when she went to bed
when she woke up
if she stayed in her room all night long
how long it took to get ready in the morning
how long it took to get ready for bed
how many time outs she received
how she felt (excited, happy, sad, tired, frustrated) in the morning, afternoon, and evening

We also used a fit bit to record the quality of her sleep at night.

When all the data were collected, we made a few simple graphs.

Lo and Behold, when Moomers doesn’t get enough sleep, there is an increase in the number of time outs. You can also see that her ability to focus suffers because the amount of time it takes to get ready in the morning or for bed increases as well.

Interestingly, it’s not the total amount of sleep that had the greatest influence, but the longest uninterrupted stretch of sleep. So even in the total number of sleeping hours is the same, she seemed to have better behavior if she was able to sleep the whole night through instead of taking a midnight constitutional and then going back to sleep.

We put together a little presentation board and brought it to school.

Moomers had a fun time presenting her project, a few parents had a good laugh as well.

August Adventure 2014

21 Thursday Aug 2014

Posted by drloon in Holiday, Travel

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August Adventure

Last year we started a little tradition. August is our anniversary month. To celebrate the start of our little family we decided that each August we’d go on a little adventure, just the 3 of us.

This year we made a little day trip down to the National Harbor.

We had lunch and then spent a little time at the National Children’s Museum. Afterwards we walked around for a little bit and had some Rita’s Ice. The weather was wonderful! Not too humid and a nice breeze from the water to cool things down.

There’s a wonderful Carousel, right next to the water. It had an admission pass that offered unlimited rides. I’m not sure how many times Moomers took a spin, but it was quite a few.

Whee!

After a little playtime at the adjacent playground, we spent some time playing in the sand next to the harbor and on the sculpture installed in the sand area. It’s kind of an odd installment, but kids love clambering all over this thing.

Ahhhhhhh! It’s going to get me!!!!

We had dinner at an Italian restaurant and sat outside since the weather was so nice and enjoyed a summer concert from The Apple Core, a band specializing in Beatles Music. Moomers loves music from the Beatles so that was a real treat.

She’s got a ticket to ride…

The main focus of our trip was to ride the Capitol Wheel, a 180-foot Ferris Wheel. Moomers has never been on one and had expressed great interest in remedying this lapse in her childhood. We had fun and were able to see the Washington Monument from our vantage point at the top of the wheel.

We ended the day with some more Beatles tunes, a few more spins around the Carousel, and an inverted sundae at Ben & Jerrys. Oh, and getting lost on the way home and taking a scenic drive through DC (It is much more pleasant to drive in DC at 10 PM, when no one else is around).

It was a great adventure and a good start/end to another year for our family.