Overheard at the Free-Ride dinner table on the occasion of the elder Free-Ride offspring dropping a piece of broccoli:
Younger offspring: Pick it up! 1-2-3-4– that was close!
Elder offspring: (having retrieved the piece of broccoli from the floor) You’re counting your seconds too fast. You should say, “One-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, three-one-thousand, …”
Younger offspring: But I wanted to be sure you got it before it was too late and you couldn’t eat it any more.
Dr. Free-Ride: I think you guys are taking the five second rule a little too seriously.
Elder offspring: You’re the one who always calls it.
Dr. Free-Ride: Then I’m the one who should lead the critical examination of it.
Category Archives: Kids and science
Friday Sprog Blogging: rabbits
The younger Free-Ride offspring’s kindergarten class has been discussing rabbits for the last week or so. I can only hope the high school kids have been discussing the molecular structure of theobromine (the main alkaloid in chocolate) and working out the phase of matter of the interior of Peeps.
Friday Sprog Blogging: “Dinosaur Day” declared.
Yes, the Free-Ride offspring think they have the power to declare today “Dinosaur Day”. This is your official notification.
Friday Sprog Blogging: kitchen table conversations concerning water
The participants in the conversation recounted here were not under oath during the conversation, and there exists no official transcript of the conversation.
Dr. Free-Ride’s better half: When we were filling water bottles for soccer practice today, your child had an interesting theory about what was going on with the ice cubes.
Dr. Free-Ride: You put ice cubes in the water bottles? Pretty fancy! So, what was the theory?
Friday Sprog Blogging: be a sport.
Neither of the Free-Ride offspring considers leprechaun trapping a sport. That doesn’t mean, however, that they won’t try to catch a leprechaun.
In view of all the springtime sports excitement (here, here, here, here, and here), the sprogs take this opportunity to consider how their athletic endeavors are actually scientific explorations.
Friday Sprog Blogging: mythical (or theoretical) creatures?
At least in these parts, the March kindergarten homework packet is very leprechaun-centric. This raises some obvious questions about the status of leprechauns. Are they actual entities? Are they mythical? And how’s a curious kid to decide?
Friday Sprog Blogging: roll the dice.
Sitting here on the calendar between Chinese New Year and Saint Patrick’s Day, it seemed like a good time for the sprogs to do some investigations of gambling devices — in particular, dice.
Friday Sprog Blogging: can kids handle science parody?
It will be no surprise to regular readers on this blog that the Free-Ride offspring like books. At this point, it is even possible that their books outnumber their parents’ books, which is almost alarming. (Please send compact shelving and a librarian who can break out some Dewey Decimal on our profusion!)
Naturally, this means the sprogs must grapple with the issue of which books are reliable sources of information and with the related issue of which books are appropriate for children. We consider as a test case Animals of the Ocean: In Particular the Giant Squid.
Friday Sprog Blogging: combustion
Both Free-Ride offspring are charter members of the Order of the Science Scouts Special Children’s Auxiliary. They have not, as yet, built their own fire, either in a fire pit or a laboratory. However, a discussion this week about the strange vapor seen emanating from a car’s tailpipe one morning moves them further in the direction of being O.O.T.S.S.O.E.R.A.A.A.P. fire-certified.
Friday Sprog Blogging: Australian fauna.
Last weekend, the sprogs and I were delighted to attend a late Australia Day/early Darwin Day party. Our hosts apologized for “not having much interesting kid-stuff” on hand. Little did they suspect that the abundance of cookies (not just ANZAC cookies, but rolled ginger and lemon cookies in the shapes of kangaroos and giant Galapagos tortoises), and of cute stuffed animals native to Australia, and of art supplies, would keep the Free-Ride offspring more than happy.