Posted in FIAR book activities

This Patricia Polacco title is as good as all her others. We enjoyed reading the story, and tasting honey, and learning about bees. Maddy learned to draw hexagons.

Storytime was all about the circus, and they made cute little juggler crafts. Handwriting continues to go well enough, as does math... it'd be easier if he wanted to do the work, but he does like the programs we use and hates to stop in the middle as much as he hates to sit and work. So we keep on.

Science didn't go as well. Noeo uses Young Scientist kits for some of the experiments, and this one just didn't work out. The agar wouldn't set in the petri dishes till we put it in the fridge ... unfortunately it later liquefied again, thus ruining the test. The yeast wouldn't activate properly either, and by the time it did, all the cups were the same temperature, ruining the test. At least the bread came out okay. I don't know if we got an old kit, or what, but I wouldn't be inclined to buy any of their other kits after this one. Next time around, I'll buy some pre-filled petri dishes to use. (And, as a caution: While Googling to figure out what we did wrong with the agar, I came across some very helpful sites. They warned that after growing bacteria for this sort of experiment, the equipment REALLY has to be sterilized, soaked in bleach, or whatever, before it could be used again ... because you can never be sure exactly what you grew. None of these warnings were included in either the kit or the Noeo guide.)

Ted has joined the children's choir, and has been to a couple of practices. We missed the one at the end of this week, though. In another week they'll begin rehearsing for the Christmas program.

Thursday we changed up our plans a bit to pick up Grandma at the airport. Unbeknownst to us, that was the same time the Vice-President was leaving our area ... and we got stuck in traffic as the police blocked off the roadways to the airport. It was quite exciting. It would've been more exciting if we'd known he was being dropped off ... we thought he was coming that night and the cars were just going to pick him up. It was scary for my anxiety issues, but kind of funny otherwise.

Ted earned his tiger pawprint thing, the "Immediate Recognition Emblem" that they put their beads on. He's the first boy to earn it this year in his den, and he was SO proud about it! Just a few more things to memorize and he'll have that Bobcat badge, and they're well on their way to the Tiger badge.

Sunday we had over Lysle's family to celebrate his father's 65th birthday. Fun to see everyone!