~ Friday, September 24, 2010 ~

The boys and I had Starbucks for "brunch." Sam was doing his Math in the back seat, so he had to let the lady working the drive-thru window know that he is a home schooler and that he is doing Multiplication. As it turns out, she was home schooled and so were her siblings. She was finished with high school at 16 and in dual enrollment. She is about to graduate with her Bachelor's from Winthrop this year. I really do hate that Cassidy chose to waste her time in public school :(



We headed to Discovery Place. Surprise! It was nearly deserted! Yay! There IS something good about schools after all! We had a really great time. They have two live Western Hog-Nosed Snakes now! 


 We did Life Cycles, which we are already fans of, but Discovery Place has some sets that we don't have, such as the Praying Mantis, Beetle, and the Ant.

We enjoyed a demonstration about Phosphor, What's Glowing On, which included Van Gogh's Starry Night in Phosporus Paint and an Emperor Scorpion. Guess what? Our TEETH contain phosphorus, which make them glow when exposed to flourescent light! Of course, both of my "unsocialized" unschoolers were jumping at the bit to be a volunteer. Sam did the teeth, Josiah did the glow swabs. 

We learned about the Roll, Pitch, Yaw of airplanes. I researched it to see if we could dig deeper into the subject, but I'm not sure we are ready for Trigonometry just yet. I may introduce some basic Trig just to gauge interest, as there is little rhyme & reason for order of curriculum in traditional schooling. Maybe build something that has an angle and show how you could calculate the length of a side of it, etc. 






The boys and I spotted a Puffer Fish that had gotten "stuck" in some of the coral reef in the tank, so we notified an employee and stayed by to witness the rescue. I'm not sure if the fish will make it, because it was very much in shock once released. There is no telling how long it had been there. There were people that viewed the tank as we stood there and didn't even notice that the fish was stuck. Why? Because it's rush, rush, rush.

Cassidy and Mike worked all night, so the boys and I had dinner at Wing King Cafe. We were on our way home and spotted Shaimeek walking down the main road. We stopped and he said he had just come from our house. I told him to hop in. No one noticed me picking up a kid off the side of the road. Anyway, I lay on a towel in the front yard reading my book while the boys played on the skate ramps. After Shaimeek went home, the boys and I turned in early.