Learning By The Way

If you have been meaning to go make a guess on the Little Engine Natal Day Guessing Game, this is your last opportunity. I will be closing the game down to guesses after this weekend. Then it will just be time to wait for the baby to come so we can declare a winner. Want to vote? CLICK HERE.

Speaking of the baby coming, there is little new on that front. The midwife came yesterday, and says I am about 1.5 cm dilated, which is not really worth mentioning. Especially for a grand multipara such as myself. No interesting contractions for the last week. I did get the cradle painted (it is now Mountain Trail colored, same as our bedroom ceiling), James assembled it, and will be moving it upstairs tomorrow. But baby comes when baby is good and ready…

The chapter we completed in our Periodic Table book this week was mostly about the experiments of Johann Baptista Van Helmont. The children drew pictures with comments about his experiments, and pasted them in their lapbooks.

Samuel was charmed with how Van Helmont named ‘gas’, but both big boys thought he was pretty dumb. Despite his landmark experiments, he still held fast to many of the misconceptions of his predecessors.

Next chapter covers Phlogiston. Ooooh, I can’t wait!

Toby saved up some money, using the helpful method of Daddy forgetting to hand out allowance for 8 weeks (WARNING: Do not try this method of saving if you have actual expenses you are responsible for). He bought a couple of Bionicles from the Sales section of Lego.com.

Everyone was eagerly awaiting their arrival. I relayed information about the package’s estimated arrival, using the handy dandy UPS tracking number.

“Where’s the Lego factory?” Samuel asked.
“Denmark.” I reply.
“Where’s that?”
I send him to get the globe. Everyone shouts encouragement as he starts looking for Denmark.
“Hey! Don’t give me any hints!” Samuel remonstrates.
“It’s in Europe.” I say.
“OK.” He starts looking again, not pausing his search even as he shouts. “I said don’t give me any hints! Where did Europe go?”

After several spins of the globe, and lots of helpful advice from Moriah and Toby about Europe’s recent whereabouts, he finally let Toby help. I tell them about how Grandpa Jens came over from Denmark to the United States when he was just a teenager.

“There it is!” Toby points.
“That’s not it. It’s not big enough.” Samuel is certain.
“It says Denmark, see?” Toby lays out this scrap of proof, and Samuel finally agrees it must be so. He traces a line from Denmark to Illinois, and says in further disbelief “So Toby’s Bionicles have to come here on a ship?”

“Well, kind of. The Bionicles are made at the factory, and thousands are sent by ship or plane to a warehouse in Connecticut. And when we make an order, they get it from the warehouse and send it.”

Samuel looks at me accusingly, as if the factory in Denmark was my red herring and not his. Truly though, I am glad for this bit of learning along the way. How much easier to remember Denmark as the land of Legos and Grandpa Jens, than as a country picked at random to study. My kind of teaching moment!

Toby’s box arrived, the Bionicles assembled with glee and admired greatly. Now I just have to wait for someone to publish a book such as “The Mother’s Guide to Semi-Intelligent Conversation About Bionicles”. Until then, the children patiently correct my pronunciation (repeatedly) and any misconceptions I might have about Zamor Spheres (sp?)….