Soduko

Noah is learning to play Sudoku. I am excited about how quickly he seems to be picking up on the concepts. I think that it is exercising logic and reasoning skills.

The basics of the game - there are 9 squares - 3 rows by 3 columns- each with 9 smaller squares. Each of the bigger squares will have the numbers 1 through 9 occurring only once. You must also make sure that each number only occurs once in each row and only once in each column. Each game starts with some of the squares filled in. The more complex puzzles have very few completed squares and the easier, more.

Molting

A few months back, we took a trip to the Oregon Zoo. See #5 from our Junary trip. We learned that spiders will shed their exoskeletons, much like a snake molts. They had examples of large tarantellas. I didn't know that before our visit.

This morning I discovered a spider skeleton near the pool. The kids were able to find others. I think I've seen these exoskeletons before and just assumed that it was a dead, decayed spider.

Initial Science Project

Find empty quart glass jar.

Have children fill jar as full as they can with river rocks.

Ask, "Is it totally full?"

Have children fill jar as full as they can with play sand.

Ask "Is it totally full?"

Have children slowly pour water over sand.

Air bubbles will likely pop as the water soaks into the sand.
The jar was not completely empty when we started, it had air in it.

Discussion: What is science? Finding out how things work and questioning why things work, often through experimental scientific process.