World Thinking Day -- India!

Our Girl Scout Service Unit celebrated World Thinking Day yesterday with a Passport Adventure. Several troops hosted tables featuring individual countries and attending Girl Scouts participated in a whirlwind tour, reading displays, tasting ethnic food and making crafts or playing games.

Our troop chose to learn about India. Hayley was sick the day we were supposed to put our display together but the girls did a wonderful job of researching on their own and bringing items (and knowledge) to share with the other girls.

Some things the girls found particularly interesting:

• More than 80% of the people living in India are Hindu. They worship many gods and goddesses.
• The cow is sacred -- not because the people have an affinity for cows, but because they believe their gods and goddesses often take the form of animals when they visit their people...and the cow is the form most often chosen.
• The Ganges River is a sacred river and is actually considered a goddess. People who bathe in its waters are washed free of their sins.
• The peacock is the national bird.
• The Taj Mahal was built as a memorial for an emperor's dead wife. It took 20 years and 20,000 workers to complete this massive, beautiful structure.
• The average worker in India brings home an annual salary of $884. The average U.S. worker brings home $45,000.

Building A Suspension Bridge

This was such a neat activity -- the kids learned the science behind suspension bridges -- and then tried their hand at making one of their own! First, they built the supports from PVC piping, then used heavy-duty twine to create the suspension cords that are anchored to the ground.

After recruiting some of the kids to hold these anchors (this is what Hayley is doing in the above picture!), the other kids started looping string around the wooden plank and the twine suspension cord....and guess what? It worked!


We are surrounded by bridges in Minnesota thanks to our many lakes and rivers, but none are suspension bridges. This is because suspension bridges are used to span long distances across relatively deep water....not something we have here. Still, it was very interesting to learn the engineering behind these beautiful, magnificent bridges.

Earth Hour -- March 28, 2009

Mark your calendars for this year's Earth Hour. On Saturday, March 28th from 8:30-9:30, join an estimated 1 billion people around the world in turning off the light switches in your home.

As clarification, I am not on the global warming bandwagon; I think there is just as much scientific evidence out there to disprove the notion as there is evidence that supports it. However, I am in favor of conserving our natural resources and creating a more sustainable future. These are the reasons I support and will participate in this year's Earth Hour.

Check it out and see what you think!

Zeus on the Loose

I bought the game Zeus on the Loose a while ago but we finally opened it up last night -- Nick could not get enough of it!


The object of the game is simple -- create a discard pile (called Mt. Olympus) that totals 100 so that you can "steal" Zeus and earn a point (points are tallied by spelling out Zeus' name so, each time Mt. Olympus reaches 100 and you are in possession of the statue, you earn the next letter in his name -- the first person to spell Z-E-U-S wins!)>

However, there are plenty of "god" cards mixed in with the simple number cards to make this a game of both skill and luck. Some god cards allow you to steal Zeus and be in possession of the statue before Mt. Olympus reaches 100; other god cards change the total of Mt. Olympus (Hera, for example changes the total to 99 and allows you to steal Zeus, almost guaranteeing a win).

It may sound complicated but we learned the rules in a matter of five minutes and Nick was literally bouncing in his chair, he was having so much fun. He went to bed begging to play it in the morning -- I don't know how much more stellar of a review a kid can give!

I like that it is a relatively fast game and it relies on math skills to play; Nick was adding in his head, reversing two digit numbers...it even has the potential to introduce negative numbers!

Out of 5 stars, we give this a definite 5. Another winning game by Gamewright (and, no I do not work for them or hold any of their stock!).

UNICEF 2009 Holiday Card Contest

For all you budding artists, there is still time to enter! Prize is a $5,000 scholarship and $500 in art supplies for your school (or, as the rules state, your "current educational classroom." I think that applies to homeschoolers!).

So, drag out those crayons, pencils, markers or paints and think back to the holidays -- not too hard to be inspired here in Minnesota as I gaze out at the EIGHT inches of new snow on the ground! This year's theme is "Joy to the World."

http://www.pier1.com/USCardContest/tabid/262/Default.aspx

Happy drawing and painting!

Awesome, Amazing Adjectives!

Continuing our Parts of Speech fun, we played a game with adjectives today. The kids cut out a bunch of pictures from magazines -- the only caveat was the photographs had to focus on clear nouns (a vase of flowers, a can of soup, etc. -- not, say, a whole crowd of people). They each cut out ten pictures and we spread them out on the table to look at. Then we folded up the pictures and placed them in a bowl.

Each of them took turns drawing a photograph from the bowl and then, using only adjectives, they tried to successfully describe the item they'd chosen. For example, Hayley used these adjectives to describe the vase of flowers:

multi-colored
scented
pretty


Nick used these adjectives to describe a jar of nuts:

brown
tasty


A snowman was:

cold
white
large

and a dress shirt was:

soft
warm
orange
long-sleeved

Now, I should say that the kids were not super-successful in generating their own adjectives or guessing correctly. However, by the end of our little game, they showed marked signs of improvement. Best of all, it made learning parts of speech a little more fun, which is all that really matters, right? And since one can only do so many Mad Libs, it's nice to have some variety......

Special Delivery!

It's Girl Scout cookie time! And being Cookie Mom means picking up 1000s of boxes of cookies. Minnesota has a terrific pick up system, I must say! I drove my car and Grandpa followed in the truck, just in case we needed it...we did. We drove to our pick up location, got in line and several nice men loaded all of the cookies into my car...much better than hauling them on my own from the fire station.


Once we got them home, we transferred all of the cases into the house. I'm pretty sure both kids claimed this as WiiFit credit in their accounts....it was hard work!


We brought them into the house and put them in stacks by cookie type.



And then we got to sort them by order form -- the totals for each Girl Scout. Nick graciously offered to help; actually, he was probably more excited than Hayley. I think he just may have a future in retail.....

We still have gobs of boxes to sell at cookie booths, etc. so if you are hankering for a Girl Scout cookie, let me know. The organization is being -- unfairly, I think -- blasted in the media by decreasing cookie sizes and quantities this year. After conducting a survey, GSUSA decided that, rather than increase the cost per box to deal with increased production costs, they would trim the size of the cookie and the units per box. Nothing was reduced by a significant amount -- no box was reduced by more than .5 ounces! However, this news, coupled with the recession, have really wreaked havoc on sales and guess who is suffering? Not the nationwide organization.....the GIRLS. Girls who have their hearts set on reaching sales goals and prize incentives, girls who have ambitious plans for community service projects, and girls who want to plan a fun, end-of-the-year event with hard-earned cookie money.

If you haven't purchased a box of cookies this year, please think about doing so. When you see those girls setting up cookie booths at grocery stores or other locales, please consider buying a box -- if not for you then as a donation to the local food shelf or nursing home. $3.50 goes a long way toward helping these girls reach their goal...each and every box helps!

Enjoy those cookies!