Go Team Why Mommy!

I am blogging for Susan today. she is a very dear friend of Stimey, a friendly aquaintance of mine, a terrific mom and blogger, and a scientist.  Today Susan is having surgery to battle the cancer she has been fighting for several years now, and Stimey has asked bloggers to write a post about science and our children to honor Susan.

                                         We staged these photos. What an actress.

Yesterday, Caroline fell asleep on the couch, and I had some time alone with Will. A very rare occurence, so I suggested we make granola bars.  He was excited and we moved into the kitchen to begin the process.  As we proceeded, I realized we were out of Karo syrup.  I checked and re-checked all the cabinets, cursing all the while.  Finally, instead of giving up, I decided to substitute honey for the Karo syrup.  We discussed what we needed to hold the dry bits of the granola bars together-- sticky things, peanut butter, a sugar solution, fats, and that the syrup and the honey could be substituted as they were both sugar solutions.

We needed to add three cups of oats the the mixture, and the one cup measure was all sticky from the wet ingredients, so I decided to add a little math lesson in and learn fractions. There's math in science-- right?

How many halfs are in a whole Will?"  I asked.

"I dunno."  He shrugged.

"Two. Right? One half, and another half make a whole. This cup is  a half cup, so two of those makes one whole cup. We need three cups, so we need two half cups three times. Six scoops."

Blank stare. He didn't care.  He wanted to scoop oats.

                                      (Note the finished granola bars and the attractive sneer).

I counted "One half. Scoop again. Level it...  dump. And another half. Level, dump. One cup.   See-- those two scoops are the same as one scoop of the one cup measure.  Let's go again..."

We then added the coconut, sunflower seeds and mini chips. Then baked the granola bars.  They are yum.

Did Will learn math yesterday, or chemistry?  Maybe, maybe not. But the words washed over his brain. I laid a foundation, as I try to do every day. Layering knowledge as it were.   Did he learn any fundamental baking truths? No.  But we had a really nice ten minutes together.

Susan, as we made those bars, and I spent time with my son, teaching him life skills, I thought of you.  I thought of the wonderful mother I know you to be, and how precious the time you spend with your boys is.  I know how mindfully you live your life.  I honor you, and try to follow the fine example you set.