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Three girls, a dead raccoon, and a crockpot

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Re: Three girls, a dead raccoon, and a crockpot

#21

This is really cool on many different levels ! Those kids seem to have fun :). Plus, it's somehow satisfying that the story is being told on a old-fashion (what am I writing) blog. I strongly believe it wouldn't have been as structured, as accessible if it had been told through instagram or facebook (too much noise, not enough authenticity (this is the media guy in me talking). The gallery works, the text works... th…

Ha, thanks! (I'm the author of the post.) It's funny, I don't post to my personal blog much anymore - started it in 2007 on Blogger, and so it's definitely old-school. (Plus, I have a column at Forbes, so I tend to post most of my writing there.)

I would love to see Forbes print an adaption of this work. Encouraging STEM is really important, so thanks for the great idea!

Re: Three girls, a dead raccoon, and a crockpot

#22

This is really cool on many different levels ! Those kids seem to have fun :). Plus, it's somehow satisfying that the story is being told on a old-fashion (what am I writing) blog. I strongly believe it wouldn't have been as structured, as accessible if it had been told through instagram or facebook (too much noise, not enough authenticity (this is the media guy in me talking). The gallery works, the text works... th…

Ha, thanks! (I'm the author of the post.) It's funny, I don't post to my personal blog much anymore - started it in 2007 on Blogger, and so it's definitely old-school. (Plus, I have a column at Forbes, so I tend to post most of my writing there.)

Thanks for doing such a wonderful project with your kids, and writing it up so well! I just emailed this post a a bunch of friends who have kids, in the hopes that they'll be inspired :)

Re: Three girls, a dead raccoon, and a crockpot

#23
post #13

This is amazing! This is the sort of thing that makes me want to have kids––the opportunity to turn whatever life throws at you into an awesome DIY science projects. (Though, I guess I could do it without kids, too––but imagine how cool it would be to be a kid growing up in this kind of household!)

As a parent of four kids, I'd encourage you to decide to have kids based on some other criteria - you can do this project without the presence of kids.

However ... taking your comment in the spirit in which I'm guessing it was intended, my wife and I have had a lot of fun helping the kids try almost anything they were interested in. There's simply no reason to limit a child's curiosity (and I'd argue that many of us here are those whose childhood curiosity survived somewhat intact). Kids interests can change weekly and we just let that happen. We did usually require that they finish a project once they started it.

One example is that I was digging fence-posts and commented to my wife that, under the top-soil of what was once our farmette, there was a layer of clay. Of course my daughter pictured the type of clay that artists use (and a pottery wheel) but did you know that, with the right amount of water added, you can mold Pennsylvania (US) clay just fine. And you can do a reasonable job of firing it on a patio grill (don't try glazing it).

I was brought up helping my dad around the house and we also extended this to our kids ... if we didn't know how to do something we learned it together. And so now our kids (the two who are adults and out-of-the-house) will do much of their own maintenance. My daughter's first car is a '71 Super Beetle in which she completely restored the interior. I helped her weld new cooling manifolds which was the only exterior/mechanical problem with the car.

Finally, there are lots of kids that don't have parents (and plenty that have absentee parents. Here in the US you can volunteer with Big Brothers / Big Sisters and "borrow" a kid for a limited amount of time. Volunteering is also a great way to help the next generation of "makers" grow in their craft!

Re: Three girls, a dead raccoon, and a crockpot

#24
post #5

I was eating lunch with some co-workers around the time of the Boston marathon bombing a few years ago. One of the people didn't know what a pressure cooker was, and they were showing one on whatever news channel was playing. Another co-worker piped up with, "When I was in 5th grade my mom used a pressure cooker to clean the bones of a dead sheep I found" Intrigued, I had him finish the story. They lived in a farm ar…

I do wonder, with the ridiculous popularity of the InstantPot, when we'll see a post somewhere about how to use it to macerate a dead animal. It'd be perfect for it!

Re: Three girls, a dead raccoon, and a crockpot

#25
post #9

Bleach works too. Found a small decayed deer carcass by the side of the road years ago and soaked the skull in water and bleach then hung it up on my porch. Hydrogen peroxide sounds more environmentally friendly.

Bleach is great but needs to be watched more carefully. It can destroy bone. H2O2 is slower but less finicky.

Re: Three girls, a dead raccoon, and a crockpot

#26

This is really cool on many different levels ! Those kids seem to have fun :). Plus, it's somehow satisfying that the story is being told on a old-fashion (what am I writing) blog. I strongly believe it wouldn't have been as structured, as accessible if it had been told through instagram or facebook (too much noise, not enough authenticity (this is the media guy in me talking). The gallery works, the text works... th…

Ha, thanks! (I'm the author of the post.) It's funny, I don't post to my personal blog much anymore - started it in 2007 on Blogger, and so it's definitely old-school. (Plus, I have a column at Forbes, so I tend to post most of my writing there.)

You are one awesome mom! (See my other post on this page for a description of my wife and my experience raising our kids.) Thanks for sharing the story :)

Re: Three girls, a dead raccoon, and a crockpot

#27
post #23
post #13

This is amazing! This is the sort of thing that makes me want to have kids––the opportunity to turn whatever life throws at you into an awesome DIY science projects. (Though, I guess I could do it without kids, too––but imagine how cool it would be to be a kid growing up in this kind of household!)

As a parent of four kids, I'd encourage you to decide to have kids based on some other criteria - you can do this project without the presence of kids. However ... taking your comment in the spirit in which I'm guessing it was intended, my wife and I have had a lot of fun helping the kids try almost anything they were interested in. There's simply no reason to limit a child's curiosity (and I'd argue that many of us…

When I was a kid in the 80s, my dad started something called "Family Home Evening." We'd get together and my brother and I would ask questions like "where does lightning come from?" or "does coke rot your teeth?" We'd look up info in our Encyclopedia Brittanica (ha!), and often do experiments (like putting my dad's extracted wisdom teeth in coke). So, yeah, I couldn't help but do the same with my own girls!

Re: Three girls, a dead raccoon, and a crockpot

#28
This is a great story. My wife and I did similar sorts of projects when we were home schooling our kids (my favorite was the trip to Yellowstone for a geology/chemistry/geography/ecology/biology quinfecta :-)

It doesn't mention, but implies something I found important. That is that as a parent I had to invest my own time in equal to theirs in their learning. It lead to push back at work when I would insist on being home so that we could all have dinner as a family and then work on family projects in the evening, but for me it was rewarded by kids that were engaged and thoughtful and willing to dig into questions deeply.

I have no idea if that would work for anyone else of course.

Re: Three girls, a dead raccoon, and a crockpot

#29
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a parent of four kids, I'd encourage you to decide to have kids based on some other criteria - you can do this project without the presence of kids. However ... taking your comment in the spirit in which I'm guessing it was intended, my wife and I have had a lot of fun helping the kids try almost anything they were interested in. There's simply no reason to limit a child's curiosity (and I'd argue that many of us…

When I was a kid in the 80s, my dad started something called "Family Home Evening." We'd get together and my brother and I would ask questions like "where does lightning come from?" or "does coke rot your teeth?" We'd look up info in our Encyclopedia Brittanica (ha!), and often do experiments (like putting my dad's extracted wisdom teeth in coke). So, yeah, I couldn't help but do the same with my own girls!

When my oldest two (now 26 and 24) were in high-school we often had 2-4 extra kids at our dinner table each evening (we purposely bought a big table). We had a lot of comments about how "interesting" our dinner conversations were compared to their own houses. And there was lots of laughter too. It turns out that high school is also a good age to teach your kids the difference between debate and argument.

The other thing we did was optimize our house so our kids and their friends would want to hang out here. It's much easier to keep an eye on them when they're not off somewhere else (thinking back, there were a lot of times my parents didn't know where I was). A few of their friends could be problematic but by treating most of them as adults, they tried to live up to it.

Re: Three girls, a dead raccoon, and a crockpot

#30

This is a great story. My wife and I did similar sorts of projects when we were home schooling our kids (my favorite was the trip to Yellowstone for a geology/chemistry/geography/ecology/biology quinfecta :-) It doesn't mention, but implies something I found important. That is that as a parent I had to invest my own time in equal to theirs in their learning. It lead to push back at work when I would insist on being h…

I am thinking of home schooling my daughter with my wife. For one my daughter is autistic and special needs programs in Texas are fairly ok to bad. Two because the curriculum is so brain draining and well my daughter simply would refused to participate in some thing like that. I just am afraid of the socialization with other kids. How did you get around that?
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