It SNOWED, and we got about nine inches or so of accumulation, so we all had a lot of fun. I posted about that on my last post, but after the snow was melting off, William asked me about snow. He asked how it was made. I decided to read straight from the encyclopedia to him. He learned then that it is water that is in a vapor form that freezes into minute crystals and falls to the ground. I then asked him whether he'd like to make paper snowflakes. We watched a Youtube video instructing us how to make them, and he went excitedly making his own after I demonstrated with the first one. They didn't turn out exactly the right way, but I think he did a great job.
Before the snow melted away, we made a snow volcano. William made a center, I poured baking soda in, and then I fetched the camera and the baby, and William had mixed some paint in some vinegar and poured it in for fun:
He then delighted in shooting arrows through the "volcano" with his bow:
One day on the way to the grocery store one day, William asked about metal in the ground, what it does if you bury it for awhile and then dig it back up later, whether more metal in the ground would "build up on it." So, I explained briefly that most metals would break down in the earth and the minerals would disperse through the soil. I talked about finding iron nails and other iron pieces over the years, while digging, and how rusted the pieces would be, as they oxidized, breaking down and returning to the earth in dispersed pieces. He said that he recently dug up some metal that he'd buried about a year ago and said that it looked as if it had pieces of other things building up on it. I told him that was another possibility.
The next day Will talked about metals weakening in the fire. He'd put some metal piece (can't remember what now) in the wood stove, and he said after the fire was out, it was still in there, and he got it out, and it snapped easily. I told him metals could melt, and yes, they could also weaken and become brittle. I explained how different types of metals had different melting points, etc.
The following day a dying fire with still quite a bit of burning embers was in the wood stove, and William took a lighter and was trying to light up something else in there separately. He discovered twinkling sparks that were quite dazzling. He called me over to see, and he asked why that was happening. I told him it had something to do with the electric charge, but I wasn't sure how to explain beyond that. Nathan later told him that...well, I can't exactly remember--ha ha--and poor Jaden William couldn't exactly, either, because the next day I told him I would film him making sparks, and in the video he forgot how to describe it. There was hardly anything in the way of embers this time, though, so the video is not nearly as spectacular as the show we saw the previous day:
One of William's favorite things is to build with blocks. The sixth day of the week is video game day where he gets to play video games (with breaks) if he's exhibited good behavior during the week (which he usually does). One of his favorites is Lego Star Wars, so he likes to build Lego spaceships. I told him I'd like to take a picture of some of his creations (the ones he had currently laid out on his dresser top). I told him I'd post them to this blog, and he insisted that he tell me the name of each. Some of them bear names I know he got from the Star Wars game, but some of the things he made up himself:
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| From l to r, front: 1. News-telling spaceship 2. News-telling spaceship guard 3. Tie fighter 4. Rescue spaceship 5. Half bull-dozer, half crane 6. Naboo Star Fighter. From l to right, back row: 7. "Just a trailer" 8. battleship ("white and yellow things are telescopes, blue ones are cannons") 9. Big-engined spaceship 10. race car (he explained his turbo engine setup to me...he's so cool). |
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| 11. "20,000 MPH Spaceship" (He explained in detail about how there are bombs stored, 20 seconds after they are shot, others have formed and then take their place, and then he explained how it has six places that are in control of speed, which is why the ship is so fast. Doesn't look like there could be room for all that stuff, I know, but he showed me how he had it all figured out. |
If anyone wonders the same thing I have, namely that his colors aren't always symmetrical, he has explained to me that he runs out of certain blocks, so he has to use other colors. It's because he will keep built ships, cars, etc. on his dresser for the longest. He doesn't want to disassemble them. What do you all think about the guys wielding their swords? Pretty cool, huh? Shhhh...no one tell him, but I'm planning to get him the Star Wars movies for his eighth birthday. I haven't seen the recently-made ones, the 1-3. I've only seen the old ones, 4-6.
Some other things of which I've taken pictures are as follows:
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| The binder I made for Jaden William in which to file his history stuff |
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| His new sock monkey "Sara" that he bought and a journal entry in which he wrote about it. Will update again in a few days, so until next time.... |
