Progress in some areas

1. Elena has become interested in spelling and reading non-short-vowel words (bathtime letters help a lot with this--it seems to be a very receptive, relaxed time for her to learn things).

2. Elena came to me and recited almost the entire Our Father by heart. She couldn't think of the last phrase ("But deliver us from evil") but had the rest of it. She seemed to fake some of the words, though, not quite pronouncing them right or glossing over them a bit. But it's good progress.

3. I was very proud of Elena recently. She came up to me as people were socializing and kids were playing after church and said that two girls had said that she couldn't play with them. Rather than getting upset, she explained the situation, said that she didn't know why they didn't want her to play, but simply, "I'm going to find some other kids to play with instead."

Olfactory bulbs

In another discussion, Elena and I discussed some of the differences between dogs' sense of smell and humans. She said that "dogs smell everything!" I talked about the olfactory bulbs in the brain and how dogs' olfactory bulbs are much larger than humans' olfactory bulbs. When I asked her later if she could tell me the area of the brain that processed smell, she was able to answer correctly. (We didn't get into the role of the orbitofrontal cortex--I feel like that's a bit advanced for her)

Congestion

Today's morning lesson was on nasal congestion with a smattering of heredity/genetics. Elena awoke because she was having trouble breathing through her nose and inquired why. I explained that the two most likely explanations were illness and allergies. We discussed the difference between these--how one is a helpful effort to fight off a problematic foreign invader and the other is an immune system over-reaction to something that really isn't dangerous.

She inquired why she would have allergies (since I don't think she's sick and genuinely think she may finally be developing allergies like the rest of the family) and we discussed what genes are briefly and how they code for different aspects of the phenotype, including allergies.

Bible stories

Elena eats far more slowly than the rest of the family. As she was finishing up her food, she handed me a small bible and asked me to read to her while she ate (she very firmly stated that she wanted me to read out of the adult bible, not the kids bible). I asked if there were anything in particular she wanted me to read.
"When Mary was born."
"That's not in the bible. The bible doesn't have everything in it."
"Read to me about when Mary died!" (She's been thinking a lot about this since Dormition.)
"That's not in there, either."
"What about when Jesus died?"
"Yes, that's there."
So I read to her about the crucifixion from Luke. She had questions at several points, but she did NOT like it when I paraphrased rather than reading straight from the bible. She enjoyed being able to anticipate the resurrection. She still has trouble with the idea of the soul being separate from the body, though, even in Jesus. She has been thinking a lot about death lately and asking lots of questions about it.

"I don't want to die!"

Our evening discussion last night centered around death. Elena felt her ribs and asked if they were indeed her ribs. I confirmed. She then asked, "This is all dead people have? When you die all your skin gets ripped off?" I investigated where this idea came from (likely seeing skeletons in pictures and icons) and tried to explain that it's not that your skin gets ripped off--it's just that your bones are the last thing to decompose (she really didn't seem to grasp this and held on to the skin-ripped-off idea). We then had a discussion of the state of the soul after bodily death. The idea that one's soul would continue living after the death of the body was very difficult for her (as, I suppose, it should be--it is an unnatural state). She was comforted by her previous discussion with my mother about Jesus walking the earth again and her getting a new resurrection body after the Second Coming. But she kept insisting that she doesn't want to die. I tried my best to explain that everyone dies (well, almost everyone) and that, God willing, what awaits her is better than this life. She wasn't really having it. I'm not sure if she's truly concerned about her own mortality or if she's just concerned about her skin being ripped off. Regardless, it was an interesting discussion.

Schoolish stuff

Elena is starting to get better with the days of the week. I have a hard time thinking of this as a school activity, but kids have to learn it somewhere, right? And maybe it's something they work on in traditional preschools. Regardless, she shows a LOT of interest in it and is always asking what day it is.

Today, when Elena requested to play a game, we played a modified version of dominoes. At her level of development, I think this is an educational activity. Actually, the initial sorting to sift out the double-six set was particularly educational as she evaluated each domino to determine whether there was a side that was more than six. Up to this point, we haven't worked on "more than/less than" much, except incidentally. She was able to enjoy the dominoes game, though she was disappointed that it was a game with only one winner.

The Great Commission

Elena: My nose is an /m/. It goes up and down and up and down just like an /m/. Let me see yours.
Me: I can't show you right now. I'm driving. All human noses are like that. God made them that way.
Elena: (NO pause) Can we see God moving? Walking?
Me: Well, we can't, but the people who were around when Jesus was on the earth did.
Elena: Yeah, well, I want to.
Me: He'll be back.
Elena: Yeah, then He can keep me and walk with me and take me to the playground. I love God and I want to see Him. (pause) You need to tell everyone this story. They will love it. Tell EVERYONE at home. Tell EVERYONE. When you run out of people, find more people.