We have been talking about maps and addresses lately.

I have suspected that our discussions have been missing something.

So today, after the horrible flooding has finally stopped,

we took a walk around the neighborhood.

My goal was to help the children better understand where our address comes from.

We took our notebooks and started to walk around the block.

I pointed to the numbers on our house.

Then we walked next door and pointed to those numbers.

And, without prompting, the notebook was opened.

This is from the girl who does not want to try writing numbers because she cannot do it perfectly.

As we walked on, we continued writing numbers, until a cat approached us.

I, for one, was surprised to meet the cat.

My dog was walking with us and was at my side.

The cat was very friendly and was crying.

I wondered if it was hungry and we began discussing the possibility of it being hungry.

And, since it was obvious

I was going to have trouble returning to my original goal of learning about house numbers and streets;

I thought of a new side project.

I asked if we should guess what the cat would like to eat.

The suggestions included goldfish crackers, raisins, dog food (since we do not have cat food)

and I threw in the suggestion of chicken.

Each of us predicted what the cat would do as we walked back to the house to gather our supplies.

And we walked back over to the house where we met the cat.

We each took the food we believed the cat would most enjoy

and we tried to force it on the poor cat.

While the cat ate up the attention

it did not show any interest in any of the food.

Not even the chicken.

I am not sure if it was the spices from the leftover chicken I made

or if it was really not hungry,

but even my prediction was wrong.

The kids did not mind,

because they were happy to eat the food that the cat did not want.

(Funny how each child wanted the food they predicted the cat would like.)

And, for a minute, I thought our lesson on addresses and streets was going to end,

but the notebooks were pulled back out as soon as we saw the numbers on the house.

We had a fun and easy walk around the block and we practiced writing numbers.

We learned about the street name signs.

We learned how to address letters to each of our neighbors.

And we had fun doing it!

What did you explore today?