A Brief Digression: Cat Cozies

We Love Cats!!!

So we need to make this—or maybe three of them:

Cat Teepee

Want to make it before I come home, or when I get back?

A Brief Digression: "Frozen" Coding

Hey, Frozen-Fans in the frozen Midwest,

I hab a code in by doze. 
(No, not really. What I mean is...)

Here's how to write computer code that makes a snowflake! I'm posting the introduction video below, but go here to complete the whole project.

You also might like the Geek Gurl Diaries YouTube channel which has another way to do the same coding... 

(you have to download a program but I can talk you through that or we can do it when I get home)

and also posts all kinds of related videos. 

Despite its "Gurl" name, it's plenty fun for boys too, so my son, 

you too can be a Geek Gurl Boy.

Dispatches from a Desert Isle: Bats (with Bonus Science Hairstyle Tutorial)

Bats! Bats! Bats!

The Sonoran Desert is known for its bats (see a full list of types here), and upon my venture into a certain cave on the isle I discovered much to interest me and, I hope, you.

Here is the cavern entrance:

Inside this mighty partition I found myself in another land altogether. First, the cave itself...

 


Most majestic indeed! And delightful in motion:

Inhabiting this place, or some others like it, are the bats of the region, pictured here:

These magical creatures have existed for 50 MILLION YEARS!!!! (Holy longevity, Batman!)

I may have spotted a few of the strange beings in that cave, but my poor human-vision does not let me know for sure. Here is what my photographic equipment captured...

Check out this great bat video (with bonus mention of a tarantula's butt)

I highly recommend you subscribe to this incredibly excellent and entertaining YouTube channel (use my email address: erinmerritt1@gmail.com, and I'll let you know when something new is posted), or you can just book mark this page and check it whenever you want. There are tons of great things there. 

In fact, here are two more bat videos from Brain Scoop!!!

Bats are the Best!!!
And Baby Bats are even more Best:
Here's one just learning to eat solid food (a banana)—check out his tongue!

and here are some Baby-Bat Burritos:

(Go ahead, try not to squeal.)

But wait, there's more! Now that you love Emily Graslie as much as I do, you can learn to do your hair like hers, in this very funny tutorial:

A Brief Digression: ORIGAMI-O-RAMA!

Hey, does anybody over there like to fold origami? 

Wait, did I hear a yes? (I'm not sure—I'm kind of far away.)

I SAID, DOES ANYBODY OVER THERE LIKE TO FOLD ORIGAMI?!?!?!?

Okay, good, because I may have just found the coolest origami website EVAR (that's web-speak for really really ever to infinity):

And actually, you can click subscribe on the YouTube page (use my email address: erinmerritt1@gmail.com, and I'll let you know when something new is posted), or you can just bookmark the page, check it whenever you want—or you might just want to go straight to this one—ninja darts (which also links to how to make the ninja dart target). So. many. options...

A Brief Digression: Painting Techniques

This is a great video from Disney about how different artists represent the same item

(and also, for the first few minutes, how they work together to design something in a way they can all create together)

Wonderful technique ideas for my young painters...

Can you paint me an Arizona scene? Maybe your version of one of a Saguaro cactus in the sunset? or a Kansas City scene would be okay too, or a Berkeley one—whatever you like.