Dr. Free-Ride: So, you know how sometimes you have nightmares?
Younger Offspring: Yeah.
Dr. Free-Ride: I had a nightmare the other night.*
Younger Offspring: What was it?
Dr. Free-Ride: Well, I was supposed to be picking up snakes with two sticks and moving them from one place to another.
Younger Offspring: Why?
Category Archives: Kids and science
Friday Sprog Blogging: watershed field trip.
Dr. Free-Ride: So, you went on a field trip today to a lagoon.
Younger offspring: Yeah, I went to [Name redacted] Creek and [Name redacted] Lagoon.
Dr. Free-Ride: You know, I’m going to redact the names to protect your privacy. Tell me what you saw on your field trip that was interesting.
Friday Sprog Blogging: bad dreams.
The Free-Ride offspring have been enjoying their Spring Break visiting with the Grandparents Who Lurk But Seldom Comment. The night before they left, however, the younger Free-Ride offspring awoke in the wee hours because of a bad dream.
As we all know from the peer reviewed literature on the subject, the best treatment for that is to climb into bed with one’s mother, stealing all the covers as one falls back asleep.
Before all the covers were stolen, the younger Free-Ride offspring generated a list of questions for further research:
Friday Sprog Blogging: peer review.
Unlike some of my dear readers, the elder Free-Ride offspring, upon reading yesterday’s post, immediately recognized it as an April Fool’s Day joke. (This recognition was accompanied by only the barest hint of a smile. A mother’s fine, dry wit is, apparently, an acquired taste.)
Although that post was bogus, some of its content seemed worth discussing.
Dr. Free-Ride: Do you know what peer review is?
Elder offspring: No.
Dr. Free-Ride: Do you have a guess? Do you know what a “peer” is?
Friday Sprog Blogging: screen-time or scream-time.
Earlier this week, the younger Free-Ride offspring “made a bad decision” about time utilization at the after school program, electing to play outside and do a project before doing homework, meaning the homework was still unfinished when I arrived to fetch the sprogs.
The standard consequence for this is, apparently, one of the greatest horrors that can be visited upon a third grader: the loss of screen-time (which in the Free-Ride household covers television, computers, and hand-held game systems).
Friday Sprog Blogging: science fair questions.
Earlier this week, I got to judge projects at a Science Fair, which, as usual, was loads of fun.
This year, however, owing to budget cuts and staffing cuts and things like that, there will be no science fair at the sprogs’ elementary school. We are wistful about this, especially after the fun we had at their science fair last year. But just because there’s not a science fair this year doesn’t mean the sprogs are without questions they’d like to explore with science fair projects. As they were flitting about with their other activities, I got each of them to give me a list of three such questions.
From the elder Free-Ride offspring:
Friday Sprog Blogging: Animal research and people who don’t like it.
Because there are some conversations you have to have with your kids even if you wish you didn’t have to have them:
Dr. Free-Ride: I wanted to talk to you about a situation that has come up for a friend of mine and is a little worrisome. So, you know I went down to UCLA the other week, right?
Younger offspring: Yeah.
Dr. Free-Ride: Do you know what I was there for?
Elder offspring: A conference?
Friday Sprog Blogging: recent drawings of animals.
It’s been awhile since the Free-Ride offspring have shared their artwork. Today, we offer some of their drawings of animals.
From the younger Free-Ride offspring:
Tigers. They may look cute, but you don’t want to get near them when they’re hungry.
Friday Sprog Blogging: innocence about plants.
Younger offspring: Hey, look what I grew!
Dr. Free-Ride: Wow, those are tall.
Younger offspring: It’s a bean plant.
Friday Sprog Blogging: more on pseudonymity.
Although I swear that the Free-Ride offspring have not read the relevant prior posts!
While walking home from school:
Younger offspring: From now on, in the sprog blogs, can you call me “the small, silent one”?
Dr. Free-Ride: Why? You’re neither small nor silent.
Elder offspring: Definitely not silent. I live with you, I know.