Experiments and Schooling

Greetings friends and family,

Easton and Layla are approaching the home stretch for the home-schooling effort with Kendra.  They have two months left, then we spend the next few months embarking on the greatest adventures in the history of their five-year-old lives.  Once the traveling and vacationing is over, August will be here and kindergarten begins.  We're fairly confident the school we chose is the right one for them.  As the days tick by and kindergarten approaches we are more and more at peace with our plan.   

For now, Kendra is their kindergarten preparedness instructor.  They found a book about the five senses at the library and Kendra used it in a hands-on activity.

Every parent wonders if a child's five senses will be normal when they are born.  There are so many disabilities and defects and problems.  I am extremely grateful they are healthy and whole in every way.  No allergies, no medications, and no disabilities.  I know they are not perfect but they are healthy and well positioned to live a successful life.

Anyway, back to the experiment.  She put a substance in each cup and had them cover their eyes to use only their nose to identify the contents of each cup.

 Easton used the double hand cover for his eyes.  He has extraordinary eyesight and senses.  He sees things in the sky that takes me a while to focus and find.  covering his eyes takes his most sensitive sense out of the equation and he's left with smell.

Kendra used strawberries, peanut butter, and cinnamon. Simple, yet effective.

Another learning activity they did was bird watching.  My mom enjoys and Grandma enjoyed bird watching. I'm glad Kendra is passing on the fowl interest.  The binoculars were passed on to me from Uncle Dave.  We used these at sporting events and our adventures.  It's fulfilling to see them be used by the twins to explore the world around them.

And my favorite picture of the week is this one.

Dora doesn't have anything on these two.  I've got Easton and Layla the explorers!  The row of palm trees where Hootie and Howie live are a perfect focal point for them to look for signs of life.  I'll have to take them out at dusk some evening before it gets to hot so we can see the owls stirring.

Valentines Day came and went without much fanfare for the twins.  They missed out on the giving and receiving cards with their classmates, but they'll have several years of elementary school to experience that.  They were excited to get a letter in the mail from GG with a card and a dollar.  I wish I could get this excited about a dollar.  However, I do get equally excited about a card in the mail.

The Saguaro cactus in our front yard is looking a little droopy.  All but one of the arms are on one side and it's leaning slightly towards the driveway.  Could be just a normal part of the the development of the cactus, but I'd be much less concerned if it were leaning the other way towards the yard instead of where we park the car.  I talked to the local cactus sales company and sent them this picture.  He said the cactus should get zero water or else it grows too fast and gets too big for its roots.  So much to learn...  Looks like we have some landscaping to do in the near future!

And the large crack in the living room cracked several tiles so the tile man came out to replace them.  Looks great now though!

Oh, the joys of home ownership.  I've spent so much time in Lowe's that Leon, my new friend who works there, knows me by name.  It's starting to become my own version of Cheers.  I bet those guys in the Cheers TV show weren't home owners or they wouldn't have time to sit around in a bar and drink beer every night.  Maybe I'm on to something?  Either way, my expectation is that good portion of my upcoming sabbatical will be consumed with home repair projects.  Can't wait to become handy when I take a break from meetings and computer time at my job.

See you soon!