We just downloaded a charades-style app that shows your teammates something to act out while you hold the tablet facing them. Larkin was telling us about one of her favorite you-tubers, Rosanna Pansino, who had played a similar game on her show Nerdy Nummies. In her version, you were supposed to hum a song as assigned by your device. Larkin was pleased to report that she would have been able to guess several Beatles songs and "We Will Rock You", and mentioned that one she remembered that she never would have known was the "Star Spangled Banger."
After much hilarity, Emile and I disclosed that the "Star Spangled BANNER" was, in fact, our national anthem and that was why we were so amused that she had no clue what it sounded like. Yeah, not a lot of sports in our lives. The second definition of patriotic in one week was called for.
Eventually, our giggling-choked explanations stopped long enough for Larkin to ask, "was it funny because I didn't know it was our natural anthem or because I got the name wrong?" Aaaaahahahaha!
Clearly there was a gap in her education here. So we paged through our substantial music collection, expecting to find an inspirational rendition to play for her, but all we came up with was Jimi Hendrix's Woodstock performance.
Our jobs here are done.
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Sunday, November 1, 2015
Halloween
This year, we had a Luigi (of Super Mario fame) and a Toph (from Avatar: The Last Airbender).
We had a pre-Halloween potluck with our local unschoolers group and made these amazingly revolting looking witch fingers (inspired by a dinner prepared by friend Shallon a few years ago):
They're actually just breadsticks, colored with food coloring, with almond fingernails. We served them with a bloody (marinara) dipping sauce. They were so vile looking that several kids needed to be persuaded to try them, but once the initial revulsion was overcome they disappeared quickly.
We joined up with some friends for trick or treating (you'll notice that Mario and Princess Peach complete the Nintendo theme) in Talent:
Then retreated to our place for what is (so far, and somewhat predictably) a very high energy sleepover.
We joined up with some friends for trick or treating (you'll notice that Mario and Princess Peach complete the Nintendo theme) in Talent:
Saturday, October 31, 2015
Hexa-Flexa All the Things!
[guest post from Emile]
I tried watching Vi Hart's videos with Larkin and Finn a while ago, but it was a bit too soon. (Vi Hart makes incredibly entertaining videos about math and music ideas.) Finn *really* liked the one about Pythagoras, mostly because of the beans thing, and Larkin (as usual) liked them all, but they mostly went too fast and just went over their heads.
But something recently brought one of them to mind again, and after watching it with Larkin she was HOOKED. Spent a few days watching all of them, and her favorites multiple times, and then spent the next week working on various Vi Hart inspired projects.
The hexaflexagons (you really ought to watch the first video if you've never met a hexaflexagon in person) were, as you might expect, a big hit. Many days went into folding and coloring them, trying out various sizes, learning to make double ones, etc.:
Ultimately culminating in a hexaflexamexi dinner:
The various Möbius strip episodes were quite inspiring as well. She made many strips, and played with a variety of methods of cutting them. The "cut the edge off and get two interlinked loops" trick is now a favorite:
(note also the Borromean rings there; she really likes busting that phrase out as well.)
She delights in demonstrating Mobius tricks to people, asking them to guess what they think is going to happen while she does the cutting. We went to a Spanish conversation group at the library for the first time last week, and she brought it along to show her grandpa Don and ended up demonstrating it for the whole group, charming everyone as usual.
Finally, the candy corn Serpinski triangle halloween episode made quite an impression. She has since been working on making the largest Serpinski triangle she can manage on an ever growing taped together collection of lined notebook paper. The goal is to make one as tall as her bedroom door.
One of the interesting things for me about this spate of projects is how completely independently she took off on them. She has been bringing stuff to show us, but hasn't asked for any help or advice or anything when getting going on them. It feels like something of a shift.
I tried watching Vi Hart's videos with Larkin and Finn a while ago, but it was a bit too soon. (Vi Hart makes incredibly entertaining videos about math and music ideas.) Finn *really* liked the one about Pythagoras, mostly because of the beans thing, and Larkin (as usual) liked them all, but they mostly went too fast and just went over their heads.
But something recently brought one of them to mind again, and after watching it with Larkin she was HOOKED. Spent a few days watching all of them, and her favorites multiple times, and then spent the next week working on various Vi Hart inspired projects.
The hexaflexagons (you really ought to watch the first video if you've never met a hexaflexagon in person) were, as you might expect, a big hit. Many days went into folding and coloring them, trying out various sizes, learning to make double ones, etc.:
The various Möbius strip episodes were quite inspiring as well. She made many strips, and played with a variety of methods of cutting them. The "cut the edge off and get two interlinked loops" trick is now a favorite:
(note also the Borromean rings there; she really likes busting that phrase out as well.)
She delights in demonstrating Mobius tricks to people, asking them to guess what they think is going to happen while she does the cutting. We went to a Spanish conversation group at the library for the first time last week, and she brought it along to show her grandpa Don and ended up demonstrating it for the whole group, charming everyone as usual.
Finally, the candy corn Serpinski triangle halloween episode made quite an impression. She has since been working on making the largest Serpinski triangle she can manage on an ever growing taped together collection of lined notebook paper. The goal is to make one as tall as her bedroom door.
Monday, September 28, 2015
Just Think About Aragorn
Larkin was sitting at the kitchen table, writing out the recipe for Lara Bars to put in our box of favourite recipes.
Larkin: In one third, the one goes on the top and the three goes on the bottom, right?
Me: Yep. You know, there's a fancy word for that.
Larkin (ever a big fan of big words): What?
Me: The numerator is the number on top; the denominator is the number on the bottom.
Larkin: I'm going to have a hard time remembering which is which.
Emile: Just think about Aragorn... would he be on top or on bottom?
Me: ...
Larkin: ...
Emile: On top! You know, he's victorious and the high king and everything.
Me: Right. So Aragorn's a top...
Emile: And he's Numenorean. So the numerator is on top.
Me: ...
Larkin: ...
Emile: I am the master of mnemonic devices.
Ten minutes later, after the conversation had long since moved on:
Me: So Larkin, do you remember the name for the number on top?
Larkin: ...Aragorator?
Larkin: In one third, the one goes on the top and the three goes on the bottom, right?
Me: Yep. You know, there's a fancy word for that.
Larkin (ever a big fan of big words): What?
Me: The numerator is the number on top; the denominator is the number on the bottom.
Larkin: I'm going to have a hard time remembering which is which.
Emile: Just think about Aragorn... would he be on top or on bottom?
Me: ...
Larkin: ...
Emile: On top! You know, he's victorious and the high king and everything.
Me: Right. So Aragorn's a top...
Emile: And he's Numenorean. So the numerator is on top.
Me: ...
Larkin: ...
Emile: I am the master of mnemonic devices.
Ten minutes later, after the conversation had long since moved on:
Me: So Larkin, do you remember the name for the number on top?
Larkin: ...Aragorator?
Friday, September 18, 2015
Music Lessons
This month, Larkin, Finn and I (and friend John) went to TWO live concerts. First, we went to see Weird Al Yankovic, which, as it happened, was Finn's very first big live music event (other than assorted lawn-style hippie-fests).
It also happened to be Larkin's very first brush with celebrity-induced addlepation when Weird Al came right up to our row. She remains undecided as to whether he pointed to me or her as he sang the line, "You must have fallen from heaven... that would explain how you messed up your face."
I figure any event that leaves you with sore stomach muscles from laughing so much was successful.
I think we can all agree that the natural follow-up show to Weird Al is... Primus!
Finn was outraged near the end of their set: "But they haven't done 'Tommy The Cat' yet!" Unfortunately, they never did, but they DID do "Too Many Puppies" which was the one song both Finn and Larkin specifically mentioned wanting to hear at the beginning of the night.
John (who knew what was coming) made sure Larkin was looking through the binoculars when Les Claypool came onstage in his Mr. Krinkle mask:
Her response? "I'll never forget the horror." She was equally horrified to discover that the person in the seat next to us had a 10 year old at home who refused to come to the show with him.
John and I have competing theories on how Les Claypool makes those sounds come from his bass. John postulates that he's actually playing the bass like a banjo, a technique which apparently involves a great deal of plucking and slapping. That explains a lot. My theory is that if you slap an instrument around long enough, eventually you break its will and it will produce whatever sounds you demand. A deal with the devil may also be involved. I'm pretty sure that explains even more.
We also noticed the audiences for the two shows were quite different. There were only a handful of kids watching Primus, although that might be partly explained by the fact that it was a school night. The short among us were somewhat chagrined to discover that everyone stood up for the whole Primus show (understandable, though... I would have been hard pressed to sit still), while the audience mostly sat for Weird Al.
I figure any event that leaves you with sore stomach muscles from laughing so much was successful.
I think we can all agree that the natural follow-up show to Weird Al is... Primus!
John (who knew what was coming) made sure Larkin was looking through the binoculars when Les Claypool came onstage in his Mr. Krinkle mask:
John and I have competing theories on how Les Claypool makes those sounds come from his bass. John postulates that he's actually playing the bass like a banjo, a technique which apparently involves a great deal of plucking and slapping. That explains a lot. My theory is that if you slap an instrument around long enough, eventually you break its will and it will produce whatever sounds you demand. A deal with the devil may also be involved. I'm pretty sure that explains even more.
We also noticed the audiences for the two shows were quite different. There were only a handful of kids watching Primus, although that might be partly explained by the fact that it was a school night. The short among us were somewhat chagrined to discover that everyone stood up for the whole Primus show (understandable, though... I would have been hard pressed to sit still), while the audience mostly sat for Weird Al.
Thursday, September 3, 2015
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
He's A Lumberjack And He's Okay...
I'm not sure this is how *all* computer nerds spend their vacation... er, I mean time between jobs, but this is how it's done around here.
Yep, Emile was laid off about a week and a half ago and we're thinking we just might try to stretch this time off out for a bit. We have a few projects planned that require beams and Emile has been eyeing some dead trees both on our property and at Jim and Mary's place.
Jim got all excited about using his wildlife motion-activated camera to capture part of the process.
Emile got all excited because the motion sensor meant that all the time he spent standing around hemming and hawing and wondering what the heck he was doing wasn't recorded.
Meanwhile, Larkin, Finn and I are at home wondering how much time we can buy with Emile if we are very, very frugal. Life has been an odd combination of stress and relief lately.
Jim got all excited about using his wildlife motion-activated camera to capture part of the process.
Emile got all excited because the motion sensor meant that all the time he spent standing around hemming and hawing and wondering what the heck he was doing wasn't recorded.
Meanwhile, Larkin, Finn and I are at home wondering how much time we can buy with Emile if we are very, very frugal. Life has been an odd combination of stress and relief lately.
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