Science fun

(wrote this yesterday and forgot to post it)

So, we're back into the swing of daily life here. Yesterday we started Real Science 4 Kids PreChemistry And yes, Erik loves it as much as I thought he would. We learned about atoms, and how everything is made out of atoms. We did a simple science experiment--talking about common objects, what they look like. Then looking at them with a magnifying glass, and seeing how sometimes we can't see the details with just our eyes. Today we went to Chabot Space and Science Center and purchased a periodic table of the elements. Erik loves it. It plays into his need for systems of order. I anticipate he will have the entire thing memorized in a few months' time.

At Chabot, Erik also spent his own money for the first time. He got a bank and some spare change for his birthday from Gramma and Grampa. He's mostly just played with it--putting the change in, taking it out, repeating. It's a fun bank. But the other day he was desperate for me to take the planets off of his ceiling so that he could play with them. We talked about how they could break, and how he really likes them on his ceiling. He told me he wanted me to buy him another one... the perfect time for me to help him start to REALLY understand money. So we helped him out a little--he had $7 in change, and $4 from his birthday, the set cost $20. But we got this settoday at Chabot, and he's so excited to paint his own planets that we WON'T put on the ceiling, they are just for him to play with. On the way out, he asked me, "When will I get more money in my bank?" Ah, we hadn't discussed allowance/chores for money yet! We decided that he can do extra chores that are normally not his responsibility to get money, but no money for the chores he's already responsible for.

I started a list of the words Anders says. My list, far from complete, is now at over 200 words. The funny part is--they all sound the same. He has horrible articulation. Like brother like brother, right? Erik was really hard to understand until he was about 2 1/2 to 3. Well, time to dust off my speech therapy bachelor's degree and put it to good use.