Gibraltar and Spain

P viewed a map of Spain and Morocco. He looked at photos of Gibraltar and looked at how the forts on the rock controlled shipping in and out of the Mediterranean.

Largest Countries

P Identified Russia and Canada as the two largest countries in the world. He also identified Japan Spain, and Morocco on the map.

There is a FIRE in the house!!

We received vocal smoke detectors for our house to replace the traditional ones. With P & K's help, we recorded an emergency message that is meant to wake them up (studies show that sleeping children do not wake to standard fire alarms but do to ones that have a familiar voice). As there isn't much time on the recording to speak, we ended with: "P**!! K**!! There's a fire in the house!!"

They still remember the rest of the message that we wanted to use: "Touch the door: if it's hot -- stay; if it's cold, crawl!" We discussed that a hot door means that there is a fire right outside the door and they shouldn't open it. Because their windows are hard to open, they need to stay put near the window and try and open it, otherwise they would need to wait for help. However, if the door is cold, they can open it, but need to crawl along the floor to safety (the front door) to stay out of the smoke.

Christmas Eve

P sang in the Shalom Chorus for the Universal Unitarian Christmas Eve service. They sand three songs in the service, including 'Somewhere a Child', which they sang with the adult choir.

Geography Identification

P identified the United States, Canada, Mexico, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Greenland, Russia, China, and Egypt on a world map. He was also able to name and identify the seven continents and the four major oceans. Finally he named all the planets in order of distance from the sun.

Christmas Carol Pageant

P took part in a production of the Christmas Carol at fellowship. He also sung with the Shalom Chorus before and after the play.

In the afternoon, P and K watched animations on how CD players worked. We looked a record album and discussed how the laser replaced the needle for reading grooves. We also talked about how DVDs and CDs differ from VHS tapes.

Hayride

P practiced his part in the Christmas Carol pageant for the Unitarian Universalist service. We spent the afternoon on a hay ride in Micanopy. P and K saw various trees and a pond, and we looked at a grasshopper up close. After leaving the hayride, we spent some time at Paynes Prairie and discussed how the prairie changes with the seasons and with rainfall.