First, about a week before T-Day, he got to go on a field trip... to school. My friend who is student-teaching a third grade class asked firebirdluver to come do a presentation about geology. He took Beeper along with him, and we called it a field trip.
This isn't the first time firebirdluver has done something like this, nor the first time he has taken Beeper, but it felt different this time for some reason. Maybe it's just because Beeper is school-age now and he is aware of the difference between what he is doing and what other kids his age are doing. Maybe it was also because the teacher was someone he knows. It was a little funny, because when I talked to his dad and my friend about him going, I said, "I think he will be interested in seeing what other kids do all day," then I talked to him, and he said almost the exact same thing: "Then I will get to see what other kids do all day!"
He came home talking about all the neat stuff she has in her classroom and about playing with some other kids there. I was worried again that he may start feeling left out, but it appears he is still happy with current arrangements. Especially after that afternoon when he asked to go play with his friends. I said, "They are still in school, remember? They have to stay there all day," (None of the neighbor kids is in kindergarten.) He said, "All day?!?" The idea of staying there all day definitely did not appeal to him. It did, however, make him look forward even more to when she is done with her student teaching and will begin teaching him guitar.
The following Monday, another friend came over to be a guest teacher for us. She is currently taking a class at the community college about the history of chocolate, so I asked her if she would teach us a little about it to go with our studies about the Ancient Americas. We learned a lot of interesting things from her about how the Olmecs, Mayans and Aztecs all regarded and used chocolate. The Aztecs used the cacoa beans as money. When the Spaniards came, they thought it was goat poop, and they wondered why these people were making such a big deal about goat poop.
Just for fun, we watched Charlie and the Chocolate factory later that week and tried to tie President Uchtdorf's talk in. It's a difficult concept for a five-year-old, but I will keep it in mind for future years.
Grandma and Grandpa Spor came out to visit for Thanksgiving. Grandma is a Family and Consumer Sciences (that's what they call home ec. now) teacher in Southern Utah. Beeper was very excited when I suggested we ask her to be a guest teacher and cook something with the boys.
She agreed to make tortillas with the boys to go along with the Latin America studies. They helped her add ingredients, then she showed Beeper how to work the dough. She helped them each roll out a tortilla and put it on the griddle.
The boys were both so excited about making their own tortillas, and Beeper insists we do it again. Thanks, Grandma!
Afterward we read some of A Ride on Mother's Back, because the first baby is in Guatemala, and it shows her mom making tortillas. We were able to extract a surprising amount of information about traditional tortilla making just from that one page.
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