Rock Hound

We went to Rose's Family Science Night the other night.

We always attend these events. The last one we tried was Family Math Night and it was completely out of reach for her, but she got a chance to see all of her friends, hug and be hugged by familiar grownups, and eat pizza. (In spite of this year's ineffectual teacher, we have always felt that this school embraces Rose as a solid and favored member of the community.)

The first session was about static electricity. They had a Van de Graaff generator there, and the usual demonstration tricks: crazy hair! flying cheerios! Rose thought it was hilarious when the other children got their fingers shocked, and she was close to the front of the line to touch it at the end, but she kept moving back in line. I finally told her she could just touch it, she didn't have to get shocked herself if she didn't want to. Anyway. Just tricks, no science taught there, but it was fun.

The next session was with an entomologist. Again: the usual hissing cockroach, rose tarantula. There was an emperor scorpion, which was new. Rose participated and proudly answered what she knew ("Abdomen!")

The last session was with a geologist. It was immediately clear that he was not an EDUCATOR geologist. He had written word lists on the whiteboard, and HADN'T EVEN BROUGHT ANY SAMPLES!!! His shtick was dressing a student volunteer up in all his field equipment, which helped his presentation, but it was still not super engaging. (In retrospect, it was more educational than the static electricity station...)

Rose did raise her hands several times and contribute her thinking ("We have fossils inside our bodies!" a.k.a. skeletons....) but she got really quiet there at the end. I finally just asked her if she wanted to go home.

"No. I want be rock person."

"You want to be a geologist?"

"I want be ja-jis. Jal-jis."

So at the end, we went to tell the man of her career plans (she rehearsed the word a couple of times on the way up) and of course he approved.

Then she hurried to find "My 'chambeau" (she can't pronounce her principal's entire name, but definitely feels proprietary about her.) After she explained to her 'chambeau about the career choice, it turned out that the big draw was going to be finding diamonds. Then the two of them examined all of their accessories for diamonds.