Chocolate Chip Math and Terracycle

N-man and B-man can be so different. B-man is in love with all things math. Today, I gave him 7 chocolate chips. He immediately counts them, then picks one up to eat and says, "7-1=6". He eats the next after saying, "6-1=5". And he keeps going.

N-man looks at B-man, looks at his own chocolate chips, then says, "Seven minus one equals YUM!" and tosses a chip in his mouth.

They were both right...

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Green tip for the day:

Look for a local Terracycle drop off point. There are many different things that can be dropped off, depending on what "brigades" your local group has signed up for. For example, our terracycle group in town collects juice pouches, chip bags, used pens/markers, empty glue bottles, cereal liners, and a variety of other non-recyclable items.

Many schools organize terracycle brigades as they receive a couple cents for each piece of garbage collected so it's a good fundraiser as well as an opportunity to keep trash out of landfills. You don't need to have a kid in school, though. Call your local school and find out where the drop-off points are...there may be some in locations besides the school, such as the library or a local coffee shop. Or you may be able to bring your donations to the school office even if you don't have a child in the school.

The only thing I'm not too sure if I like is that I wonder if the terracycle brigades encourage people to buy more single-use products, since the packaging is collected and raises money for their school or other charitable organization. For example, do you think people are more likely to give their kids juice pouches rather than water or juice in a reusable container if they know they can upcycle their used pouches? What do you think?

Do you drop things off for a terracycle collection? If so, what are your favorite things to terracycle? I love the used marker and cereal bag collections, as those are things we definitely buy and used to have to toss in the trash.

The learning experiences provided by hide and seek

Something neat about having kids is that you discover that EVERY experience is a learning experience. We've been playing ENDLESS games of hide and seek. Something I've learned: there aren't a lot of places to hide in our house. Something else I've learned: that doesn't do a lick to discourage B-man and N-man from wanting to play constantly.

Another interesting fact I've discovered: while I feel like my pregnant belly is still little, it's now officially too big to fit under the bed.

Perhaps playing hide and seek is mostly a learning experience for me.

For the boys, they both are in a "love to count" stage. We were driving in the car last night, and they starting counting together. They got up to 29, then they both paused, as if they were waiting for the other one to say what number came next. So I prompted them: "What comes after 29?" The pause drags out for a minute, then N-man pipes up excitedly, "Ready or not, here I come!"

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Random related post: This isn't the first time we've had hilarity in the car around what number comes after 29. See this post for B-man's take on alternatives to thirty!

Two is the EVIL-est number

And no, I'm not talking about twins! I love twins!

The boys and I, for some reason, got on the topic of odd and even numbers. We talked about how every other number starting with 1 is odd, and every other number starting with 2 is even. For about thirty minutes yesterday, they asked me about nearly every number in existence (well, at least in their knowledge :) if it was odd or even, and they got pretty good about telling me if I started at one that 1 is odd, 2 is even, 3 is odd, 4 is even, etc.

Then we dropped the conversation. It's not really something that is an important part of their daily life at 3 years (oh, how odd!)

Today, out of the blue, N-man asked, "Mommy, is two EVIL?"

"No, honey," I replied confusedly. "Two isn't evil."

"Mommy, is two EVIL?" he asked again, really stressing that EVIL.

"No," I answered, still wondering why he's developed a sudden distrust of the number two.

"Mommy, is two ODD?" he asked.

Ah, it finally clicked. "No, you were right the first time. Two is EVEN."

Happy Pi Day!

It's 3/14, the day to celebrate all things pi!

Pi for lunch? That's right! Cheese sandwiches...circular, of course!



And how about some black beans and blueberries? As an aside, beans are the only veggies my boys eat with any regularity. And for some reason, they always want me to use them to write letters or numbers before they eat them. For the record, edamame is the best bean to "write" with. Lima beans work pretty well, too. But black beans are the boys' favorite, so that's what I used today.



And who can resist a pizza pi? Oh, no I didn't! Oh, yes I did! There it is, proof of my insanity that pi day works for dinner as well.



And what pi day is complete without an actual pie? So here it is. I tried a concoction of my own...an apple peach blueberry pie. If it tastes good, I'll post the recipe. If you don't see the recipe within a few days, well, then you know that apple peach blueberry is not a good combination!



Happy pi day! I hope you're all celebrating your inner math geek today!