Scoping it out...

My dad bought the kids a microscope and they love it! We got it in the mail today and it's really cool. I am obviously really old school because I pictured a microscope that looked like this:

And it actually looks like this:

Sort of looks like a miniature hairdryer right? You hook it up to your USB port in your computer, put something up to the lens and it comes up on your computer screen. It's amazing. We spent at least an hour viewing some really cool things like our skin, leaves, the computer desk, and our hair and some really gross things like our fingernails, toenails, ears, up our noses, etc.

Let's just say that when your hands LOOK clean they are not. Don't be deceived. I was really grossed out by what I saw underneath my fingernails that was not visible to the naked eye.

Blech.

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Anyway, I think we'll have lots of fun with it and it was most of our "school" today. Although we did read a story about two cats that was so confusing to me I'm sure Kylie couldn't have followed along. We also talked about the letter "D" and drew a picture of some things that started with "D". We also watched a show on PBS that explained how Washington D.C. came to be and some other interesting things about Presidents.

School is going well. Really we don't do much in the way of formal stuff. I'm still mostly following my initial schedule although even I don't realize it most of the time because I just follow Kylie's lead and half the time she doesn't realize we're "doing school". Which is exactly how I want it! :)

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I've been spending a lot of time following this election. I feel like it's my responsibility to actually know why I'm voting for who I'm voting for and to know what's going on in our country so I've mostly been watching the news. No, not FOX news either! :) I AM smart enough to realize the bias on specific news stations! Typically in the local elections I don't vote for most of the judges and that kind of thing because I never know who any of them are. I won't vote strictly along party lines just because.

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The Early Intervention Supervisor was out today and brought some information on drooling and some other stuff to do with Emeric to try to help with it. She also brought out a really cool chart that goes from birth-age 3 and tells you what a child should be doing in all areas at a specific age. The ranges are broad which makes it more accurate. There areas are: Cognition, Language, Gross Motor, Fine Motor, Social Skills, Self Help.

Emeric has actually jumped quite a bit with Social Skills and Self Help. Those areas were around12-18 months. His Gross motor was around 14- 18 months. It would be higher but he can't run yet and can't walk up or downstairs holding a handrail. Fine Motor was between 16-20 months. Speech is still around 10-15 months and Cognitive development is between 12-14 months.

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I'm going tomorrow with a few friends to do some shopping! I've got someone to watch all kids and we're just going to take a day away. I'm so excited!