Halloween
So on the afternoon of Halloween, the entourage settled on their costumes: Monkey was a firefighter wearing a princess dress, Goose was a purple butterfly fairy, and Bug was The Greatest One (an everyday dress and tights plus a police vest, superhero cape, and fairy wings). They were very excited and pretty darn cute! Of course, when it came to the actual trick-or-treating, it took them three houses before they would say "Trick or treat" instead of glaring at our neighbors over their thumbs. Once they got the hang of it though they were golden, and they had a lot of fun joining their friend LA in finding all the houses on our street with lights on.

Reading
Reading lessons continue, and even Goose joined in for a lesson or two this week! She thinks pointing to letters and repeating their sounds is a great game, but of course she doesn't actually remember them 30 seconds later. Bug has displayed an interest in learning to sight read, so I've added learning Fry's 1000 words to her reading plan. We have the first ten words on flash cards and she knows two of them now (the and of; she's very proud of this, and wrote her name on the back of the cards so everyone would know that she learned them). She's been asking me to point to words as I read them (much to Monkey's displeasure), and if I'm reading without pointing she'll occasionally ask "Where does it say . . . ?" She got a huge kick out of helping me read several books this week by reading her sight words and sounding out the words I find that she's covered all the sounds for in her phonics-based lessons. Monkey digests her reading lessons in much smaller bites, and she'd rather know an entire book than have me point out specific words on a page. Almost every day, she and Goose snuggle up on the couch under a reading light with a stack of books that she has memorized or almost memorized, so she can "read" to Goose, who loves it. Monkey has also started pulling out their favorite counting book and is attempting to teach Goose her numbers (she's almost mastered 1-3).

Music
Monkey and Bug have recently been requesting to listen to "bad guy/good guy music." They're talking about our iTunes library of instrumental music that's a combination of classical pieces and movie soundtracks. They take their cues from the music to guide their pretend play (when the bad guys are coming, when the good guys are winning, etc.).

The girls have done a lot of dancing this week too, though sadly, I failed to ever catch them on camera. Goose even requests that I turn music on and will call out dance steps for her big sisters: "Turn 'round. Turn 'round. Bounce! Bounce! Bounce!" It's funny though, some of the moms in our neighborhood have been taking their two year olds to dance classes, which at least one of them confessed was just chaos set to music. Maybe it makes a difference having more than one kid, but I just can't see taking two year olds to dance class. They can get the same benefits (gross motor play, rhythm practice, and appreciation for different styles of music) just by turning on a Pandora station and having some fun. And it's free! And besides, you don't need to teach a two year old to dance. Any healthy toddler knows how to (as Bug recently put it) "shake that business!"

Library Day

In a nod to Halloween, the theme this week was pumpkins, and we came home with some cute suncatchers to add to the fall leaves the girls made at home last year. Goose lost interest pretty quickly (the contact paper kept sticking to her fingers), but Monkey and Bug did a great job (the fall leaves are completely covered only because we did them in multiple sessions). We came home with these books:
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!
You Can't Take a Balloon into the Metropolitan Museum
Mice (Our "what do you want to learn about?" book)
Night Rabbits
Airshow
Spider Storch's Carpool Catastophe
Teasing
Ten Rosey Roses

This is what story time looks like for the entourage: Monkey and Bug in  rapt thumb-sucking mode and me responding to Goose's questions and comments (apparently one of the librarians had a camera last week)

Intrepid Explorers
This week Bug pointed out that it had been awhile since we'd gone for a walk in our neighborhood to gather things for our Collection (a bin full of things from outside that sits on the shelf next to our big magnifying glass and handheld microscope). So, Monkey and Bug each grabbed a bucket, and I took my camera (for things too big to bring home) and Goose, and we set off for adventures. First we searched for all the red maple trees on our street (based on leaf shape and color; they picked this activity because the one in our yard is turning). At the back of the next cul de sac, however, we decided to leave the sidewalk and head into the woods. In addition to a dismaying amount of trash, which the entourage insisted we collect to throw away properly because "God doesn't like trash in His world" (score 1 for learning stewardship at an early age!), we discovered a pond and a large meadow on the other side of a bunch of "spiny trees" (thorn bushes). The girls were really excited about the meadow: "We made it into the sunshine!" They immediately proclaimed themselves Heidi and Peter and went frolicking about with their imaginary herd of goats. Science, theology, literature . . . I love a good walk!