From Boring Day to Good Day

David had Science Center Homeschool class today...this time it was Geology. They poured plaster into small paper cups and made fossils with small shells. They picked out regular river rocks and tested what would happen if they sanded the rock, tried to scratch it, or got it wet. They gathered around the giant erosion table (model riverbed with light sand, gravel and water currents) and used small, plastic models to build "Dinoland" and "Peopleland." Then they released a flood of water and watched what happened to the dinos and trees, and the little, plastic houses. ("See, Mommy? It knock-edd all deez ovah.") They did something with volcanoes; I'm not entirely sure of what they did, but according to David they mixed something in a beaker and David got to be the one to drop a tablet into it, shake it up "--and it EXPLODED!" This report is delivered with a big gesture of arms and the kind of maniacal expression of glee that can only come from a five year-old boy who has been granted permission to blow up stuff.

We looked at diagrams of tectonic plates and Pangea, and we even got to go to the Fossil Lab, which pretty much trumps everything else...David got to see and handle real, fossilized bones of an honest-to-goodness Triceratops dinosaur. Homeschool classes rock.

I also picked up a bust-your-own geode for him at the gift shop, along with a gyroscope, which I didn't show to David but gave to Dad to keep in his store of Really Cool Things to Whip Out At Educationally-Appropriate Times. Oh, and the guy at the gift shop was great...he gave me my change (28 cents) and I looked at the quarter. "No State Quarter," I commented. "You want one?" he asks. "I have a roll of the new ones. Montana." YES!!!! David flipped. "I don't haff DIS one!" he exclaims. He carefully tucked the quarter into his Science Center bag so as not to lose it, and I notice that it went into his quarter collection map before bed. I think we're only missing nine more at this stage of the game. Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah (all coming out this year), Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Alaska and Hawaii (not available until 2008). The acquisition of the Hawaiian state quarter will, for some reason, be the absolute culmination of David's joy. He desperately wants the Hawaiian quarter. He also desperately wants to go to Hawaii, but that's beside the point. ("Why can't we go to Hawaii? We could take a airplane.") He also wants to go to Africa, Mexico, and potentially South America. And he wants to see the Grand Canyon. Thus we now see the downside of teaching him Geography...

While David was in class, I took Lauren all around and we watched the big Energizer ball machine (you sort of have to see it to get the idea of it), checked out an Egyptian mummy of a baby (kinda gruesome and fascinating), went to the Structures area and pushed buttons to create strong winds on model skyscrapers, and build some block bridges. And we went to the Build-A-Bear shop, where she got to pick out a pink teddy bear with a white heart on her tummy, whom Lauren promptly named "April."

I asked everyone if they were having a good day (uh, hello?) and David says, "Yeah! Dat goes from a Boeing Day to a Good Day!"