The DiCocco's are back at Degage!!

And, oh, how great it feels to be back in that place that we love. Hanging out at the referral desk doesn't seem to go so well when the kids are left on their own for hours on end to play cards and draw pictures with the clients... so Bridgette found a job we can all do together and it is called - fixing up hygiene bags and passing them out. It isn't as exciting as applying for state IDs with transient folks who have no idea how to get a picture ID to request their birth certificate when the reason they need a birth certificate is because they don't have a picture ID . But, rummaging through a giant box of toothbrushes and choosing out all the fancy ones to put into each bag was super fun. I love new toothbrushes. Since my childhood there is always a fancy new toothbrush in Christmas stockings , and in dicoccoville, it is what the tooth fairy brings and hides underneath pillows at night. New toothbrushes make the whole day feel cleaner. Especially when they are fancy. And today, the guys at Degage got fancy toothbrushes in their bags.



In other dicoccoville home-schooling adventures.. we are, in science, studying the excretory system. We've opted out of the experiments this week seeing as they were to collect and log all of our liquid waste to look for patterns in the ounces to determine our bladder sizes..... or to dissect a lamb's kidney. Now,when we studied the circulatory system a few weeks ago, I was all for the dicocco dissection of a cow heart if we could have found one (Billy tried, but with the loss of the local community butcher has come the loss of in-tact hearts for home dissection - which might not be a bad loss in the long run). But kidneys apparently - according to the book - smell strongly of urine and blood and I wasn't too excited about introducing that into our house just for the fun of it. Puts a whole new image on kidney pie doesn't it? Sorry Gail, but I'm glad I don't live in England right about now (although who am I to fuss about food when I am moving to a place where tripe is a common dish?).

We are also learning much about Japan. We'll be spending two weeks there this unit - so our adventure projects won't be ready till next Friday. Don't worry - I'll bring them here to you in dicoccoville. I have a feeling you aren't going to want to miss out on these. I'll give you a hint - we are studying Japanese theatre which is mainly performed through the artistry of puppeteering.

We are also reading both a fiction and a non-fiction account of the time in the 1800s when Japan finally put down it's strict isolation policies and opened up trade with the United States. In our place in the non-fiction version of the story, Commodore Perry has just delivered an official letter from President Fillmore (Did you know we had a President named Fillmore?) and told the Japanese that he would return in a few months for their reply. The important people are in a flurry - no one knowing exactly what to do. Today we read about one samurai who was convinced that Japan must embrace the Western technology.

I read out loud to the kids "He studied Dutch learning at Nagasaki, and yearned for a chance to travel and obtain first hand information from the West, which he would use to enlighten his countrymen."

At this Avery had a shocked look on her little face and interrupted the rest of us with her sounds of disgust. We were all looking at her in utter confusion when she said, innocently horrified...

"He URINED all over everything for a chance to learn more about America?

Why would have have done that?"

Yes, perhaps our integrated lessons have crossed over a bit too much in her mind. Or maybe we just need to add vocabulary to our little school.

Yearned.