Droppin’ some science with Wolfie.

Real Life : Alix

For the first time ever, Wolfie’s school had a science fair (AND the annual pancake breakfast!). It was SO fun and he was so dang cute. All the participants had to stand with their project for the first 15 minutes to “field any questions” from the visitors. He was a bit nervous!

Wolfie’s Question was: Does Water Temperature Affect the Speed of Water Molecules? It sounds fancy but it was a really simple project! We took three glasses of water, one hot….one room temperature….one very cold. We then took a second set of glasses with the same water set up but added a tablespoon of salt to each glass. Then Wolfie added a few drops of food coloring to each glass and we watched to see which type of water “mixed” the color faster.

It was really fun! Wolfie had to come up with his own “Hypothesis” and “Conclusions”….we did the entire experiment a second time so we (aka mama) could take photos.

I don’t recall doing the science fair as young as second grade (I think I was in fifth grade when I did my first project) but we were excited to give it a go! I was kind of torn…on the one hand, I wanted him to have a good project that was fun and interesting, but I also was aware that he just turned 8 and this should be an age-appropriate project. There were some reeeeally great little projects there (and of course there were some that CLEARLY had a lot of parent man-power behind them…). There was so much creativity in the room it was pretty amazing. I have to say all the second graders and third graders really had an phenomenal showing.

Wolfie’s project was a really fun process for both of us and I was SO proud of him!

This was Greg’s favorite project. It simply said, “Question: Are UFOs Real?” and then “Answer: We are not alone in the universe.” Hee. (I think there were some stats about sightings as well….)

Afterwards we ate some tasty pancakes and then got to play with a bunch of really fun hands-on experiments. Such a special afternoon!

It got reeeeally hot so when we went home, my young scientist threw on some shorts and decided he had earned a little QT with his 3DS.

Do you remember the science fair? What kinds of projects did you do? I remember my fancy pants question from the Fifth Grade Science Fair to this day: “Does Age Have any Affect on Your Ability to Perceive an Optical Illusion?” Yep. And I won third place in the city. My follow up project the next year where I set little squares of wall paneling on fire didn’t go over quite so well.

Aaaand We Have a Winner! Polarn O. Pyret Gift Certificate.

Giveaways

OOPS! We need to tell you who won the fabulous $50 Polarn O. Pyret Gift Certificate don’t we??

Drum roll please……the Modern Kiddo reader who left the winning comment (as chosen by Random.org) was:

Beth has always been a big supporter of Modern Kiddo, and you guys might have seen her sweet little Etsy shop Fuzzy Mama on our side bar before as a sponsor—but I want to assure you guys this was a totally random pick! I consider it a happy accident. HAPPY FRIDAY Beth!

Thank you so much to everyone who entered….and thank you to our dear friends at Polarn O. Pyret for sponsoring this amazing giveaway. We hope to do another one in the future!

Spring cleaning one step at a time.

Real Life : Dottie

Folks, I have a confession to make… My house isn’t so uh… organized as I’d like it to be.

After living in your house for a few years, things have a way of getting unorganized fast. Then one day, it takes you a half hour to find a pair of scissors although you probably own ten pairs of them. And that day is the day you realize something needs to be done.

So, you do what any person would do. Head over to Martha Stewart’s Website of beautifully organized things and you make a board on Pinterest a bout getting organized and you even blog about it. All the while you still can’t find your scissors in less than 20 minutes. And something needs to be done.

Inspired by the amazing clean-out and organizing bonanza my girl Alix did with her basement,  I walked up to my attic which is full of SO MUCH STUFF and turned right around to ward off the panic attack I get just looking up there.  It was just too big. Too much.  I needed something smaller. So I decided to organize my linen closet. It couldn’t be that bad, right?

OR COULD IT?

Oh yeah. It could be bad. Really bad. This little closet with four shelves took me EIGHT HOURS TO CLEAN OUT.  And I had a nervous breakdown in the middle of it and binged on a half box of chocolate chip cookies while watching Glee to sooth my shame of finding saline solution that expired in 2001.

But then I got into the zone. The zone where you start getting rid of the STUFF. The half used tubes of diaper cream, beauty products that made me break out, lipsticks that just weren’t my color, hair styling products that didn’t really do much for my hair.  I threw two shopping bags full of that stuff. That junk was just going to sit in my closet taking up room. Good riddance!

Talk about cathartic…

Here is the “after” of the linen closet.  It probably doesn’t look like much, but trust me–this was a full day of work.

This made me TRULY appreciate what Alix is doing with her basement. At least her stuff is cool. Expired sunscreen isn’t exactly cool…

But who has or wants to spend a full day going through stuff and organizing? It is particularly hard as the weather is so lovely. But there is something so wonderful about getting rid of three shopping bags worth of stuff from my house.

I’ve decided to take a much more sane approach to this spring cleaning. Here is my new organizing mantra:

A drawer a day. No more–no less. 

On crazy days, maybe I’ll just take a little drawer that doesn’t need so much help. And on other days, maybe I’ll take on a bit more insanity. Like this one…

I promise monthly reports with a hopefully increasing tally of shopping bags of stuff taken out of my house. So far the tally is up to FOUR.  Not too bad for one “drawer”.

Who’s with me? Any organizing suggestions? Anything would be greatly appreciated!

Vintage Bookshelf // Happy Origami! 1960

Vintage Books

Oh Happy Origami! So guys, this is a really neat book I’ve been dying to share with you. When you love and collect vintage kid’s books, you really get to know the colors and textures of the spines as you pull them off the shelves. But every once in a while, you get a new surprise. This book was one of them. The book’s soft cover was slightly curved and had an odd spine—tied with twine. I was excited to see it was an origami book—the art of Japanese paper folding! I was really into this as a little girl so I was eager take a peek .As I opened the book, I saw thin onion skin paper imprinted with directions for making charming paper characters. But the fun really happened as I turned the page:

Each page features real dimensional folded origami characters, tipped in on the page! It’s like each page is a little work of art. The book is SO beautiful and lovely. I couldn’t believe it.

Happy Origami: The Japanese Art of Paper Folding, by Tatsuo Miyawaki, printed in Japan in 1960. Published by Biken-Sha of Hiroshima, Japan. My edition is called the “Whale Book”. Wee!

The back cover has a pocket where the colorful squares of folding paper were stored—alas, mine is missing the paper.

I haven’t found much about these books, they seem to be somewhat rare. What I do know, is that Happy Origami was a series produced in the early 60s and in addition to the Whale book there was a Swallow book and a Tortoise book and one other one, that I’m not sure of the title….but look how cute the cover is:

Have you ever tried origami??

That Wild Rumpus in the Sky // RIP Maurice Sendak.

Art + Design, Vintage Books

I was so saddened to hear that Maurice Sendak died today at the age of 83. He created so many magical worlds for children to explore—none more famous than the brilliant, Where the Wild Things Are. This was one of Wolfie’s absolute favorites when he was little. Our copy is taped and dog eared from many bed time readings….it makes me happy just to see its well worn, well-loved pages. Wolfie had a “Max” plushie as well as 2 of the “Monsters” and I can still see his little three year old self walking around with them in hand.

All of Maurice Sendak’s other books are marvelous too. One of my favorites is the lesser known, What Do You Say, Dear? (1958) which was a collaboration with Sesyle Joslin. I loved it as a kiddo. The illustrations are so awesome!

And then there’s In the Night Kitchen. Which is a little surreal but weirdly wonderful! And of course “The Nutshell Library” (1962), a boxed set of four tiny volumes including “Alligators All Around,” “Chicken Soup With Rice,” “One Was Johnny” and “Pierre.” If you can find it, the Where the Wild Things Are (and Other Maurice Sendak Stories) DVD is really great….it has Carole King singing folksy cool musical versions of all the songs. Did you read these books to your kiddos? Did they love them too?

Such a creative mind….Mr. Sendak, we bow down before you. I hope wherever you are you continue to make mischief of one kind….and another.