February 12, 2003 - 12:29 p.m.

Blustery Day

It's extremely windy outside. You can hear the wind buffeting the trees and bushes, and when I went to pick B up at school, I could occasionally feel the car rock ever so slightly from the gusts.

I guess that is what prompted M, who is home from school today with yet another cold< to ask, "Kris, what makes the wind?" One of those great unanswerable questions kids ask, huh? I have a vague idea that the wind is caused by a combination of convection currents on a grand scale and the interaction between high and low pressure weather systems. However, even if I were more confident in my knowledge of the causes of wind, I think it beyond my pedagogical skills to convey that information in a way a six year-old would understand. So, I used the old standby, "I don't know."

When not answering meteorological questions this morning I kept myself busy making homemade dot to dot pictures and crossword puzzles for M. It's actually kind of fun to personalize the connect the dot pictures - this time in honor of Valentine's Day I did an arrow pierced heart and a rose and also created sunglasses and a swimsuit in reference to their upcoming trip to the Bahamas. It is also more challenging than one might think to make a crossword for a very young child. M reads pretty well, but her spelling is still mostly phonetic. So I have to make sure that she can properly spell the words or it will throw the whole puzzle off and she'll get frustrated. It's a nice way to get a little mental exercize into my day, since reading story books, divvying up playdough, and playing the pet store owner in a game of dress-up aren't particularly intellectually stimulating. :)

today's project: turning those yucky black bananas into yummy bread

musing about: the ins and outs of wind

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flutter back - fly ahead