Science. Today we used our worksheet that outlines the Scientific Method and made quick work of our pumpkins and gourds that have been adding a harvesty atmosphere to the place since October. One kid had a question about the seeds (all three of our specimens had husks around the seeds, and all three yielded different sized seeds), and the other kid questioned whether the flesh would be the same color as the outer shell (as it turns out, white pumpkins do actually have whitish flesh, though warted pumpkins do not have warty internal flesh... in case anybody was wondering).
A more interesting inquiry might have had to do with difficulty of opening. I cannot believe how hard it was to open the warty pumpkin. Finally, we resorted to chucking it into the bathtub (more than once). Looking back at it now, that was probably really, really stupid, as a) I'm sure that porcelain is expensive to repair and b) our neighbors below are probably frantically stitching voodoo dolls of us as I type this. The things people do in the name of science.
This afternoon we went to the playground with some friends. It was cold, but my goal is to get out every day (I know that it will be really tempting not to on yucky days). Even though it was after-school hours, we were the only ones there for quite a while. Which makes NYC kids giddy. Ours took the opportunity to "booby trap the bottom of the slide." We made sure that all booby traps were filled in, etc. before we left for hot cocoa.
