Focus On Science

I have next week scheduled off for Thanksgiving break, so I'm not stressing too much about school this week either. I figure we can catch up a bit during the holiday. We're planning a trip to the zoo this Saturday and we're doing tons of pre-zoo science work. We got this book, The Complete Zoo Adventure, and we're really enjoying it. It's got three sections: Before the Zoo, At the Zoo, and After the Zoo. For a week beforehand you do a daily devotional, and each one talks about the animals and their adaptations and habitats and mannerisms and how God's universe works together. It tells some of the theory of evolution and talks about how it doesn't stand up to the truth. A lot of it is way over her head, but we're having a good time discussing it, and even if she doesn't get all the creationist vs. evolution stuff, she's remembering words like adaptation and habitat.

Then there's a field journal, which she loves the idea of, since Diego keeps one too. She was annoyed that it doesn't talk and look exactly like his, but hey, it's a twelve dollar book. There are sections for each kind of animal and a little scavenger hunt type thing where you fill in spaces with information about each critter as you walk around and see them. Or, if you don't live near a zoo they call this a "field trip in a book", and you can read about all the animals and fill out the journal at home, which is cool.

Then there are word finds and mazes and questions and coloring sheets and all kinds of stuff to do after you get home.

We're all really excited about the trip and I love that we're doing so much prep work. The meerkats were her favorite animal anyway, and now that she knows one of their adaptations is their social life and the way they work in groups, I think she's going to have even more fun watching them.

Robin Hood is excited too. He's learning the names of all the animals and the sounds they make. I can't wait to see the look on his face when he realizes how BIG lions and elephants really are!

Boomama interviewed Alex today, and the results were so fabulous that I had to immediately steal her questions and do some interviewing my own self. Here's what Maid Marian has to say:

What do you want to be when you grow up?
“I would like to be a doctor.”

Really? I had no idea. What kind of doctor do you want to be?
“A vet! For cats and dogs and small stuff. But only small dogs. I like small ones but not huge dogs.”

Okay. Well. Where do you want to go to college?
“Um, by my house.”

Where will you live after college?
“Um, home! I think so. Maybe? Where are you supposed to live after college? Don't say that I want to live home.”

Do you want to get married?
“Yes, I want to get married, whenever God wants me to.”

What’s your favorite place in the whole wide world?
“Um, home and the farm.”

Besides that?
“Um, I think that is Faraway City, going to see Daddy at his job."

What’s your favorite thing to do with your daddy?
“Have special dates- I like to do lots of things. I like to color and go to restaurants with him and give him lots and lots of hugs and kisses.”

What about with me?
“I think doing school and hugs and kisses and going shopping."

What are your favorite books?
“My big princess book. And also my Bob books because I can learn different words and read by myself."

What are your favorite toys?
“My carriage and all my dolls."

What’s your favorite thing to do outside?
“Take walks."

What’s your favorite song?
“‘I've got two favorites, the one you sing to me every night and the one you sing to my brother."

(That would be Annabel by Don Henley with her name in place of Annabel, and Away From the Roll of the Sea, which is a gorgeous lullaby type thing I learned in high school choir.)

What are your favorite movies?
“The Princess Bride and Sleeping Beauty. And Ariel. Those are my most favorite.”

What is your favorite game?
“The one where you.... oh, bingo on the TV and also the one with the little guys. You know, the one on the tv where you watch and get Nemo... oh, never mind...."

(she means Disney Scene It, I think)

What do you know about God?
“I know that He is powerful than us. And He's way far away from us. I think. Yeah. And He loves us lots and He died to save our sins and... that's all. I think."

What do you think about kindergarten so far?
“I love it. My favorite thing of the day! The reading, and the math, and mostly all of it."

Anything else you want to say?
“Uh, can I say I love being together as a family? I love being a family. And I hope ... would it be okay if we invite friends over? And can you help me pour some milk now? I'm done talking." That's all I want to say. Thank you. This is Maid Marian."

Well. Fair enough, then.

Noah's Ark

So it turns out we're supposed to be reading that story tomorrow. Today is the Fall and also Cain and Abel. You know, just some light reading... Good times. I'd already told her it was Noah day though, so we're switching it around and doing that other stuff tomorrow. Yay! Have I mentioned how much I love making my own schedule and working with her interests?

Anyway, Marian's in the mood now to play with her Noah's Pals, and I always love watching her interact with the animals. She has quite a few now, having spent all her birthday money on ordering more. Today they're having a race. She's lining them all up in order from smallest to largest and dividing them into two teams. So far the line seems to be between Owen and Olivia Ostrich. She gets to run with the small team. I'm thinking she'll smoke the skunks and kinkajous. Something's not quite fair there.

She talks to them constantly as she works, and I love the way she can remember all the names they came with. "Okay, Blake, you run next to Taylor, and be nice this time...." "Hayden lost his ear last time running on the rocks, he needs to be more careful!" She's discussing the creation of special saddles to put on the bigger animals so they can carry the smaller ones who can't run well. It's so cute. She's in a really creative mood.

Then she tells me, "I have some bad animals, Mama. Some of them CHEAT! and also LIE! And that is not nice." I ask why do they do that? and she says very seriously, "It's because they're from the devil." I had to work so hard to keep a straight face. She's been asking a lot of deep spiritual questions in the car lately about angels and God and the devil and I know she's really been mulling it over. I told her she needed to try to show all her animals God's love then, so they wouldn't want to stay with the devil, and so now they're getting lessons. She's got them all lying down to take a nap before the race and she's talking to them very earnestly.

"There is just ONE God. There is not, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eightnineten Gods. And He loves you! You should love Him too...."