Chalk and Cheese Chronicles

The Tech Museum Ushers in the Summer of Code

If you have school age children, chances are you also have a little Minecraft addict on your hands. If you're like me, the last thing you want your child to do is while away the summer mining in an blocky online world with a pickaxe. Why not lure kids away from all those creepers by demonstrating that it's code the powers Minecraft?

This summer, my kids are going to learn how to code. It's not too early to introduce children to basic coding, much in the same way children are introduced to all the usual things like music and Spanish (or in our area, Mandarin).

Lines of code is in the background of our digital world. Here in Silicon Valley, and beyond, knowing how to code can be a very valuable tool. But for this generation of young children, the savvy programming skills won't just be the domain of Mark Zuckerberg but a basic tool for everyone.

With that futuristic outlook in mind, my kids are eager to learn code. They want to write the code that controls their Minecraft worlds. They want to build apps. They know it's a language they can use to their advantage.

We've tried out various apps like Hopstoch and Daisy the Dinosaur. We've dabbled in basic code at Code Academy and over at Khan Academy. I follow the Maker Mom closely, as she's got her finger on the pulse of all things digital for kids.

But I think there's nothing like sitting down in a small roomful of kids for instructor-led training which is why my boys are heading to coding class this summer.

Fortunately for us, the nearby Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose offers a range of tech-related summer camps for kids.

My boys, who are eight-years-old, will be joining learning Java and Scratch! From the class description:

Computer Programming Beginning*

Learn the basics of programming as you use Java and Scratch to unravel the mysteries of variables, loops and conditional statements, then design your own interactive games and graphics.

Imagine, being a kid of eight and already learning how to code. Armed with the magic of code, I wonder what boys will one day create?

Disclosure: Each of my children will receive a complementary week of The Tech summer camp in exchange for my honest reviews on this blog. The opinions in this post are my own.

Was it Autism?

The little girl came bounding into my house, trailed by her mother. Our living room looked like a daycare back then, with an eyesore of a plastic green and pink slide plopped right there in the middle, where normally a coffee table might be.

My boys were just babies at the time, crawling and getting into everything.

The girl was about four, full of energy and cute as a button. She had on a little skirt which she hiked up to reveal - nothing!

"She won't wear underpants," her mother explained, "She takes them right off."

I nodded, totally anticipating the stubborn streak of toddlers.

But my boys were at the stage where they were putting everything in their mouths and the thought that my friend's half-naked daughter's bottom was everywhere in our living room was a whole lot of yuck to me.

The girl opened up the screen door and darted out, like a pent up dog escaping the backyard for the first time.

She was uncontrollable, this girl, this darling little girl.

Down the plastic slide she went in the lower half of her birthday suit. On the slide, on the floor, she gave us all a show, her legs wide open.

The mom said nothing. The mom did nothing.

"Make her stop!" my thoughts were swirling as my babies played at my feet, oblivious to all the action. "Reign in your child! Mark those parenting boundaries! Lay down the law!"

When my friend and her daughter left, I watched them go down the driveway to the car, my eyes casting long shadows of judgement.

With my ten months of parenting exerience, I knew I would never be the permissive, child-led parent that I saw in my friend.

That friend and I drifted apart.

Years later, I ran into the girl who by then was about nine. We were at the playground of an amusement park. Her friendly dad greeted me with a smile and I marveled at his daughter who had grown so tall.

As all the other kids climbed the ladders to get to the top of the giant play structure, the girl found a different way to get to the top. Up she went, walking atop the long, steep enclosed tube slide (fully clothed this time) and past the "No Climbing" signs.

My observant and ever-wise friend Cathy was with me. She's a nurse who at the time, had a special needs child with selective mutism.

"That girl has autism," she noted, as we watched the girl play. "She's also mute. Watch her."

My heart sank.

Why in the heck had I not ever realized this? Autism. I'd worked with autistic children back when I was in sixth grade. I'd had friends with autistic and special needs kids. I'd been a parent mindful of milestones, watching for signs of autism.

Autism wasn't new to me. I just couldn't see past the cloud of judgment (and karma has haunted me ever since).

I thought back to all that I didn't see that day when the girl and her mom had come over to play. The frustration that must have been rampant in that family, and the battles they were forced to pick. The misunderstandings, the exhaustion. The futile attempts to curtail the odd behavior of their child before they inevitably knew they had a special needs child, for they must by now know, right?

Since that eye opening day, I'm much less judgmental of unruly kids. That's how it is when you get all judgy, forgetting that the behavior we see is just a snapshot in time, without the benefit of having seen the build up or without knowing the background - we all know how it is, it's been discussed many times over.

I've been on both side of the judgment coin.

I was witness to one day of my friend's daughter's behavior, one day and it was awful. Imagine how it must have been for my friend.

My First British JAJ Pyrex: Market Garden/ Tuscany

Every time I happen upon vintage Pyrex, my initial elation gives way to panic. Where on God's green earth in my limited kitchen storage space am I going to house all of this, especially since vintage Pyrex needs to be showcased and not crammed into cupboards?

My husband doesn't appreciate the allure of collecting something that reminds him of his mother's kitchen. For me, and for all of us vintage Pyrex collectors, that it reminds us of our mothers and grandmothers is an enormous part of the appeal. I discovered that I just can't say no to vintage Fire King either.

So imagine my surprise and ensuing panic when I came across SEVEN PIECES of vintage JAJ BRITISH PRYEX at a local Bay Area thrift store. I'd read online that British Pyrex is common in well, Britain, but it's not quite an easy find here in the U.S.

JAJ British Pyrex in Tuscany/Market Garden

I nabbed them all, five various casserole dishes in the Tuscany aka Market Garden pattern and two casserole dishes in the Autumn Gold floral pattern. A few months ago, I'd hemmed and hawed over but ultimately pass on what I now know were Autumn Gold coffee cups and saucers because at the time, I didn't know that JAJ was the mark for British Pyrex!

 Anyhow, what I've learned is that collecting Pyrex is not hard (and it's not an expensive hobby, with most pices ranging in thrift stores from $1.99 to $7.99). I have amassed more than I have room for in my scant 5-6 months of collecing vintage Pyrex. I made mistakes in the beginning, paying too much at an estate sale for vintage Pyrex shades of green nesting bowls that were not in prime condition. I also bought little pieces here and there, not knowing which patterns I would settle into collecting. Now I can pass on vintage Pyrex, even when I'm drawn to it, because it's not a design I desire to collect. Oh, and there's always the huge looming issue of space.

Anyhow, enjoy this peek at my JAJ British Pyrex finds!

 

 

 

 

My Third Grader's Front Teeth Extraction

Well, my eight-year-old finally has a toothless grin. Our kindly dentist said we could wait no more, it was time for those top two teeth to come out. Prior to today, he'd lost only three teeth, with a whole year going by without a wiggly tooth!

My son and his twin brother did not each get a first tooth until they were ten months old. It was a long time between then and the first tooth lost. I remember seeing kids in kindergarten, all adorably gap-toothed while my boys did not lose a first tooth until second grade!

I heard losing teeth late is a good thing; baby teeth with cavities and fillings can be replaced by permanenet teeth. And supposedly, the longer baby teeth stay in the mouth, the stronger and more cavity resistent they become.

Finally, our pediatric dentist recommended that my son's two top front teeth be pulled. "It's time," he said, showing us the x-rays of still-hidden adult teeth slowly making their way down, behind the baby teeth and never the two shall meet.

Those stubby pearly whites were in there good and solid. No wigglies here!

My son was nervous. I had flashbacks to his recent blood draw, where we sat with him for hours, trying to convince him to be poked. He cried and he fought us all the way. He was afraid of those needles.

But our pediatric dentist is an expert and a familiar, trusted face to my son. He is just the right personality for my boys. We left an expensive pediatric dental office in favor of this one. Gone are the TVs embedded in the ceiling, the Thomas the Train table, the aquarium and in its place, a rather plain office with a miracle worker of a dentist. Having experienced both, I love that our dentist uses his demeanor to calm the kids and not the Cartoon Network. I don't want my boys to think they deserve a Chuck E. Cheese experience for dental care.

My son was anxious, with furrows of worry on his brow as he waited for his name to be called. But he went in alone, without me.

A half hour later, he walked out, on his own, with gauze in his mouth and a "it was no big deal" shrug of the shoulder. I could tell he was proud. I was proud of my big boy.

So now he has that adorable gap-toothed smile and a lisp...and beard stubble.  

Well, no beard stubble just yet, but I was worried he'd be losing his front baby teeth at the same time as he started to shave.

 

 

 

The New Exploratorium Goes Beyond Local Families

 The Exploratorium has always been the haunt of locals with kids. Dads and kids. Moms and kids. Nannies and kids. Families and kids. Local scout troops. Students on field trips. If you were raised in the Bay Area, you likely have at least one memory of having visited the Exploratorium as a child.

That memory probably extends to a stroll around the Palace of Fine Arts with its cast of usual characters ranging from a bridal parties to swans to very angry geese.

The Exploratorium's new home at Pier 15 is a landmark setting. Gone are the brides and the swans and the geese, and in their place, a first class view of the bay, bringing forth an ever-changing cast of characters ranging from sea lions to sailboats.

But the soul of the museum remains the same, like a workshop garage transported in its entirety to a sparkly new home.

I wanted my children to have memories of both locations. So we visited the Exploratorium on January 2nd, 2013, its final day of operation at the Palace of Fine Arts. Then we returned to preview the museum on March 29, 2013.

The move is reminiscent of the before/after experience of the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. That museum went from ho hum to a world class museum. It feels special in there, like a wing of the Met. The new Exploratorium has the same exciting vibe.

Gone is the old school cafeteria where we'd push our trays past the rotating hot dog grill and forlorne cashiers. The new Exploratorium houses two eateries, one near the front entrance, called the Seismic Joint which will offer take-out sandwiches, salad, coffee and more. Seaglass is an upscale cafeteria at the back.

My children ran from exhibit to exhibit, squeeling in delight at the familiar, while I was more interested in scoping ot the the lay of the inviting new land. While the kids tinkered, I enjoyed the big picture of the space and setting.

 

The museum has a nice flow. Each hall and corridor had a different theme ranging from Seeing and Listening, to Living Systems, to Electricity & Magnetism, Human Phenomena, Creative Experimentation, Time & Motion, Modeling Landscapes, Heat & Temperature, Environmental Exploration and Wind, Water & Waves.

The tactile dome(age 7 and up, reservations required) opens in the summer of 2013.  

The one area of caution for those with children is an installation called The Changing State of Mental Health. While intersting, sensitive children might find some displays disturbing. The exhibit describes the experience of psychiatric patients as they tranferred into state mental hospitals. It's not for the faint at heart. My son climbed into a utica crib (like a caged casket) but he had no idea of its intended use.

Restrooms were plentiful and easy to find, a big improvement over the old location. Restroom users might enjoy the black and white 3D looking tiling in the stalls. It's the little things.

 

 

Future tactile dome

The move to the Pier 15 coincides with the maker movement, which in recent years has been popularized by the Maker Faire (year five for us!). More and more people are making things. They're crafting things. They're tinkering. DIY culture is pervasive. The Exploratorum is the grandfather (or grandmother) of maker culture, having arrived on the scene way back in 1969!

The new and improved Exploratorium is no longer the exclusive playground of local families. The Explotorium is a destination, like a visit to the Golden Gate Bridge. Young, old, local, tourist, passersby will pass through the doors of this world-class, hands-on museum.

 

The Exploratorium opens to the public on April 17th. Expect crowds through summer and beyond.

 

 This is an original post to Chalk and Cheese Chronicles. Apologies for the awful formatting. After 5 years of thinking about it, I really do need to make the mover over to Wordpress.

 

 

"Exclamation Point" is the Perfect Read Aloud Book

By Akemi Bourgeois

I have the wonderful privilege of working in our school library, where one of my happiest moments is spent reading aloud to my son's third grade class.

I have five minutes to present a picture book before the kids scramble off to find their own books to check out. I bring books from our home library because, well, I've curated our library and know our selection well. It's not easy to find just the right book for third graders. Sometimes what I bring to read aloud is a hit and sometimes it receives just a lukewarm reception.

Today, I read, "Exclamation Point," by Amy Krouse Rosenthal & Tom Lichtenheld. It was recommended to me by the ladies who work at San Jose's much loved bookstore, Hicklebees.

"I'm looking for a book for third graders, one that has an edge and isn't too juvenile," I asked, adding, "preferably an unfamiliar title." I want the books I bring to be new to most of the students.

The Hicklebees lady pulled out a bright yellow hard bound picture book. A bold exclamation point smiled from the cover. "They might like this," she suggested.

So I bought it. Yes, I bought a $17.99 picture book that I would spend a brief five minutes reading. I stopped buying picture books for my boys years ago, when they moved on to chapter books. Still, I couldn't resist. I had to share this book with the class! (Sadly, our school librarian will not accept donations of like-new or brand new picture books, even those I've purchased from Hicklbees. She wants cash only.)

My boys read the book in the car on the way home and laughed, saying they thought the class would like it.

They were right on the money!

I felt like a standup comedian this morning waiting for the laughter to settle down, there was so much of it. Heheheheehahahahabwaaaahaheha!

So many smiles, and all due to a book about punctuation!

I wanted more pages to magically appear. I wanted to keep on reading forever.

"Where do you find these funny books?" a girl asked again, as she always does.

Exclamation Point is an excellent read aloud for first through fourth graders, with second and third graders probably appreciating it the most. If they've studied and practiced punctuation, they will love this book. Or in the style of the book, I should say, "They will love this book!"

The text and imagery are simple but highly effective. Kids can easily read this book quietly to themselves, but like the Mo Willems' series, "Don't Let the Pigeon Ride the Bus" series, some books are best read aloud. It's a short funny read.

If you are a librarian, teacher, or parent volunteer (or a wanna be librarian/teacher, like me), this would make an excellent read aloud book to your class.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the Way We Clap Our Hands: The Marshmallow Clap

I'm a veteran of many a school assembly, as is just about anyone who ever went to school. A student gets a well-deserved award, and we clap. A student performs a song, and we clap. The principal announces a fun upcoming event, and we clap. There is much applause at school assemblies. We are rallying that school spirit!

But when is clapping producing so much noise and interference that it detracts from the assembly, rather than be a part of it?

I guess when 500 K-5th graders just can't hold their applause until the end.

So what's a school to do? Bring on the marshmallow clap! Save the real hand-to-hand clapping for the end, but in between, tell the kids to imagine they're holding a giant, puffy marshmallow between their hands and to give it fifty fast paced gentle squeezes from both sides.

The sound of 500 kids clapping is ... silence.

Marshmallow clapping is mellow and quiet, enabling the students to show their appreciation and excitement while allowing what's going on up front to continue without interruption.

Flap, flap, flap. It looks like birds flapping. It also looks a bit spectrum-like.

Is marshmallow flapping becoming a trend, a way to silence the noisy applause of a young audience while not altogether stifling their enthusiasm?

It seems the most unsatisfying way of clapping ever invented. I simply must...make...contact with my other hand. Even polite clapping (as if at the opera) is better, yes?

So, is this trend of silent, no-contact hand clapping here to stay in our schools? Aren't schools able to manage the constant applause in other ways?

 

 

 

Silicon Valley Kids Head to the Tech Museum Summer Camps

 

The Tech Museum of Innovation

 

By Akemi Bourgeois

If it's February, you can bet I'm thinking of rubber chickens. And crazy hair. And water fights. Throw in some dazzling art, a science curriculum and some top notch team leaders and it all adds up to the best summer science camp around, Camp Galileo. My son prefers to say it in a sing-song voice, "Camp Gal-i-lay-oh!"

But this year, it dawned on me that my boys will be rising fourth graders which opens up a few more options for summer camp.

So this year, we are heading to a Camp Galileo partner camp at the Tech Museum of Innovation in downtown San Jose. We affectionately refer to the museum as the orange museum for obvious reasons.

The Tech summer camps are geared toward 4th through 8th graders so my boys are eligible to enroll.

  Check out the class descriptions! Lego Robotics, Kitchen Chemistry, Video Game Design, Mobile App Design, Filmmaking, Photography and Photoshop, Lego Robotics (and a special Lego Robotics for girls), Computer Programming and more.

These are classes that make my modern Silicon Valley based kids salivate. My boys were quick to say they wanted to enroll in the beginning computer programming course. (I know it's because they want to mastermind the next Minecraft.)

One of my boys has been dreaming of learning how to code! He tried out some lessons at the Code Academy but was soon in way over his head. If my husband didn't work startup hours at a non-start up company, he's be happy to teach him. It's been hard to find a basic, beginning programming class for kids that's not solely an online course.

I guess my boys have a few months to perfect their keyboarding skills before The Tech summer camps this summer.

If my boys ever create the a game bigger than Minecraft, I'll say they honed their coding skills at The Tech summer camps!

See you at camp!

Additional information:
The Tech Summer Camps run from June 10 – August 16 (10 full weeks!) 2013. Classes are Monday – Friday from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m., with optional extended care available from 8:00 a.m. – 5:30 pm. Camp is open on Thursday, July 4.

Classes are grouped by rising 4th-6th graders and by rising 6th-8th graders.

The Tech Summer Camps are powered by Galileo and held at The Tech Museum of Innovation, at 201 South Market Street in San Jose. Register here.

 
Disclosure: Each of my children will receive a complementary week of The Tech summer camp in exchange for my honest reviews on this blog. The opinions in this post are my own.

 

Yes! Save the Dennis the Menace Train in Monterey!

By Akemi Bourgeois

Dennis the Menace park in Monterey is one of our favorite parks. My boys first visited before they could even walk. I visited a few times when I was a kid. I remember the slides and the rickety suspension bridge. I remember driving by that park on many a road trip to Monterey with my parents, and spotting the playground's curves and linear lines jutting into the skyline, like a mini faux Gaudi.

At first it was difficult to watch my kids there because as soon as I would catch up with them, they would zip over another obstacle, or down another slide or through the bushy maze, away from me. I could never catch up. Eventually, I realized it was far easier to stay in one place and watch the boys from afar.

This park is everything other parks are not, and that is, it has an element of danger. It's one of the few parks that has not been completely encased in molded plastic. It's not same old, same old here. It's good, old-fashioned fun. I've always been eager to go beyond the plastic slide.

But oh, the train. How it beckons. The steam engine train is the first thing visitors see when they enter Dennis the Menace Park. When my boys were younger, we'd shadow our boys, watching their every move, and spotting them like weightlifters as they scrambled about the train, eventually emerging at the tip top, a childhood feat on par with summiting Mt. Everest.

My boys could spend forever and a day on that train.

Sure, there are trains in other playgrounds, like the short wooden pretend one at Oakmeadow Park in Los Gatos, but kids know the difference between real and fake. Ask any kid which they prefer and they'll tell you, they want the real deal.

But the real deal, the steam engine train that seems dangerous and in fact, is dangerous, hasn't been open in years. Every time we've gone, the kids dash over the train, only to discover the whole thing fenced off.

The city of Monterey has been forced to close the train because it's not up to playground safety code. Of course it's not. 

Can't we sign a waiver? (I know, it's far more complex an issue than that.)

We almost want to leave, our hopes dashed. The kids mope a while and then they're off exploring the rest of this fabulous old-style park, but what they want to do most of all is to climb to the roof of the steam engine train.

There is a Save the Train Facebook page dedicated to saving Monterey's much loved train at Dennis the Menace park. Won't you join?

I am so very grateful that my boys had the experience of climbing this train. They have explored it countless times. Was I nervous? Yes, more so than ever before. Did I shout things like, "Hold on!" and "Watch where you're going!" Of course.

The steam engine train is dangerous, yes. It's the reason they don't open the rootops of abandoned buildings and invite kids to dabble in a little par cours. But there has to be a way to let kids be kids, to let them learn to play safely on their own, without being surrounded by boring molded plastic and soft flooring. Our budget strapped cities need more parks where kids can really play on unique play structures.

We will mourn if the steam engine at Dennis the Menace Park is closed off forever. So today, I join Lenore Skenazy of Free Range Kids in hoping that the steam engine remains open for exuberant young climbers to come. Read the Free Range Kids post Are Today’s Kids So Much More Delicate? Save the Dennis the Menace Train! and join the fight to keep this train open.

Hat tip to Nicole Pelton of Not Just a Working Mom

for pointing me to the article.

 

This is an original post to Chalk and Cheese Chronicles.

 

For the Love of Vintage Pyrex

By Akemi Bourgeois

I have a new obsession, one that has been simmering for years but has now boiled over into madness, vintage Pyrex madness!

It started with a bowl, and then another and then another. Pale blue, Pepto pink and pale blue again. So pretty. I love how vintage Pyrex evokes a time gone past, time spent in the kitchen with my mother and grandma.

I stumbled upon vintage Pyrex while shopping about boutique lined streets, a bowl here, a casserole dish there. Antique stores were almost always a sure bet for beautiful vintage Pyrex nesting bowls but prices there were always in the 50-60 dollar range. Then I discovered there was vintage Pyrex to be had at second hand shops, namely Goodwill, at mostly bargain prices!

I started thrifting for Pyrex a bit, casually dropping in on thrift stores as I went about my errands. A quick five minute tour of the kitchen aisle, and I would be back in my car, usually empty handed. But there were a few finds at various thrift stores and once or twice, I scored big time, emerging from a store with more vintage Pyrex than I could carry.

The problem with collecting vintage Pyrex is that it needs to be stored and displayed. No vintage Pyrex should be tucked away in a garage or closet, ever.

I looked around our house for possible display opportunities and zeroed in on a large cabinet with glass doors. What was on display there? Textbooks, four shelves of obsolete engineering textbooks that my husband insists we keep, for all to see. So ugly.

So without asking or notifying my husband, I moved the textbooks into a closet and took over the display case. It's so pretty now, filled with vintage bowls, casserole dishes, baking pans and refigerator dishes, mostly Pyrex but also a bit of vintage Fire King, Inland Glass and Glasbake.

There is vintage Pyrex galore on eBay and Etsy, but I find the thrill of thrifing to be one that can't be had when you buy online. It's about the treasure hunt. I'll turn to eBay and Etsy one day when I need to complete a set or pattern. And there are always garage sales, estate sales and Craigslist, of course.

The best thing about collecting vintage Pyrex is that I use them. I love the feel of Pyrex in my hands. Cookie batter clinging to the bowl? No problem, I'd love to wash it! Then I'll put my little vintage Pyrex bowl back on the shelf and stare at the patterns. I don't feel all that guilty because vintage Pyrex isn't necessarily expensive to acquire. Some of the pieces I've found were just 99 cents.

The pressing question is whether to collect certain patterns only, or whether to collect a hodgepodge, as I seem to be doing because when you're thrifting, you get what you get.

My husband is not impressed with my new hobby. "We have too many bowls," he complains, "How about getting rid of your Comptoir de Famille cherry bowls?" I love my French cherry set of dishware, too, but with active little boys in the household, the cherry dishes have not seen much love. But he has a point, I'm not working so I don't have a shopping budget for things I don't need.(But did I mention the 99 cent pieces I found, all vintage Pyrex? Swoon!)

I do need to put a pause on my Pyrex collecting... after a trip to the Alameda Point Antiques Faire (oh, and maybe the Treasure Island flea market...), that is.

What I've learned is that you can amass a great amount of vintage Pyrex in a short period of time, for not much money. I have enough to fill four shelves and then some. But I know I can always make room for more. Or maybe I should take up collecting vintage Bakelite jewelry, it's more expensive, but easier to store!

 

This is an original post to Chalk and Cheese Chronicles.