DS8's annual piano recital @ his academy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTo-dUJ7XTA


He also received an award for completion of his Level 4 Musicianship Exams

http://www.mtnacertification.org/standards/

So cute, Cawdor! DS has been asking for music lessons again lately. I'm going to show him some of your son's videos to inspire him. We don't have money for lessons right now, but we do have some books bought a while back. He used to play around on the keyboard and come up with some interesting songs, but sadly that's fallen off.

that is awesome Cawdor!

Hanni (4) has such a scientist's mind. Last night we were talking about how at her swim class we saw scuba tanks discharging, and she said, maybe the noise was from air going in, not out. I said, no, that couldn't be it, because we put our fingers up to the valve and felt the air coming out. (I didn't feel like getting into an explanation of compressed air.)

I felt bad for being the know-it-all grownup and squashing her thought process, but I needn't have worried. This morning when I thought she was still asleep, I heard her voice from the bedroom: "Mama, I just thought of another idea about why they were emptying the tanks. Maybe it was to get old bad air out and put in new fresh air."

It trips me out that she was still thinking about it the next morning.

It sounds more like you stimulated her thought process! Bright and thoughtful little kids can be such a joy.

You can tell her that scuba tanks are generally considered "empty" with 500psi still in the tank, because you want to keep positive pressure to keep out impurities that you wouldn't want to inhale. But at least once a year they have to be emptied completely, for visual inspection. The insides have to be verified to be clean and free of corrosion.

Thanks, Dude!

Just had to share this one- DS6 just asked me "Mom, do you know why people have schools? It's because it's kind of awkward when grown ups don't know something that they're supposed to." I didn't bother to reply because I figure that this might be as good a reason as any.

Oh, and he also explained to me when he saw the full moon the other night that the earth was turning around so the sun was starting to face the other side of the Earth and that now the moon was reflecting the light from the sun. I asked him where he learned this and he looked thoughtful for a minute and said "I don't know. I think it just sounds right." He's such a sponge for knowledge that he just absorbs it all the time and later has no idea where the information even came from- it just IS.

vwmommy, your son might like http://www.explorelearning.com/ .

Vwmommy....you DS sounds sooooooooo much like my DS5(going on 6). He will usually say, "i just know" when I ask him where he learned something.

My brag is that I coped well the past two weeks DS5 was visiting grandparents 800 miles away. He haf an awesome time and brought home a journal he made from the trip. He was most excited to find an early bday present waiting for him when he got home: a world map floor puzzle. He gathered all the continent pieces together in a bunch and exclaimed, "Look! I made Pangea!"...which he thought was hilarious.