What About Socialization?

The next installment of our Warning: Science in Progress! video blog is finally ready. This one was a blast to put together, not least because we are sporting our brand-new lab coats from American Science and Surplus.

In this episode, we demonstrate the use of a capacitor using a simple circuit involving a battery, a push-button switch, a resistor, and an LED. We are also joined by a special guest star.

The file size is very large, but it is hopefully worth the download time…

This afternoon Lydia announced that she had found some grammatical errors on a Wikipedia page, and so had gone in to edit the page to correct them. Since her grammar kung fu has always been quite strong, it was no shock that she was able to spot the errors, or that they bothered her; but we were collectively impressed at her taking the initiative to correct them.

Later today, Lydia and I were heading out to get some dinner, and we happened to drive by the (in)famous Spindle, a piece of public art made famous by its appearance in Wayne’s World. There’s been a lot of news coverage lately about The Spindle being taken down to make room for a Walgreen’s. Well, apparently unannounced, a demolition crew began the dismantling. We joined a small crowd and I took a bunch of pictures with my iPhone. After dinner, we updated the Wikipedia entry and uploaded our pictures as well.

You can see the page with our photos (and get a history of the Spindle) here. For more pictures, check out our Flickr photo stream of the event.

As I talked about earlier, Lydia and I are working on learning electronics together using the Arduino programmable microcontroller. Here’s the first episode of our video blog, in which Lydia demonstrates the “hello world” of electronic circuits: The Blinking LED.

I’m so excited!

I’ve been working with a small group of women on a new co-op to start in Fall 2008. And it’s all starting to come together! We have a get-to-know-us event coming up that ought to be fun– making Artist Trading Cards.

Website is still getting cobbled together, but there’s some really-poorly-formatted information up at the location in the meantime.

Here it is: The Community Co-op . Be kind, I do know it is hideous. I don’t do html and wanted to get something up there. The ever-talented husband will be launching a multi-featured lovely site there as soon as he’s done being a perfectionist about it.

(I am of the “schlock-things-together-and-call-it-a-day” school of crafting, writing, decorating, and every other -ing. He is of the “I’m-going-to-measure-to-make-sure-this-is-absolutely-perfect” school. We make a good team. How he puts up with me, I’ll never know.)

But I digress. It’s really fun for me to see all of these nebulous plans and hopes start coalescing into something real.

Lydia and I have started working on electronics together. I’ve finally got a decent kit of materials together: a collection of basic components as well as an Arduino programmable microcontroller. My goal is to help her understand the way electronic things work, to help her become a maker and not just another consumer of technology.

So far, for source materials, we’re using two primary sources:

• Electronic Circuits for the Evil Genius, and
• a great set of notes from Tod E. Kurt, from his ‘Spooky Projects - Introduction to Microcontrollers with Arduino‘ classes.

The thing that I like about our approach is that Lydia is getting the fundamentals of both programming and electronics. And we’re having a ton of fun.

We’ll be taking pictures of our projects and maybe even making some videos. Stay tuned!

(My Great (x3) Grandfather McKinney in the Civil War)

For the last week or so, I’ve been ditching the schooltime classical music in favor of a bunch of Smithsonian Folkways recordings. Woody Guthrie & Mahalia Jackson are every bit as important as Puccini. More relevant, too, since we’re studying American history at the moment. Ms. Lydia will be wandering around singing “In the Pines” for weeks now.

Also, while we’re on the subject of American history, we’ve been watching Gone With the Wind for the last few days. I’m ashamed to say I’d never seen it before, and wow, wow, wow! It’s amazing. Yes, I do realize that everyone else in the world already knew that.

So many Civil War books this past month. I really hope that there is at least one read-aloud book before summer that won’t make me bawl. Probably not. I do so love all of the literature I’ve been exposed to in Sonlight this year, even if most of it makes me cry. I’m rather sappy that way.

(our snowy backyard)

I’m really ready for spring. How about you?

I was poking around online looking for some more information about the standardized tests that one of the local homeschool groups is administering this year, when I ran across these gems:

“Although [these test] scores are very helpful for professionals, nonprofessionals can confuse them with IQ scores, so they are generally not reported to parents and lay organizations. Percentile ranks and stanines are better suited for general audiences.”

“Only someone who is thoroughly familiar with the student, the curriculum, and the instructional resources that are available can choose wisely among the various educational options.

While education professionals are best qualified to interpret and use this test information, parents also play a critical role in their children’s education. If you would like to help as a parent, please contact your child’s teacher to discuss some ways to cultivate your son or daughter’s reasoning abilities at home.”

Translation: Please, folks, leave it up to the professionals! We know that you’re all clearly too stupid to process these test scores, let alone manage your child’s education.

So after I finished alternately laughing and swearing at my husband about the arrogance and condescension of these test authors, I thought I’d come share the love with all of you.

But, for the love of all things holy, DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME!

So today involved emotional breakdowns, the Powerpuff Girls, and Nintendo DS. And not much else. Why are you laughing again?