Update

Posted on February 26, 2008 by Gwen

Why am I having such a hard time writing lately? I can’t seem to get more than a sentence or two out. I know that the boy is saying cute things all the time and I can’t get them out. Like 2 nights ago when he was pretending to be part of the Super Why tv show. He was naming all the powers that we all had. His was letter power, Anthony’s was the power to help and according to Aidan “Mommy has spelling power.” I laughed, Anthony would have spit milk out his nose if he was drinking it and Aidan repeated my power several more times. I should have blogged it then, but I didn’t. I fear that my writing is going through a slump. Oh well, at least I can usually post pictures. (None today, but check out Left Coast Floyds if you want to know what we were up to over the weekend.)

I will try to be more consistent with my writing again. Wish me luck.

Posted in blogging, Gwen, Toddler Humour | Comments Off on Update

Bringing Back Science, Was it Lost?

Posted on February 22, 2008 by Gwen

The Parent Bloggers Network and PBS’s Zula Intergalactic Warrior are sponsoring a blog blast on science education. They are wondering what parents are doing to make science more accessible to their children. It was an interesting question for me. I am a elementary teacher and my husband is an Aerospace and Materials engineer with a PhD. (Just in case there is someone reading my blog that doesn’t know me.)

My first response is when are we not providing our preschoolers with science exploration? We may not call it that, in fact a lot of the time we call it toddler time, or dawdler time. The fact that all babies, toddlers and preschools explore their world in minute detail is scientific exploration at its finest. Babies begin the journey with putting everything in their mouth. Toddlers explore everything, sometimes with their mouth, but always touching and really looking at things. They also try to describe their world and ask tons of questions. Who hasn’t spluttered a wild-assed answer to one of their many questions about the world. They are always looking, touching, exploring.

I think a lot of time we scare kids with science by showing them what we are scared of. How many kids are scared of bugs because their parents are? How many thing do we teach them to be afraid of? How do we keep science, well first we start by remembering what it is like to explore. How do I do this with my child? The answer is simple: geocaching. My husband and I along with our almost three year old spend almost every weekend going off with our GPS, some coordinates and then we explore somewhere we have never thought to look before. Aidan calls it treasure hunting, or caching. He now is almost always going on his own steam so we go slower, look at more things, and generally take more time to smell the flowers. Ok so not flowers, yet, but we get to play in the woods and use our senses to explore our world. What better way to raise a curious, scientific child? If you have an answer let me know. 🙂

Posted in Aidan, Blog Blast, children, geocaching, Parent Bloggers Network | 3 Comments

Things That Go Boom: Aidan Cam

Posted on February 13, 2008 by Anthony

Perspective on the blast scene from an almost 3-yr old and his FP Digital Camera (as selected by Dad):

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I think these are pretty good given the equipment he has to work with! 🙂

Posted in Aidan, all by myself, camera, Pictures, Police Incidents, Vancouver | 2 Comments

Big Booms and Crazies

Posted on February 13, 2008 by Gwen

There was an explosion on Broadway this morning on a block where we are all the time, although never (well hardly ever) at 2:30 in the morning. Anthony wrote a post with a pictures on Left Coast Floyds this morning. We also got a really weird comment on that post, and I posted about it there. After all that posting since it was (and still is) sunny Aidan and I went down to see how close we could get to take some pictures. I didn’t expect to be able to get too close because Broadway was supposed to be closed from Willow to Cambie until at least noon today. To my surprise they had opened all but 2 lanes. Vancouver engineering must have been really working hard. So we gawked and took pictures.

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Our first look at the Starbucks on Broadway. I was really surprised that we were able to get so close.

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A better look at the damage.

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Aidan was taking pictures too. I think we got a few of the newspaper box. 🙂

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More of the damage to the surrounding businesses.

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Some of the damage across the street at London Drugs. It was actually open at this point and quite busy.

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Several floors above the Starbucks.

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Aidan taking more pictures, and also deleting them. 🙂

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Shattered windows above the Scouts Canada store. A place I walk by almost daily.

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Anyone want some shattered glass? London Drugs has tons outside their store.

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Another view of the damage.

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Looking at these 2 pictures of the tree and the glass stuck in it, it is much easier to see why it is amazing that no one was hurt. If there had been anyone on the street at this time they would have been seriously injured.

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I wasn’t the only one who thought that the tree was interesting. There were a lot of news cameras of all types there. One camera man in particular spent a bit of time filming Aidan looking at the glass stuck in the tree. When the camera man asked Aidan what he thought of it, Aidan replied “It is terrific!”

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I am assuming that these men are investigators.

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More of the gawkers. It was quite a spectacle. I am sure that like me a lot of these people are around here all the time (well not the camera crews) and wanted to see the wreckage. I still can’t believe that this happened. I’ll just bet that Starbucks is glad they just turned the old Dairy Queen 2 blocks down into a new Starbucks. Can’t have all that business go to Blenz. 🙂

I will try to post some of the pictures from Aidan’s camera later. They provide an interesting perspective.

Posted in Aidan, Police Incidents, Starbucks, Vancouver | 1 Comment