What About Socialization?

American Science & Surplus is probably one of the coolest stores on earth. They specialize in selling the kinds of stuff that you would never go looking for, but that you have to have when you see it.

Living in the Chicago area, I’m lucky to be only a 15 minute drive from their store. But I was double-lucky on my last trip there, when I learned of their annual warehouse sale.

Clearly, a field trip to their suburban storehouse was required. And as soon as we pulled in to the parking lot, I could see that we were in good company.

Entering AmSci headquarters, we first walked past a series of cubicles decorated with stuff that I recognized from their catalogs and store: inflatable moose heads, misappropriated lab equipment, and plastic jeejaws of all descriptions.

From there, we passed into the warehouse proper, and I was immediately reminded of the closing scene from Indiana Jones. But instead of crates of ancient artifacts, the shelves were lined with everything from electronic components to discontinued toys to scientific and medical apparati of curious appearance.

We grabbed a cart and started threading our way through the narrow aisles. I could feel the press of people lining up behind us, and since the aisles were not wide enough to let one cart pass another, I felt a bit rushed.

So after the first few times that Lydia asked if she could get one thing or another, I finally told her (and myself), “We’re not going to be saying ‘no’ to much of anything today. If you think you might want it, throw it in the cart!”

We ended up spending just over $100 dollars, and ended up with an enviable trove of goodies, including:

• 4 Gooseneck LED reading lights, in pieces
• A Halloween votive candle holder
• 4 sheets of magnetic sparkly paper
• 12 sheets of sparkly paper
• A new hot glue gun
• A combination laser pointer / gooseneck LED light
• A bunch of anti-static bags
• 23″ inflatable ghost with LED eyes
• 30″ inflatable spider with LED eyes
• 32″ inflatable bat with LED eyes
• Plastic vampire teeth
• 6×8 tarp
• Pair of boot liners
• 2x 115 volt stepper motors
• 24V and 12V cooling fans
• 4 packs of dripping blood window clings
• 4 small DC motors
• 5 velcro tie straps
• Pink, blue, and green gel-filled, prism-shaped ruler
• SOMETHING SECRET from the US Navy that’s going to my Dad at Christmas-time
• Prang air-hardening modeling clay
• Transparent plastic anatomical frog model
• Harry Potter physics experiment kit
• 2 pieces of polished petrified wood
• 2 massive, plastic-coated, donut-shaped magnets
• A miniature disco ball
• Set of 5 Dremel bits
• An eyeball straw
• A glow-in-the-dark 3d fossil puzzle
• 2 sheets of magnetic frogs
• A box of 64 quarter-sized ring magnets
• 8 bottles of white glue
• A pack of “Easy Squeezy” clay
• A pack of “base ten” cards

Funfunfun. Now, my secret laboratory feels much better-equipped…

So I’ve been gathering together a couple of resources for the co-op’s PE program in the fall. One of the other board members, who taught public school in her pre-homeschooling-mama life, passed along her early 1980s college textbook on the subject, in hopes that I might be able to sift a few ideas out of the dated educationese.

And now I see what I’ve missed out on. If only I had THIS chart when I began our homeschooling journey, things would’ve been different. I would’ve known exactly how to best effect a positive self-concept in my child. Instead I’ve had to muck around without completely inscrutable flowcharts. Poor kid, I hope she’s not scarred too badly.

So you all will be spared my fate, I have chosen to share my discovery with you here. My eternal gratitude to the committee of experts who produced this groundbreaking chart.

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?