Walter has been taking an online electronics class at www.quickstudylabs.com. I can't say enough good things so far. He has learned an incredible amount in just two week. The class uses the Electronic Snap Circuits 300 set as a base and then the teacher, who is a community college professor of Electronics, fleshes out the projects with much more explanation, small videos, and audio so that they really understand what the projects are teaching. I know for sure that I've learned so much already; I knew nothing about electronics before this. We've learned about how current is electron flow, how it flows from the negative terminal around to the positive terminal and out the negative one again, about how and why some people use conventional current and others use electron flow, about resistance, adding resistance, about the parts of a circuit, loads, parts of a DC engine and how it works as an electromagnet with its brushes, armature, and commutators, about LEDs and their differences from traditional light bulbs, about the parts of a lightbulb, about how speakers work, about series and parallel circuits, about branch points. This week there was a contest to see who could find the most LEDs in their home. Walter found 96! And he spelled nearly all of them correctly without help! The funniest was "knight light." He's been playing Runescape too much.
Ollie's diving schedule for the fall remains fraught with drama. It's a terrible shame. The dive coach that all of the competitive divers we know want did not seem to receive the contract with our local pool. This means that instead, practices will be at another pool 40 minutes away, up to four times a week (and we're already signed up for a weekly dive clinic there already, so that would make 4-5 days a week we'd be going there or arranging a carpool). All I'm looking for is a good quality instructor who takes safety seriously, is reliable, affordable, and preferably doesn't require several $60 tanks of gas a week to get to.
This morning we went to the Science Museum with Adena and her kids to see the Grand Canyon IMAX movie. It was really good. A little preachy, but the scenery was fabulous, and unlike many IMAX movies I've seen, it had a very good narrative with it that was much more coherent than most and taught both me and the kids a good deal about the changes the Colorado River has gone through in the past 150 years, about the repercussions of damming, about the desert biome, and about the native people who have lived in that area over the centuries. There was also inspiring whitewater rafting and kayaking footage. I was smart this time and took a Dramamine before it started, and I was fine.
Unfortunately, I've had a migraine for way over a day now. I took Maxalt this morning at around 6:15 a.m., and that kicked out the pain, but left behind a few hours of side-effect nausea. It was gross. Now the headache is making it's return. I'm so tired of hormonal problems.
Yesterday's playdate excitement was that a whole group of children seemed to stumble into a yellowjackets' nest. 4/7s of the kids were stung, including two of mine. Both Ollie and Rutledge were stung right on their eyes. I took them by the ped's office just to get it checked because their eyelids were swollen. Rutledge took some Benadryl and looked better in the evening, but this morning he woke up with a very puffy and nearly-closed eye again. More Benadryl did get it to go down finally, but it has still been unsettling.
Tomorrow we are supposed to leave for our annual Labor Day Family Camp trip to Camp Bethel. I'm not sure we'll get off to a good start. Ollie's stomach is bothering him tonight, and it has been very, very rainy for the past two days. Today was better, but there's still a good chance of scattered or isolated thundershowers both tomorrow and Saturday, and I'm not one of those diehard campers who will slop through any conditions. I have high standards. I like temperate readings on the thermometer and nothing falling from the sky.
