March 14, 2011

Happy Pi Day...and 2 birthdays!

Today, March 14th, is Pi Day (3.14) and is often celebrated by math enthusiasts (I like this MUCH better than math nerds or math geeks) everywhere. After our normal school work, we did a fun little Pi Day activity that shows the kids how Pi comes about.  Using string we measured the circumference of some circles in our house and cut the string the appropriate length.  Then using that piece of string for that circle, measure the diameter of the circle and see how many pieces you cut from your string.  Wow, amazing...you get 3 pieces with a little leftover and that leftover is about 1/7th of the whole piece...and thus children, we have PI!  We did this with several different size circles. And yes...we thought it was fun.  Math enthusiasts I tell ya. :-)  We also listened to a really neat video on youtube with a musical version of Pi.  Here is a link to it on a different page (youtube has taken down most of the videos on it). This is what Pi sounds like.

Last year we purchased a pie to have for dessert on Pi Day.  This year we are having spinach & cheese quiche (egg pie  lol) for dinner and apple crumb pie for dessert. 

Happy Birthday to Albert Einstein! 

Happy Birthday to my sister-in-law, Rosie!!  We love & miss you.  Hope you have a wonderful birthday!

March 13, 2011

Alex and Tangrams

The other day after Alex finished all of his school work he pulled out the bucket of tangrams and started playing around with them.   He decided that he was going to use only triangular pieces to make a few designs.  His first design was a large triangle of triangles.  




His second design was a castle tower rocket also made of triangles.  He was very proud of his work and asked if he could take a picture of each one. 


What can you make with tangrams? 

March 1, 2011

'Tis the season...

Tornado season, that is.  Well, tornado season has started earlier than usual this year.  We've already had 2 severe thunderstorms that led to tornado watches.  Some areas around us have had tornadoes touch down and we have had a few deaths.  :-(  I love spring but I *hate* the threat of tornadoes.  It all makes me especially nervous when we have a tornado watch overnight because the kids' bedrooms are upstairs. The kids don't like dealing with the whole thing either.  The other night they had already been tucked into bed and a watch was issued and they both came downstairs with pillows & books to wait it out. 

Just one reason to move out of Tennessee.