What are the most worthwhile things...?

[Fierofool]

My granddaughter has had her first loose tooth for a couple of weeks.  We were hoping she would be home when it came out so her parents could share the event.  Her Dad isn't flying this week and our daughter doesn't work weekends.  The tooth was removed on Sunday with Mom and Dad participating.  It was placed underneath her pillow Sunday night and Monday morning, the Tooth Fairy had left her $5.  Her first statement was that she was going to take Papa to Dairy Queen and buy him an ice cream. 

A Worthwhile Thing.

[GTRS Fiero]

Yes.  My son lost his first tooth recently.  My daughter has lost 4 or 5, so far.

$5!!!  I thought it was a quarter!

The tooth was removed?  My kids' teeth came out with no help from me.

My son has a bunkbed/desk/hideout/shelves/trundle bed.  His bunk is on top.  We put the tooth on the side before he went to bed, so we could get to it without climbing on him.  That night, I went searching for the tooth.  I checked the entire side, behind the bed, between the bed and the wall, on the desk, in the trundle, etc.  I tried reaching under his pillow, but he had the blanket wrapped around himself and the pillow.  No tooth.  So, I climbed up on his bunk, and carefully adjusted him while I dug for the tooth.  I eventually got the tooth without waking him, but it took a while.

Lately, our worthwhile things are teaching the kids to mop properly and going over their karate lessons.

[Fierofool]

My sister and I got nickles or dimes.  Our later brothers got quarters, half dollars, and even silver dollars.  On her first tooth, our daughter cried because she got money instead of sugarless gum.  She quickly quieted down when we told her she could buy several packs of gum with her money. 

[GTRS Fiero]

Our kids were happy with the attention.  They didn't really care about the money.

[GTRS Fiero]

Following up on the relay discussion with my son, I got out the 500in1.  I was rather dissappointed it it, compared to a 160in1 I used many years ago.  I prefer to have all the diodes, resistors, and capacitors in place, then just do the wiring between things.  This one, you have to wire up everything on a breadboard.  It takes much longer to get results.  I may try to find a simpler kit.

Anyway, the kids got to wire up a chirping bird that responded to light (which worked), and a radio (which didn't).  Radios used to be my favorite thing to wire up.  AM radio was easiest.  We used a germanuim diode, which I thought was backwards.  We had sound, but just static.  No change in results with the diode swapped around or disconnected.  I don't know what was wrong.

The one thing this unit doesn't have is a relay.  It has lights, but they're all LEDs.

We discussed differences between doides, how to read the color bars on resistors, and how capacitors work.  I skipped the transistors, other than showing them the PNP vs NPN.

[GTRS Fiero]

This was worthwhile:

[GTRS Fiero]

We got a book, 101 Science Experiments.  My son loves it.  He's currently trying an experiment with eggs.  One in water, and the other in vinegar.  One egg is supposed to become bouncy.

He did another experiment with a weather detector.  I usually come home to a new experiment daily,

[Roger]

Following up on the relay discussion with my son, I got out the 500in1.  I was rather dissappointed it it, compared to a 160in1 I used many years ago.  I prefer to have all the diodes, resistors, and capacitors in place, then just do the wiring between things.  This one, you have to wire up everything on a breadboard.  It takes much longer to get results.  I may try to find a simpler kit.

Anyway, the kids got to wire up a chirping bird that responded to light (which worked), and a radio (which didn't).  Radios used to be my favorite thing to wire up.  AM radio was easiest.  We used a germanuim diode, which I thought was backwards.  We had sound, but just static.  No change in results with the diode swapped around or disconnected.  I don't know what was wrong.

The one thing this unit doesn't have is a relay.  It has lights, but they're all LEDs.

We discussed differences between doides, how to read the color bars on resistors, and how capacitors work.  I skipped the transistors, other than showing them the PNP vs NPN.

The 'banded' end of the diode goes to the antenna. You have to be VERY close to the transmitting antenna to really get anything without an RF amp stage. Was it a simple diode receiver or did it also use an LC circuit? What kind of relays are you wanting. I have many that you are welcome to (if I can find them ;-). I may also have some low voltage lamps (not LED).

[GTRS Fiero]

I ended up getting this kit, which does have a relay.  It's old, and maybe not everything works on it, but it's much more fun.  I had one like this.  I'm glad you reminded me of this.  Next time we have a rainy evening, maybe we'll try getting the radio to work.

[GTRS Fiero]

After 11 weeks of swimming lessons, my daughter can swim, and my son can...sink.  My daughter can swim across the 12-foot side of the regulation pool, round trip.  Then she's tired.  My son has no fear of water, and must be watched and rescued.  He'll just dive in.

One more week of lessons this summer.

[GTRS Fiero]

My son's eggsperiment:

[GTRS Fiero]

The eggsperiment didn't go very well.  Not enough vinegar, I guess.

[GTRS Fiero]

Well, we put on skates and got out on the pond, which was about as much fun as you'd expect it to be.  After we took advantage of the blow driers, we went for a 2-mile walk, then went fishing.  Park Rangers frown on the catching of passing ducks.  The ducks made such a racket, you'd have thought I was wiping out the entire duck community.  Next, we went to the Science Center, but the kids are too small to ride a segway, so we went tree climbing.  It turns out that kids must learn to climb trees, it isn't natural.  This led to rock-hopping over the waterways.  I hope the kids expended some of their energy, too.

[GTRS Fiero]

My son's LEGO leage group is working on a project to protect the moon from being destroyed my asteroids.  Of course, there are actual professionals working on this, but the kids come up with some out-of-the-box ideas.

[GTRS Fiero]

Last night, we watched hockey.  My kids had never before seen a hockey game, and that game was certainly worth watching.  The kids got to stay up late, but apparently enjoyed the game.

Apparently, some companies were on a snow schedule today.