Singing Glasses

Konos Unit: Attentiveness
Theme: Sound

I'm a little behind on posting this experiment we did on sound.

We experimented with singing glasses. As your wet finger slides around the rim of the glass, it sticks a little which produces vibrations in the glass which are then heard as sound.

Nicholas has so much fun with all things Konos!



Nicholas was proud to make the glasses sing all by himself!



You can change the pitch of the sound by increasing or decreasing the amount of water in the glasses. Nicholas decided to get musical and came up with a little tune all his own.



And now presenting the father and son pair with dueling singing glasses....



What fun we've had learning about sound!

Karate Orange Belt Test

Nicholas completed his karate test for orange belt yesterday. We are so proud of him! He has been taking karate with Karate for Life since January 2010.

He was the only yellow belt ready to test in the school so they just had him complete part of his test during a regular class so he didn't have to wait for others to complete a group test.

The class always lines up at the beginning to recite the student creed.

* I will start each day with a positive attitude because my attitude determines my success.
* I will work hard to develop focus, confidence, self-discipline and I will always show respect for others.
* I will use common sense before self defense.
* I will take responsibility for my actions and do everything in my power to be the best that I can be.

They do some warm up exercises and stretches.

They practice their routines and learn new moves.

Although they are not ready to actually contact each other in defensive moves, they are starting to learn some basic self defense as they pretend to kick the bad guy attacking them.

Nicholas did several routines to complete his belt test for orange. This is Form 1 which includes moves such as low block, reverse punch, rear leg front kick, double punch, and horse stance.



This is Form 2 which includes fighting stance, rear leg front kick, round kick, side kick, back fist, back stance, and sudo block.



Finally, this is his most recent routine to learn, Chon Ji. It includes front stance, low block, lunge punch, and scoop block.



Nicholas did great on his belt test and was awarded an orange belt! Master Haddock placed the belt on the floor and Nicholas kneeled down and pressed his brow to the belt. This ritual is touching because the first sweat on the new belt is the sweat it took to earn it.

Congratulations!

Nicholas with Master Haddock, his instructor and 5th Black Belt in American Karate

Fall Harvest and Kids Day at Calloway's Nursery

Rachel and I spent some Mommy and Me time at Calloway's Nursery this weekend for their Fall Harvest Festival and Kids Day. I love getting one on one time with my sweet little girl.

There were lots of beautiful plants, flowers, pumpkins, and gourds. A true sensory experience, Rachel touched and smelled everything around her.

There were several great spots for posed pictures. I caught this quick one of Rachel....

...before she disappeared. Where's Rachel? **giggles coming from behind the house**

Next we made it over to the pumpkin decorating table. There was glue, pom poms, feathers, markers, paint, stickers, and more! Rachel dug right in.

How many of you think this feather will actually stay like this in the wet glue through this event, the trip home, and through the day while the glue finishes drying? I suggested sticking the feather directly into the pumpkin to keep it in place but the little one insisted on its placement here.

Painting is a big thrill for both of my kids. Lots of paint was needed and a little resistance when it came to sharing the paint tray with the little boy next to her. Drama at the pumpkin table! But we managed to work it all out so that everyone got to paint.

Can you ever have too much glue on a pumpkin?

Rachel was so proud of her creation! She told people around her all about it and made sure they saw it. It's a good think it's Halloween because this pumpkin is a little scary looking...at least all that drippy glue going into my van is scary!

She wanted to post with her pumpkin but kept looking all around so this is the best picture I got.

Next, Rachel hopped along to the seed planting station. She decorated a cup to take home, filled it with soil, and planted grass seeds.

What a fun field trip for my little girl and me!

Texas Tornados Hockey!

We had a fun night this weekend! We started with Freebirds World Burrito for dinner. I've never been there but it was good. It was a little intimidating when you first walk up to the counter. It's a design your own burrito and it works kind of like Subway sandwiches but for burritos. There are tons of choices but the guy behind the counter was really nice and patient. The original Freebird size burrito is a really big one...although it isn't as big as their Monster or Super Monster. It's the size that Stuart and I both ordered for ourselves and Nicholas said he wanted that size too. He said the smaller Hybrid size just wouldn't be enough for him. We doubted he could eat a whole original size burrito but we let him give it a try.

This boy ate the whole thing...plus some chips! He must be on a growth spurt because he has just recently started eating a crazy amount of food.

After dinner we went to a Texas Tornado Hockey game at the Dr. Pepper Stars Center in Frisco. The Texas Tornados are part of the NAHL, the North American Hockey League. These are not professional players like the Dallas Stars in the NHL. These guys are younger and probably working towards getting into the NHL. The games don't have nearly the same atmosphere, excitement, or crowds as the NHL games but they are much more affordable so hockey fans can actually go to several games and not break the bank.

There were some problems with the seats we ended up with and it took forever for the event center staff to bring us tickets for new seats. However, he was apologetic and ended up finding us seats on the first row which is right next to the glass on the rink. They were really great seats!

Nicholas stood much of the time and just leaned on the glass.

He was a bit startled though when two players slammed into the glass that he was leaning on. Talk about getting close to the action! Look how giddy he was about it!

Nicholas has been using my camera a lot for still pictures but decided to adventure into some video. He made several videos where the camera is just blurring all over the place and it's kind of crazy. But once he got the hang of it, he smoothed right into a sports commentator role and took off. Check out this cute video. Note: I have no idea where the English accent came from!



Of course, we had to get a picture of the Tornado celebration after the scored the winning goal in overtime!

Go Tornados!

Dallas Zoo

I took the kids on a wonderful field trip to the Dallas Zoo!

Nicholas always likes these little elephant statues near the entrance of the zoo. They sit on an island in the middle of a small fountain. But the water in the fountain was dry so before I knew it he had climbed up on them to pose for a picture.

The kids loved watching the little penguins swim around in their tank right in front of them.

Rachel was thrilled and kept squealing when the little guys came near the glass.

With our crazy schedule of Rachel's preschool and Nicholas' art class, we weren't able to get to the zoo until 2:00 but we had to leave by 4:30 at the latest to get back to our side of town for a hockey game later that night. Although we didn't get to see the whole zoo, 2 1/2 hours allowed us plenty of time to explore the Wilds of Africa: Giants of the Savanna.

We started with a ride on the monorail. We've been to the Dallas Zoo a squillion times but for some reason we've never ridden on the monorail.

It was really fun. Each car holds about 8 people. The cars are completely open on one side and the rail takes you around the Savanna with a tour guide explaining the animals as you go along.

We loved this sign, "Everybody Gotta Poop Somewhere".

I love it that Nicholas used my camera for a lot of the trip. It started in the aviary where he took a ton of pictures. But it was a little darker in there and I didn't think to turn the flash on for him so those were all blurry. Once we were back outside he took several good ones of the elephants and giraffes.

Here's an extreme close-up!

Nicholas and Rachel watched others feeding the giraffes by hand and begged me to do it to. $5.00 for 4 lettuce leaves!

I was glad to see they were both having so much fun feeding these guys.

I thought for sure Rachel would just drop her lettuce and cry when the giraffe tried to eat it but she really understood what she was doing and didn't get scared. She's getting to be such a big girl!

Nicholas said that feeding the giraffes was his favorite part of the whole zoo trip!

On our way out of the Savanna, the kids got to play on some more elephant statues.

Nicholas had to be the monkey and climb all over this really big elephant statue.

We had fun on our mini-trip to the zoo. There is so much to see and do here that you really could spend all day taking it all in. The Dallas Zoo is located at 650 South R.L. Thornton Freeway (I-35E), three miles south of downtown Dallas, on I-35E at the Marsalis exit. For more information, please visit the Dallas Zoo website.