Lots of Science

Yes, it has been two months since I last posted anything. There has definitely been stuff going on, but I have been swamped with work stuff that has made me a delinquent blogger. Abbie has been involved in lots of good science-related activities recently. At school they have been researching volcanos and each student was assigned a specific volcano to research, write a report about, and then build a model of. Abbie was assigned Pelee (which I had never heard of) on the island of Martinique in the Caribbean. Over spring break there was lots of work on the model, which I think turned out pretty well ($75 later – ha!). The big excitement, of course, was the day when the kids actually got to make their volcanos explode in front of the class. Abbie’s took a minute because we had wrapped the baking soda pretty securely in the toilet paper, but once it went, it really went.

As you can see from the video, she was pretty happy with the outcome, as was one little boy in the audience who was cheering pretty loudly. :)

As I have mentioned before, Abbie is a Brownie this year and the girls completed their first aid badges recently. Completion of this badge required a trip to either a local fire station or police station. Abbie was not able to attend the group trip to the fire station because it was scheduled for the weekend that we were at A&M. So instead, I arranged for a trip to the fire station that is closest to our house. It was really fun for both girls and the guys had plenty of time to spend with them. We were there for about an hour before they had to leave on a call. During that time, the girls took a ride in the firetruck, and Emily got to spray the hose on the little truck that they use to fight brush fires. As you would expect, we also got to see where the firefighters sleep, watch TV, exercise, and eat. I was shocked to discover that everything was on one level, though, so there was no pole to slide down. :)

We also took a brief trip to Texas A&M for an annual physics festival. Neither College Station nor the festival were exactly what we expected, so we didn’t stay long. However, while we were there we did get to go to the observatory on campus to see Jupiter, the Orion Nebula (which I didn’t even know existed), and the moon through a really nice telescope. We also went to a talk by an official bubbleologist (again, which I didn’t even know existed) who showed the kids all sorts of cool things about bubbles such as how to put toys inside bubbles, how to put little bubbles into bigger bubbles, how to store bubbles in glass jars, and how to touch bubbles without popping them. As you may imagine, once you understand the science of bubbles, all of these things are actually incredibly easy to do.

At school, I think that Abbie is starting to mentally prepare herself for 4th grade, which is a big move in Montessori because students move from the Lower Elementary (grades 1-3) to the Upper Elementary (grades 4-6). Academically, she is definitely ready for it because she already gets some of her materials from the Upper El (as its called) and is also supplementing her math training with Khan Academy, so the issue is really more of a social one. Some of her friends are currently 2nd graders so she won’t see them as much. Also, ironically, some of the Upper El girls that she knows are currently in 6th grade and will be moving to the Middle School next year, so there is going to be a bit of a transition in the friend department, I suspect.