Horses and Butterflies

P and K visited the Mill Creek Horse Retirement Farm and Butterfly Museum today with Aunt Shelli.

Hoggetowne Medieval Faire

Visited the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire today. P and his dad participated in a fencing tournament, which P won. P and K rode the hobby horses and looked at dioramas of medieval life. We watched demonstrations of weaving, armor-making, using weaponry, and acrobatics.

Inauguration Potluck

Today was an exciting day -- we joined with people of all ages, genders, ethnicities, and socio-economical position to watch the Presidential Inauguration. P was very excited, and listened to the conversations about this being an important event in many respects, not the least of which was the election of our first African-American president.

Following the live broadcast, P and K helped break down the decorations and clean up the large areas that were used for both the potluck lunch beforehand and the broadcast afterwards. They also engaged in conversation with some of the attendees about the event.

NUU Years Eve

On New Years Eve, P and K participating in an arts, crafts, and activities evening. P played chess, and P and K took turns playing dress up. Crafts includes collages and making representations of themeselves by having someone draw their outlines on oversized sheets of paper which they then colored and decorated

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 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.

The Great Fozzie Release

Even though the weather is getting colder, we figured if Fozzie is to stand any chance, s/he needs to be released as soon as possible. So, we tried, but Fozzie wouldn't fly!! We left and came back several hours later and finally "he" flew off!!

Grand Kitten Re-naming

We finally brought our kittens home (Magic was a hestitant weaner -- will fit in great here!), and the kids renamed them.

Introducing: MAGIC EARTHMEN!!!


Introducing: PRINCESS NIGHT!!!

Fozzie Emerges!

More Caterpillars

Wooly Bear Caterpillars from our yard, North Central Florida. Favorite food is this weed:



Black -- Giant Leopard Moth (Fozzie)

Fozzie is now spinning its cocoon!! Very exciting to watch. Now the wait for the moth to be born. We are concerned that it'll come out when it is too cold, though.



Orange -- Virginia Tiger Moth (Wally)


White -- don't know. Just molted to be black top and orange bottom! (Eva)

Butterfly Plants Kill Moths!

It is sadly true, but we are worried about Fozzie -- Ms. Piggy has most definitely died, and Fozzie is thrashing around and exuding some liquid. It isn't good. We figured out that the plants we bought to feed the caterpillars is actually KILLING them. So, out it goes, in weeds come.

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!!:

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!

Drawing Play

P and K both decided to make some art today based on some of the creative play they had been involved in this morning.

P's drawing involved rolling hills, trees, houses, and an airplane.

K's drawing was of a cactus in the desert.

Learning math

We starting officially doing the Math-U-See Primer curriculum. P breezed through lessons 1 & 2, and will need to work on writing, which I expected. K also breezed through 1 & 2, though it was quite clear that she just didn't get the concept of "zero", so we'll be focusing on that for a short while for her.

New Life!

We were lucky enough to get a phone call from a friend who had a pregnant cat who was starting to have her kittens. We got to see the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th kittens born and latch on to nurse. P asked for the date, and then let us know that this would always be the kittens' birthday. It was a magical experience.

Alien Names

Based on an entry off of the Art Projects for Kids website, we created "Alien Names" for both P and K, which they then colored in to make their "aliens". We used both watercolor crayons and oil pastel crayons.