Bodies in Motion

[liralen]

The cards came out, today.

So I bought in, big time, to David Allen's Getting Things Done paradigm and using the simplest system possible.  But when most of my days are just getting up, getting fed, getting Jet fed, and choosing between a lot of things to do, and getting done whatever's on the calender, even my slashed down system is a bit too heavy weight for me. 

But whenever I realize I'm actually trying to remember anything about what I'm supposed to do, the cards come out.   The main idea is that if I'm using brain power just to remember things, that brain power isn't going towards solving the problem in front of me. 

In this case, I mostly use old business cards (5 boxes, I jumped grades and jobs too quickly to use many the usual way), where I just scribble, one to a card, the things that have to be done.  It's pretty nice to just toss each one into the recycling when it's done.  Started today with a filled deck of 28 cards, ended up with just four for the next few days.  Between all the experiments I had to try for the science class, buying supplies for the experiments with extras for all the new kids, errands that had to be done, the writing I wanted to do, some layout stuff, and the fact that guests are coming this coming weekend I had plenty to figure out. 



John had an early morning meeting, so Jet and I had breakfast together, played some Lego Star Wars as I started scribbling cards for the experiments, what had to be bought, what still had to be done.  He and I cut out 48 green and purple grapes (Jet says the green ones taste better, so he went and got the green construction paper to make green ones) for one of the connection themes later in the week. 

John bought a bunch of stuff on the way home from his meeting.  Then he and Jet went to Home Depot to get stuff to fix one of the classrooms, and then my massage therapist called to tell me I had an appointment today at 12:15.  Cards got shuffled.  *laughs* 

I did the casein experiment, where a couple tablespoons of milk gets mixed with a tablespoon of vinegar, and the stuff gets filtered and then used as a kind of clay.  Yeah... basically curds, really fragile curds.  But at least we were warned, then as to the fragility and lack of cohesiveness to the stuff.  And some idea as to measurements and how to most easily filter the stuff.

Then I did a floating grape experiment that was really quite fun.  I mixed sugar into water, tried to float a grape on it, and kept mixing more sugar into it until the grape floated.  Then, in one cup was just water (in which the grape sinks), and in the other the sugar syrup that floats the grape.  Then carefully pour the clear water on the floating grape, and the water will cover it and the grape looks like it's just floating in the very middle of the glass.  It's kind of eerie and perfectly understandable.  *grins*

Then I drew up a plan on how to do both of 'em with 15 hyper kids in a 90 degree room.  Whee...

More got tossed out when I sat down and followed up with some of my guests on things, ordered milk for the week, did the damned dishes.  Then I got to talk with stark_black for just ten minutes and had to run for the door for my appointment with my laptop.  When my therapist wasn't there, I wrote frantically for the ten minutes I had (Hakkai, not Tenpou, is just kicking the insides of my head around until his story for mysocalledhell gets OUT), and then got turned into putty by Bonnie. 

Lunch was mushu leftovers, and then John and I redid the milk experiment with nonfat to see if it held any better and it didn't.  He ran off to get More Stuff (and another five of my cards were recycled as he also got a book from the library for me), and I mostly finished Jet's camo hoodie while he and I did more Legos.   *laughter*  There's just a band on the hood to finish.

One of the cards went when I made a list of stuff to bring with us and packed the bag.  John made enchiladas from leftovers of the last week, and I frantically tried to get a layout to work but had no real luck.  Wanna try with something else, but had No Time.  That made me growl.

Anyway... I cut it so that I ate my dinner in like ten minutes, and then we were loaded up and out the door and into the chaos of 45 kids with nearly as many helpers and adults and 90 to 100 degrees this week.  And it worked.  It really did work.  The parents were telling us that the kids liked the science part the best.

I even got a good walk in before the first experiment wave, as we needed to buy canned food for the food drive, and the grocery store was a good two block walk away. That was good.

So two things we kind of did as a basic strategy for the whole thing.  The booklet has all the experiments being done by the "teacher" at the front of the room as a demonstration for the kids.  Very little of it was actually hands on, so we modified all of them so that the kids could participate and do what parts of it they could do.  Messier, more insane to manage, infinitely more stressful with 10-year-old boys trying to punch each other over who got to do what, but it all seemed to make a bigger impact on how the kids responded to the science and understanding of what the experiments were about. 

Lots of "ewwwwwwww"s for the curd experiment, but they got it.  Lots of contention over who got to do what (as we only had four complete setups for the grape floating), but lots of sounds of awe when the grape looked suspended, and when we started dropping the second grape in and it actually bounced and *stayed* at the level the first grape was on everyone was like Ooooooo.  *laughs*  There were a couple of, "That looks so wrong..."

Whew.

We survived three waves of both experiments and by the last one we actually finished everything on time.  Tomorrow's just a ton of planting.  180 flower pots, a ton of dirt, and more seeds than I can count.  We'll see if it comes out.

Now Hakkai won't let me sleep until I get his story into ones and zeros.

I guess that's what I get for finally starting to run at full speed, all the more to do.

Comments

[beckyb.livejournal.com]

The more they can do themselves, the more it sticks with them. Even if they don't remember the principle or the theory, the physical experience will come back to them when they get the theory again later. What a cool thing to do! I'm really glad you are going to the "trouble" of making it hands on.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Yeah, it's definitely more... tense in some ways as with their hands ON it means there's just so man more ways the thing can get messy fast.

But.. thanks, yeah, it does seem very much more worth doing it this way.

[r0ck3tsci3ntist.livejournal.com]

LOL!

I've given up on trying to put any order in my life! I just react - and laugh a lot. I find that it makes me a lot less frustrated. Late on bill paying, but happier. :p

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*grins*

I... hm.

I get frustrated when I don't do everything I want to do. *grins* And I *hate* forgetting something I really wanted to do. So this is just my way of being happier when in the midst of an overwhelming numbers of things to do.

It made me a lot happier when I was doing work that required understanding and thinking in 12 different sets of paradigms for how different groups that were doing things I was asking them to do worked, too. *laughs* I'm something of a Stress Puppy, I work best when there's too many things for most people to even want to tackle. *grins*

[liralen.livejournal.com]

And I think one of the cool things about the card system is that I can react when things change. I just shuffle the cards or just completely rearrange them depending on what comes up or what else has to happen and/or the priorities all change and bang... it's redone, unlike a todo list where I have to search for things again.

[buildingafuture.livejournal.com]

YAY for the experiments going well and you getting SO MUCH DONE! good job!!!

What did you want to do with your Layout?

What did you want it to look like?

Also...I have a question for you that is not....really...*gestures* LJ public OK...so I am gonna message you or something...

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Not my LJ layout. Check out my Y! layout. *grins*

[xshelaghx.livejournal.com]

LMAO I can just picture you flipping those cards (with Attitude) into the recycle box from across the room.

I'm just happy if I don't forget a kid on a street corner. XD

[liralen.livejournal.com]

That's an *excellent* thing to NOT forget. *giggles*

*laughs and laughs*

Yes. Exactly that, I love to hear them hit.