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Trip Report 2/3-2/5/25: Gülhane Park, Istanbul

On a recent flight, we used the Turkish Airlines Stopover in Istanbul program to spend three days in Istanbul. It is an excellent program that I highly recommend. Even though Istanbul was still cold in February, we visited Gülhane Park every day. My son played in the playground area while I got a few minutes to do a little birdwatching. Being a public park in a city of more than fifteen million…

Trip Report 2/3-2/5/25: Gülhane Park, Istanbul

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Trip Report 1/10/25: Cuc Phon National Park, Vietnam

One January afternoon drinking beers and overlooking Trúc Bạch Lake in Hanoi (where John McCain was shot down), while I was checking out some herons in the lake, my friend I was visiting asked if I wanted to go birdwatching at Cúc Phương National Park. He found a one-day birdwatching tour for us; he and his wife are both science teachers and enjoy being outdoors and would both enjoy the…

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Hotel Beyaz Saray, Istanbul

We stayed at the Hotel Beyaz Saray for our Istanbul trip. Very briefly, I loved the place. The breakfast was so good, one of the real highlights of the entire trip. The location across from Grand Bazaar and only a twenty-minute walk to all the attractions in Sultanahmet. There’s a Grand Bazaar tram station next to the hotel if you want to go farther afield in Istanbul. Finally, we were lucky and…

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Initial Impressions: Celestron Outland X 8x25 binoculars

Santa brought me a pair of Outland X 8×25 binoculars because I was such a good boy this year. I will be traveling in January and wanted a small pair of binoculars so I can go birdwatching even though nature is not the primary goal of my trips. I have gotten them out twice in the past two days and for my initial impression, I am happy with my purchase. These are the first “real” 8×25 binoculars I…

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A Long-Expected Party of poverty

Most people remember the first chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring for the main event, Bilbo’s party and all that entails.  However, much like all of Tolkien’s works, there is an extra layer.  In the first few pages of the chapter Tolkien puts on a masterclass of showing, not telling, the class divisions in hobbit life. Before the party that delivers the Ring of Power to Frodo and kicks off…

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What is 21st-century literacy?

I recently finished a course about integrating literacy into all subject areas.  While the course focused on strategies for teaching reading and writing skills outside traditional language classes, I began to question literacy as a concept.  To me, literate people can derive meaning and information from media.  But what does literacy mean in 2024?  Are we still assuming that literacy is primarily…

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My family and I recently visited my mom.  It was my son’s first time visiting grammy’s house, and she was ready.  One thing about my mom, she does not throw anything away.  She’s not a hoarder, but if something is well-built and still functioning, she will keep it in storage.  That is how I got to pass on to my son all my Dr. Suess books from thirty years ago. To prepare for our arrival, grammy…

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Likin' Lichen

              I wrote earlier about Turtle Time from the Potomac Valley Audubon Society.  Another event we attended was one of their Wee Naturalists classes.  These are monthly classes that are specifically for preschool and kindergarten-aged children.  Much like Turtle Time, many of the other kids were homeschoolers.  I even recognized a couple from the previous week’s Turtle Time event.  Unlike…

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Turtle Time

              I want to shout out the Potomac Valley Audubon Society in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia.  They have some excellent educational programs that are all free or very affordable.  We were lucky enough to attend a few events during our winter trip to WV.  Each activity was well-run; the instructors were patient and knew their stuff.  All the educators had obvious training in…

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Make Loyalty Matter

Bioware enjoys its companion systems.  Whether the chapters-long henchmen quests in Neverwinter Nights that reward the player with unique items or the romance options in the Mass Effect and Dragon Age series, interacting with party companions is in the DNA of Bioware games.  Unfortunately, too often these quests suffer from the video game medium and the completionist mindsets among many gamers. …

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Cyteen – Too much for its own good

Clocking in at nearly 700 pages, Cyteen by C. J. Cherryh is a tome.  The book was originally published as three novels, but Cherryh prefers Cyteen be published as a single story.  As much as I support authorial intent, I want to push back on Cherryh’s feelings.  Cyteen should be broken up into multiple (more than three) books. As a single novel, I feel that Cyteen is trying to do too much. …

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The Power of Picnics

Families often want to spend more time outside.  Hundreds of studies have shown the benefits of the great outdoors.  From overall happiness to academic achievement to mental and physical health, time spent outside correlates with higher quality of life.  That being said, the REI-inspired family happily hiking through a national park may seem daunting, out of reach, or simply too time-consuming. …

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Let's Go Outside! from Cornell

Today I finished the Let’s Go Outside! How to Connect Kids with Birds and Nature hosted by The Cornell Lab BirdAcademy. Anyone who wants to get young children outside more often will benefit form the course. Of all the ways I could have spent an afternoon, this was one of the best. The best part of the course is the wonderful list of “Try It!” activities. Each activity is simple enough that any…

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Babies and Birdwatching

Preschoolers and older actually.  I just like alliterative titles.  Children should spend more time outside.  There are many benefits such as higher levels of creativity and less depression.  One of the major barriers to children enjoying the great outdoors (in my opinion) is lack of knowledge.  We never ask children to do math problems without some education.  So why should we ask them to go…

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Kingdomino in Space

I have decided to try a deep dive into Kingdomino because it is simple enough to easily analyze and (more importantly) my son enjoys playing it.  As a skillbuilder, Kingdomino excels at spatial reasoning. The gameplay involves laying tiles to most efficiently build sections of land. The rules as written explain that players must build a 5×5 square using the tiles. Any tiles that do not fit in…

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The Math of Kingdomino

Kingdomino is a light-weight and highly regarded tile-laying game. The simple rules and strategy make it perfect for families with young children. Kids quickly learn that there is a tradeoff between turn order and selecting the best tiles. If you choose a high-scoring tile this turn and you will almost certainly get the last to choose next turn. Scoring involves basic multiplication. While…

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A Board Game Birthday

Over the weekend we had my son’s birthday party at a board game club/school owned by my friend. There were 8 kids, mostly preschoolers like my son but a pair of 10 or 11 year-olds were there, and about 12 parents. My son and I were the only ones who play games regularly. Even so, it was a lot of fun. Every kid played at least one game and most adults played as well. I’m sharing my thoughts in…

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