Monday Park Schooling, Tuesday Science, Thursday Theater and Friday Science

Tuesday is our Mad Science class. No photos, because I forgot to pull out the camera... This week's topic was nutrition. The kids talked about the food groups, portion sizes, what calories are (a calorie is the amount of energy it takes to heat up water by one degree) and digestion. They saw a demo of how to determine the amount of calories in a sample (which involved burning marshmallows). After class, Mikro and I read a bunch of books on nutrition in the library. I was really happy to have my messages about healthy eating and the necessity for variety in one's diet reinforced by someone outside the family. Sometimes I think Mikro gets it in his head that I am telling him this stuff just because my mission in life is to make him eat broccoli... I'm hoping that he'll be little more interested in expanding his repertoire of foods, now that he knows it isn't just mom who thinks this a good idea...



We did our park schooling on Monday this week (because Dad took the day off, and we took advantage of the opportunity to have a family picnic in the park, do some school work, and some nature study)... So Wednesday we stayed home and read a bunch of library books on different biomes. But here are some park pictures from Monday...













Thursday, I worked on my annoying New York homeschool paperwork. We did some more science reading, and then headed into the city for a show at the New Victory Theater. "Zoo Zoo" was wonderful. It's really hard to describe, though. There are many vignettes of animal locomotion-- fireflies buzzing about, an insect larva, a snake or earthworm, polar bears lumbering on stage and coming off stage and interacting with front row audience members, penguins playing musical chairs, frogs, and many more creatures, moving in graceful ways, some mimic-ing life, and some rather unexpected. And there are some objects that move, too-- there are dancing accordians and large boulders that dance. Mikro absolutely loved the show. I am so glad we didn't let the predicted bad weather deter us.

Friday was science at SMLI. The scheduled topic was paleontology, and since that is Mikro's hoped for career, we had to go, even though a nor'easter was predicted.



The kids looked at amber, a t-rex claw, fossilized teeth, etc. They talked about how fossils are formed, and looked at dinosaurs like icthyornis, allosaurus and others on a computer. I'm not sure how much, if any, of this was new to Paleogeek Boy, but he sure enjoyed it! They built a paper dinosaur by combining bits and pieces. It was cold and damp and windy, so no fun exploring nature. We rushed home to beat the coming storm.