kids – Jonathan Eisen's Lab

Thanks to all for "Suggestions for 11 year old daughter who wants to learn to code"

I am so thankful to the whole community out there who gave answers to my request for suggestions for my 11 year old daughter who wants to learn to code.

//storify.com/phylogenomics/11-year-old-daughter-wants-to-learn-to-code/embed?border=false&template=slideshow //storify.com/phylogenomics/11-year-old-daughter-wants-to-learn-to-code.js?border=false&template=slideshow[View the story “Suggestions for 11 year old daughter who wants to learn to code” on Storify]

Today we were both home sick and when she said she was bored she then asked if we could try some of the examples people suggested. And we ended up playing around with Python at Codeacademy and she spent hours on it. So much fun. See below:

Daughter & I both home sick – she is bored – so we reviewed this https://t.co/T0F15Bv8MH & today she is learning Python via @Codecademy

— Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) October 17, 2016

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Fun times with whooping cough in #DavisCA

Just got this email. I have removed the specific sender / facility since that does not seem needed for my purposes here. I have replaced the name of the site with “Our Facility”. Anyway – thought some people would be interested in the things that can happen when too many people in your community do not vaccinate their kids.

From: Office Administration

Subject: Possible Exposure to Whooping Cough – Pertussis

Date: June 25, 2014 at 12:55:59 PM PDT

To: Office Administration

Dear Parent or Guardian,

Our Facility was informed this morning that a student who has been attending a class since 6/16/14 has been diagnosed with pertussis (whooping cough). The child is no longer attending the class and is under a medical care.

If you feel you or your child may have been exposed, watch carefully for symptoms in the next 1-2 weeks, and consult a physician if any occur. Here is some pertinent information regarding pertussis (whooping cough):

Pertussis can spread through the air when people cough. It often starts like a common cold which gets worse and worse over 1-2 weeks. People with pertussis have coughing spells that may last several seconds. As they catch their breath at the end of each coughing spell, they may gasp loudly (“whoop”) and vomit or choke.

The vaccine usually protects against pertussis, but sometimes even immunized children can get pertussis. Pertussis is treated with antibiotics. Antibiotics can also prevent the spread of pertussis to others.

Activities that may help stop the spread of pertussis include:

The exclusion of all pertussis cases from classes until they have taken the first five days of the antibiotic.

The administration of antibiotics for babies, pregnant women and other high risk contacts of pertussis cases as well as consideration of antibiotic administration for other household or close contacts to prevent the further spread of pertussis.

The administration of another dose of DTaP vaccine to babies and Tdap for older children who are not up to date on their vaccine series.

Please know that Our Facility is taking every precaution in this matter and let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Office Staff

Ooh – cool – got to get this "Illustrated Children’s Book Introduces Invisible World Of #Microbes"

Just saw this news story: Illustrated Children’s Book Introduces Invisible World Of Microbes. This looks like a potentially good addition to the list of books that could be called “Microbiology for Kids.” I have made a collection at Amazon of examples in this area. Any other suggestions for microbiology books for kids? //ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ac&ref=tf_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=thtrofli-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=1469985713&asins=1469985713&linkId=HLADZ63WT64INEJC&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true

Woohoo – my kids are doing their 1st chemistry experiment (well 1st formal one)

Another Good Kid’s (and Adults) Activity in Davis – Take the Train to the Train Museum

I have been meaning to try this out for ages. I take the Capitol Corridor train West all the time from Davis to Berkeley and other parts of the Bay Area. But I had never taken it East to Sacramento. It looked from the schedule that it was just 15 minutes or so to Sac and that the Sac station was right near the train museum, which my daughter (2 yrs old) loves (she loves trains trains trains and trains).

So we did it. We went to the Davis station. And took the train to Sacramento. The train ride was great – only about 20 minutes long and my daughter got to see all sorts of cool things (she specially liked seeing the river and going over the Yolo Basin area). And then we were in Sac. And after not being sure where to go, we walked around a corner and right there was the train museum. Which we went into for an hour or so and then headed back to catch the train back to Davis. It was about a 2-2.5 hour outing (not sure exactly when we got back) and was definitely something different for my daughter to do.

The Davis Toy Library

Here is another somewhat hidden gem in Davis. We have a 22 month old daughter. She gets rapidly bored with new toys. My wife discovered a great way around this. Every few weeks she goes to the Davis Resource LIbrary and Toy Closet provide by the city Child Care Services. For a $10 annual fee, you can check out up to five toys and five videos/books at a time. Although sometimes it is hard to take the toys back if our daughter becomes particularly fond of them, she always ends up enkoying the trips to select new toys. From their web site:

The Toy and Resource Library is located at 600 A Street, in Davis. Library hours are Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

So if you have kids who get a little bored with their toys and you do not want to keep buying new ones, check out the library. Most of the toys are in great shape and the books there have also been popular in our house.