Jonathan's all into DNA. Last month when we took the boys to a play downtown, he saw a DNA display at the Smithsonian and was enraptured. I got him a couple of books from Amazon until we could get to the library and try to find some books on genetics directed at his age range (no small feat), and he's eating them up. He spent yesterday evening constructing an RNA copy chain onto an uzipped strand of DNA. I'm enjoying the refresher course and Jonathan is obviously loving it.

I think if you would have told me five years ago that we'd be doing cellular biology and genetics when he was five I'd have had a serious freak out. But it all seems pretty natural, now. It's all about latching onto their interests with as much enthusiasm as they themselves can muster and helping them answer their questions. I don't think anything is too complex for them when they're interested, even if it sometimes poses a challenge for me as the facilitator.

We wrote a story over the weekend with me transcribing his re-telling of a story we had checked out of the library and him illustrating. It turned out really well and he was anxious to include it in his notebook.

During Christmas, Jonathan had some questions about God, so I got him a couple of books for Christmas, and we read the first one over the weekend. I loved that book. I shelved the children's Bible on their living room shelf of books, but I haven't seen Jonathan looking at it. Benjamen did, though, and Dan sat with him and talked to him about it while he flipped through the pages. Dan and I aren't religious at all, so this should be an interesting area of learning for us.

I play number games in bed with the boys before they go to sleep at night (if they're not tired enough to drift off right away) and Jonathan's becoming really good at counting by twos and fives. He's been counting by fives for a long time, but when he checked out a videotape about telling time from the library last summer, it really clicked with him, mostly, I think, because he saw a real-life use for knowing the information we'd been "playing" with for such a long time.

Dan just commented over the weekend how accurate his time-telling has become and I guess it sort of snuck up on me. I've always made a point of asking him to tell me what time it was, before he could ever tell time, really. He'd say he didn't know or he'd make up a time at first, and then that would lead to a discussion about how to tell time, why we have clocks, AM/PM, or just time in general. The last few months, though, we haven't been having as many of those conversations. I ask him what time it is, and he tells me. And he's getting more accurate about it. Yesterday I asked him and he said it was 2:48PM. I think now we just need to bring "quarter 'til", "half past", etc into the conversation. He's got a general handle on those terms, but they confuse him a bit, once in a while.

I've got plans for they boys' piggy bank this week! I picked up a bunch of coin rolling papers from the bank and I think we're going to start doing that when Nicholas goes down for his naps in the afternoons. I think Jonathan and Benjamen will enjoy it and they'll be picking up more money experience, to boot. Jonathan knows all of the coins and dollars and how much they're worth, but Benjamen is still learning to tell them all apart. Jonathan could use some reinforcement, too, and practice counting by 1s, 5s, 10s, and 25s is always a good thing.

It's getting brrrr cold, again, so I think we're going to make scones and have a tea party this afternoon, try and warm up a bit. I'm off to look up a yummy scone recipe.