Tyler & Ron finished another rocket this weekend and launched it today. They launched the larger rocket again, too. Tyler did a lot more of the set up himself this time. It's fun watching the boys work on these together. 
The caterpillar we found on Monday made his chrysalis today. This is a picture of him from last night, as he was getting in position. The chyrsalis in the picture is about 9 days old now. They are typically in the pupa stage for 10-14 days, so hopefully we'll have a couple monarch butterflies within the next few days and another in 10 more days.
~~~~~~~~~~
When we went on our amphibian night hike earlier this summer, the guide told us that frogs use their eyeballs to help them swallow. They pop their eyes down into their mouth, which forces the food back down their throats. There is actually some dispute about whether or not they have to pop their eyes down in order to swallow or if it just makes swallowing easier, but the kids think it's pretty cool watching Spot do it. (We think it's cool, too.) You can see Spot pushing his eyes down after snatching a cricket in this video.
~~~~~~~~~~
I have been asked several times about whether or not the kids' school will be showing the president's speech. Before the speech was published, Ron and I did have some concerns about the content and relevance for a 7 year old who would be watching with someone other than his parents. I talked to his teacher, who said she did not plan to show it and didn't know of any teacher in the building who was planning to. 
Once the speech was published (which I think was a smart move), I read it and didn't find anything objectionable. I do feel, though, that it really isn't relevant to our children or our school system. For example, our children don't even realize dropping out of school is an option. I can just hear Tyler - "You mean I don't HAVE to go?!" My kids probably wouldn't have taken the president's message to heart, but it could be a bit stressful for those who do. Tyler and Danielle have enough other "normal" kid things to worry about at school - will there be an open seat on the bus, who will I play with at recess, can I finish 40 math problems in 1 minute, what extra words will be on the spelling test this Friday? I don't want my kids to have the added stress of thinking they've let our family or our country down if they don't do well.
2 comments:
You're right. I think the speech is much more appropriate for older kids.
Wow, I never knew that about frogs! Very cool, Caleb will like that video.
Well said about the president's speech, I couldn't imagine he would really say anything terribly contraversial (I haven't read the speech yet), but I also couldn't imagine the 1st through 6th graders would really get much out something delivered in that format either!
Post a Comment