I think today I deserve some type of mommy medal of honor.  I took both Jaylyn and Jaxon to the dentist today.  And the trip was……………drum roll please………………… a huge success!!!

Jaylyn has been to the dentist before and usually does pretty well.  Today she had her teeth cleaned, flossed, and counted.  Her favorite things are the Mr. Thirsty (straw) and the water gun.  She had the best time and just talked to the hygienist like an adult.  It was priceless to hear their conversation. 

Then it was time for Jaxon.  He was there for what they call a “Happy Visit.”  Our goal was to keep him happy.  He sat in the chair in my lap and played with the light.  He wanted it on and off and then on again.  He held Mr. Thirsty and refused to put it in his mouth.  He waved it around like a wand.  He poked me in the nose with it.  He put it in Jaylyn’s mouth.  He talked to it.  He put it in his palm and let it suction his fingers.  Then………….finally, he put it in his mouth.  The water gun was a huge hit.  He used it like a personal water fountain.  The whole suctioning out the water thing just didn’t make any sense to him.  He took a long drink, swallowed, and then put in Mr. Thirsty.  Not very effective.  Then he had his teeth brushed with just a toothbrush.  He actually opened his mouth a couple times to let the hygienist brush his teeth.  Then she used the mirror to count his bottom teeth.  After that he was done. 

Then the kids got their own masks because those were just fascinating.  Jaylyn wore her non-latex gloves.  They got their toothbrushes.  They picked a toy.  And the hygienist gave them each a glove balloon.  They were happy campers.  Wow!  That was nearly painless! 

No cavities.  Clean teeth.  Happy kids.  And a dental office that is still intact.  Go back in March, we’ll see how that visit goes.

Ok, this update is long, long overdue, so here it goes:

Mine and my husband’s allergy tests came back.  I was sensitive to gluten and my husband was borderline on the gluten.  I was on the high side of normal on dairy and my husband was completely fine with dairy. 

So, I’ve stopped gluten.  I’ve stopped oats.  I’ve stopped chocolate.  I’m limiting my dairy intake. 

We’ve begun going to a chiropractor.  He said Ellie was “crooked” or whatever terminology they use.  So, last week she began getting adjusted.  She started sleeping through the night again.  We had five nights of sleep!!! 

The chiro is also doing acupuncture treatments on her.  Maybe those are helping too. 

We saw a new pediatrician on Thursday.  He was a little better than our current pediatrician as far as being patient, listening to my concerns, and spending time talking with us.  He told me most of the same things—dryer sheets, detergents, Vaseline, oils, lotions, creams, no soap, limited baths………..

His new suggestions were:  using Elidel (which really isn’t supposed to be for kids under 2.  I’ve also read some scary stuff about Elidel so I’m just not sure yet.) using bleach baths (putting her in a tub with even a little bit of bleach just makes me nervous, gonna have to research that one) giving her children’s Claritin to help the itch (going to think about that one.  Benadryl makes Ellie really, really awake so that is NOT an option)

But he ordered an allergy test on her!  Finally!  I don’t care if it shows nothing.  I just wanted someone to try it.  I felt like all the other doctors were laughing off my concerns about a food allergy.  It may not be the answer but at least we can rule some things out.  I would love to eat normal foods again!

 Friday we went to our hospital for the lab work.  After a ridiculous wait, ridiculous miscommunication, and just ridiculous people in general.  We got the labs done.  We may have to go back and repeat them because they can only take a certain amount of blood from such a small baby and it may not have been enough to run the complete test.  We’ll hopefully get our results sometime this week and know if we need to go back.  I hope not!  They had to draw blood from a vein and it was not a fun experience. 

Then over the weekend, Ellie flared up, didn’t sleep, and fussed for about 5 hours on Sunday.  It was the longest weekend!  It didn’t even feel like a weekend. 

Sunday night Ellie decided to sleep a little longer and Monday night she slept through the night again.  She’s looked slightly better on Monday and now she looks pretty red and scaly again today. 

This week we have an appointment with an ENT who specializes in allergies.  Maybe he’ll have some other suggestions. 

I feel like we’ve just gone around and around and around and not made any progress. 

So lotions and creams and oils don’t seem to make a difference.  So not using soap, or dryer sheets, and changing detergents didn’t help.  So the pediatricians haven’t offered much helpful advice.  So the chiropractic care and acupuncture might not be helping.  So changing my diet doesn’t seem to make much of an impact. 

What is going on? 

The only answer may be “she’ll grow out of it.”  FINE!!!  But what do we do in the meantime???  Someone answer me that!

We decided we would buy a potty for little Jaxon.  We want him to be familiar with the potty and hopefully get him interested sooner rather than later.  I feel like a diaper changing assembly line some days and two kids in diapers is no fun!  So, we’re not potty training, but we sure are talking about things. 

Jaylyn is convinced that we ARE potty training Jaxon and she feels it is her job to do it.  Not that I’m complaining but her tactics aren’t working too well.  She runs up to Jaxon, tells him he needs to potty, takes him by the arm, and drags him to the bathroom.  Somehow I think she’s hurting my cause rather than helping it. 

However, it is so cute to see Jaxon sitting on his little potty seat facing the potty while Jaylyn sits on the big potty and reads him a book.  The water runs, Jaylyn reads the potty book, and she asks him if he needs to potty.  And we’ve actually had success twice. 

So, if nothing else.  He’s at least becoming a little more aware of things and maybe he’ll be ready shortly after he turns two.  Or maybe I’m being optimistic.  We’ll see. 

So, I asked Jaylyn to go turn the dryer back on for me.  She sighed and under her breath said “reluctantly.” 

What????  I asked.

“What does ‘reluctantly’ mean?”

That means that you don’t really want to do something but you’ll do it anyway. 

“Okay, I’ll do it reluctantly.”

How about doing it cheerfully???

As we were walking through the neighborhood the other night, we passed a model home.  Jaylyn asked what the model home was for and we talked about building houses.  Then our conversation went like this:

Jaylyn:  One day I’ll build a house.

Us:  That’s great.

Jaylyn:  I’ll get married and we’ll go to the model home and pick out a house.

Us:  You will have to pick out all the colors like the brick color and paint color. 

Jaylyn:  I want a purple house!!!

Us:  That would be cute!  You might want to check with your husband first and see if he’s ok with a purple house though.

Jaylyn:  Ok.  But I haven’t met him yet. 

Very true…………at least I don’t think she’s met him yet.  That’s a scary thought!!!  I can’t go there yet…….

Tonight at dinner we were doing word problems and talking about math.  Dad made up a story problem about a flat tire.  So, Jaylyn decided to make up her own story problem using the same topic.

“One day my husband and I were driving in our car.  We jumped on a nail and got a flat tire.  Then my husband got out to fix the tire.  How many tires did we have left?”

What is this fixation with husbands lately?  No no no! 

September 14-20

Bible  This was our first week with our new Bible curriculum through the Explorer’s Series.  So far so good.  Jaylyn really enjoys the short stories and the questions at the end of each lesson really help her retain the information.  We’ve had so many discussions about the lessons and she brings up questions about the lessons throughout the day.  They’re sticking with her!  We’ve discussed how God loves us, God wants us to pray, and how we should tell others about Him.  Today she told me she was going to be a missionary and that she wanted to call her great grandmother to tell her about Jesus. 

Memorization  Jaylyn has been memorizing “The Caterpillar” by Christina Rossetti.  We’ve also reviewed Philippians 2:14-15 and Proverbs 17:22.  AWANA has also started for the year so we’ve had some new verses for that.  I John 4:8 is her verse for the week. 

Math  In math we completed lesson 12 and reviewed place value.  Jaylyn is doing great with addition and can do much of the 1-5 addition in her head.  As we get into the bigger numbers she still struggles but she is able to visualize adding the blocks together and can pick which rod would equal the other two smaller rods put together.  We’ve also done many story problems while we’re in the car.  We make up stories about Jaylyn going shopping for new dolls, she finds two she likes and then sees one more.  How many dolls?  Then she sees one more that would be a good friend to those dolls.  So how many now?  She’s actually able to follow along and is doing great.  She always asks for a story now.  We’ve even done some simple subtraction in our stories. 

Reading/Phonics  We have been learning the vowel sounds this week.  AHHHH, OHHHH, IHHHH, UHHH!  Jaylyn loves the sound effects of the vowels and Jaxon has been really in to learning them too.  He mostly just repeats whatever Jaylyn says.  Next week we’re going to learn some of the blends.  We have also practiced the letters that start at 2 o’clock—a, c, d, f, g, o, qu, and s.  Jaylyn is doing really well in her handwriting and her a’s, c’s, and o’s are great.  S is a hard one for her and seem to squiggle all over the page. 

Literature  We read stories from Aesop, For the Children’s Hour, Mother Stories, and A Child’s Book of Verse.  We also read stories from Andersen and a story about Picasso. 

Science  We discussed bees and hives.  We made a pretend hive under the small table and Jaylyn was the queen bee, Jaxon and I were worker bees, and Ellie was the baby bee.  We also watched several videos about bees, hives, how bees make honey, and how new hives are started.  We also took a field trip to the science museum where we played in a tractor, in the water, in a little treehouse, in the shadow box, and in the gymnastics room. 

Geography  We talked about islands and learned the word Archipelago.  Any time she saw something grouped together she would point out that it looked like an archipelago.  I love when she learns big words! 

Art/Music  We drew a bee with crayon and colored the wings with baby oil to make them transparent.  We “toe” painted on the patio.  We listened to the Flight of the Bumble Bee while we painted.  We also made a rolled bee with construction paper and added googly eyes and wax paper wings. 

On Saturday Jaylyn had art class at the art museum.  We read a book about Van Gogh and then painted with acrylic paint mixed with corn starch to make thick paint.  Jaylyn painted with brushes, forks, and knives to make a textured picture.  Then we toured the museum through the impressionism gallery and saw paintings by Monet, Renoir, and Van Gogh. 

I’ve been reading the book Creative Correction by Lisa Whelchel and have seen some interesting discipline ideas.  I’ve decided to try some new things with Jaylyn because she can throw one ugly temper tantrum and I am really tired of listening to the screams. 

We now have a delegated screaming spot in the house.  It’s a beach towel on our closet floor.  If she feels the need to scream, she can go do it there because I sure don’t want to listen to it!

We’ve also begun a token jar.  When she obeys the first time I ask her to do something, with no whining or complaining, she gets to put one token in her jar.  When she has 20 tokens, she gets the prize that adorns the top of our fridge—a new book, stickers, little toys, or art supplies.  So far, she has been much more pleasant when I ask her to do things.  When she throws a fit if I ask her to do something, tokens are taken out for each time I have to ask her. 

I also have a secret stash of little goodies for when she is doing something very helpful without even being asked—like entertaining Jaxon and bringing him toys when he is upset that I am feeding Ellie and can’t play with them.  She can be so helpful sometimes.  So, we now have some rewards ready for her.

One of our other problems has been parking lots.  Jaylyn and Jaxon will NOT hold my hand when we cross the parking lot.  It is a huge problem when I have the diaper bag, Ellie in the sling, and a kid on each hand.  I cannot chase them down or drag them through the parking lot.  Lately, I have to have Ellie in the front pack carrier, Jaxon on one hip, the diaper bag on the other, and Jaylyn holding my free hand.  She has been refusing to cooperate though.  So, now I give her an option—I can either hold her hair or her hand.  She gets to choose.  After one time of me holding on to her hair through a parking lot, she opts for the hand every time and now walks sweetly beside me rather than pulling my arm out of socket in the parking lot.  Yay! 

Any creative correction method you use?  I’m always looking for something other than “time out” which doesn’t seem to work too well…...

Jaxon's pick:

Jaylyn's pick:

Apparently, he wouldn’t give her the book that he was reading.  Stubborn was her word of the week after we read it in one of Aesop’s fables.  Now, whenever someone won’t share with her, they are being stubborn.  However, she is the one who is, in fact, being stubborn in insisting that she needs everything everyone else has. 

A backseat conversation between Jaylyn and Jaxon.

“Buddy do you like your monkey blankie??” Jaylyn asks.

Dah!  (translated:  yes)

“Do you want your monkey blankie???”

Dah!

“Sorry!  We don’t have it!”

“Do you like your book?”

Dah!

“Do you like spankings, buddy???”

Dah!

“You do?”

Dah!

Silence for a few minutes.  Then:

“Buddy, do you understand????”

Noh………

Jaxon runs to my computer screaming “Bach Bach Bach!”  No he’s not a chicken; he wants to listen to Bach on my computer.  He may not know all his colors, but he is learning composers…….strange…..

Speaking of colors, to Jaxon everything is “geen!”  I think green must be his favorite color.  We’re working on blue and now he can say “boo,” but he still insists everything is green.  He’s now able to say “burble” and he tries to say orange.  Red and yellow are nonexistent. 

“Boo Boo!”  “Uh oh boo boo!”  Jaxon has become very dramatic about pretend boo boos and he finds them everywhere.  Whenever he finds them on someone else, he pronounces, “uh oh” and then proceeds to kiss the person’s boo boo.  He’s so sweet!

Yesterday, Jaylyn began having a meltdown.  She was in the living room screaming while Jaxon calmly watched her from his little blue chair.  As Jaylyn jumped up and down, she was able to get out, “I want the blue chair!”  Ohh, fighting over chairs.  I calmly explained that Jaylyn could sit in the red one.  “NOOOOOOOO”  Now we had an all-out tantrum on our hands.  When she finally began to calm down, she screamed, “I want the blue chair!  Whoever sits in the blue chair is the boss!  I want to be the boss but I’m not the boss right now!”  Wow!  I never expected anything so honest. 

She’s still breaking out in her terrible skin rash, still miserable, still itchy, still fussy, still red, still inflamed. 

We saw the dermatologist again this week.  He told us several things:

She has severe eczema

Her skin barrier is not doing its job and keeping moisture in and other things out

It is not food-related

She must be moisturized constantly with Vaseline and some other cream he prescribed

We must use a steroid cream

She needs to take an oral steroid

She will have this the rest of her life and will develop asthma if we don’t get it under control

Ok, wow, not what any parent wants to hear.  I was so upset after her appointment.  The more I thought about what he said and about the things I have read and researched, I disagreed with much of what he said. 

I believe she does have eczema.  But I believe there is something else going on, an underlying cause, or something that is causing her severe flare-ups.  I do believe food could be part of the problem.  My husband and I decided to be tested for gluten and dairy sensitivity as well as several other things that I can’t remember………our results will be back in a few weeks. 

I am moisturizing her ALL THE TIME.  It takes up ALL MY TIME.  It has not yet made a difference.  No, I will not use Vaseline on her.  No petroleum products in my house.  No, I will not use the other cream her prescribed because it has some really icky ingredients.  I will use natural moisturizers, a non-petroleum jelly, and natural oils. 

I’m not a fan of steroids—creams or oral or inhaled.  Don’t like them.  Don’t like the side effects.  Especially don’t like them for a four month old.  So, I’m using some homeopathic remedies and a non-steroid alternative.  We’re not going to do any oral steroids right now.  She has no breathing problems and never has so we’re not going to worry about that right now.  And as for asthma, my husband has asthma.  If she develops asthma then we will deal with it.  There’s nothing more I can do right now to prevent it.  I’m doing everything I can.

 I’ve also read about some links between food allergies and sensitivities to asthma.  So, for now, we’re sticking with the food angle and going with that.  I have cut out several things from my diet to see if we can note any improvement.  Until Sept 1^st, I will not be eating any gluten, dairy, citrus, chocolate, or oats.  Basically, I eat food that tastes more like cardboard right now.  I really miss cheese and OJ, really really really.  And I’m starting to miss blueberry oatmeal.  And chocolate cookies.  But I can’t think about that.  If Ellie shows any improvement it will be well worth it.  We’re hoping and praying for some improvement.  I’m reading and researching and talking to everyone I know to get everyone’s opinions.  I hate to see her so miserable. 

It’s so sad how much you take your children’s health for granted.  When you’re pregnant you pray for a healthy newborn.  And when that baby is born and you count all the fingers and toes and the doctor tells you that they are healthy, you think you are golden.  Then later, something is not quite right and you realize that you took their health for granted after they were born.  That you had stopped praying daily for their health.  Ellie is not even seriously ill, nothing life-threatening, but it’s just made me realize how little control I have over everything.  They’re not really mine are they? 

From Dobson, to Pearl, to Ezzo, to Godly Tomatoes, to Attachment Parenting, to Grace-based discipline, and on and on and on.  I’ve read many of them, talked to different people who represented both ends of the spectrum.  And I’ve learned that they are all simply theories or anecdotes of what worked best for a particular child or family.  Is there a best approach?  I don’t think so. 

The only approach that seems to work best in our house is a flexible approach.  A parent who is ready and willing to admit that they’ve made mistakes and one who can make changes and be creative until an effective solution is reached.  Every child is so different.  Every parent is so different.  How can one style fit you, your spouse, and all your children equally? 

No, you have to be constantly on your toes, constantly evolving.  Every day is different.  What worked one day might not work the next.  What seemed perfect on paper may be a disaster in real-life.  What you thought would be effective was actually a mistake. 

I can’t put myself comfortably in the box with any of the popular theories and practices.  My approach is the surprise attack.  I have to continually surprise myself by coming up with effective, loving, creative, and constant approaches.  Why the surprise attack?  Because, I feel like I’m always under a surprise attack.  My kids are forever inventing new ways to disobey, talk back, and throw fits.  Their creativity never ceases to surprise me.  Therefore, I must be ready to have a response.

Sure, it helps to read all of the above books and have a bag of tricks ready for whatever situation may arise.  Many of the authors have raised children and some even grandchildren.  They have some great ideas and some good thoughts.  But I don’t know how you could possibly categorize yourself.  I simply use the Godly approach.  I pray, I obey, and then work with my children to do the same.  Amazing how that approach works every time…….

We decided to take a zoo trip the other morning.  I had to think of something to do.  I got up at 5:30 and packed breakfast and loaded the car.  I got everyone ready and we were out the door by 7:45!  I was pretty proud of myself.  Jaylyn got up in a terrible mood and Jaxon seemed unusually clingy—should have been my first hint that it was going to be a long morning.  And it was!

The kids whined, fussed, and threw fits over and over again.  I was trying to maneuver a double stroller loaded with gear while trying to keep the one walking child within arms reach.  I was getting a little stressed.  Finally, I had both Jaylyn and Jaxon walking because they were both fighting over who would ride in the stroller.  Ellie was finally asleep and they were NOT going to wake her up! 

Jaylyn:

“I can’t walk!  My legs hurt!  This is hurting my legs!!!  My back hurts!  I’m too tired!!!  I’m hungry, I’m hungry, I’m HUNGRY!!   I want a snack!  I’m so hot!  Mommy, I’m tired; I’m too TIRED!  I can’t walk anymore!!!” 

The drama………

Jaxon:

He would refuse to walk, standing in the middle of the pathway.  I would walk on ahead (all of 5 feet), he would run screaming and smack into the back of my legs, falling to the ground, sometimes taking my shorts down with him. 

Finally, Jaxon was so cranky he sat down on the pathway, screaming and kicking his legs.  He refused to budge.  I’m standing nearby with the stroller while Jaylyn and I simply stared at Jaxon.  I was so tired.  I guess Jaylyn knew that I just didn’t know what to do, and even if I did, I didn’t know how I would have the energy to do it.  So Jaylyn, ever the little mother, walked over to Jaxon and crouched down to his level.

“Buddy, do you want to go see some animals?  Come on Buddy!  Let’s go find the giraffes!  Get up Buddy!!  Do you want to keep walking?”

Jaxon stopped his screaming long enough to listen to her.  He frowned up at her as she questioned him.  He still refused to get up.  Jaylyn sensed her tactic wasn’t working so she changed her plan and asked only one more question.

“Buddy, do you want to get run over?”

This was asked in the most cheerful little voice. 

At that point, I laughed so hard I cried.  I needed that.  Jaylyn took over for me and was doing her best to help.  And she did eventually get Jaxon to stand up and keep going.  She’s such a good helper—most of the time. 

I cannot figure out the best way to keep track of what we do in our little homeschool.  I've decided that journaling is probably the easiest way to document our preschool activities, but I'm still trying to determine the easiest formats for journaling.  I thought I would keep a weekly journal and hit some of the highlights of our week.  I know I will so enjoy reading back over these records in later years. 

Anyone have suggestions for journal-keeping?

Bible:  We’ve been reading through the Precious Moments Bible.  We just completed the stories of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.  The crucifixion stories were more detailed than any we’ve read in the past.  Jaylyn was very bothered by how hateful everyone was.  She’s still trying to grasp the concept of why Jesus died.

Memorization:  We’ve been working to memorize Psalm 23 and we’re still working on it!  We’ve made it to, “Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”  I’ve spent so much time trying to explain those verses to her.  We have been talking about the rod and the staff and how shepherds used them.  Jaylyn decided that she had shepherd dogs.  Smart girl!  Make them do all the work!

Math:  We’re still discussing place value.  Units, tens, and hundreds.  It’s beginning to make more sense now.  The teens and the numbers that end in 0 still trip her up though.

Reading:  We completed another Lesson from the EZ Lessons book.  Jaylyn is learning the ING sound and is beginning to read longer stories.  She still guesses at certain words and tries to tell stories her own way.  A + for creativity.

Literature:  We read books and poems about the ocean this week.  We’ve also begun reading through some of Aesop’s fables.  We read them over and over and over again.  Now Jaylyn talks about the stories and asks questions about them frequently.  They’re really making her think and have some great vocabulary words in them!  We also had a library trip!

Science:  We went to a neighbor’s house to watch them release their butterflies.  Jaylyn held one on her finger before it flew away.  She has been very in to butterflies again lately.  She crawled in her sleeping bag and told me it was her chrysalis.  When she came out I told her to fly away because she was a beautiful butterfly.  “No Mom!  I can’t!!!  My wings are all wet!” 

Geography:  We still talk about the 50 states and have been talking about Germany lately. 

Art/Music:  We’re working on a Good Night Moon lapbook from homeschoolshare.  We made a scroll and Jaylyn decorated it.  I wrote Psalm 23 on it and she reads it like they do in the Bible.  She’s very proud of her scroll.  We also made a shoe box mailbox so we can “mail” Daddy letters while he’s gone.  Now we just have to decorate it completely.  We also attended an art class at our local museum.  The class was about architecture and the kids built creations with all different wooden shapes.  Lots of sticky glue with that one.

We’ve been listening to Bach and Baroque music and discussing what it means to be a composer.  Now Jaylyn wants to know who “composes” every song.  We also discussed the funny powdered wigs.  She can’t figure that one out. 

Little Miss Ellie has been having some pretty severe skin problems.  What began as dry skin, progressed to eczema, and then to an all out bright red rash.  Four doctors’ visits later, Ellie was diagnosed with severe eczema and a yeast infection on her skin. 

We knew she had eczema but I suspected there was something more.  The severe eczema paved the way for a yeast infection to take over on her skin.  She was covered head to toe in a bright red bumpy rash and looked utterly miserable.  I bathe her three times a day in a special bath solution, moisturize her four or more times a day with olive oil and apricot oil, and occasionally apply her eczema medicine to keep her flare-ups under control.  She’s beginning to look more human now and her dry, leathery skin is feeling a little softer.  And amazingly, she’s been sleeping through the night.  I think before now she was too miserably uncomfortable to sleep through the night.  We’re finally on the right track.

Even though we believed Ellie had eczema, we still cannot understand why hers is so very severe.  I’ve changed dryer sheets; I wash clothes and then run a rinse cycle; I was everything in scent-free natural detergent; I try to minimize any contact with any rough fabrics; I work very hard to keep her skin moisturized.  She’s still struggling.  Now, we’re turning to food allergies.  My husband and I will have some labwork done to test for food allergies and we’ll see what we find.  As a part of those labs, we’ll both be tested for dairy intolerance, casein allergy, and celiac disease.  I’m dreading the results.  If we learn that either of us have celiac disease, our entire house will be going gluten free, which is not only very difficult (and usually pretty yucky), but it is also VERY expensive.  Hopefully, the tests will help us learn why Ellie has such severe skin problems and we can help her feel better. 

We recently had a visit from Uncle Nate, my brother, who lives in Colorado.  The kids had so much fun playing with him-he's another big jungle gym like Dad!

I was secretly surprised he didn’t think his shirt tasted good, it was covered with most of his lunch.  Anyway, yuck is his new favorite word and I hear it about a million times a day.  Thank you Jaylyn for teaching it to him!

Jaxon is really in to trucks, trains, and airplanes--typical boy.  So we planned a field trip to our local fire station to see the engines and talk to a firefighter.  The kids were so excited.  I called the station and set up our tour.  That Saturday morning, we loaded up and headed to our fire station.  No one was there!  Off fighting a fire I guess!  So, we drove to the next closest station.  Empty garage!  The engines there were gone too!  Ok, time to drive to yet another station.  We get to that station, and.........you guessed it, no engines!!!  Everyone was having an emergency that morning! 

The kids were whining and I was about to lose my patience.  I called the fire chief and found a station with an engine and firemen actually AT THE STATION at THAT VERY MOMENT.  We drove over there as fast as we could!  Thankfully, the engines were still there when we arrived.  They announced our tour over the loudspeaker.........all five of us.........and we got to climb in the engines and look at the hoses and talk with the firefighters.  Jaylyn loved the trucks and talking to the firemen.  Jaxon just loved touching the trucks. 

Here are some of our science plans......mostly lots of reading and lots of trips to the zoo.  The kids love animals, so we'll be reading lots of animal stories.  We might also do a few simple experiments from the Usborne book.  We've done a few in the past and they were always fun. 

Science

*Among the Farmyard People by Clara Dillingham Pierson

http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=pierson&book=farmyard&story=_contents

*Among the Forest People by Clara Dillingham Pierson

http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=pierson&book=forest&story=_contents

*Among the Meadow People by Clara Dillingham Pierson

http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=pierson&book=meadow&story=_contents

Usborne First Book of Science and Nature

http://www.myubam.com/ecommerce/details.asp?sid=E0699&gid=85339105&title=First+Book+of+Nature+(C/V)&sqlwhere=+T.ID+In+(Select+ProductID+From+vCategoryGroupsItems+Where+CategoryID+%3D3080)

Uborne Book of Science Activities Book 2

http://www.myubam.com/ecommerce/details.asp?sid=E0699&gid=85339105&title=Science+Activities+Vol.+2+-+C/V&sqlwhere=+t.id+in+(select+productid+from+vcategorygroupsitems+where+categoryid+%3D3080)

Picture Books

Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle

From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer

Wigging Worms at Work

Starfish by Edith Thatcher Hurd

Books by Melvin Berger

Books by Fanklyn M. Branley