Wiley’s at it again

We pulled in from a trip to the grocery store and Wiley read the etching in the side mirror out loud. He thought for a moment and then said (unprompted) "that means the mirror zooms out a lot." When asked why the mirrors might be designed to do that, he said "so you can see more." I asked a few more questions, and after some discussion he correctly recognized the need for a concave surface. And then, one more realization: "It's like a funnel, where you can randomly pour in stuff and it comes out all in a small place."

Astronaut and Artist!

 

Socks...

This has been a problem for eons, as any of our Au Pairs will tell you. Socks everywhere! Tonight's collection - which I was able to assemble just by sweeping the living room and hallway with my feet - is perhaps a record. How????

Still life: Portia’s Hair Ties in the Drawer

Bobcat at Dripping Springs

 

Nana and Gramps have owned this property since the 1970's and this is the first bobcat sighting any of us are aware of.  In slightly less exciting news, Neal saw a porcupine at that same feeder for the first time about a month ago. 

Dingbats x 3

Umm, apparently it is contagious.

Dingbat

Just to keep us all grounded, I figure I should also share this photo of my oldest looking truly idiotic.

Geometry

This started as a typical Tanner dinner conversation last night. Today's topic: geometry and the dimensionality of objects.

Mami (to Wiley): "What is an example of a one-dimensional object?"
Portia (while Wiley is still inhaling to answer): "A line!"
Both of them gestured as if they were holding the ends of a string in their fingers.
Mami (to both): "What about a two-dimensional object?"
Portia: "a surface" (yes, those words!)

Wiley clearly also knew the answers but his sister has the advantage of a verbal quickness that he does not possess. Graydon has learned to keep his mouth shut when we ask Wiley things like that and I frankly wasn't expecting Portia to be able to contribute!! Next time we'll need to referee more carefully.

As an aside, while I type this, Portia has also correctly ascertained that she could "still make 97 ghosts" out of the package of 100 coffee filters I had bought for this purpose, since she had "already made three." And Wiley was working on teaching her fractions last week.

Meanwhile, the math learning goal for Portia's kindergarten class is being able to count to 20...

The dinnertime convo then transitioned to Daddy asking Graydon about whether two-dimensional objects could be "not flat." Good thing he likes soccer - the pattern on his ball was a good example. Daddy then asked Graydon a trick question about what parallel lines were. Graydon very dutifully responded that they were two lines that never intersect. So then we got to blow his mind with the concept of non-Euclidean space (like his non-flat surface on the soccer ball) and how parallel lines only don't cross each other in Euclidean space. There was a brief side bar on nomenclature and whether meridians marked longitude or latitude... having concluded the former, they were cited as an example of parallel lines in that intersect at the poles. When we started discussing the concept of four- and higher dimensionality, Graydon rolled his eyes. He was out.

I guess we like to torture our kids with math. We tell them it's for their own good, but the honest truth is that math is just fun, and watching their little brains grow is even more fun. :)

One really annoying side effect of virtual school

Neal and I get dozens of emails every day when each individual assignment our kids submit online (from their physical classrooms, mind you) are graded. Oh my goodness, it is maddening. Haven't found the setting yet with which it can be turned off.

Front Page News

 Wiley and Portia made the front page of the Austin paper as they headed back to school yesterday.

Successful first day!

At the school!

We had some last quick good-byes at the door as parents are not allowed in. Portia looked a little bewildered but she trusts her brothers and will learn to trust the teachers. Still hard to drop your kids off at a completely foreign place (brand-new school) and not get to help them find their way. Sniff.

Leaving for the first “real” day of school

Mami is getting better at this...

Our au pairs were always so much better at braiding Portia's hair than I was... but I have started learning how to do it, and I'm pretty happy with this morning's result!

Mask Training

It's official, the kids are going back to the classroom on Monday. Portia spent the morning yesterday practicing wearing her mask around the house. It went well!