well, well.

we’ve done a lot of egg experiments and watched the egg white turn white and the yolk get hard and then we’ve eaten it…

if we had summer preschool, i bet we would have tried frying an egg on the sidewalk.

and maybe it’s the morning after low that gives me the pessimistic thought that it wouldn’t have worked anyway.

i did this whole fry and egg on the sidewalk with my own kids.  not satisfying!

check it out here:  fry an egg on the sidewalk fail :: prairie daze

maybe we’ll try again.

have you had success?

 

winner, winner, easi-speak winner!

thanks to my daughter, eliza, for choosing a number between one and 44…after quite a bit of thinking, she chose 26!

you can hear the whole “randomly choosing a number” thing here (though there is a lot of wait time, so be patient!):

“random number chosen :: eliza and mama”

then i counted the comments and found number 26!

this means you, heidi!

check your inbox for a message from me so learning resources can send you your easi-speak!

thanks, all.

happy summer!

a favorite conversation:

a father is a dad.

like a mom but a dad.

if you don’t have a dad you did in some way at the start.

dads can do what moms do.

dads are the men who take care of babies.

dads can wear pink.

dads do all the things that kids need.

dads are men but men don’t have to be dads.

dads can feed babies even if they can’t nurse them.

mostly fathers can take kids where ever moms take kids.

fathers are nice.

they have friends.

dads are nice.

yeah, dads are nice because they knew their kids when they were first born.

happy father’s day, to all you men who are nice because you knew your kids when they were first born.  what an honor of life that is.

UPDATED:  this giveaway is open to comment entries through monday, the 18th.  one winner will be randomly chosen and announced on tuesday, june 19!

:: :: :: ::

barely used to how this whole review/give away thing works, we’re reviewing and giving away another product from learning resources!

we received the easi-speak usb recorder from learning resources to use and review.

when i first started teaching here in 1994, we had a record player along with cassette tape players.  eventually we moved on to cd players and now we are exclusively iphone/computer for music.  back in the era of cassette tapes, i would fairly regularly record preschoolers’ voices.  sometimes just to listen to as a self-observation type situation and sometimes for a game.

(preschool circa 1996.)

a specific game was “guess who” where each child would take turns saying, “hello.”  then we’d switch seats on the rug, i’d play back the tape and we’d try to figure out who was who.  we haven’t done this since getting rid of our cassette tape player.  and i didn’t realize it!

so if for no other reason, the easi-speak will let us play “guess who” again!

i know from my experiences as a mama, there is little as precious as hearing your own child’s voice on the phone.  because this recorder has the option to download the files (not all recorders do!), i can imagine getting a snippet of a preschooler’s voice and sending it to families via email and to share at our parent-teacher conferences.

our very first recording:

“can you hear me?”

press the red button, say something, let go of the red button, plug easi-speak into computer, find the recordings in the MIC_REC folder and drag file to our desktop.  super simple.

things the children would like you to know that we like about the  easi-speak:

you might feel like a rock star.

it is really light.  it’s not heavy at all.

there are buttons on the microphone.

the teacher can put your voice on the computer forever.

it’s like a movie without any pictures.

there is a necklace for it from the company.

even if you whisper the sound will show up.

you can press a button to hear what you said.

you can make recordings longer than the whole preschool day. (in reference to the 4 hour capacity of audio)

you can do yourself talking or something else that makes noise.

we are grateful for this product and highly recommend it.

you can find learning resources all over this virtual world:

click here to find them on facebook

click here to find them on twitter

click here to find them on youtube

click here to find them on pinterest

and thanks again to learning resources, i have one to give away.

leave a comment and one random winner will be chosen.  go team!

:: :: :: ::

my family went on vacation with my parents right after school was over.  one stop was city museum in st. louis.

a quote from the creator of this place reminded me of preschool:

“The illusion of danger is essential for any kind of adventure.”

– Bob Cassilly

and these spaces reminded me the adventure we would have if we could go together:

if you can make it there, do so and know i thought of you!