Fat Caterpillars

I think our caterpillars are just about ready to go into their pupa stage. They are nice and fat and are migrating toward the top of their container. They should be making their cocoons soon. Do you see what messy eaters they are? Their food is splattered all over the sides of the container! :-)

Our Caterpillars Are Here!!

It has been a couple of years since we raised butterflies in pre-school, and I thought it would be fun to do it again. We received our caterpillars in the mail on Friday. They were quite a bit smaller this time than they were when we got them last time, but they have grown quite a bit since Friday! So, we'll be studying butterflies for the next couple of weeks in Biology, and I'll be posting updates and photos as we go along.

Our First Week of First Grade

Rupert and I were both very excited to start first grade this week! We had a bit of a light first week to kind of ease into it. We did each of our subjects at least once and, so far, I'm happy with all our materials. Here are some of the highlights:

Spelling: We started doing spelling for the very first time, and Rupert aced the pre-test for the 1st grade spelling list #1...so we took the rest of the week off from spelling. If this continues, we'll need to make adjustments and move up to lists that are more challenging. But for now, I'm okay with him riding the wave of spelling success.

Math: We're cruising right along through the Math-U-See Foundations book. I'm very happy with Rupert's understanding of place value to the hundreds place. He seems to have grasped the concept quite easily and well. We have started on single digit addition, and will continue that next week.

History: We learned what history is, who historians are, and who archaeologists are and what they do. We also did our own archaeological dig in our backyard. Here are a few pictures of that activity and the things we excavated:

Tired of "G"

No, no, no, I'm not tired of my boy. I'm just tired of calling him "G" here on my blog. I've decided that as of today, the first day of the 1st grade, I'll refer to my son as "Rupert". It's a fun little nickname that evolved soon after he was born and we've been using it ever since. Sorry for any confusion, but from here on out, Rupert it is!

Homeschooling Stats

Here are the latest, most accurate results regarding the standardized test scores of the home schooled vs. the public schooled.

Hooray For Books on Tape!!

We have been enjoying listening to books on tape while we are in the car. G has been really interested in the stories and seems to follow them quite well now. We have recently listened to The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White, and Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary. As soon as we finished listening to each of these stories, G would shout, "Do it again!" So, I've let him listen to them again in his room at bedtime. He loves them so much that he actually stays awake for 2-3 hours after going to bed, just so he can listen to his stories. I am so excited that he is enjoying the books on tape so much!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again...I LOVE our library!!!

Space Man

A friend of mine shared this idea with me (thanks, Amy!), and I thought we'd give it a try. It's a space man! Yes, he looks like a little astronaut, but he's also used for spacing words so a child's writing doesn't run together intoonebiglongwordlikethis. :-) After each word, the space man lays down on the page and the next word is written on the other side of him. He is made from a clothes pin, aluminum foil, a cotton ball and glue. We also used markers to draw his face on.