Silkworms, Day 1

Mommy guest-writing:

Yesterday the silkworms hatched. What were poppy seed-sized black eggs split open to release tiny, 1/8th inch black caterpillars that quickly started crawling around the petri dish looking for food. We made silkworm chow and are now feeding them little crumbs of greenish stuff the consistency of agar. LF will be measuring them every day & taking pictures to upload here.

For information on how to rear silkworms, these are good resources:

• http://insected.arizona.edu/silkrear.htm.
  
• http://suekayton.com/Silkworms/raising.htm.

We bought our eggs & silkworm chow from here: Niles Biological.

To summarize:
Day #1: 1/8"

Silkworm Project

We received our silkworm eggs today!!! We got 25 eggs. They came in a petri dish, and we put the petri dish under a dark bowl and put a moist paper towel next to it and left the bowl lifted up a bit, and put the whole thing next to a window. The moist paper towel is to keep it moist so the eggs don't dry up.

The eggs look like tiny little black things that are blackish/grayish. They kind of look like tiny miniscule seeds.

The Best and Worst of Tuesday

What was the best thing about today?

Little Flower: The first best thing was Mommy buying us ice cream after school and the second best thing as playing with incense (at school)

Super Fire (little brother): I loved that ball who goes out and in and out and in, the spikey one (like we saw at the science museum).

What was the worst thing about today?

LF: The worst thing was SF crying.

SF: Noona (big sister) hit me. Starts crying just thinking about it.

Trampoline and loose tooth

Today my hand was being very naughty because it was not being very good at writing, it was not listening to me and I was telling it not to do so scribbly-scrabbly tomorrow in Time class or else I would give him a double punishment and he would have time-out and no more writing for a long time. My arm was as red as the letters I'm going to put on right now: As red as this.

I went to the art museum a few days ago.

My tooth is loose. Mommy says it's going to come out in a week. I've been wiggling it a lot. I can't wait until it falls out.

And very soon I'm going to go back to New York. I can't wait until I do. I miss my dog Sadie and my daddy so much.

I went to a park that had a trampoline and I went on the trampoline for 90 minutes. That's more than an hour. And then we went home and I played with my fluff ball. Her name is Sofy. Mommy gave her to me as a surprise today and one for my brother. She is so soft.

Tobi writes

"Ooh la la" Like a girl. I want to say, "ooh la".

I love Korea best of all. Cause it's good. I'm happy.

Ocean world and more fun stuff

I am learning how to read and write Korean. I want to learn Korean because I am at Korea and I thought it would be a good idea to learn Korean. Because my cousins are in Taiwan and they are learning a language that I don't know and I want to learn a language so that they will be jealous and won't tease me about it.

It is hard to learn Korean.

I have had lots of fun here. I've gone to a place called Kids12 which is a big play place and I've gone to another big play place called Tiovivo. It is very fun there. I like Kids12 better, the people there are very nice, but my mommy says she likes Tiovivo better.

I went to this place called Ocean World. It was so cool. There was a hotel too there. It is all Egyptian. There was one ride that Mommy got to go on that I didn't because I was too short. It was so unfair because I was just a tiny inch smaller. If I went on my tippy toes I could reach it and taller. It was so unfair. But there's another ride that had this current and you'd go on this current and it would pull you. Once I almost got lost on it and Mommy got mad. You could go outside if you wanted or you could stay inside and there was lots of current and it pulled and you went all the way around and you would be in the beginning and you would go out. There were lots of hot tubs and there was this one that had pink water in it and it was so so so hot. It was pink because it was rose water, it was so fun but so hot. We had to go on the cool side, it was so hot. And I got water massages there and there's really hot hot tubs. And there was this giant wave place that looked like the real ocean and I got to go in the deep part and go all the way out to touch the line and come back, swimming up and down and up and down. I couldn't have gone in the deep part, but I wore a floatie so I could go up the wave and down the wave just like a boat. One time the waves stopped and then I just curled up and floated in the water like it was a comfy bed.

That's all I've got to say. Bye bye.

My Poppa's Funeral

I went to a korean funeral. My poppa died. My poppa is my grandpa. It was kind of scary. It was a five day ceremony and on three days my mommy and my two aunts had to wear these black dresses and white bows in their hair. On the first day, there was a room with his picture in it and there was incense and we bowed and lit the incense. I bowed two and a half times. His picture was really nice. If you were far back it looked like he was smiling, but if you were close up it looked like he was frowning.

On the second day we did the same thing. On the third day I went with my mommy and my aunty Sumi and uncle Brian and uncle Ben and we saw Poppa's body being wrapped up. It was scary when we saw his body because it didn't look like him at all. They had shaved off his beard and it did not look like him at all. At first he was wearing these linen clothes and there were no knots at all. Not even at the end of a thread. There was no knots because if there are knots it might trap the spirit and might stop the spirit from getting out. Then they put a paper bag thing on his head and then they tied his arms up but they didn't use knots. They had to tie his arms up because he was especially big and wouldn't fit in the coffin. Then they put him in the coffin and fit it with paper rolls so that he wouldn't wobble around. And then they put the coffin lid on and covered it with a red clothe that had his name on it and then another red cloth then put it in a freezer.

On the fifth day, we went to another ceremony place and there we saw them put his coffin in an oven. We waited two hours and then we went back and saw them take out his ashes. There was a fake hip that didn't burn because it was metal. My mommy got that. Then there was a glass jar that we put his ashes in and my mommy put the fake hip in there. And then we took the jar and went to a place where there were glass boxes and we put Poppa's jar in a glass box. On the sixth day, we went back and unscrewed the box and put pictures of his family in the box so he wouldn't be lonely. And I thought it would a good idea to put one of his sailing medals in there too because he was a sailor till he got Alzheimer's.

And that was my Poppa's funeral.

And tobi turned 4

Oh, and I forgot something. Tobi turned 4. He's my little brother.

My new school

Now I part-time homeschool instead of full-time homeschooling. The school I go to is not like a regular school, if you know what it is it's a free school. Manhattan Free School. You can sign up for classes and you can teach classes and you can play almost all day.

I have a best friend there. Well, not a best friend, but one of my closest friends. His name is Sam. When he gets angry, he's very scary. There's a ten-year-old girl there I like very much. Her name is Priscilla and she walks me home sometimes. My mommy pays her $5. I have two staff members. Their names are Pat and Noelle. They are very nice and they take care of my school and they are nice. That's mostly all they do. My mommy and my daddy and me teaches classes. My daddy's taught only one class and I've taught one class. My mommy teaches knitting and Korean. My daddy teaches Go. It's not like stop and go, it's an Asian game that's sort of like Chess, I guess, because I have no idea of what chess actually is.

I haven't written in the blog in so long because I haven't had a chance to, and when I have I forgot. So I didn't write in it till now.

During the time I've been away and haven't been writing, I went to France for 2 weeks. And we passed Hannukah too. Guess what I got for the 8th day? I got a Didji, sort of like a Nintendo DS, which my friend Sam gets his nose stuck in. Except it's not like like a Nintendo DS because it's bigger and it doesn't have a cover.

And at my school, I've got 5 pets: two guinea pigs and three gerbils. And that's pretty much all I've got to say. And I've got a dog. I forgot.

Wooly Bear Caterpillar

My Virginia Adventure

[A posting from our visit to Lily's grandmother and step-grandfather in Virginia.]

Today I had a real tiring adventuring day. Because we had a party, and the beginning of the party we went tubing and when you go tubing you use these big tire-y things and then you float there in the water and when I went tubing I found some friends and they were at the party too. I'm not saying their names but I'm going to just tell you about them.

I am in a big house that is my Grandma's and Grandpa's. There are two skeletons here who are Charlie and Toli and they are very nice.

When you go tubing and you get back, I was pulling the friend of mine I was talking to, the female, and I was pulling her. But there was a part that was currenty and then there was a part that was shallow and we had to walk. And then there was a deep part and she fell flat on her head in the water. And she was complaining because nobody else did, not even me.

Then I had cake and Oscar came and Aunty Emily and Uncle Chris and Adam. Then it was bed time and everyone was talking late and that leads me to this moment when I finished the story. So long from me, until the next daily news which I know won't be tomorrow because we'll be doing a lot of traveling. And I know I've already past the time when I should be stopping so I think I'll talk on for three more sentences. So my first sentence is I hope tomorrow goes on smoothly. And my other sentence is I hope tonight everyone sleeps well. And my last sentence is I hope Sadie is well. Okay, now here's the real goodbye -- So, bye and so long.

Me and Sadie, a poem

Me and Sadie went to the park
Me and Sadie played on the swings

Me and Sadie went to the zoo
Me and Sadie saw cockroach shoes

Me and Sadie went the the beach
Me and Sadie played in the sea

Me and Sadie played in the lake

Me and Sadie went to bed
Med and sadie went to sleep

COMMENT: I don't do rhyming poems. I only do just little things that aren't real things but they sound more like a poem then real things.

Narration: The wings of a butterfly

AUTHOR: A traditional South American fable

STORY: Once upon a time, there was a little girl called Chimiduye and she lived in a small house in the rain forest with her relatives and mother and father. Boys and men hunted and girls and the women cooked and worked in a farm nearby.

The other girls and she never dared to step too far into the forest because they knew quite well it was very easy to get eaten by a wild beast or a spirit. And one day, when she was making a little basket she looked up and saw a huge butterfly in front of her and she followed in deep deep into the woods. And soon it disappeared into the vines and she realized that she had gone too far into the forest. And she wandered aimlessly through the trees only getting deeper into the forest then before.

And then she heard a little tap-tap-tap in the woods. And she thought hopefully, somebody's working in the woods and they can bring me home. And she followed the tapping sound, but to her surprise it was only a woopecker. She said to herself, if only you were human you could lead me home. The woodpecker said, "Why do I need to be human to lead you home? I could lead you home the way I am!"

She said, "Really?" And then the woodpecker said, "Why not." and flew away.

And then she wandered into the woods a little bit more and saw a big hut. And there was a lady inside it making a hammock. The lady said, "Don't ask me for help! You eat so many of us and boil so many of us, so don't ask me for help!" and old lady went away. The old lady was actually really just a bird transformed and fluttered into a tree.

And then a fruit fell from a tree and she picked it up and ate it. And then another one fell from the tree. She looked up and it was a group of monkeys. Her fear soon grew when daylight spread to darkness. The monkeys came down from the tree and she hid to watch them. And then to her surprise, the monkeys turned into humans. And one of the boy monkeys said,"What are you doing here, Chimuye?" And she said,. "I got lost." Then a woman monkey said, "Poor thing, you can come with us to the festival of monkeys. The Lord Monkey invited us."

And then they went to a big hut with a bunch of other monkeys wearing masks and costumes and drinking beer. And the Lord Monkey said, "Why are you here uninvited?" And the man monkey said, "We found her and brought her with us."

And that nights, she couldn't sleep from the King Monkey snoring. It sounded like somebody talking, and she listed to the king monkey and he said, "I'm going to devour her, I'm going to devour her." And she said, "Grandfather!" and he woke up and she said "you said you were going to devour me." And he said don't be silly, monkeys don't devour people. And went back to sleep.

She saw the Lord Monkey, and he wasn't really a monkey at all. He was a big beast with black spots. He was a jaguar! She got out of bed and got a torch and ran right out to the big hut.

Daylight soon came and she started to cry. She heard a fluttering and she looked up and saw a butterfly, and the butterfly said, "Follow me. I will show you the way home." "Really?" And the butterfly said, "Sure, follow me."

And soon they were at the river and on the other side was her family and friends. And she said,"I crossed the river without even knowing it! But how can I get back?" And the butterfly said, "I'll turn you into a butterfly." And she hummed "Who do drinks dew, who do drinks dew, who do drinks dew." And soon she was fluttering across the river.

The moment she touched ground she turned into a human and she went home. The end.

REVIEW: This story is from South America. My review is Ii do not get it at all. When I think of it, i think it's a little too changey. A little confusing. That is my review. I would like to change into a butterfly so I could flutter around. I'd sleep without a blanket. I'd sleep on a wall, and the most funnest of all would be to walk on the ceiling. But now I'm not a butterfly so I can't walk on the wall at all.

Poem: Our New Dog

Our new dog is a lab.
Who is it?
It's a Lab-lab.
Who is it again?
A Lab-Lab-Lab-lab.
Oh! It's a Lab!
It's a Lab-Lab-Lab-lab, I heard.
And it's a Lab-Lab-Lab-lab.

We have a lab.
A lab we have.
We have a lab.
A Lab-lab-have.
A Lab we have.

But I do not know
if it's a lab or a bag
so what should we throw?

We have a lab mix
a max and mix.
We have a lab mix,
who's half max and half lab.

Written by Lily.

Our new dog Sadie

Our new dog's name is Sadie. Sadie is a fun-loving, very cute little doggy. She's a black lab, we got her at a place called Bide-a-wee. Bide-a-wee is a shelter, they save little dogs. Sadie is from Tennessee. We adopted her two days ago and this is my third day with her.

Last night she pooped in my room, but I didn't mind. Dogs poop and she's just a puppy and she's not even toilet trained. Sadie is four months old. Today she had a real adventure that scared us a bit, but it was okay, she came back all by herself. We think she went by the stream, that's what my mommy thinks. My mommy was so sad that she cried. She cried most of the time, half the time. Me and my daddy put posters all over town until the road back to New York. And then we drove right back and we missed a few mailboxes, so we filled those later. We put posters in mailboxes, daddy did it in a bar, daddy did it everywhere. After that we went home.

And then we waited a long time without any dinner, and then finally JY said, who's my little brother, I may have mentioned him before, JY said, "There's puppy! Puppy came back!" And there Sadie was, standing near the pond in front of the fence. We went rushing down to her and mommy lifted the fence and she came jumping up on us and was so excited to be home. And now I'm sitting here writing in my blog with Sadie sitting next to the stairs to the deck and we keep telling her: No More Adventures! Because she had plenty of adventures all day that we know nothing about. And I hope that soon I will find out what adventures did she have and what did she do.

The solar system

Millions and millions and millions of years ago the Earth formed. The yolk of the Earth is melted metal. I mean, iron. And the part closing around the yolk is hard rock, and above that is some more rock and above that was rock. And it was all volcanoes and meteors. This is when the Earth was formed. The volcanoes turned into water and it rained and rained for years, forming the seas. and that's how our planet was formed.

Our solar system is the Milky Way, because it looks so milky. The Milky Way is a bunch of stars. There was an explosion that formed the Earth like I just talked about. It was the Big Bang. And Sol is, well I believe that Sol is the god of all the planets. And just to let you know Sol is the name of the sun.

And that's all I say about for now. From me.

My teachers

I have been having a good time at school with Mommy. Mommy is my new teacher and Daddy is my science teacher. Mommy has been a very good teacher but Daddy has been teaching me barely any science. So mommy has been becoming my science and regular teacher. That's mostly what's been going on the past few days. That's all I'm going to write about in my blog today. Maybe I'll write some more later today, or some other time. Bye, from me and the blog.

Narration: Belling the cat

AUTHOR: Aesop

One day, there was a family of mice. And they had a meeting. How would they get away from their enemy the cat? One young mouse said, "I have a good idea. It's simple and I know it will be a very good one. All we have to do is tie a bell around the cat and then the bell will ring whenever the cat is coming." But then one old mouse said, "That's a very good idea, but who will bell the cat?"

REVIEW: This is my opinion, that it's easy to say "I'm going to do it", but it might be harder to do it.

Paleontology

I would like to be a paleontologist because I like dinosaurs. They are big and funny and nice. Paleontologists are the best experts on finding dinosaur bones. They sketch it and take pictures of it so they know how it fits together. Fossils give good clues to how it was in the old days. They can learn how the dinosaurs walk from footprints. They can learn if they walk like this [walks with feet together] or like this [walks with feet spread apart]. They can learn if dinosaurs lived together in a group or as one single. They can learn what dinosaurs eat from their droppings and many other things.

Narration: Anansi and the moss-covered rock

TITLE: Anansi and the moss-covered rock
AUTHOR: Traditional African fable

Once upon a time there was a spider named Anansi who was a famous spider. And as he walked along the path he wished he had some food. He said to himself, "I wish I had some food. I wish I had some food. I wish I had some food." Anansi saw something in the middle of the path. Was it food? No, it was just a rock. When Anansi looked at it closer he saw it was a moss-covered rock. And Anansi said "What a strange rock!" and fell asleep. And he slept for a long long time and woke up and said "What a strange rock!" and fell asleep again. And again, and again, and again. And then he said, "What a.....hold it! This must be a magic rock!"

And then he went to Jaguar's house and said, "Let's take a walk because I want to show you a real cool thing." He took Jaguar out and showed him the rock. And the Jaguar said "What a strange rock!" and he fell right asleep. And then Anansi stole all his bananas.

Anansi played the same trick on Monkey, and Bullfrog, and Chipmunk and all the other forest animals. But little Bush Deer was hiding in the bushes and watching him. He followed Anansi to the rock and Anansi couldn't help playing the trick on Bush Deer.

He knocked on Bush Deer's door and said, "I want to show you something real cool." So Bush Deer followed him to the rock. And Bush Deer said, "What is that thing, Anansi?" Anansi said, "No, that's not what you're supposed to say!"

Bush Deer said, "What am I supposed to say?" "You know, that thing," said Anansi. And Bush Deer said, "Ok, if it makes you happy, Anansi. You know, that thing."

"No, not that! You're supposed to say What a you know you know."

"Okay, if you say so. What a you know you know."

"No!" And Anansi stomped his feet and said, "You're supposed to say What a strange rock!" and he fell right asleep. And all the animals got their food back. The end.

REVIEW: This story is spider-like. That is what I think of it. Spider-like means that it sounds just like a spider's telling it to you. I think it's a little too spider-like, and I don't like spiders so I didn't like it. I think Anansi was a little too greedy and if he takes everybody's food he'll get fat. It's also spider-funny-like. That's the end of my review. The end.