Information at your fingertips

Austin, Iain and I watched the TED talk on the 6th Sense research project at the MIT media labs.

http://www.ted.com/talks/pranav_mistry_the_thrilling_potential_of_sixthsense_technology.html

Iain and Austin were particularly impressed with the idea of using gestures to access information and features. The demos of using your hand to dial a phone, the wrist watch gesture and the picture-taking gesture inspired them the most. I asked them to put some thought into ideas they have for new gesture features or interesting ways to use the ones in the talk. I need to follow-up with them on this.

Boys' night to cook

Last weekend was the boys' night to cook and the challenge was to cook something that they hadn't cooked before (so no spaghetti and no tacos). They attacked the cupboard full of cookbooks and came up with ginger beef and noodles as their choice. Carla was out doing errands so they quickly called her to request a few missing ingredients from the store (noodles and beef).

With dinner time quickly approaching they launched into action. Iain cut the beef into strips and Austin chopped the green onions. They both collaborated on the seasoning (we discovered that we were out of Paprika but decided to go ahead anyway and hoped that it would still taste good). Both the boys like the flavor of garlic so lots of chopped garlic went in (yum!).

Once the meat was cooked, in went the water and noodles. It's at this point that they discovered that the wok would have been a better vessel to do this kind of cooking. The pan they chose was overflowing with good stuff.

About an hour after starting we got out the noodle bowls and had a very tasty dinner. I sure hope they do this one again some time! :)

Audiblox

Austin started using Audiblox on November 16. This is a program designed by Dr. Jan Strydom of South Africa, to reverse disabling effects of dyslexia, dysgraphia and other conditions.

The exercises use coloured blocks for block design, sequencing and patterns, letter tiles to practice spelling, bean bags, a page of arrows to practice orientation (up, down, left, right)... Austin particularly enjoys the block design exercises, and he is doing very well at them.

I've noticed that he is creating clever ways to remember the colour sequences - very similar strategies to building vocabulary when he is learning a new language. For instance, when he sees a horizontal series of three blocks, blue/white/red, he says out loud, "France," if he sees these blocks in a vertical orientation, he says, "France sideways," and if they are red/white/blue, he says, "France backwards." He uses similar phrasing for green/white/red, substituting "Italy" for "France." A yellow/black combination is "Bumblebee," and a green/blue combination is "Vancouver." He explained that he's referring to the Canucks' blue/green jersey. A red/white/yellow combination is "too bright." I've noticed that he consistently uses the same descriptions for the same colour combinations.

He's not mixing up his green and red, but occasionally gets blue and green in the wrong positions when they are together in a colour sequence.

He hates to repeat a design, so I've noticed he is now trying harder to get them right on the first try.

Austin and I have agreed to practice Audiblox together for three months, 5 times per week, to see if it makes a difference with his handwriting skill. Fortunately, the exercises are varied, he's not being timed, and I'm usually able to hold his interest through each section. We spend 45 minutes per day on these exercises.

Where is all this wind coming from?!

Now that we've seen the destructive force that the wind can have when it topples trees (see the earlier post about the tree falling in our yard), Austin was interested to know a little bit more about where this evening's strong wind was coming from. This required that we did a bit of investigating using the Environment Canada web site. The best information is found on the Marine Forecast pages for the Georgia Strait South of Nanaimo.

First we took a look at the detailed weather reports from the local marine weather station at Pt. Atkinson.

From this we could see that the average wind speed had been increasing all afternoon and peaking at 1700 (5pm). However, the gusts had continued to increase all the way to a top speed of 50 knots (approx 90Km/h) between 8pm and 9pm. The other thing that we noticed was that the temperature had been dropping all evening which is what you'd expect once the sun goes down but why was it rising again? Time to break out more reports to see what was going on in the bigger picture.

By going to the Environment Canada Analysis Charts we can see a large low pressure system moving in from the North West. The contour lines indicate the rate in change of air pressure and can be thought of as a slope with the air moving down it like water. The closer together the lines, the steeper the slope and the faster the wind. So now we know what's creating all that wind tonight. But why is the temperature rising even though the sun's gone down?

Looking at the Analysis Chart a little more we can see some thick, curved lines spiraling out from the big L (for Low) with triangles and semi-circles on one of the lines. These indicate warm and cold fronts where the triangles represent a cold front and the semi-circle bumps represent warm fronts. Austin could see that on this chart there is a warm front just off the coast of Vancouver Island and Washington State. This is bringing warm air to us which is causing the temperature to rise.

Timber!!!

One of the big hemlocks in our back yard came down on Friday. When Austin and I were driving home from his Spanish lesson, I received a call from our neighbour, to give me the news. I was pretty worried that the tree might have come down onto our house, and that it will cost a lot to have it removed.

Austin was quite cheerful, and mentioned that, if the tree hadn't come down, we wouldn't have an opportunity to inspect the upper branches and see what was living in the tree. I said it would be sad if birds lost their nest as a result of the tree falling. Austin said, "But, it's natural. And besides, most birds will have flown south for the winter, by now." What an optimist!

Austin was excited to explore the tree, and he brought his leatherman out, so he could use the saw blade to cut off a few branches. He gave Aidan a lesson in how to saw off branches.

The District sent an arborist to inspect the tree. She determined that a fungus had caused wood rot, weakened the tree, so in the heavy winds, it came down. The other big hemlock on our property is not experiencing the same fungus, even though the trees were adjacent to each other. However another arborist (Jesse) determined that our tree has dead wood at the base of the trunk, so that's not a good sign, and he pointed out to Austin and I, how most of the branches, and therefore most of the weight is on the south side of the tree. If the tree is going to fall, it will fall to the south - directly onto our house. Jesse also explained to Austin and I that our hemlock is experiencing "mistletoe," causing additional shoots to grow at the ends of limbs, making them heavier. Jesse pointed out that the tree that fell would have been sheltering our tree from northerly winds, and now our tree is more vulnerable. So, all in all, the situation is not good for our tree, or our pocketbook. Austin left that conversation feeling pretty convinced that the tree has to come down.

The good guy almost always loses

Austin just shared an observation with me. He pointed out that the good guy almost aways gets in a situation where it looks like he's totally lost. But then at the last moment something changes and he wins and the bad guy can't believe it. I shared with him that this was a classic aspect of most modern story telling. We then explored several other stories that he's familiar with that all shared that common pattern.

Now I want to go look up other story patterns and share with him :)

Lego Star Wars Trivia Lesson

Today, Austin invited me to play Lego Star Wars with him. He had a few ships set up on the living room floor. Initially, I resisted. I've been aware, lately, that I am uncomfortable having Austin guide the learning process and I've wanted to have some input of my own. I reminded him that I had planned to take him to the library today, but he really didn't want to go out in the rain. I worried that, by not going to the library during our two hours together, I would have to take extra time away from my work to do the library run. So, I reasoned, it would be best to do the trip to the library with Austin, during our time together.
Skye is home today, not feeling well. I shared my concerns with him, and came to my own conclusion that I could do the library trip at the end of my work day instead, so I could spend time with Austin, uninterrupted.
So, I went back to Austin and let him know that I could go to the library later, so let's have our time together. Skye had suggested that I ask Austin if he'd like to dictate a story to me, and I would type it for him. Austin said, "That's not really my thing. I don't want to do that. Let's just play Lego." I responded, "Well, I'm not going to play Lego, so we'll have to think of something else to do." And so the awkwardness began... Austin said he doesn't understand, if he is doing SelfDesign, why can't we just play Lego together? He pointed out, if he were with a SelfDesign LC, they'd just say, "Ok, let's play Lego." So, I had to leave the room again ;) I consulted Skye. I think part of my reason for resisting playing with Lego, was to satisfy Skye's suggestion to type up a story. When I shared with Skye, my conversation with Austin, Skye agreed ... just play Lego with him.
So, perhaps not entirely willingly, I returned to the living room, prepared to participate in Lego play. I asked Austin if it is possible for the Jedi to have peaceful relations with others in the Universe. Austin said, it is. We set out to locate General Grievous, whom we found, with light sabres blazing. Austin had Yoda on the Republic Gunship (Austin built this himself, from scratch, modeling after a kit he wants to buy someday). Yoda exited the passenger hold, and performed many fancy maneuvers to battle with Grievous. Grievous was on the run. Austin asked me to hold the Republic Attack Shuttle aimed toward Grievous, so he couldn't escape. Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka (Anakin's Padawan) were on board the Attack Shuttle. Austin built the Attack Shuttle from a kit, and made a few modifications. Four passengers can now fit on board, instead of only three when guns are loaded in the passenger hold. The cockpit is also an escape pod. Austin explained, if Anakin needed to escape, I could simply pretend that Anakin had walked into the cockpit, then I could pop off the escape pod and fly away.
Austin also built a Slave I (Jango Fett's ship), modeled after a kit he wants to buy (oh my goodness, I just looked this up - it's $310!!). I told Austin that I like his creations even better than the kits. He's actually done a really good job of creating vehicles that closely resemble the kits. On the weekend, Austin helped Aidan to convert his AT-TE into an AT-AT Walker. Aidan absolutely loves it!
After the battle with Grievous continued, and all I was doing was holding the Shuttle above him, I became bored, and asked Austin if we could do something else.
Austin suggested some Trivia. He said I could ask him a few questions and he would ask me, so we could make a game of it. I don't know my Star Wars characters and vehicles very well, so we didn't get very far. Austin took this as an opportunity to teach me about Star Wars, so he proceeded to teach a lesson for 45 minutes, on parts of the vehicles, and a battle scene. My head is spinning with missile launchers, laser cannons, Cyborgs, Droidecas, Speeders, Walkers, Battle Armour, etc. Austin plans to quiz me tomorrow, to see how much I've remembered.

Testing, testing, 1,2,3 ...

This has been testing week for Austin. He is going through a comprehensive psycho-educational assessment with a registered child psychologist (Joan). This assessment involves three 2-hour sessions 1:1, Joan:Austin. November 3 was the first session, November 6 the second, and November 10 will be the final session.

On November 3, Austin brought a couple Lego creations to show Joan, and Joan was very obliging. She likes Lego and was curious about what they were and how they worked. Austin came out of the first session feeling really validated. It was cute, because Joan said, enthusiastically, "Neat kid! He has lots of smarts. He's so creative. We just have to find another way for him to express himself that doesn't involve writing." I agreed that Austin is very creative and has lots of imaginative ideas, and Austin looked accusingly at me, asking "Then why did you yell at me yesterday, saying I wasn't learning anything?" I didn't go into an explanation for Joan, I just said, "Yes, we had an altercation yesterday." Joan nodded and explained that she had heard all about it.

Truth is, I was busy working in my office, and Austin was playing Lego in his bedroom above me. I could hear "Pchew, pchew....." and had a pang of guilt that I wasn't properly educating my son, or adequately engaging him in "academic" pursuits. So, with this thought fueling my words, I suggested to Austin, that he consider doing a "learning" activity instead. Austin insisted that he *is* learning. And we got into an argument. It's particularly challenging when my head says one thing, and my heart reminds me that Austin is a 10-year-old boy and children learn through play.

On the second day of testing, Joan explained that Austin measured in the 99th percentile on the Patterns section of the test. So far, I don't know much about what this would indicate about Austin, but I gather these results are atypical. Skye and I will meet with Joan on the 12th, to discuss the results of the testing. Joan will write up an extensive and comprehensive report for us to use whenever we feel it would be appropriate and helpful. This is the nice part about seeking an assessment privately - we are in control of how/if the results are used in Austin's education.

Tomorrow, Austin will complete the testing. I'll pick him up early, from Academie Duello.

Conversational Tidbits

Over the past few days, we have had several conversations with Austin, on different subjects.

Prehistoric ecosystems in modern-day Argentina: Today, I mentioned to Austin that my friend and her family will be travelling to Argentina. Austin said she was travelling to the home of some of the largest land creatures ever to live on the earth. I asked if he was referring to Argentinosaurus, and he clarified, also Giganotosaurus. He explained that it would be necessary to have a suitably large carnivore living amongst those large herbivores, or else life would not be sustainable. He really gets the concept of ecosystems.

How many minutes in a day?:

On the drive to Coquitlam yesterday, Austin and Aidan were discussing time, and wondering how many minutes there were in a day. Skye invited them to work out the answer. Since they know how many hours are in a day, and how many minutes in an hour, they can work out how many minutes are in a day. After about a minute of silence, Austin said, "1,440." Skye asked Austin how he had figured it out, and he explained that he worked out 60 times 20 = 1,200, then asked Aidan to remember the number 12. Then, Austin worked out 6 times 4 = 24 and multiplied that by 10 to equal 240, then he added the 240 to 1,200 to get 1,440. This is very close to the approach Carla used. Skye calculated 60 times 10 plus 60 times 2 to work out how many minutes are in half a day, then doubled it to get the same answer.

Many of the world's languages are disappearing:

This evening, on the drive to Austin's music lesson, we were listening to CBC radio, a discussion about the prediction that, over the next 100 years, 90% of the world's languages that exist today, will be extinct. We heard an introduction to the first of Wade Davis' Massey Lectures. Wade Davis has recently written the book, "The Wayfinders; Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World." I told Austin that, with his special skill with learning languages, he could help to preserve some of these threatened languages. I also told him that his Grandma teaches a language that is at risk of being lost - the Kaska language. I reminded Austin about his Kaska name, Quain (sp?), which means "Woodchuck." Austin suggested that he create a new language, rather than work to preserve a language that's going to die anyway. He explained that he creates faster than he destroys, so perhaps this would be a way to preserve the idea of multiple world languages - giving birth to new ones. The interviewee (Professor Arrister?) was explaining that it takes a linguist 4-5 years to collect and record everything he/she can from a dying language. It is Arrister's hope that, by preserving a language, they will succeed in preserving its culture, traditions and storytelling that have been passed down through the generations.