1st Grade: Week 34 Highlights

"Rupert's" play went very well!  He had 6 performances over the weekend and really loved it.  He's already talking about the next play which will start rehearsals in the summer.  He got some great experience with singing, dancing, and even did a little solo part.  He made lots of new friends, and we are both looking forward to working with everyone again this summer.

Phonics:  "Rupert" is still loving the Little Bear books.  I've actually caught him sneaking in some reading after bedtime.  LOVE that!

History:  We talked about ancient India this week and painted "Rupert's" nails like the ancient Indian men did.  This was actually done as a sign of manliness and strength, and to attract women.

We also tried an Indian dish this week, curried rice.  "Rupert" loved it!

Science:  This week we learned about blood.  We did a little project to show how much blood a baby, a child and an adult generally have.

 

"Rupert" made the signs himself, and I love how you can tell the adult is an adult because he is saying, "Go clean your room!"  LOL!

"Rupert" is on a crocheting rampage!  Ever since my friend's daughter taught him how to do the chain stitch, he has been chaining away like a madman.  He even took his chain to kung fu one day this week so he could work on it during break.  :-)

Speaking of kung fu, this week we sent our junior instructor off to the Air Force.  There was a nice good-bye party with all the students in the school on Tuesday.  Good-bye and good luck, Zach.  We are proud of you, and we will miss you!

1st Grade: Week 28 Highlights

Bible: We've really been enjoying the daily devotions at kids4truth.com They have been such a blessing for us. Check them out! "Rupert" has also been reading his children's Bible for phonics this week.

Grammar: We were introduced to three more sentence types this week- the command, the question and the exclamation. "Rupert" practiced writing a sample of each of the four types of sentences.

Science: This week we talked about our sense of touch. We also did a fun little activity where I put miscellaneous items into a paper bag, and "Rupert" had to put his hand in the bag, and determine what was in there by using his sense of touch. We also talked about how sensitive our fingers are to touch, and did the activity again, but this time wearing a mitten on his hand.

Some of the things in our touch bag:

History: We read about the Greeks (Sparta and Athens) coming together to fight off the Persians, the origin of the Marathon run, and finally, the Peloponnesian war. We also played a Peloponnesian war board game that was in our Story of the World Vol.1 Activity Book.

Math: We reviewed our skip counting songs and double and triple digit addition with carrying. After doing a great job on that, "Rupert" asked for a challenge: a 10-digit problem! My little math master did his challenge problem perfectly! We called it our "monster problem", so when he was done solving it, he drew in a monster face around it. :-)

Kung fu: "Rupert" learned more of his double stick form this week. I finished learning it, and I'm here to say, it is tough! Keeping track of what your body is doing is tricky enough sometimes, then adding a stick in each hand and trying to make those do what you want them to...I don't know how any kid would be coordinated enough to get it down. But they do...and he is.

Social Opportunities: We took it easy this week and just had kung fu class, a baking/crafting playdate for St. Patrick's Day, and PE class.

Our St. Patrick's Day craft will grow parsley "hair"

Our cupcakes had rainbow colors inside!

1st Grade: Week 23 Highlights

Craft: We made valentines this week for "Rupert's friends. This craft was based on an idea we saw in Clubhouse Jr. magazine.

Phonics: I think we're having a reading growth spurt. "Rupert" is able to read a lot more than before, and this gives him the confidence to try sounding out new, harder words. It's a great cycle to be on! As we were in line at the post office this week, he grabbed a pamphlet and started reading what he could as we waited. The word "international" still trips him up, but he's got "shipping" down pat! LOL!

Grammar: "Rupert" began learning another poem this week. This will make 5 in all.

Science: This week marks the beginning of our human body study. We started by learning about bones. I am teaching "Rupert" the names of some of the major bones, about 20 in all. I am planning to do either a big lapbook for our human body study, or a collection of smaller ones. I'm not sure yet which.

This week we did a few projects to go along with our study: We made a model of a backbone complete with discs in between the bones and a spinal cord running up the center.

Here, "Rupert" is showing how the many bones work together to allow us to bend.

Our discussion went into how the nerves work and "Rupert" modified his model to show that the nerves in the arms and legs (the threads coming off the backbone model) are connected to the spinal cord, which is connected to the brain (the green spool on the right). It was amazing to listen to him explain to me how the nervous system works. He picked up on the concept very quickly.

We also learned that bones are made up of minerals. When the minerals are removed, the bone is no longer hard, but becomes rubbery. The calcium in this chicken bone was removed by soaking it in vinegar for a few days.

We did a measurement project to show that we "shrink" during the day and actually are shorter at night than we are in the morning because of the pressure that is on our bodies when we are in an upright position. It was pretty funny because we had measured "Rupert" in the morning, then came back to measure again at night and he was so excited to see how much he had grown over the course of the day. He was very surprised to find that he was actually about 1/2 inch shorter than he had been in the morning.

History: This week we've been reading about the early Greeks. "Rupert" made this Mycenaean shield and we have plans in the works for making a Mycenaean helmet as well.

Kung Fu: We are learning our 4th stick form. It uses two sticks and takes a lot more concentration to learn than the single stick forms we have previously learned. "Rupert's" focus is getting better, although he does still have a day here and there where he is totally spacey.

Social Opportunities: Besides all the real world social experience of being out and about, talking to all kinds of people of different ages and backgrounds, asking questions, and just generally experiencing the community around us, we had 2 playdates this week, art day, kung fu, story time, and play practice.

1st Grade: Week 22 Highlights

This was "Rupert's" second week of play practice and he's still loving it! The kids started learning some choreography this week, and got their CDs to take home and listen to for practice. "Rupert" loves playing his CD whenever he can, playing in his room, jumping on his bed, folding his laundry, bedtime...anytime is a good time for his play music! :-)

We also finished listening to "Beezus and Ramona" by Beverly Cleary this week. We have already listened to the whole Ramona series, but we loved it so much that we decided to start all over again. We love Ramona!!

Phonics: The easy readers are still working out wonderfully! "Rupert" is actually excited to pick one out of the stack to read, and sometimes he insists on reading two! I definitely think this is the way to go for us!

Spelling: We started the 2nd grade spelling program this week.

Art: We had art day with our homeschool group this week and did another watercolor lesson. We also did a watercolor lesson with Grandma this week.

"Rupert's" Journey of Discovery watercolor painting:

Mine:

"Rupert's" Garden watercolor painting:

Mine:

Cooking: "Rupert's" recipe pick of the week was Oreo milkshakes, and, of course, they were GOOD!

History: This week we read about life in early Crete. We had fun learning about the bull-jumpers, and "Rupert" made a set of bull horns and we each got to practice jumping a "bull" (each other), too.

We also read about Theseus and the Minotaur, a story that we really enjoyed. We acted that one out too! :-)

Science: This was our last week of animal study. We read about spiders, crabs, and insects. Next week we move on to our human body study (my favorite!) and I am so excited!!!

We also did a couple of the science experiments that "Rupert" got for Christmas. Thanks, Grandpa and Grandma!!

Erupting Volcano:

ASL: When we popped in the new Signing Time video for this week, we realized that of all the signs on this video, only 4 of them were new to us! Lots of freebies/review signs for us, but that's okay. I think "Rupert" was excited about the fact that he already knew most of them.

Kung fu: Professor is beginning to get us all ready for promotion. Promotion isn't until June, but he wants to be sure everyone knows their stuff. I still haven't decided whether I'll go up for promotion or not. I generally don't like to be publicly recognized like that, and really, I just want to learn. I am not concerned about what color belt I hold. It has just never been important to me. But DH is pressuring me to do it. I don't know...

Social Opportunities: Besides kung fu and play practice, this week we had a playdate with "Rupert's" buddy since birth. They played together for hours and didn't fight once! They had a great time, and we're planning to do it again in two weeks. We also joined in on a once a week homeschool PE class this week. "Rupert" enjoyed running around playing all kinds of tag with the other kids. Add art day, an overnight with the grandparents, and a skating party, and we're maxed out on social engagements for the week!

Oh! One last thing! We made this little Groundhog Day craft this week too! He pops up out of his hole to look for his shadow. :-)

1st Grade: Week 13 Highlights

History: This week we learned about the early civilizations of Ancient China. The people there (much like the people in Mesopotamia and India) settled near a river so they could use the readily available water for drinking and farming. In China, this area was between the Yellow River and the Yangtze River and was called the Yellow River Valley.

We learned about the first Ancient Chinese writing, pictograms, and "Rupert" had a lot of fun trying his hand at drawing some.

We also read about the Shang dynasty, the farming of rice, and the discovery of silkworm cocoons which led to the invention of silk fabric.

We're currently in the middle of making a Ming bowl. Here's what we've done so far:

This week we said good-bye to our dearly departed Chicken Mummy. We made a non-traditional sarcophagus out of a shoe box and buried him.

Science: This week we learned about penguins and chickens. We found and tried a couple of science projects relating to chicken eggs. In one, we learned about how the weight of the hen is spread over the surface of the egg so that it will not break when she sits on it. "Rupert" squeezed an egg in his hand as hard as he could to see how strong the shell is.

We also cracked an egg open to see the parts that are inside and talked about how each of these parts helps the baby chick to grow and hatch.

We made a bird feeder this week to go along with our bird studies. It'll be interesting to see if we get any visitors.

Math: This week we practiced double and triple digit addition and carrying, greater than and less than, and introduced the skip counting by 4s song.

Kung Fu: We worked mostly on his new forms and grab arts this week, but also practiced all his old stuff in an attempt to keep him from forgetting it. There really is quite a bit that he knows now.

Spelling: We finally ran up against a challenging list this week, and we will continue to work on this list next week. His lists are usually only 6 words, which I think is a good amount for a beginner. It won't burn him out, but he's still learning new things. This week we worked on words like: going, seeing, feeling, and keeping.

Grammar: I originally scheduled grammar twice a week, but "Rupert" seems to really like it and is requesting that we do it daily. I just may honor his request. Then, if he wants to slow it down later, we can do that too. This week we finished up our discussion on nouns and introduced pronouns.

ASL: I'm trying to use signs as often as possible as I speak, so "Rupert" can see it more than just at ASL time during school.

Writing: This week's writing consisted of making a birthday card for "Rupert's" great uncle, and we also did two lessons in his Writing with Ease book.

Reading: We're currently listening to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on CD in the truck, and Daddy started reading The Indian in the Cupboard this week as a bedtime story.

1st Grade: Week 11 Highlights

Sheesh! It has been so long since last week that I think I've forgotten what all we did. I think I'll just tell my story in pictures.

Here's the aftermath of our reading time on Monday:

We worked on double digit addition, which "Rupert" picked up on quite easily.

Then there was free creative time, which he LOVES! This week he was working on his life-size ninja turtle masterpiece. He made his goal and finished it by Halloween!

"Rupert" does his copywork twice a week at his little table.

A couple more things he made during free creative time. He was SO excited about Halloween this year and was really into making decorations to put all around the house.

On Friday, we went to the pumpkin patch. I was worried that there would be nothing left since it was the DAY BEFORE HALLOWEEN, but it was wonderful! Plenty of pumpkins, and no crowd...perfect!!

We carved pumpkins on Friday night. This was the first year that "Rupert" didn't mind handling the pumpkin guts at all.

My ninja turtle got to go to the Halloween party/parade at our local library, then after dinner we went to the carnival at our church, and to Grandma and Grandpa's house. He brought home more candy than I ever imagined...enough to give us all a good solid start on the road to diabetes. :-)

I'm sure this didn't help matters. We found this in a Halloween cook book at the library. It WAS good. :-)

I also joined "Rupert" in his Kung Fu class and I LOVE it! I am so excited that I get another chance to train in martial arts. Doing it with my son is so cool. It has always been a dream of mine to train with my kids. Now if we could just lure Daddy into it, what fun we would have!

1st Grade: Week 8 Highlights

We took this week a little easier than usual because we had a lot to do to prepare for "Rupert's" birthday party. "Rupert" wanted to make his own pinata this year instead of buying one, and we managed to finish our masterpiece in time for the party on Thursday. It worked perfectly!

Science: We studied kangaroos and beavers this week. Oooh, that reminds me: we still need to watch the video on beavers that I got from the library.

ASL: We learned the ASL alphabet and reviewed counting to 10. "Rupert" even taught it to his grandma and practiced it with his cousin.

History: This is the subject we dropped this week. We'll pick it back up next week when we have more time and attention for it. We did change the "natron" salt on our chicken mummy though. Here's a peek at what he looks like this week.

Grammar: "Rupert" is currently memorizing his 3rd poem. We are also continuing to learn about nouns and proper nouns. We are moving fairly slowly through this but he enjoys it because the lessons are quick and easy.

Math: I'm trying to decide what to do for math. "Rupert" knows how to add single digits. The problem is that he gets his answers by counting. He almost always gets the correct answers, but he doesn't have his addition facts down cold. I'm not sure if I should keep him here until he learns them (and risk math boredom, which he is already showing signs of), or move on and experiment with the next concept. He loves math, and I don't want to kill that by drilling him to death. Still thinking on this one...

Kung Fu: "Rupert" learned the last half of his new form this week, and it looked so cool, I had him teach it to me. I can't wait until we can take lessons together!

Phonics: We've started working with the silent e. We've been here before, but when we started first grade, I decided to back up and start with quite a bit of review. I think this has been beneficial to him, helping him to gain more confidence in reading.

Music: We finally got a piano back in the house last weekend, thanks to a wonderful friend of mine! I wasn't the only one to be excited about this. "Rupert" loves playing with the piano, and has been really impressed with my playing. For now, I am just answering his questions and teaching little tidbits. It will be interesting to see if this excitement for the piano will last or if it is just the newness of it that he loves. It sure is fun to watch him learn and get excited about it though. :-)

Kung Fu Tourney

"Rupert" competed in his 2nd martial arts tournament yesterday. He did a great job! We are so proud of him for getting up there and performing for the judges. It is such a great experience for him. He competed in empty hand forms, weapons forms, and sparring in which he took 4th place. He has only been sparring in class for about 4 months, and it is amazing to see his improvement as he gets more practice.

Several kids from his Kung Fu school competed in this tournament and it was so great to see them cheering each other on. His school, as a whole, did amazingly well and took home several trophies and medals. I have to say, after watching these kids for several months, I am impressed with who they are not only as martial artists, but as people. These are some of the nicest kids I have met and I am happy that "Rupert" has friends of all ages with such great character. They have accepted him with open arms and have been both friends and role models to him. We are very blessed to have met these kids and their families.

1st Grade: Week 6 Highlights

Phonics!!! (notice the exclamation points): Rupert informed me that he did not like phonics because it was too EASY. Well, then, let's just move right along at record speed! We zipped through digraphs on Monday and then for the rest of the week we read sections from McGuffey's Eclectic Primer. At first he didn't seem too interested, but then my phone rang. As I was on the phone I faintly heard him jabbering to himself. When I turned around, I realized that he was not just jabbering, he was READING the book to himself! He was not getting frustrated like he does when I supervise, he was just happily reading. I think his reading confidence is building because I am catching him reading little things here and there and EVERYWHERE!! Yay!

Science: We did a project to see how the fur on the bottom of polar bears' feet helps them to keep from sliding on the ice.

History: Past project updates: We have flooded our model of the Nile River three times now and it is looking great! I wish our back yard looked this good!

Here's the photo update on our Chicken Pharaoh.

This week we also built a pyramid out of sugar cubes:

Math: We used the drill section on www.mathusee.com . It's a quick and easy way to practice what we've been learning.

Kung Fu: We've been doing lots of practice for the tournament, which is this Saturday. He will do an empty hand form, a weapons form and sparring. It should be a fun time!

1st Grade: Week 5 Highlights

Phonics: This week we played a racing game with phonics. I had the book open to the lesson we were working on so that we both could see it, and we raced to see if I could write it on the white board before he could read it out of the book. It was so good for me to see that he actually CAN read fast, he just usually chooses not to, and that is something we are working on in all aspects of life.

Grammar: Rupert has memorized the first poem in his grammar book, "The Butterfly". This week he started memorizing the second poem, "Work". He's really quite good at memorization.

Math: We worked more on adding 9 this week, and did a little review of all the adding we've learned so far this year.

History: The time has finally come! This week we started the project I've been waiting for for over a year, Mummifying a Chicken! We decided to use a Cornish game hen for this 6-week project. Rupert was a little disappointed that we weren't wrapping our mummy yet, and I had to remind him that mummification is a long process. There are so many great resources on mummies that we're going to stay with this topic for another week.

Here are the things we used: Baking Soda, Salt, Baking powder, All Spice, and a Cornish game hen.

And here is our chicken pharaoh sealed up in his salt mixture:

Science: I've decided to modify our science curriculum and study one (maybe two) animal(s) per week instead of three. I think we'll have a lot more fun with it if we take our time instead of feeling rushed through basic information on each animal. I'm looking forward to viewing nature videos together and witnessing animal behavior in their natural habitat.

Spelling: This week Rupert was stumped by "is" and "his". He wanted to spell them with a z instead of an s. Understandable.

Kung Fu: With just one week until the tournament, Rupert is practicing the forms that he will be performing there. For the most part, he seems to be taking direction better now, and his forms are looking pretty good! I think I've also found the secret to great sparring. He spars very lightly with the kids in his class, because he is worried about hurting them. They are all geared up and he's really not going to hurt them, it's just a mental block he has to get over. Last week I offered him ice cream if he fights "fast and hard like a wild animal". That did the trick! The next time he sparred, he was a different kid! It'll be interesting to see if this transfers to tournament.

Field Trip: This week we joined the homeschool co-op on a field trip to the cucumber farm to learn how to cold pack pickles. It was a fun activity and they will be ready for us to eat in one month. We can't wait to try them!!

Kung Fu

Today was G's 4th Kung Fu class, and he's finally coming out of his shell. He listened really well to his teacher, tried really hard, and did a great job! He's really catching up to the other kids. We are so proud of him!