Well, it’s now a few days after Christmas and the kids have switched toys again. The first big hit was the Splatball, then it was the board game Trouble, and now, we’ve moved on to our Zhu Zhu Pets.
Santa brought 4 total – two for Brennan and two for Claire. Claire calls both of hers “mousy” even though their given names are Chunk (white) and Jilly (pink). Brennan is fine with respecting the manufacturer’s wishes and call his Num Nums (grey) and Mr. Squiggles (brown).
The toys don’t do too much but they do more than you would think. They have sounds indicating they are moving like roosters or boings. They zip forward, spin around, and shoot off in another direction.
The kids love them and treat them like they are their kids. In the picture shown, the Zhu Zhu pets are at the movies but tomorrow they have hamster school. Very fun.
It has been a few months since Brennan and I did a science project. This has been the case mostly because of his fascination with trains, specifically traction rods on trains. I am thinking that the trains fascination may run its course pretty soon but hopefully not before we take him on his birthday party which is all about trains. Enough on trains for now … I’ll post birthday pictures soon.
An upcoming fascination of Brennan’s is Tornados, which I agree are really cool to look at but not too cool in real life for those that are unfortunate to be in one. He has memorized the Fujita scale but hasnt quite latched on to the concept that the size of tornado doesnt dictate the strength of the wind. That’ll be a next step. Here is a quick video of it in action:
To make a long design / science discussion short, the box is cut so that there are slits in the sides which make the tornado funnel spin as a motor on top sucks the dry ice smoke up. Email me at dana@danaedwards.com if youwant to know more about the physics of how it works. Here are a couple of photos of it in action:
We had a blast making it and hope to show it off to the grandparents for Spaghetti Night tonight and Thanksgiving Dinner soon!
So what do tee ball and the University of Kentucky have to do with each other and why am I spending a few moments writing about it? Well, it’s actually quite simple. Today, the family out of the house to register Brennan for tee ball with the Mallard Creek Optimist Club. While driving over to MCOC registration, I whipped out the handy iPhone, pulled up the geocaching application from Groundspeak, and found that the Big Blue Stash was located with 1/4 mile walk of the registration site.
So, after a brief discussion of the logistics of how we manage the kids as we bushwacked our way along side Stony Creek, we headed into the woods. As usual Brennan repeated a number of times that he didn’t want to go his way or that and Claire eventually convinced Jill that she should be carried instead of walk through the woods. All that said we did make our way through successfully.
Brennan did great for the most part and seemed to enjoy the time in the actual woods. Jill explained to him that when she was younger, she used to call rotting trees – chicken – because they pulled apart like chicken. Brennan took a few moments to pull of a few pieces of chicken. After a little bit of time we climbed over some other trees and brush.
Brennan ran quickly over to some fallen trees to find the cache! Claire was very excited to see what was in the ammo box and Bren was too. When Jill opened it up, the kids eyes popped open wide. Claire was immediately ecstatic when she saw a McDonald’s Doc car in it. Jill convinced Brennan to take a key chain level on her behalf because she “didn’t have an iPhone level like daddy”. Brennan loved it but I bet Jill ends up with it – clearly yet anoher power struggle to occur in the Edwards house. For those wondering how Kentucky fits into the picture, the cache was apparently named for the musical University of Kentucky bottle opener which was in with the loot and yes I did test it and it does still play some music.
A couple of pictures later and we were on our way. Jill and Claire’s first caching trip was a success and I am pretty sure that they had a blast.
Oh, and yes we did get Brennan registered for tee ball!
Today, Brennan suggested we go on a family “bike hike”, which I later understood is his way of saying let’s go biking. Really not much occurred on the bike hike except that we went down to the Highland Creek golf course and looked at some electric boxes, my wife was attacked by a pair of shih tzus and we saw a little weird green guy. I love the idea of
the green guy which is pretty evident when you look at him. I don’t see the need to get one at this point given we live in a cul-de-sac and we dont get many people speeding in our cul-de-sac except perhaps the occasional NASCAR enthusiast doing laps. I am just really happy that Brennan is riding faster and more comfortably every day.
Brennan has enrolled in swimming classes now and is showing some interest in it – woo hoo! Being a former competition swimmer, I hope he continues but up to this point, he is pretty scared of the water. I guess I understand for now. While I dont know for sure, I started thinking that he was scared of sinking in the water and not coming back up.
So last night, I started trying to explain to him why he would usually float and what it takes to sink. I found an old book in our home library called Floating and Sinking. Unlike I hope you find this blog, it was very confusingly written but it did serve its purpose of putting him to sleep. The whole time he asked many questions as to how floating and sinking worked. The easiest way to explain it for me was to say, “Things float when they are less dense than whatever they are in.” That triggered a whole discussion on density. As you have probably figured out, I think people learn best by doing – hence, this post on The Sinking Straw.
This takes about 5-10 minutes to build and is quite easy. Here is what you need:
In case the images didn’t come up:
1 small rubber band
1 straw cut to about 4 in long
several small paper clips (mine needed 4 but it varies)
1 2l bottle – like everything we do
1 “test vessel” which about the same height as a 2l bottle
Instructions:
About an inch down, wrap the half of the rubber band around the end of the straw
Fold the end of the straw down and wrap the rest of the rubber band around it
Put several small paper clips in the other end of the straw. After testing, I found I needed four. You may need more or less.
Now, test your straw sinker in the test vessel which is filled with water. Drop it in and push down on the top of the sinker. If it barely floats and comes back up when you tap it – congratulations you inserted the right amount of paper clips.
Fill the 2L bottle with water almost to the top.
Drop in the sinker
Screw the cap on very tightly so water doesn’t spray everywhere.
When you squeeze the bottle, the sinker should drop. When you let of the pressure, the sinker should go back to the top. It’s a gift that keeps on giving with every squeeze!
Why does this work?
Magic of course. Or … Squeezing the bottle reduces the amount of space that the air can take but the water takes up the same amount of space so some water goes up in the straw. The water in the straw makes it heavier. Since the straw’s volume didnt change it is more dense and so it sinks.
Well, what can I say? Brennan is in love with electricity right now and especially high and low voltage electric lines. While at his parent / teacher conference, his teacher indicated that he may have trouble telling stories in sequence. So, I asked him to tell me a story. First, he told me the story, then we drew it on the storyboard and then we made a movie. The following video is that story.
After this, he asked me to make 2 more stories so we will make those soon.
. Unlike I hope you find this blog, it was very confusingly written but it did serve its purpose of putting him to sleep. The whole time he asked many questions as to how floating and sinking worked. The easiest way to explain it for me was to say, “Things float when they are less dense than whatever they are in.” That triggered a whole discussion on density. As you have probably figured out, I think people learn best by doing – hence, this post on The Sinking Straw.
