alphabetical order....

This set of 1980 encyclopedias was one of my best purchases.. $8 a local garage sale. I think Aaron was a little annoyed that I bought them, but has since changed his mind. The boys LOVE looking up odd fact about animals, states, and constellations. In fact, we had a good laugh over how much our kids love these books. Our policy for sacrament meeting is that each boy gets to chose one book and one toy that can fit in their pocket to bring to church. They are very good at making sure they have their items before we head to the car. A few weeks ago, on the way to church Aaron was chuckling about the book Luke chose... but it wasn't until we were walking into the building, that I realized what was so funny. Here was Luke, my little 4 year old, lugging in the "A" encyclopedia. It was almost too much for him to carry, but he insisted "because 4 of the 7 continents are in this book." We were amazed to see all three of our boys quietly sitting through the meeting, reading about alligators, airplanes and Africa.. yes, we are aware that we are raising nerds.

Another reason this set has been so great is because it's helped them understand the importance of alphabetical order. They love giving each other words to look up and see how long it takes to find it... talk about excitement! and they often think of lists they can put in order. Today I found Ben at the chalkboard listing his cousins in abc order.. yes, 23 just on my side... isn't this so cute? He wrote his J's and Z's backward, but they are all in the right order. That's not easy when four of your cousins names start with the letter A. I had to take a picture before Zack destroyed it.. (which happened about three seconds after the flash went off.)

Another interest, or should I say obsession, is geography. They can tell you anything about the continents, countries or states (thanks to Worldbook, not me.) It's so cute to hear them talk about which state is the best... which changes frequently due to new facts they find out. Currently, Ben's favorite is Minnesota because "it's the north star state" and Luke's is Louisiana because "it's shaped like an L." Last week, they spent hours compiling a book of each state flag (drawn by themselves, of course) and they LOVE (I mean, scream!) when they find a new license plate from a state they haven't seen yet. They can easily name all 50 and have recently learned them in alphabetical order. The other night, I tried to get it on video, but Aaron sabotaged my efforts... if you can't understand what the boys are saying through the giggles, Daddy mooned them behind the camera. Although nothing is shown on film, viewer discretion is advised--