Post date: Dec 08, 2012 7:8:21 AM
Our family's activities of the evening are capping off a great week. Amy, the girls and I (and a half-dozen of my youngest daughter's friends) went skating at the outdoor arena downtown, toured the decorations in the park and Fairmont, then came home for spaghetti, garlic bread, and birthday cake. It is almost 11, but I know that next comes the makeovers, movie marathon and not-sleep sleep over. For better or worse, I'm headed off to teach a class first thing in the morning so I don't have to deal with the crankies when they awake quite exhausted in the morning! Needless to say, I think that I'll keep this late-night email short and get some sleep myself.
Speaking of waking up exhausted, I didn't get a chance to say hi to the kids of team 23 as they returned from the Age of Sail trip, but I hope that all went well and that the experience matched the good weather. Our class (room 25) is shipping out this coming Thursday at 10:00 but we are in great need of rides and chaperones. Please let Margaret Demorest know if you might be able to help out. Like I said in a previous email, getting the 5 Tall Sailors (of which we have only one right now) is the deciding factor as to whether we can go (the company won't allow us to have less than 5). Drivers would be great, but if necessary we can take CalTrain and Muni (adding some cost to the already-steep price tag).
During this week in science the students completed (well, almost) two big things. First, they moved to phase 3 and 4 of the machine project. If you haven't seen it already, please have your kid show you their webpage that contains information about a machine as well as a comprehension quiz. We'll be doing small-group content-sharing early next week, and from what I've seen so far, the amount that the kids will learn (and how they learn it) will be great.
The second thing that we did (Thursday and a bit of today) was to watch and discuss a program called "Engineering the Golden Age of Green" which does a great job describing various types of energy production as well as their economic and environmental aspects. Some edgy and subliminal politics came through at times (in my opinion) but it sparked interesting conversation and good understanding, I think.
Next week, in addition to the end of the Mayan calendar and the imminent arrival of Snookie Jr (or so I heard), is a rare instance in which the sci-book calendar shows that there is no science chapter test. Amazing, I think, how the universe works.
With that, I bid you all a good night.
CHris