Looking back and making progress.

After reading another chapter of Harry Potter today, I was having another look at our non-fiction books on the body and asked K & M a bit more about what they had got up to at Fun Club yesterday.  I was particularly interested in the people model of an ear and they were happy to explain it to me.

As I understand it, the ear was made up by people holding these things in the following order:
a funnel - the outer part of the ear
a tube - the ear canal
a cake tin with the base removed with cling film over it - eardrum
a hammer - hammer
a spatula (which cleared up why M thought that was what one of the bones was called!) - anvil
a potato masher - stirrup
a bowl of jelly - cochlea
and I think a narrower pipe of some sort to take the message to the brain.

I said that given we'd been looking at hearing we could look at the other senses as part of our (now rather protracted, sporadic) project about the human body.  However, as we chatted about it, it turned out that we'd already covered rather a lot, some of which that I had forgotten about but K & M hadn't!  We talked about sight, touch and a bit about smell and taste as well, for example, about how scientist used to think that different parts of the tongue tasted different types of taste, but that is no longer thought to be true, but that several of our books about bodies state that to be the case.  While eating we also talked about the fact that the tongue is key when eating, not just for tasting but also for moving the food around your mouth.

And speaking of food, it was back at the beginning of last year that K expressed a desire to learn to cook, specifically a whole meal.  While we have made some progress on that front, moving on from just baking sweet things, to cheese straws, eggs or baked beans and toast for example, we still have an awfully long way to go.  So, yesterday, when K asked if we could have what we call 'red pasta sauce' (we do have the pasta with it too!) today, I suggested that she could cook it.  Starting simple, she used a portion out of the freezer this time, she cooked, tested and drained the spaghetti with very little help (I help the sieve that was balanced over the sink still as her wrists aren't strong enough for the saucepan and lid draining method that I prefer), then stirred in the sauce.  She also boiled some peas and sweetcorn to go with it and served it all up for herself, M and me.  We sprinkled some cheese over the top and were good to go.

And it tasted just as good as when I do it!

During the meal, K & M started planning what they could do for a 5 course meal between them!

In other news, M was very sad when her crocodile shaped ocarina broke when it flew out of her pocket at Fun Club yesterday.  So when we went to the shops this morning, we went to the shop where it had come from to see if they had any.  Sadly they don't have them any longer, but K bought M a pretty oval one to cheer her up, happily this one comes on a string, so she can wear it round her neck run about without risking it getting broken in the same way as the last one.