Update

In the last few weeks, we've finished Mrs. Piggle Wiggle as a read aloud, Whittington by Alan Armstrong as a read along (book and CD), and 6 Magic Tree House books as self-read (#4 Pirates Past Noon, #13 Vacation Under the Volcano, #15 Viking Ships at Sunrise, #23 Twister on Tuesday, #24 Earthquake in the Early Morning, and #27 Thanksgiving on Thursday). We have, of course, been reading other things from our library, but these are the ones we've borrowed and will be returning today.

We also have two Giant Leopard Moth caterpillars that we're raising in our homemade terrarium. A very large one which we've had for quite a while and a small one which is a relative newcomer. Both have molted once. The smaller one is acting as if it is going ahead and spinning a cocoon, so we're concerned "Miss Piggy" won't make it. Fozzie is loving the marigold plant we've added, however.

Scissors and Art

P made a representation of a train, including engine, coal car, and caboose while K practiced with scissors.

PK City

P and K spent much of today creating PK City. Copious time was spent perfecting animal life locations, arranging buildings, walkways and train tracks in relation to existing roads, and having nice spiders around to catch bugs.

Farm animals are found in pens, with guard dogs:


Water animals are located on the largest body of water:


A small lake is populated by a sailboat:


Traffic includes car, train, and pedestrian:


There is a town square, complete with a clock tower:


Even fictitious creatures, like dragons, have a home here -- lying in wait to destroy!!:

Shalom Chorus

P and K have decided to join the Shalom Chorus at the UU Fellowship. They practice weekly for about 30 minutes and perform about once every 6 weeks.

P is really enjoying it, and has shown great concern over his ability, including going up and talking to Ms. Ruth about not being able to match pitch exactly.

K feels shy, but loves being up on stage. We'll see how it goes for her.

Caterpillars

We have now found 2 caterpillars our on our amaryllis plant, and have adopted them. The large one is named Fozzie (we found him first) and the second is named Ms. Piggy. They are eating amaryllis leaves and we bring in other things from outside we find looking for other foods, as we only have two amaryllis!

Speech Screening

P went today for a preliminary screening for speech therapy at the local elementary school. He's had trouble pronouncing certain sounds for a long time, and as a homeschooled student, he's entitled to receive certain services through the local school system, one of which is speech. Based on the assessment, he'll need speech, though the SLP needs to schedule a more intensive assessment to determine the depth of his therapy.