Last night our science experiment was to put a bowl of water on the porch because the forecast was for freezing temperatures overnight. I guess we ended up being a little above freezing because all we had in the morning was a bowl of really cold water. Still she thought it was cool.
Maggie declared that today she was gonna try to get a lesson in the "Decanomial Square". Googling for it, I found one here. It's pretty scary the higher math concepts the Montessori people teach kids at an early age, but I guess I can't much complain. It's worth it to see the looks on my relatives' faces when a five year-old declares "I'm learning how to multiply".
Also she's enjoying going to the school library once a week. We had a bit of a problem with her getting intimidated by the books and then checking out books designed for kids way younger than her (i.e. books with no words and cardboard pages). This morning, though, she declared that one of her classmates read Black Beauty, so she can read it too. I think it's above her reading level, but if she wants to give it a try, I'll help her with it. After all, it's just part of the job of being the best daddy in the world.
Oh, and another funny aside. Maggie's OLPC laptop still hasn't arrived, but I told her that one of the things she can do with it is read a cool encyclopedia called "Wikipedia". She was excited about the prospects of this Wikipedia thing, and she declared that the first thing she would look up when she got her laptop would be "Mickey Rooney".
Why Mickey Rooney, you ask?
Well, I guess it's just an affect that's creeped into my vernacular, but whenever I am asked about how small something is, I tend to say "about as big as Mickey Rooney". It's actually a line from a really great Animaniacs song, but Maggie never understood the reference, so she's eager to figure it out.
Ahh Wikipedia. In it you can learn about Mickey Rooney and eight or nine other things :)
