automobile aerodynamics

We spent another afternoon at the CT Science Center (boy, are we getting our money's worth out of that membership!) The highlight of this week's trip was a hands-on program by one of the staff scientists about Automobile Aerodynamics. J was definitely amongst "his people" -- his hand was raised with an answer for every question asked, and he was the first to volunteer to help whenever the scientist needed help.


J helps the scientist measure drag on various models of cars. He surprised even me by knowing the answer to the question, "How fast do you fall if you jump out of an airplane?" (The answer is 120 mph -- that's "terminal velocity", the fastest a free-falling object can fall.) I later asked J how he knew the answer to that. "Oh," he replied casually, "I read it somewhere." That child remembers every detail he learns!

Zoo Boy gets his chance to run the wind tunnel. Both boys really enjoyed the program, and spent some time chatting with the scientist afterwards as well. This is the very best part of Science Center for me -- real scientists on the floor interacting with my kids, giving them hands-on experiences with equipment and concepts that would be hard to duplicate at home (or even in a classroom). I can't think of a better platform for learning about the physical sciences!

Of course, the boys also spent a lot of time experimenting on their own as well, here in the water play center.

And no visit would be complete without a visit to the Space Exploration exhibit!

Autism-free zone

Yesterday was the day that everyone who ever had an Autism diagnosis on their child dreams of -- J's Developmental Pediatrician officially dropped his Autism diagnosis. She said that not only does he no longer meet the criteria for the diagnosis, but that his remaining "symptoms" are so mild that he would not be recognizable to anyone in the field as being on the spectrum.

She did keep a "PDD" (Pervasive Developmental Disorder) diagnosis on him, because he's not at "age level" with many of his skills and ability, but is only lagging about a year and half behind at this point, and is continuing to develop in a natural fashion.

What was the magic formula for us? RDI (Relationship Development Intervention), Sensory Integration Therapy with fabulous private OTs, homeschooling via Enki Education, and accepting that changes come about s-l-o-w-l-y. But mostly it was J himself, ever motivated to overcome obstacles with his incredible inner drive. And Zoo-Boy, the world's best one-on-one play therapist.

If anyone is interested in reading the full story about J's Autism and our journey through remediation, please feel free to visit the blog where I detailed all of that stuff, http://jacobs-journey.blogspot.com/ .

Also, please go here to sign the petition to include RDI in the Autism Treatment Acceleration Act bill, so that more families can afford to seek out this effective alternative for their children on the Autism Spectrum.

The Ghost Pipe

The first part of this week we have worked with the Native American Fairy Tale "The Ghost Pipe", from the Enki Education 1st Grade Fairy Tale collection. It's one of my favorite stories that we've used to date, about true love that persists after death, and also a wonderful introduction to the Plains Indian's belief system. J was SO proud of this drawing, depicting the warrior in the Painted Lodge, summoning the Ghost Chief by smoking the pipe.

Zoo Boy's drawing. He was also proud of his work, especially his clever writing of the title. This is the first time I've seen him make an effort to adjust the size of his writing to fit the space provided. I didn't realize he could write that small (and I suspect he didn't realize that either, so it was a big discovery for him!).

Zoo Boy's verse. He's again playing around with writing smaller (the last letter of each word). Still getting his N's backwards, although he realized he wrote a "W" instead of an "M" and fixed it. J's work (at the top of the post) was full of mistakes, but he corrected most of them without any prompting from me. (And by using proofreading symbols -- I still have no idea where he learned that....)

My drawing, for comparison.

THAT was the weird part?!

I overheard this conversation yesterday morning:


J: I had a really weird dream last night.

Zoo Boy: Oh yeah? What was it about?

J: I was inside a goat.

Zoo Boy: And...?

J: I was driving it on the roads like a car.

Zoo Boy: So? What's so weird about that?

J: I don't know how to drive.


Sometimes I wonder about my children....

while the cat's away....

I was traveling for a few days (thanks for the map, J!), but the boys partook of some adventures while I was gone, and thanks to The Map Man, I have some photos to fill me in on what I missed.


Apparently they went to a carnival...

...watched a circus show...

...did a woodworking project. (The Man is going to be doing woodworking with the boys each Sunday morning while I'm working.)

I wonder what it's going to be??

Oh! A toolbox! What a useful first project!

They apparently went Letterboxing...

...and took a bike ride in the neighborhood.

Which makes me wonder, who had more fun, them or me??

The Water of Life

The second half of our week was spent working with the story "The Water of Life", another Western European fairy tale from the Enki Education 1st Grade fairy tale collection. This is J's drawing (his writing is above). We used gesture drawing for our story drawing this time -- the gesture we were focusing on was the wave motion. Our drawing was of the prince sailing across the sea to find the water of life to bring to his ailing father.

Zoo Boy's drawing. He wanted to use more colors than J and I did. He ran out of room writing his title and asked me to finish it for him, since he wanted it all on one line. Eventually he'll figure out how to plan where he starts his writing to fit into the space that's provided.

The Boy's writing -- he was a little alarmed at the prospect of writing such a long word as "wandering", but he persevered. I've noticed that he's reversing his Ns this week, so we'll be working on that at some point. For right now I'm just letting him write and get comfortable with doing it (he was a little nervous in general today about the writing, so I didn't make a peep about it).

My drawing for comparison.

more science!

Rain cancelled J's sports program yesterday afternoon, so we decided it was time for another museum visit (because we haven't been doing that enough lately....just joking!). The kids overwhelmingly voted for a return trip to the CT Science Center, and since that fit in well with other homeschooling friends' plans, off we went.

The kids spent more time in a few of the exhibit rooms this time, so we didn't see the entire museum this visit, despite being there all afternoon again. First they spent an hour or so playing with water volumes, currents, measures and streams. I saw a lot of really cool problem-solving and out-of-the-box thinking on Zoo Boy's part, which was fascinating to watch.


Then we attended a talk about electricity. J got to check out their Van de Graff Generator, which made his hair stand on end! The Scientist giving the presentation made lightening with it as well. We also got to watch a demonstration of a Tessla Coil (the small copper-looking cone in the bottom right corner). This is one of the really wonderful features of this museum -- there are real Scientists on the floor giving live demonstration and talks and interacting with the visitors. It's a pretty unique learning opportunity, especially when you and your friends are basically the only people in the museum to garner their attention!

The boys work with balls and ramps in the invention exhibit. J in particular spent a lot of time here exploring the various options for sending the balls down the tracks while Zoo Boy was making his own scientific discoveries (see below).

Not surprisingly, J became absorbed with a 3-dimensional program on the moon. We spent quite a bit of time in the Space Exploration exhibit this time, I think the kids got to view most of the available films and interactive tours.

The highlight of Zoo Boy's day was working with one of the Scientists on creating electrical circuits. His first challenge was to put together a basic circuit (turning a light bulb on with a switch) based on a schematic. No problem. Then he was challenged by the Scientist to run a fan by only changing one thing. He substituted out the light bulb for the fan. Then he was challenged to run BOTH the light bulb and the fan. He substituted out one of the wires for the light bulb, but when he flipped the switch, the light didn't come on and the fan was turning slower. He waited patiently for the Scientist to finish helping our friends D and T (seen in the background of this picture) with their circuit project, then showed her what had happened. She asked him what would happen if he stopped the fan? He put his hand on it to stop it from spinning, and the light bulb lit up. So she showed him a drawing of a parallel circuit, a way to better distribute the power. He rearranged his circuit board to accommodate both the light and the fan in a parallel circuit, and I snapped this photo to catch his expression the instant he flipped the switch and both the light and the fan came on. SO delighted! He wanted to stay and work on more electrical challenges, but it was getting close to closing time and we had to move along. He can't wait to go back and play with more electricity. And I guess I'll be searching for a circuit board set for him for the next gift-giving holiday....