Chalk and Cheese Chronicles

Activion & Bill Nye: Science Fun for the Our Family

I think it was the quicksand that did it.

We introduced our 4 "AND A HALF!!!" year-old boys to Bill Nye the Science Guy via You Tube exactly two hours before we were to meet him in person. My boys are intrigued by science so from the moment they first watched Bill Nye talk about quicksand, they were sucked in and they loved it.

So at the invitation of the eco-friendly folks at Activion, we joined fellow SV Moms bloggers and their families at San Jose's Tech Museum of Innovation (we like to call it the Orange museum!) to see our new friend Bill teach us some science. My boys dressed the part, donning their safety goggles and clutching plastic test tubes. Then they practiced working "Bill Nye the Science Guy" into everything they said, mostly because they liked the way his name rhymes.

When we entered, the room all set up with rows of chairs and I had but one thought: We are doomed. For some reason, I'd had it in my head that this was going to be more of a hands-on demo, with centers like in preschool. Would my rambunctious little boys be willing to sit through this?

But once Bill Nye began to speak, my boys snapped to attention, then rushed to the front of the room to join the other kids on the floor for an up close view of science in action. It worked. It was like Science 101 for preschoolers. I stayed on the side, auditing. We watched as Bill in his signature lab coat and bow tie launched into a demo of the Activeion, breaking down the science behind it in simple terms. I glanced back at my science oriented husband who'd stayed seated toward the back and I could tell he was enjoying this event. But Bill sealed the deal with the pint sized future scientists when he brought out the big drum (really, a big rubber garbage can) and banged out huge rings of smoke which hurled across the room like cannon balls. My little guys were thrilled!

Vacuuming My Way to Nirvana

I am one of those weird moms whose car is uncluttered and clean. I'm almost embarrassed about it. I hesitate to open the door to my mini van within sight of normal moms. As soon as the door to my mini-van slides open to reveal a crumb free, clutter free interior, I can see Normal Mom's jaw start to drop. My car is freak show clean most of the time, but as it's mostly a vehicle for transporting 3-year-old twin boys, it's not been easy to keep it this way. As soon as the crumbs start to blanket the carpet of my car, I'm on it, vacuuming the interior like a madwoman until I can get to the car wash.

Today, it rained just enough to keep the car wash closed for business. Cracker crumbs were everywhere, on the floor, in the car seats - it was driving me nuts. My boys were at Grandma's for the day, so when I spied one of those coin operated car washes while driving around this afternoon, I prayed to the loose change God that I'd have enough quarters to use the beautiful industrial vacuum cleaner. In my OCD mind, I could see all those crumbs being sucked up like tiny magnets. Vroooosh! Ah, nirvana.