Animalia

School is now in full swing, and it's been (mostly) fun!  It's certainly been challenging even for me to teach and memorize Lucia's material alongside her, but my favorite part about it is the questions it spurs in Lucia's (and Rhea's) mind.  They take us to the most interesting places (online, usually :) )!  Here's an example. 
    This week, in science, Lucia is learning the five kingdoms of living things (after learning the classifications last week).  For your review, the kingdoms are animalia, plantae, fungi, protista, and monera.  So we were talking about which kingdom Sneaker (our cat) falls into, which one the avocado falls into, the mushrooms in our dinner, the germs she learned about on Curious George, etc.  Then I asked her, "What kingdom do you think I am in?"  She was stumped.  Her answer: "Plantae."  (Hmm... :-) )  So then I asked her how much she and I had in common with a tree, or an avocado, or a rose, and how much we had in common with Sneaker.  We discovered that we people are much more like a cat than we are like a flower or a bush, considering that we share two eyes, four extremities, two ears, nose, mouth, breathing, etc.  I then asked her whether she had claws like Sneaker.  "Noooooo."  I guess it is hard to see the similarities between fingernails and claws if you keep yours trimmed ... but then I asked her what she thought would happen if we never ever cut her fingernails.  L: "I have no idea!"  (These are the fun moments. :-) )  Mama: "Let me show you!"  And then I went to Google images and searched for "long fingernails".  What a fascinating journey!  Ick.  Tonight, we're especially thankful for our nail scissors and clippers. ;-)