K'Nex Pterodactyl

Mikro wants everyone to see his pterodactyl, built with K'Nex.

Top view:

Sideview:

Our week so far...

We had an early taste of spring last week, but it didn't last. We are back to cold, and soon to be rainy. Sigh. But there are crocuses blooming in our garden, and daffodils with buds on them,, so maybe we won't have long to wait for the real thing...

I dragged us all down to the river over the weekend, even though it was cold, because I was going through river withdrawal syndrome. I needed to go be near the water... (I spent Thursday through the weekend going insane trying to remove a really vicious virus from my computer. I *think* it's finally clean. The river gave me back my sanity.)



We found a really odd bit of bone on the beach. At first I thought it might be a frog skull, but now I have no idea. Anyone know what this is?



We tried having a picnic under the gazebo, but it was so cold our hands were numb and we wound up finishing lunch in the car, listening to the Clearwater's Broad Old River CD and singing river songs.

Yesterday we attacked the library pile again, and celebrated pi day. Tomorrow we go get more library items that came in for us.

Today was Native American Architecture class again. The kids finished their wigwam models. They will build a model longhouse next. Then they will make people and equipment for their model village. I couldn't resist making a few miniatures today at my pottery class...

Happy Pi Day!

Here are the lyrics to the Pi Pi Mathematical Pi Song, by Antoni Chan and Ken Ferrier, in case you want to sing along:

A long, long time ago,
Long before the Super Bowl and things like lemonade,
The Hellenic Republic was full of smarts,
And a question resting on the Grecian hearts was;
"What is the circumference of a circle?",
But they were set on rational numbers,
And it ranks among their biggest blunders,
They worked on it for years,
And confirmed one of their biggest fears,
I can't be certain if they cried when irrationality was realized,
But something deep within them died,
The day, they discovered, Pi.

They were thinking;
Pi, pi, mathematical pi,
3.14 15 92,
65 35 89 7,
932384 62,
6433832 7 (not rounded).

Well this kind of Pi is different than most,
It hasn't got berries, ain't spread on toast,
And that's how it's always been,
We keep extending its decimal places,
Pushing our computers through their paces,
But we'll never reach the end,
So why the fascination with,
A number whose end is just a myth?
Whence the adulation,
For mental masturbation,
It might have something to do with the stars,
To calculate distances from afar,
But that's just a guess 'bout the way things are,
Regarding the precision of Pi,

I am pondering;
Pi, pi, mathematical pi
3.14 15 92
65 35 89 7
932384 62
6433832 7

Now I feel that I should mention,
Pi is applicable in any dimension,
At least as far as I know,
If there were no Pi we'd be missing things,
Like marbles and mugs and balls of string,
And sports, such as soccer and curling,
The orbs in their celestial paths,
Navigate along elliptical graphs,
Ellipses have pi in them too,
Just one side of them has grew,
You can see pi in most everything,
It's in Cornell's Electron Storage Ring,
And also in slinkies and other springs,
And that's why it's important to know pi,

You should memorize,
Pi, pi, mathematical pi,
3.14 15 92,
65 35 89 7,
932384 62,
6433832 7,

Once one night I had a dream,
That pi was gone and I had to scream,
Cause all pi things had disappeared.
Can you imagine a world like that?
Circles aren't round and spheres are flat,
It's the culmination of everything we've feared,
'Twas a nightmare of epic proportions,
One that gave me brain contortions,
Oh wait! I mean contusions,
They put me in some institutions,
But then I escaped and now I'm free!

To sing of the virtue of pi,
Pi, pi, mathematical pi,
3.14 15 92,
65 35 89 7,
932384 62,
6433832 7.

And here's another version, giving the history of Pi:



For my fellow Trekkies:



And while we are celebrating things mathematical, why not enjoy a little Tom Lehrer ditty?



Happy Pi day. Wish I knew how to bake a gluten free pie... but I am a bad baker even with conventional ingredients...

Today is also Albert Einstein's birthday, and a fun way to celebrate might be to do the Search for Einstein's Hidden Treasure Physics Quest...

Illustration Friday: Warning!

Today's topic for Illustration Friday is Warning.

Here is Mikro's effort: The perils of diving too deep:



And mine:



And here are the ideas I didn't go with: More personalized warnings to Boyo and me.

Catch-Up Post

Tuesday: Into NYC we go for Native American Architecture class with the homeschool group. The kids worked on their wigwam models, installing a fire pit, finishing up the framing, and starting to install the bark covering. After class, we had some park time with friends. Rushed home so I could make it to the first session of Adult Ed Pottery here in the village. This is my attempt to exercise my rusty art muscles. Started a coil built pot.



Wednesday: Library Day. Read a bunch of books there, borrowed an obscene number...



Thursday: Worked on the pile of library books. Made good progress early, but then the day devolved into *one of those spectacularly ugly home ed days full of surly adolescent attitude*, which seem to pop up every 3-4 months around here. I wonder if this was a case of early spring fever or something, though it was rainy and grey. Yesterday was all about being stubborn, avoiding work, acting helpless, and driving mom bonkers. He wouldn't even read the fun stuff without drama. After a period of sulking, he decided he wanted to learn after all, and flew through a bunch of Japanese folktales, some math, and an architecture book. We did some bird watching for Project Feeder Watch. Then he worked in his sketchbook, and came up with a concept for this week's Illustration Friday challenge: Warning. (Heh, Maybe mine should be: Warning: Bad Attitude Will Get You Sent to School If You Don't Watch Out... I am not above using the threat! The boy knows the boredom would be toxic.) And then we had wind-induced power outages (This is what we get for living in a "Tree City" with overhead powerlines. Too typical in March...), and sat around in the dark with our battery operated camping lanterns telling stories and reading by flashlight.

Friday: Mikro has painted his Illustration Friday piece, which I'll photograph and post later (after I come up with something myself...) And he's back at the stack of library books. We'll be heading back there to drop off the ones we've finished and pick up a couple more that have come in...

Haunted Library PSA

This spooky little PSA by the New York Public Library nearly had me peeing my pants laughing at the twist at the end...

Glue Resist Paintings

We finally got a chance to finish our glue resist fossil paintings today. We used liquid watercolors.

This is Mikro's:



And here's mine:



I wonder if this would work better with the clear glue than with regular old white school glue. The examples we saw worked out much better, with a clear white resist line. Ours seemed to work in places, and in others not so much. I'll have to revisit the directions (this is what I get for reading them several days before starting the project, when I know I have short term memory issues...) and give this another go sometime soon...

Illustration Friday: Swarm

Mikro's inspiration for this week's Illustration Friday topic was his recently acquired Hex Bug, a little robot toy that resembles an insect. He is hoping to acquire more of them, so the swarm in his case is pretty much wishful thinking...



I had a couple of different ideas that I sketched out. One of them is the so-called immortal jellyfish, which has the ability when threatened to regress itself to an earlier stage of development, essentially turning back time, and becoming a polyp, which buds and produces a swarm of gentically identical polyps, which grow into more jellyfish. What an amazing ability! My other idea is inspired by my addiction to information and stories...

Leash Lizard

Amicus models her new harness, made necessary by her new habit of attempting to bolt...



She didn't much like it, but she was able to move around freely, and we were able to make sure she couldn't get herself in trouble.

Native American Architecture Class

Mikro is taking a class at the Center for Architecture on Native American Architecture, specifically, learning how wigwams and longhouses are built. At the first session, they saw a presentation on the subject, then rolled up their sleeves and started working on model wigwams. Each child will build his own to keep. Then they will build longhouses cooperatively, and design an entire village, complete with three sisters garden, drying racks, etc. This is great for Mikro's fine motor skills, and the subject matter is close to our hearts.



From the train on our way homeward, the river looked lovely. Mikro wanted me to take photos of us, too, so I did.