The Politician goes to Washington

Ready for the Metro Ride!

All hyped up and ready to go, the Politician and I head out to DC after breakfast on Sunday, April 29th. We drove down to the closest Metro station to take the train into the city. Not only did we avoid a parking but we got to ride "the train" which is always a big treat.

We needed to switch trains and as we got off the first train and headed toward the next platform we met the MC for one of the stages at the USA Science and Engineering Festival where we were headed. If you picture a "mad" scientist in your head, your picture would probably look a little something like this guy. Tall and lanky, long scraggly grayish white hair, glasses and a shaggy goatee (also in grayish white.) Oh, and a white NASA jacket (quite awesome I might add.) He was telling us about the day before at the expo and suggested a few places for us to go first when we got in. It was great to hear someone so excited about it! I knew we were going to have a good time. (We saw the gentlemen at the stage when we got to the Festival and he gave the Politician an enthusiastic wave.)

We got to the convention center about 10 minutes before the Festival opened and there was a line waiting at every entrance to the exhibit hall. So, we picked an entrance closest to the PBS Kids booth inside and waited. After putting on his "CALL MOM" bracelet with my cell number on it (in case we got separated), the Politician checked out the map and peered through the hall windows with excitement!

Soon we were inside and on our way. The PBS Kids booth was first on our list, but we stopped at the Southeastern Lousiana University booth so the Politician could paint a Maggot Monet. They put drops of paint on a piece of paper and then set fly larva into the paint and as they wiggled out they painted for you. They gave him a small pair of tweezers to put the larva back into the paint to make a new trail. Surprisingly it turned out looking pretty neat and he didn't squish any of them!

At the PBS Kids booth, the Politician measured, blew bubbles, and played an online game using a webcam (which I need to look up, so we can play at home,) and saw a few TV friends, the Cat in the Hat, Buddy from the show Dinosaur Train, and Sid the Science Kid was on stage. (This was one of the day highlights for him!)

(You can see the guy we met on the metro in the bottom right.)

We had a few favorite booths:

1. The American Association for the Advancement of Science - The Science of Our Senses
• We tried out touch (trying to pull out a matching item without peeking,) sight (different optical illusions,) and taste/smell (jelly bean challenge.) We skipped the hearing section of the exhibit.
• The Jelly Bean Challenge
• I was so excited by this one that I had the Dad try it when we got home. It works with a lot of different things, you don't need jelly beans. It's just a good excuse to eat some delicious Jelly Bellies.
• Hold your nose, pop in a jelly bean and start chewing. Let go of your nose. That's it. You should taste something different after you let go of your nose. (Let me know in the comments if you tried this!)
• The first Jelly Belly we tried was Buttered Popcorn and as soon as the Politician let go of his nose, he spit the jelly bean out and exclaimed "Ah, this has milk in it!" (He's allergic to milk.) His reaction was so immediate, he definitely did the experiment right!
2. Michigan Tech MIND TREKKERS - Get your GEEK on!
• This booth was full of hands on activities for everyone. The favorite was walking/running across a pool of water mixed with cornstarch (there were lots of activities with this mixture there.)
• He didn't move fast enough the first time and almost did a face plant. Here is a video of his second attempt which went a little bit better. 

• They had a few things with liquid nitrogen and breaking frozen food. Graham crackers dipped in liquid nitrogen were passed around for those who wanted "Dragon Breath" or steam coming out their mouths. The Politician wasn't interested, but wanted me to keep having some. 
• The liquid nitrogen was also used to make some chocolate ice cream, which sadly we couldn't try due to the milk allergy. It did look neat while they were making it though.
3. West Virginia University - Sci ID-The Science of Identification and Discovery


• We explored the possibilities of biometric science with iris scanning technology. Everyone's iris creates a different pattern. It was interesting to see the b/w photos of a few different people and how unique the iris patterns were. 
• The Politician and I booth got and iris scan. Can you tell which eye belongs to me and which is his?

We went to so many different booths and had a really great time. We didn't even make it to one side of the exhibit hall. It was really busy, though I think Saturday had been busier. The guys from Myth Busters and Bill Nye the Science Guy had been there Saturday, which I am sure helped draw the crowds!

Next time, I will bring a lunch instead of spending $8 on a hot dog (I KNOW! Just a hot dog for 8 bucks, not again thank you.) I'm glad we didn't bring the whole family, though people did. I don't think chasing after PT or pushing a stroller around the masses of people would have made anyone happy. 

I think we both learned a few things and we had a great day. Just the two of us. 

Only for the SERIOUSLY Advanced

Yesterday, the kids and I walked over to our local elementary school to get the application to try and enroll the Politician in to kindergarten next year. The cut off is five by September 1st and his birthday is mid-September.

The deal is you fill out this application and then the reading specialist calls your kid in for a test before the end of the school year and then if they pass that test, there is another one before school starts in August. If the child passes both tests, they can be enrolled in kindergarten early. Before we left the lady we spoke to in the office said, "Just so you know, only about 3% of the kids that submit applications for Early Admission get accepted."

3%?!?! The whole elementary school has less then 500 kids. So that's about 80 kids per grade level and about 7 kids have a birthday per grade each month. With the window for Early Admissions at September 2nd to October 15th, about 10 kids in our school's area are eligible. Of those 10, say maybe half (that's probably high...) of them want to try to be admitted to kindergarten early. If my math is right, that means our elementary school admits one kid early every 6.5 years. On average.

Well, this made me stop and think for a bit. We brought the application home and there is a checklist of things to assess your child on, each with an ALWAYS, SOMETIMES, and NEVER category. There are few that the Politician does ALWAYS, a few more he does SOMETIMES and then quite a few we haven't even attempted. Counting in 5s and 10s?? Counting up to 31? With the right numbers?? And there are no periods at the ends of his sentences. Just lots and lots of Os.

With there being a few checks in the NEVER category, we're thinking the Politician isn't in the top 3% just yet. Early Admission is clearly in place for a significantly advanced child. I definitely think the Politician would enjoy and do well if he went to kindergarten this year, but why put him, and us, through the testing process unnecessarily. I think we will look for something a bit more structured, even if it is something a little different at home. Who knows, maybe we'll try for getting into 1st grade early instead, or maybe not.

There is a lot out there on how, and when, to start a more "formal" education. There was an article in the Washington post not to long ago about the Finnish education system. Their kids don't start school until they are seven years old. They also have a government funded childcare system, but kids aren't expected to sit in a classroom and be taught. Learning through young childhood is so much about exposure and less about rote memorization. Do we ask to much of our kids to soon? Do we set them up for failure by pushing to far? Or are we not challenging them enough and boring them into laziness? Way to many questions and finding the right balance is definitely not easy. And we will ALL make mistakes. (Yup, even me. I know hard to believe right, haha. I do happen to be right quite often, but I have a problem following my own advice sometimes.)

The Enforcer is already starting to enjoy books and learning.
 At least he's not eating them here.

While looking up some information on kindergarten homeschooling, I came across this comment on a post: "My children’s education is an overall plan, of which public schooling is only one component. So I don’t supplement their education, I am in charge of it. Some pieces are outsourced to the public schools."

I love this. Really, it is exactly what I needed to hear. I have to say, I don't have a lot of faith in the direction of public schools today. So much of the emphasis is on getting good test scores, kids forget how to be creative, artistic, innovative and pure genius. On top of that, technology is moving much faster then the schools can keep up with. The world our children live in is smaller then ours. Everything is global. And sometimes seemingly instantaneous. The comment above really eased my fears a bit. Outsourcing some pieces of their education to the public schools doesn't seem so bad to me.