1st Grade: Week 33 Highlights

Phonics:  This week "Rupert" read through the book Little Bear and LOVED it!  I am so excited that he is reading books with more words on the page AND he's enjoying it!  Thank you so much for letting us borrow this book, Morgan!

Spelling:  We worked on "Rupert's" trouble words list this week.  There are only a couple words from the entire year that he still needs some practice on; head and said.  He's starting to get them.

Math:  "Rupert" finished his math workbook this week and is looking forward to a trip to the ice cream shop!

Science:  We talked about circulation and watched the Bill Nye video on the subject.  Science will continue a little longer than the rest of our subjects for this year because we're really taking our time and enjoying it.  Once we finish up the human body study, we'll do plants (which I guess we are already doing a bit of since we are planting our garden).

History:  This is another subject that will go longer than the rest.  This week we read about the Punic wars and Hannibal and his elephants.  I think once we are done with this coming busy weekend, we'll make elephant ears to go along with this chapter.  I don't want to feed "Rupert" a bunch of sugar right now and risk him being sick for his play.  I'll add pictures of our elephant ears once we make them.  :-)

Social:  Today we say good-bye to our children's librarian of 3 years.  She is starting a new chapter and a new adventure in Australia.  We will miss her terribly, and we wish her the best!  Good-bye, Sandy!!

This week was an intensive practice week for the play "Rupert" is in.  They practiced every day this week and they will perform this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  This has been a great experience for both of us, and it has been so great for me to see it all come together.

1st Grade: Week 32 Highlights

Spelling:  Spelling went really well this week.  "Rupert" got all his words right even when I tested him a day early.  I think I'm going to give him a break from spelling until we start 2nd grade.  We'll go over his trouble words, but we won't start on any new lists since he's already almost halfway through the 2nd grade spelling list.

History:  We read more about ancient Rome this week.  We learned about Roman gods, things that the Romans built, and Gladiators.  We enjoyed a fun little book called The Time Warp Trio: See You Later, Gladiator.  We also tested the audio version of Story of the World.  It seems to really work for us.  "Rupert" really enjoys listening to audio books in the car when we're out and about, so why not do our history studies in the car?  He seems to get a lot more out of it when it is read by someone other than his fumbling, bumbling, checking pronunciation mid-sentence mom.  :-)

Science:  We are learning about the heart and circulatory system.  We watched a great video, Bill Nye the Science Guy: Heart.  They actually showed a real human heart that was having bypass surgery.  Really cool!

Math:  I introduced "Rupert" to a subtraction challenge...borrowing.  I've only shown him 2 or 3 times in very short segments, but I think he's already catching on.


Learning When He's Supposed to be Playing:  We had a playdate this week with my friend's girls and one of her daughters taught "Rupert" how to crochet!  She taught him the chain stitch, and he made a chain about 8" long while we were there!  I was VERY impressed to learn that this 9-year-old girl also KNITS!  You go girl!!

1st Grade: Week 29 Highlights

Bible:  "Rupert" had 3 Bible verses to memorize for J-Force (his play practice) this week, and I think he's going to get them all down!  He has an incredible memory.  He only has to hear something a couple of times and he's got it.  I wish it were that easy for ME.

Speaking of his play, well, technically it's a musical, this week he found out that he got a small solo part and he gets to play the parts of Paul and Jesus at a couple of points in the play.  Add to that the ribbon dance that he gets to do, and you've got one excited little boy!  This will be a great experience for him and he is having a lot of fun with it.

Spelling:  Whew!  This week's list was HARD!  He got half of them down, and we'll work more on the other ones when we come back from spring break.

Math:  Now that "Rupert" has a pretty good handle on addition, we're starting to be more purposeful about subtraction.  This is a harder concept for him, but amazingly, it helps if I put things in terms of money.  "If you have 7 dollars and you spend 4, how much do you have left?"  works a lot better than "What's 7 minus 4?"  We also use his Funtastic Frogs manipulatives to help him to understand and visualize the problems.

History:  This week we were introduced to Alexander the Great.  "Rupert" had fun pretending to be Alexander while riding around on his stick horse, "Bucephalus", and conquering the Persian Empire.  We also learned how to tie a Gordian knot.

On Saturday, we had family over for an ancient Greek feast and Olympic games.  We had Greek pilaf, cheese, olives, grapes, apples, pears, bread, honey, almonds, spinach, Greek pasta salad, traditional Greek Easter cookies and cheese cake.

We did not follow the ancient Greek protocol for our Olympic games as we allowed girls to participate and none of the contestants competed in the nude.  The events we competed in were long jump, discus throw (frisbee), wheelbarrow race, foot race, and for the grand finale, a foot race with armor on!  The winners got the traditional wreath of olive leaves, fame in their home towns, and room and board for life (okay, maybe not for LIFE...that's up to their parents).

Our Greek name tags:

Science: We learned about our sense of taste and hearing.  We'll do more with hearing after spring break, but this week we watched Bill Nye and did a couple of fun experiments with sound.  In one of them, we made a model of an ear drum, sprinkled salt on it and then made loud noises (beating a pot with a spoon) to make the salt dance, showing the vibrations of the sound waves on the "ear drum".

Social Opportunities: Play practice, overnight at Grandma's (with a little Grandma schooling thrown in), kung fu, playdate with my friend's girls, art day, and our Greek feast/Olympic games.

1st Grade: Week 26 Highlights

Math: I made a little math memory game for us to play this week. The object is to find two cards that make 10 when added together. This went over really well, and we played several times on two different days.

History: We read about the differences in values and way of life between Sparta and Athens this week. We also made a "wax tablet" to write on like the schoolboys in Athens had.

Social: This week we had the usual play practice, kung fu, playdate with his buddy, Seth, homeschool PE and art day. We also had a special Caterpillar Cupcake Playdate with a couple of homeschool buddies. We had lots of fun things going this week!

Spelling: This week's words were a bit tricky with double "l"s and silent "l"s as in the words talk, walk and chalk. I thought for sure we'd be spending two weeks with this list, but "Rupert" did fine with them.

Grammar: This week we talked about writing dates, and I showed him how to write some of the special dates we know.

1st Grade: Week 24 Highlights

Spelling: "Rupert" aced his pretest on Monday, so got a break from spelling for the rest of the week. He was excited about that!

Bible: He has been learning 2 verses a week for the past couple of weeks. One for Sunday school and one for J-Force (the play he's doing). He's got a great memory, and learns both verses quite easily.

History: We learned more about ancient Greece this week. I think we'll be sticking with that for the next few weeks, then we'll wrap it up by having the grandparents and cousins over for a Greek feast and Olympic Games.

Social Opportunities: This week we had play practice, went to a friend's birthday party (Happy birthday, Naomi, my birthday twin!), went to two kung fu classes, had a playdate, did storytime at the library and participated in homeschool P.E. I look forward to the days where we don't have to be anywhere or do anything as much as the days filled with activities. "Rupert" is really enjoying all the fun things we've been doing lately, and is very happy with our new schedule.

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 21 Highlights

Bible: We are really enjoying the Kids 4 Truth devotions online.

Sunday was "Rupert's" first play practice with the children's drama team at our church. They will be performing the musical, J-Force to the Rescue. He will have practice once a week for about 3 months, then there will be one intensive practice week where they will have practice 4 days, and finally, they will have several performances for the children in our church (6 different services, I believe), and a couple of outreach performances for other churches. It's a big commitment, but I think he will get a lot out of it.

Phonics: This week we took a break from The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading (OPG). With the success we had in reading Green Eggs and Ham last week, I decided to pick up some easy readers at the library, and give them a try. It was wonderful! "Rupert" gets overwhelmed with his OPG phonics lessons. It is a plain book with no pictures. When he sees only words and a lot of them, he gets overwhelmed with how much work there is to do. It doesn't matter if the words are easy or hard, all he sees is a lot of work! The pictures in the easy readers are a bit distracting at first, but after he spends a minute enjoying the pictures, he seems more focused and ready to read. This week he was reading words that I didn't know he could! And he was actually enjoying it! Needless to say, we're sticking with the early readers for a while (though I will probably throw some sight word study in there too).

Spelling: We finished up 1st grade spelling this week. Next week we will move to 2nd grade spelling which will have more difficult words and more of them. I have every intention of taking it slow and not letting "Rupert" get too crazy with it (like doing 4 spelling lists at a time, as he did a couple of times with the 1st grade set).

Writing: We took a break from our regular writing curriculum this week to write thank you notes for Christmas gifts. I still have to get those in the mail!

Grammar: We learned that the word "I" is always capitalized, and "Rupert" made up a story about waking up as a bunny. I wrote it down on paper as he told it/acted out the action verbs, then he went back through the written story and circled all the occurrences of the word "I" (with a capital letter). He enjoyed this creative activity.

Math: "Rupert" is still going strong with his math workbook, and averages about 4 pages a day. Since most of the concepts are familiar to him, I let him choose any page in the whole book to do, but I've already warned him that next year we will be working through the book from beginning to end. This week he worked on fractions, time, addition and subtraction.

History: We read about the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world.

Science: We read about worms and Octopi, and watched videos of worm dissections and an octopus taking down a shark! Very cool!

Cookbook Pick of the Week: Cream cheese and jam stuffed French toast. It was fun to make and pretty yummy too!

Social Activity: This week we participated in a homeschool group show and tell. "Rupert" had really been looking forward to it, and had a good time showing off his stuffed bunny, Flopsy.

Of course, we had kung fu class and storytime at the library as social opportunities as well.

1st Grade: Week 20 Highlights

Holy Moly, I'm late in posting this! I have not had the time to upload the photos I took from week 20 until now. I blame it on my broken-toed, computer hogging husband! Most late posts are nobody's fault but my own, but this week was different...really.

Phonics: "Rupert" read Green Eggs and Ham all by himself for the first time this week! I think I'll get more easy readers from the library for him to try.

History: This week we read about the Assyrian Empire and Ashurbanipal, who collected writings for the first library which was in Nineveh. We also used Legos to construct an Assyrian siege tower. We made a wall so that "Rupert" could see how a siege tower was used. In our model, the Assyrians are taking over a city of frogs. :-)

Science: We are growing more crystals from a crystal kit "Rupert" got for Christmas. Thanks, Aunt Michelle!!

We also got an impromptu mini lesson on constellations this week from a man who trains at our kung fu school. He pointed Orion out to us and told "Rupert" that Ursa Major and Ursa Minor (the big and little dippers) are also know as big bear and little bear.

Spelling: This week we did the last two first grade spelling lists. "Rupert" got them all right! We'll take a week to review all the words he missed through the first grade lists, then we'll start on 2nd grade spelling.

"Rupert" cooked pancakes for breakfast one morning, and of course, he got creative with it. :-)

1st Grade: Week 18 Highlights

We eased into this week, and had a great one. It helped that our history, Bible and reading all coincided this week, and we were able to kill 3 birds with one stone, thereby shortening our school day and allowing us to be done by noon every day (not bad at all considering we start working between 9 and 10am). Woo hoo!! We were also able to do a couple of fun projects to go along with our studies. We finally finished our Egyptian burial mask this week:

We also weaved a Moses basket to go along with our history and Bible lesson for this week:

"Rupert" took on two spelling lists this week and got them all right on his test. We practiced spelling the words out loud during practice times, and that seems to really work for him. Again, I don't know why I didn't figure this out before. He is an AUDITORY learner. Gotta get that through my head! :-)

Math: We started on one of his new workbooks this week, and so far he has done 16 pages! He loves it! It's mostly below his level, but there are some things that are fairly new to him (like telling time), and some that are just good review (like counting money and using tally marks). I've been giving him a sticker to put on each completed page, and he seems to really like that. I also think I'm going to reward him with an ice cream trip or something when he finishes the workbook. What? I like ice cream! Ahhhhh...keeping math fun...for both of us! :-)

Science: This week we talked about turtles and crocodiles and watched a Bill Nye video on reptiles. I've also resolved to do more science experiments. This kid LOVES experiments and I've been slacking. I've decided to do experiments even if they have nothing to do with what we're studying at the moment...just for the pure fun of it! This week we grew crystal flowers!

Social: Another resolution of mine is to put more effort into setting up regular playdates for "Rupert". Being an only child, he is desperate for someone to play with, and the brutal reality is that mommy just doesn't WANT to pretend she's a kitty all day. There really are some things that kids are just better at than adults. We have one regular playdate set up, and have plans in the works for at least one more. Two playdates a week and the flexibility to join in on other miscellaneous social activities should fill the need just fine.

1st Grade: Week 16 Highlights

Spelling: "Rupert" took on two spelling lists this week and got every word right on the first try. It's funny how he can do that but then it doesn't transfer over to his writing (the fun writing that he does on his own). For example, he was wrapping Christmas presents for his grandparents and wrote "To grandpo Mik" instead of grandpa Mike. I'm sure it will all fall into place in time.

Phonics: I made a few sets of sight word flashcards and we put some of them to use this week. It has been a nice little break from the usual. I used the Dolch sight word list that I found here.

Math: More math worksheets this week. We also played with the abacus on "Rupert's" request. Today we went to the childrens book store and got a workbook that I think he will like.

History: We talked about the new kingdom of Egypt and a couple of memorable pharaohs, Hatshepsut and Tutankhamen. We'll continue with this chapter next week since I got a few videos on King Tut at the library that should be fun and interesting.

Science: This week we talked about reptiles. We read about iguanas and rattle snakes. Again, "Rupert" felt compelled to make a costume and taped a piece of green tissue paper to his chin so he could be an iguana with a dewlap. He is a funny guy! He also enjoyed making this lizard mosaic with beans.

Art: We did another water color lesson. We are really having fun with this. I think the big lesson for "Rupert" to learn is to relax and not be concerned with perfection. He sometimes gets frustrated that his art doesn't look the same as that of the lady on the video. He wants to copy her work EXACTLY. I keep reminding him that the great thing about art is that everyone's comes out differently, and we can appreciate the differences. Here's "Rupert's" painting:

And here's the one I did:

1st Grade: Week 15 Highlights

After a nice long Thanksgiving break, we got back to work this week, and things went very smoothly. I'm becoming more flexible, especially in math, and things are just flowing better. Isn't that what always happens after a nice break?

Math: "Rupert" is in love with math worksheets. Who knew? I printed up a few for this week and he is asking for more. I see a math workbook in his future. This week we worked some more on carrying and also did some greater than or less than exercises. He LOVES those!

We have all but abandoned our Math-U-See curriculum, well...really we HAVE abandoned it. I was sad to see it go because I love it so much. I love how it makes math make sense. But it just doesn't fit "Rupert" right now, and it was causing him to dread math. I'm not exactly sure why, but that's the effect it has had at this time. I'll definitely keep it in mind for later though. He could grow into it.

History: This week we learned about the rise and fall of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, and how eventually, Egypt became strong once again and the New Kingdom began.

ASL: We had a lot of fun this week learning birthday signs! Now I can sign my favorite treat, "cake"! :-)

Grammar: We finished up pronouns and started on verbs this week.

Spelling: This week "Rupert" caught the spelling bug. I gave him his list and, granted, his lists are only 6 words long, but he kept asking for more and more until I finally stopped him at 4 lists. Yes, he did about a month's worth of spelling this week. Out of 24 words, there were only 4 that he needs more work on. We added them to his list of trouble words.

Music: We began our annual listening to Tchaikovsky music this week. It's just a little something special we do at Christmas time. "Rupert" gets to fall asleep at night listening to Tchaikovsky. It's funny to see him making connections and recognizing pieces that he has heard before. The other night, he raced down the stairs after we had put him to bed. He HAD to tell us something! He was so excited to find that a song that was used on a Spongebob episode was a piece written by Tchaikovsky!

Science: This week we learned about peacocks and flamingos, and of course, "Rupert" fashioned a peacock costume out of construction paper and tape...lots of tape. I also see a case of tape in his future. :-)

Art: We finished up a painting that we started last week (thanks again for hosting art day, Morgan). Here's "Rupert's" watercolor fish:

And here's the one I did:

We had a lot of fun with this and I've resolved to do more art in the future.

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 10 Highlights

I'm a little late, so I'll go ahead and post last week's highlights even though I don't have the picture to go with it yet.

Phonics & Writing: "Rupert" got a letter from his pen pal this week, and, for the first time, he was able to read the entire thing all by himself!! It is so exciting to see him reaching these milestones and really starting to get (and like) this reading thing. We used one of our writing days to write a letter back to his friend. "Rupert" is starting to remember to use spaces between words. That is something that it is taking a while for him to get.

Math: We started learning double digit addition this week. I think we'll hang out here for a while before going on to carrying.

Science: We talked about Dolphins this week and did an experiment about condensation.

History: We talked about the Hammurabi Code. We also decided to make an Egyptian costume. "Rupert" loves costumes and this was no exception. He made the bracelets out of toilet paper tubes and paint, and I made the kilt and belt out of some old sheets, and even though I'm not much in the sewing department, it came out cute, and it was fun! Here he is walking like an Egyptian. :-)

Spelling: This week's words were common words in books, but harder to spell than the previous words we've had. He got tripped up on "are", "was", "of" and "to". Oddly enough, the first time I asked him to spell "to", he spelled it T-W-O. I never would have thought that out of all the possible options, he'd come up with the most difficult spelling of the word.

1st Grade: Week 9 Highlights

Bible and History went together this week as we read about God's promise of a son to Abraham. We followed Abraham's journey from his birthplace in Ur to Haran, then later, on to Canaan on the map. We also read about the life of Joseph and how God used him to help the people of Egypt and surrounding areas.

Writing: We spent our writing time on birthday thank you notes this week. "Rupert" also enjoyed drawing pictures for his friends on the back of each note.

Math: I've decided to move along in math even though "Rupert" hasn't memorized the addition facts we have done to date. For the next couple of weeks, we'll loosely review addition, then we'll move on. I'm getting more relaxed with the curriculum, and not following it to a T. I think this is better for his individual learning style.

Science: This week we studied skunks and rabbits. "Rupert" especially liked that rabbits have their own version of recycling (eating their droppings until they come out hard and dry and have no nutrition left in them), and that their babies are called "kittens".

ASL: We learned the signs for several fruits and vegetables and for the colors of the rainbow.

Spelling: I gave "Rupert" 2 spelling lists this week, and there was just one word that he needed practice on. The spelling words will be getting harder soon.

And here is this week's Chicken Mummy photo update:

Spelling Games

Dana at School for Us posted this on her blog and I think we'll give it a try next week. Spelling City has all kinds of games you can play with your spelling words. It looks like something "Rupert" might enjoy. Thanks for the tip, Dana!

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!!