jules his new Scooby Doo book for a bedtime story, and after tucking the boys in I thought about my day and what got done. I've realized I feel pretty darn good about it, actually. :)

City of Starlight

Out in nowheresville, on my family’s farm in Alabama, we walked out together to admire the night sky. Living in a large metropolitan area as we do, it’s easy to forget about the stars. But that night, huddled together in the grass, our breath frosting in the freezing air, I tipped my head back and gasped. Stretching out overhead was an overwhelming number of stars, improbably bright against the deep, inky black of infinite space. They exploded overhead in glittering profusion, winking and shining like living sparks of spirit-fire in the cold winter night. I cannot remember the last time I saw so many stars, or when they shone so brightly. I only wished the temperature outside was more condusive to lingering- as it was, we had just a few minutes to wonder before I hustled back inside to huddle by the gas heater.

Riding home the following evening, I scanned the night sky ruefully for some indication that the magic still shone somewhere overhead. Only the brightest stars remained- a handful here and there, veiled to a fraction of their former brilliance. Lights that pierced like beacons were now hard to pick out in the pinkish grey sheen over the endless highway. We drew nearer and nearer to Atlanta as I typed, watching the stars fade away. Suddenly ahead the city skyline popped into view like a sunrise on the horizon. For a moment I was startled by it’s beauty, towers twinkling like diamonds, thousands upon thousands of gleaming lights in this urban metropolis. Here of course was the main reason the stars had disappeared: the light pollution was simply too intense, too widespread for the starts to compete. And all at once I was struck with a vision of stars, countless stars, being pulled inexorably from the heavens down to earth, where they coalesced into the sparkling spires then dazzling my eyes.

What human conceit, to have stolen the stars.

Learning something new!

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Learning something new!
Current mood: tested

Well, I feel a little dumb!
I fancy myself as being pretty informed. I've been reading nearly non-stop since I was a kid, and a lot of that is factual stuff from a wide range of interests. I've picked up a pretty good store of random, (nearly) useless knowledge. It usually serves me well as I try to answer Littleman's endless stream of questions.

Tonight, there was a total lunar eclipse. After getting the boys ready for bed, I took everyone outside to admire it- by that time, the Earth's shadow was covering about half the moon. I explained to Littleman and Sweetcheeks that the moon was getting covered up by the Earth's shadow, and we talked about how we see shadows when an object (ie; the Earth) gets in-between the light source (sun) and the surface we are looking at (moon). We made our own shadows on the living room wall before heading up to bed.

A little while ago, I was thinking about my explanation, and I realized that if I was correct (which I was), then I must have the moon's phases all wrong! All this time, I've had a vague notion that we see the phases of the moon because of the shadow that the Earth casts. But of course, that can't be right! Feeling like a ninny for not ever thinking of this before, I went googling for an answer. And of course, I found one:

http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moonphase/

Check it out- it's a very clear explanation with a great visual!

So it turns out that the moon is always half illuminated and half in darkness (except during a lunar eclipse). We see phases of the moon because we are usually looking at the moon from the side, seeing only part of the illuminated side and part of the darkened side. The phases change in a cycle as the moon orbits around the Earth, changing the angle from which we view it. Which makes sense, because the line between light and shadow is crisp for a moon's phase, but all soft and fuzzy in an eclipse. Ah ha!

Cool huh?

* * *
Thumbs-up for that site on moon phases for remedying my ignorance!

International Space Station and shuttle Atlantis sightings!

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

International Space Station and shuttle Atlantis sightings! Current mood: uncomfortable OK, this is pretty cool- it came to my attention through a homeschooling group: Space Weather News for June 19, 2007 http://spaceweather.com On Tuesday morning, June 19th, space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to undock from the International Space Station. On Tuesday night, the pair will fly in tandem over many US towns and cities including Detroit, Washington DC, San Francisco and Denver. Typical flybys take place shortly after sunset, with the pair first appearing in the northwest (look for the Big Dipper) and soaring overhead from there. The space shuttle appears first, followed by the ISS. Both spacecraft are bright and easy to see with the naked eye. Double flybys continue on Wednesday night, June 20th, before Atlantis returns to Earth on Thursday, June 21st. And here is the flyby timetable for Atlanta: http://heavens-above.com/PassSummary.asp?satid=25544&lat=33.749&lng=-84.388&loc=Atlanta&alt=305&tz=EST Neat!