I grew up on a farm. I experienced all sorts of things that are considered by general society to be "icky". Case in point: When I was about nine years old, my dad woke me up, because we had a sow in labor that was struggling. If we didn't do something soon, she would die. Unfortunately, I had the smallest hands/arms. You might realize by now what I needed to do. I didn't find anything, but after the "procedure", she was fine, and lived on to have more litters. It was one of the most important things I've ever done, in my humble opinion.

As a parent, I don't believe that kids should decide things are "icky" based on popular opinion. Annie and I have discussions on this far too regularly, but she always gets it. When we started working on remodeling the bathroom, she accompanied me under the house to cut some pipe. She was reluctant at first. She stayed close, keeping a wary eye on the cobwebs. We discussed the importance of spiders, and what they ate. We cut the necessary pipe, and moved out. On the way she decided spiders were cool. In fact, by the time we got back in the house she was clamoring for a pet spider. Fortunately, we have enough cobwebs (my poor housekeeping) she agreed that we would leave one and that would be our pet.

Another time, we discussed the "ickiness" of banana slugs. Banana slugs are fascinating. I believe I finally convinced Annie of this. She decided they were cool, and we regularly seek them out to see what they are doing, as you can see:

Well, to continue this, Annie’s mother was always at odds with bats. I like bats. They are useful and interesting. So, Annie and I decided to build some bat houses. I bought some books and pamphlets, and worked out a design. As you will see from our Bat House Pictures, we did a great job (pat on both our backs). We had a blast, and learned a lot about bats in the process. Unfortunately, bats don’t always follow the intentions of humans. We have no bats in our bathouses. However, there is a break in one of my eaves where a creature, such as a bat, might find access to protection from the elements. Local bats have chosen this as a home as opposed to the condominiums that Annie and I have installed. Oh well, as long as they pay the rent....

Bat Slumlord

As a kid I was a little horse crazy. I wrote about horses, read about horses, collected horses, all my art had horses in it... you get the idea. As it turns out, there is a nucleotide order in DNA that is directly related to being horse crazy, and I gave it to my daughter. A friend of mine stables horses just outside Fremont. She invited Annie and me (after all, I had to drive) over to see the horses, and Annie was hooked. My spoiled blessed little girl has her own saddle, grooming kit, riding accoutrements (which of course includes a pink riding crop), leg wraps, halter, lead rope...

She has fallen a couple of times, but she gets back on like a good equestrian should. It's amazing to see a five-year old girl cantering around the arena. Of course, this has all resulted in her believing that we need, need a horse. Ain't happenin'. I had horses as a kid, and I know how much work it would be. She actually scolds me at times for not fixing the barn up for a horse, and one time said that I must have worked on it, because it looked to her to be ready for stabling. Given that I haven't done anything to the barn in over four years, I'd say she's dreaming.

Annie & Topaz used to spend every Saturday together, but with the current schedule it's become a monthly thing. Fortunately, between the My Little Ponies and her Breyers she spends plenty of time living the horse dream. Although, I discovered her teacher asked her to get a non-horse book for once from the library...

Hoofin' it

A couple of weeks ago, I called Annie's teacher and indicated that since science doesn't seem to be a part of the curriculum, I'd like to help out in that capacity (what was I thinking??? oh yeah, Sierra Nevada). She thought it was a great idea, and this past Tuesday we had an experiment where the kids made crystals with epsom salts. True to nature, I had a presentation on the fundamentals of atoms and molecules.... with 21 five year-olds.

To get into character, I wore my Ph.D. hood, which Annie refers to as "Daddy's funny hat" (couldn't be more true - wish I had the robe to go with it). We started out talking about how the Greeks thought that matter was composed of earth, air, water, and fire (of course, I had examples of all). We then discussed how the Greeks were wrong (sorry), and that there are actually over 100 elements or atoms that make up everything, and at last count there were 118.

Next, we discussed covalent bonding. Ok, I didn't tell them it was covalent bonding, I just said that some atoms like to play catch... a lot. We demonstrated this by rolling a couple of balls between me (the oxygen atom), and a couple of students (the hydrogen atoms). I pulled out one of my foam-ball water molecules. Well, we kept it going and went into the symmetry and pattern requirement for crystals, as I laid out about twelve water molecules. Before I could even pull out my poorly constructed snowflake (didn't I used to be good at that?), someone said that it would be a snowflake.

We talked about crystals some more, and showed a quartz crystal, and talked about uses of crystals, and what happens to sand if it is allowed to crystalize, and one time, at band camp... Ooops, started to ramble too much. We did the experiment, which killed my back (why can't 5-year olds be taller?). It was a blast!

The highlight for me was while I was cleaning up, one of the kids, Jerry, came running in to see me from recess. He had found a rock that had a small crystal formation on it, and was glowing from the discovery. I was ecstatic.

Four hours later, I was on the way home from daycare with Annie. A proud and dedicated parent, I was sure that this was an experience (daddy going to school and "teaching") that she would remember for a long, long time. I began our ritual of describing her day:


Excited Father: What did you do today in Kindergarten?
Disinterested Daughter: I don't know...
Puzzled Father: What happend after you checked in this morning?
Disinterested Daughter: I don't remember... my brain isn't listening to me.
Frustrated Father: You don't remember anything special about today?
Disinterested Daughter: No. I think Noah-A-Sound came today.
Hurt Father: Annie! I came to Kindergarten this morning with you and spent the day with you and your friends talking about crystals!
Disinterested Daughter: Oh yeah.
Resigned Father: Oh yeah.
Interested Daughter: Did you get me any M&Ms today?


Lost cause?

Patterned and Symmetric