The days are long and the years are short

I've got more work. I am mostly happy about this, but there is a lot of preparation work suddenly on my plate.

I've got tons of papers that have to get to their proper owners all signed, sealed and delivered. My work, Emily's school, my school (Spanish class)...

My daughter has EXTREMELY good hearing. I whispered something to mrmoosie half a room away. She knew all about it. Fortunately, computer passwords (except her own) baffle her. I often joke that she has hearing in the 99 percentile.

We went to the National Museum of Natural History. They had a special exhibit on forensic anthropology. The bones were from the Jamestown settlement in VA and the St. Mary's City settlement in MD. The title of the exhibit is:
Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17th-Century Chesapeake
February 7, 2009 - February 6, 2011.

I didn't intend to take Emily into this exhibit (she is afraid of skeletons), but the floor plan of the museum is, uh, interesting. Perhaps convoluted is a better word. So we wound up in there and Emily asked a lot of questions. So I read her many of the titles, etc.

She's still a little nervous about the exhibit. She is especially worried about the boy who died of an infected broken tooth. I reassured her that that was a broken adult tooth, not the routine loss of a baby tooth.

I pulled ivy and some derivative of the grape species today. These are from previous owners (or neighbors' plants gone wild). At least, it is filling up my compost bin nicely. I've got a good set of poison ivy that I am not dealing with in any way (except avoiding). There are plenty of mosquitoes about, even in the middle of the day.

There is a tree of some sort buried under the grapes and ivy. I wonder what it is. It might have a better chance at thriving now that most of the vines have been pulled off of it.

Emily's at camp this week. The counselors seem interesting and the campers seem a little slow to wake up, just like Emily. They are supposed to be learning about nature (particularly what poison ivy looks like :-) ). They have snakes in the Nature Center, but Emily didn't want to touch one, since she would have to wash her hands afterward.

I noticed a group of young folks doing the Mentos-Coke experiment at the pool on Sunday.
I had to go over and investigate. The students doing the experiment were in 6th grade at our local middle school. The "reaction" was slightly, but observably endothermic (the can was colder at the end than at the beginning). We discussed the 6th grade science curriculum. They have had the kingdoms of life, a long section on the environment, and physics (force, acceleration and waves) this year.
The reaction is an acceleration of the bubbling process, driving dissolved CO2 from the solution. This reduces the entropy of the water a bit which reduces the temperature of the solution.

Monday, I sat with the new PTA president (my neighbor behind the fence). She discussed her plans for the next school year and ways to make the committees/responsibilities less work and more organized. It was a bit like a mini-PTA meeting. I learned that our school has a simultaneous translation system (the headsets and microphones) and the county will provide an interpreter for PTA meetings.

No, but the math wars are hard.

ashtalet , I believe that you have a relative commanding a division (or at least a subtraction :-) ) in the math wars?

It's late, I'm not going to play (and post) about it more tonight. But I am frustrated with the curriculum as I understand it in our school.

Children's education is very loud.

Or taking second graders on a tour of the church. Which do you think is harder?

Oh, for some reason, I didn't say "NO" to going up in the choir loft, where the organ is located. Even though the only teaching points for that location were the stained glass cross, and the view of the pews. Both of those items could be seen from locations that did not contain an organ!!

Why do they all need to go to the bathroom? Why? Oh, I know, the water in the baptismal font (which they weren't supposed to touch) must have been cold.

And I got burned on not knowing when Pentecost is. Fortunately, the other teacher corrected me.

Emily read us a level 2 Scholastic reader last night. It's wonderful.

Of course, she had some of the words memorized (like antibodies and antibiotic). But she had confidence and determination to get through it all.

Emily is in Running club this spring. It's kind of funny to watch the children run round and round. I think the track is about 1/4 mile. I have to help her remember to bring her foot to accumulate her mileage on.

ETA: the foot is a paper shaped like a foot. It has spaces for 2 miles.

I know the fastest boy. He really loves to run.

ETA: He filled up one foot already.

Emily is now in Pre-Alpha Plus. The choices of times are more limited, but it is definitely a good idea to sign her up for this last session of the season.