Last Sunday I woke up and realized that I wouldn’t be going to church because my daughter had a fever and sore throat.  I was sure it was strep throat, but couldn’t get her in to see the doctor until the next day. It was confirmed then, so she started antibiotics.  On Tuesday her ears started hurting her, too, so she had a miserable week with the strep and ear infections.  By Friday she was finally better!  I was truly amazed that no one else in the family came down with it!  (It’s been 8 days, so surely we would’ve gotten it by now, right?)

We started yet another one of our fall activities this week–swim lessons.  Numbers 2, 3, 4, and 5 are taking lessons this time.  We try to do these 8-week sessions every fall and every spring.  The summer lessons haven’t worked out too well, because we’ve tried having them in an outdoor pool and get rained out too often!

On Tuesday evening we went to a program at the library about birds of prey.  It was a perfect complement to our science study (Exploring Creation with Flying Creatures).  They had 3 owls and 2 hawks to show us.  Here’s what we learned:

1.  Birds of prey catch their food with their feet (as opposed to their beaks).

2.  Owls can switch their toes to have 2 in front and 2 in back (like woodpeckers) or 3 in front and one in back.

3.  Certain of species of owls and hawks typically live in the same territory, hawks taking the day-shift and owls the night-shift.

4.  Birds (except for vultures) don’t have a sense of smell.

On Wednesday morning we met a couple of other homeschool families at this great park.  It was a beautiful fall day!

One thing we studied this week was about the Sumerians using cuneiform writing on clay tablets.  Here are the kids making their own cuneiform, using self-hardening clay.

Can you read this one?:

My second son built a ziggurat out of Legos when we studied the Tower of Babel.

A friend of mine called one afternoon saying she had a couple of monarch caterpillars for us.  We were excited to watch them turn into caterpillars, but they died less than 24 hours later.  :(

On Friday night we hosted our church’s Family Fellowship Night.  We spent the day cleaning and cooking (2 crock-pots of chili).  We had 40 people for a wonderful night of fellowship!

Today my husband is getting his acting debut, helping a friend with his short film.  Tonight we get to go out again!  Two weeks in a row–that doesn’t happen often!  We’ll be going to a chamber music concert in a friend’s home.  A little culture; that will be nice!