As much fun as the holidays were, we spent this week recovering from them and getting back to the normal routine. We didn't do any projects and not all the usual social events were happening this week, but the girls had lots of free time to explore their new toys.

Library Day

I think it's been almost a month since we went to the library! This week there were a couple of other homeschool families. Most of them were older elementary aged kids, but one family had a 1 year old whom Goose made friends with. They spent a long time passing one of her shoes back and forth. The fun ended when the little boy decided he wanted to try passing Goose's chewy back and forth. That did NOT go over well. This was also the first week that Goose actually picked books out the toddler bins, sat down on a bean bag chair, and "read" them. Monkey and Bug also had a first this week: checking out books by themselves. They were very proud of themselves; looks like I'll have to find out when they can get their own cards.

This week we came home with:
Stargazers (we're looking forwarding to trying Daddy's new telescope)
Cinderella (I'm not sure were she heard about Cinderella, but Bug has been asking me to tell her "all about Cinderella" all week. We found a beautifully illustrated version to bring home.)
Jack and the Bean Stalk
Look Again (involves magnified pictures of objects, so we'll be pulling out our new handheld microscope to look at other things close up)
A Color of His Own
Back and Forth
George and Martha
First Steps Bible

Steps to Reading

Monkey and Bug have gotten really good at letter recognition; now they've started working on letter sounds. This involves my answering the following questions: What starts with the letter . . . ? (I reply by rattling off as many words as I can think of.) What does . . . start with? (I have them help me figure it out by emphasizing the initial sound; sometimes they know it, but mostly I have to tell them at this point.) Do . . . and . . . start with the same letter? (Most of the time they have this one right.) They've also been requesting Super Why (a PBS Kids show that introduces classic storybook characters and teaches letters and phonics) for their morning snuggle time in front of the TV and exploring Starfall.com (phonics-based games) on the netbook.

They've also been doing a lot of storytelling lately. Together they reenact/recite some of their favorite stories. Billy Goats Gruff and the Three Bears have been popular. For the former, one of them will pretend to be the troll and curl up under the "bridge" (the platform on their climb-and-slide), and the other will pretend to the be goats taking turns walking across. Monkey added her own creative twist to one retelling when she informed Bug that she was not a goat--she was the mommy troll and therefore could not be eaten. Bug found this hilarious, and I was glad to hear to that mommies are the ultimate authority and also not edible. :-) They get creative with the Three Bears too, and like to come up with new adjectives for the porridge ("too smooshy" is apparently a really good one). Monkey likes to gather an audience of Bug, Goose if she can be corralled, and whatever stuffed buddies are readily available and stand in front of them to lively tell a mostly original "special story." Bug, on the other hand, likes to play librarian: She'll find a chair to sit in and a book she has mostly memorized, then she'll read to Monkey, Goose, and I, while running her finger over the words at the bottom of the page. Bug's reading reminds me of a quote from The Importance of Being Earnest when Algernon is discussing his piano playing: "I don't play with accuracy, but I play with great feeling!"

Yum!

This is not cooking. At some point this week
we pulled out the cloud dough, so
the girls could measure and pour at will.

Monkey and Bug helped me do a lot of cooking on Saturday. Bug started by helping make the salad at lunch. She's been practicing her cutting skills with a kiddie knife and play dough; she wanted to try them out with a real knife and carrot, so I held her hands for added steadiness and strength. Then after naptime, they helped make mole verde, hummus, and no-bake honey nut balls (a recipe from my new cookbook). This involved lots of measuring, counting, pouring, and sampling. The girls were feeling adventurous (and hungry) so they wanted to try tomatillos, chick peas, and oatmeal before they went into their respective dishes as well as licking whatever bowls and utensils I would let them have.

Discussions

We've had a lot serious discussions lately--mostly in the car. Apparently staring out the window leads to deep thoughts. Now that the girls are past the endless repititions of "Why?" here's a sampling of the questions posed to me recently:
-Where does God live?
-Whose tummy did Grandma come out of? (Related, we also sorted out that Aunts E and A are not, in fact, twins. It's an understandable assumption--they look as much alike as Monkey and Bug do.)
-Why do you have to look where you're going when you drive? (Midway through my explanation, Bug explained it herself by recalling how looking sideways led to a recent crash on her scooter.)
-What is "dead"?
-Where do you go when you're dead? (Bug concluded that when dead people show up in heaven, God should just fix them and send them back.)