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Posted by clouddancer on 20-10-2007 at 00:02:
It is her birthday on the 21 too isn't it.
Hope you found something she wanted.
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Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.
Posted by Transmute Jun on 20-10-2007 at 00:15:
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Nope... in November. I have about a month. But I don't like to leave it much longer than that when I mail order on the internet.
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Posted by kimiko on 21-10-2007 at 14:37:
What does she like? Maybe I can be of assistance?
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Putting the "Con" in Condor....Ooooo... shiny red button!
Posted by Transmute Jun on 21-10-2007 at 14:49:
LOL... she loves science... she wants to be Dr. Nambu when she grows up! I think she's ready to leave the fighting to someone else... 
I've been looking at various fun science kits for kids online... there are some cool ones!
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Posted by Firebird on 22-10-2007 at 08:06:
What aspect of science does she like?
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Like the Phoenix I rise from the fire. Beware all who try to tame me, you may get burned 
Posted by Transmute Jun on 22-10-2007 at 13:26:
All different kinds. I am going to get her a circuit board kit for Christmas so she can make a doorbell, alarm clock, light switch, etc. by snapping the pieces together. I remember playing with those things in high school physics class but this is made for kids about her age.
She also loves bugs and insects and 'gross' stuff... I am looking at some of that stuff too. And then I want to get her a chemistry kit because she loves the idea of being the 'mad scientist' who mixes stuff together... you know... 
She's also into anything about rockets and astronomy and other planets... and then she has an interest in environmental science as well... all over the map, really. I just want to keep it going.
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Posted by kimiko on 23-10-2007 at 12:07:
Seems I have Gatch on the brain too...I walked by some CD section at work last night and "---mania" on one of them caught my eye...had to take a second look... 
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Putting the "Con" in Condor....Ooooo... shiny red button!
Posted by Transmute Jun on 23-10-2007 at 13:18:
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Oh, Kimi... you're thinking of us when you're not even here... that touches my heart... sniff...
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Posted by CricketBeautiful on 23-10-2007 at 15:27:
Be very, very careful about the "science kits for kids". Dad got a whole pile of them for Son, and at least half of them were total garbage.
The motor boat and door bell were horrid. The wire was too fine (broke), and the connections didn't work at all. Dad had to get his soldering iron. Now, how many households getting these kits have soldering irons, and how many kids / parents would go get it, as opposed to giving up in frustration? The "brain model" was flimsy and the plastic pieces warped enough that you couldn't quite put it together. The "lots of experiments in one" was one computer chip with six different ways to wire it. The "flying plane" had warped wings. The slots on the loom were so shallow the threads kept coming off.
Those all came from a major "educational" store.
We were able to rescue it, turning it into troubleshooting and fixing, but the goal was to learn how an electric motor worked, not how to troubleshoot something you've never seen working in the first place.
He's now building bookshelves with them, and dissecting (clean) diapers, and teaching them how to varnish, and showing them how to touch the Scottish thistle (which, if it were hard to grow, would be called a rose and highly valued, rather than a weed), and avoid poison ivy, and use triangles when building. (Son's tower in school was strongest and highest; he built a good base and used lots of triangles in the design.)
I remember a 75-in-one electronics kit. The resistors and capacitors and batteries and stuff were on a board, wired to springs. You shoved wires into the springs, to make the circuit. The manual had "connect terminal 35 to 28" instructions, as well as the real schematic. I cannibalized it for a Guide demonstration, and have regretted it ever since having kids.
It's one of my red buttons, giving kids stuff so they "enjoy science, do experiments" which are so badly designed and/or manufactured that the kid learns "Science is hard. I can't make it work. It's all a bunch of garbage."
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Between stimulus and response there is a space.
In that space is our power to choose our response.
In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
- Viktor E. Frankl
Posted by Transmute Jun on 24-10-2007 at 00:18:
Thanks for the input, Cricket. I'll be sure to check out the kits I bought when they arrive, before the kids get them.
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Posted by kimiko on 24-10-2007 at 13:54:
Wow we've come a long way from the days when the most science-like gift I ever got was a microscope!
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Putting the "Con" in Condor....Ooooo... shiny red button!
Posted by amyltrer on 24-10-2007 at 18:36:
Hmm, how old is your daughter TJ? Most little girls I know love to get dolls, so how about a Barbie kit. A Barbie - Swan would be just perfect!
Then again a simple puzzle for her age would be a good choice!
Ah well I have no experience with kids! 
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It is the tiny spark of humanity that adds blaze to a villain
Posted by Transmute Jun on 24-10-2007 at 19:14:
You are right that she 'should' like Barbie dolls... but she's a tomboy! The only 'Barbie' style doll she ever plays with is her Condor Joe doll. 
Last Christmas she asked for a 'real' doll, but then she never played with it. I think she just figured out somewhere that she was SUPPOSED to have one... and once she did she didn't feel a need to play with it, KWIM?
She's going to be 7 in a month, and her big interests are drawing, blocks, Warcraft/Fantasy games, science and books. Can you tell she's as geeky as we are? 
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Posted by Ebonyswanne on 25-10-2007 at 09:42:
OK you need GI Joanne Barbie doll all done up in Camoflage gear with the black and green goop on her face!
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Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up- Pablo Picasso.
Posted by amyltrer on 25-10-2007 at 12:09:
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I used to be a tomboy as a kid too. So how about a Nintendo? If she's anything like Jinpei, she'll enjoy playstation games!
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It is the tiny spark of humanity that adds blaze to a villain
Posted by Transmute Jun on 25-10-2007 at 12:41:
You know, funny thing is, I never wanted a handheld video game system. I see kids with them all the time. The Moms are out and their kids' faces are buried in the games and they won't talk to anyone... it's social removal. I certainly spend a lot of time in front of the computer, but when someone is next to me I talk to them. (Uh... except DH when he's interrupting my fic-writing, )
BUT... long story short, I got a free Nintendo DS Lite. And we have two VERY long plane trips coming up (to Australia and back) of 17 hours + each, so I decided to cave and give it to her, along with a couple of games. Now if she gets one, DS will want a game too, so I am picking up a Leapster for him.
Oh, the shame! I'm doping my kids! But I think I'll just withhold new batteries from them until we're traveling again...
After all that's said and done though, the Nintendo is likely to be a Christmas present so she doesn't get bored with it before the trip.
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Posted by kimiko on 26-10-2007 at 12:14:
Well it's not like you're pumping them full of Ritalin TJ! Those are going to be very long trips and they're going to need plenty of entertainment to keep their sanity..or more like it yours! 
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Putting the "Con" in Condor....Ooooo... shiny red button!
Posted by Transmute Jun on 26-10-2007 at 13:28:
Ah yes, sanity... economy class for 17 hours. And I have a terrible time sleeping on planes... we have the first day just for recovery, in case we need it! LOL....
Perhaps sanity is over-rated. If I just drug them with some kind of sleeping medication I can write fics the entire time and be a gibbering idiot when I get off the plane. 
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Posted by clouddancer on 26-10-2007 at 13:49:
And then you spend recovery time at the local internet cafe. Typing what you have written onto the computer.
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Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.
Posted by Transmute Jun on 26-10-2007 at 14:06:
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Probably not. I'd wait until I got home. That's how I came home with the first 20 pages or so of Prom Night. It might have been more, but I spent a lot of time chatting with Springie, you see. And we did up the outline for Memoirs of a Swan.
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