Fly Free, Butterflies!!

Our butterflies came out over the weekend! Three of the five were perfect, and without defect, but two of them had sort of crumpled wings. I can only guess that the cat incident had something to do with this. We turned them loose and watched (most of) them fly away this afternoon. It took a while for them to find their way out of the butterfly pavilion, and Rupert felt that they needed coaching. It was funny to watch him showing the butterflies how to fly. :-)

Here's one of the butterflies sitting next to an empty chrysalis:

Here's a link to a site with more info on Painted Lady butterflies.

Stargazing Guide

I found this site a while back and thought I'd share it here. It tells you what to look for each night and where in the night sky to find it. Very informative and not too overwhelming for a beginning stargazer like me.

1st Grade: Week 3 Highlights

Another great week in the first grade! The lines of communication are open, and we've made a couple adjustments. I am so happy to have that freedom! One day this week we even grabbed a couple of books and did some of our school work at Starbucks. I love that we have that flexibility. Here's what we've been up to:

Bible: We didn't have any homework from his Sunday School class this week since the kids are moving up to their new classes on Sunday, so we decided to just have fun reading stories from his children's Bible. One night this week, I went upstairs and heard him talking in his room. I couldn't make out what he was saying, but his voice was very alive and animated. I was sure he was talking to his cousin. I went in to check on him and didn't see anyone, so I asked who he was talking to. He told me he was praying. :-)

Writing and Grammar: These subjects aren't the most exciting, but Rupert is learning. There's a lot of repetition so he's really going to know the definition of a noun, what you do to a proper noun, and how to punctuate the end of a sentence.

Phonics: We've invented a couple of games that help keep Rupert's interest when we are doing phonics. Instead of reading straight out of the phonics lesson book (which tends to overwhelm him because there are SO many words to read), I write his sentences one by one on the white board. Then I start slowly erasing the sentence letter by letter, and he has to read it before I get to it with the eraser. It's amazing how much of a difference this makes in the speed of his reading.

Another game we invented is where I write a sentence on the white board and I tell him it is SO HARD. "You'll never get THIS!", I say. He reads it, and I act like I'm so amazed I don't know what to do. We played this over and over again for about 40 minutes yesterday before I said, "Ok, we're done with phonics!", and he was disappointed that we had to stop. :-)

Math: This is another subject where we have made adjustments. We'd been working with the Math-U-See manipulative blocks quite a bit. Rupert said to me, "All we do for math is play with blocks. I don't like that! I thought we would be doing math problems!" So, as requested, the next day he got to do a printout of addition problems. Ahhhh, that's what he'd been waiting for!

History: We learned about the annual flooding of the Nile River and how the early farmers there used it to their advantage. We also made a model of the Nile which we will "flood" weekly in hopes of growing a nice, lush crop of grass on the banks.

Science: We studied lions and cheetahs and did a project to show how a cat's eye works to reflect light in the dark. We also studied elephants this week.

ASL: We learned all the signs on the Signing Time video we got at the library. The signs we learned were relating to family, fun and feelings. There were about 40 signs in all, so Rupert knows somewhere around 60-70 signs altogether now.

Spelling and Reading: We had another easy spelling week. Rupert got all this words correct on the first try, so we took the rest of the week off for spelling. We've been reading Homer Price by Robert McCloskey this week, and Rupert has been enjoying that. We've also been listening to audio recordings of the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary while we're driving in the truck. So far, we've heard Beezus and Ramona, Ramona the Pest, Ramona the Brave, and Ramona and her Father. We have really been enjoying these stories!

Into the Butterfly Pavilion

All the caterpillars are now Chrysalides, no thanks to Kiki, the family cat. She apparently thought their container was a toy and knocked it onto the floor...TWICE. Do you see how 3 of them have been knocked down and are not hanging from the top of the container? I think most of the butterflies-to-be will make it, but there's one that I'm not sure will survive the horrors of the feline. Either way, we should know by sometime this weekend.

And here they are in the butterfly pavilion where they will emerge as butterflies:

Cocoon Vs. Chrysalis

A friend of mine pointed out that our butterflies are actually in their chrysalises (or chrysalides), and not in cocoons. I looked it up, and sure enough, she was right! Butterflies actually don't spin cocoons, but shed their skin for a last time and then harden into the chrysalis. Moths are the ones who spin a silk cocoon with their spinnerets similar to the way a spider spins its web. So, a butterfly has a chrysalis, which is a hard shell, and a moth has a cocoon, which is a soft spun enclosure. The Very Hungry Caterpillar was WRONG! :-)

The First Cocoons

The caterpillars are going into their cocoons. Two of them have a shell on them now. It's interesting because we've seen videos of caterpillars actively spinning their cocoons, but these ones seem to just grow this outer layer without doing anything. One of them didn't make it up to the top of the container as he was supposed to before going into the pupa stage, so he lies sleeping on the floor. Here's what they look like now:

And a closer look:

1st Grade: Week 2 Highlights

Things are going along quite well. This week Rupert wrote his Sunday School teacher a thank you note since this coming Sunday will be his last day in her class. He will be in the first grade class the following week.

We slowed down a bit in math to be sure that Rupert gets his addition facts down cold. He likes math and understands the concept of addition, we just need to work on memorizing those facts so he can spit them out in a split second. I think taking a little extra time here will really benefit him in the end.

Phonics is Rupert's least favorite subject. I'm not exactly sure why. I think he gets a little overwhelmed when he sees many words on a page and knows he as to read them ALL. To make it more fun for him, I had him act out the sentences we was reading, and although that took longer, he had more fun with it.

Grammar and Writing are going along well. So far I really like the materials I've chosen to use with him. He is learning about nouns and proper nouns, capitalization and punctuation, and practicing his listening and narration skills. He has also memorized a poem.

We talked about habitats in science this week and we made a diorama of a desert habitat. Rupert chose to add cacti, a camel and a rattlesnake to his habitat diorama. I think it came out cute.

In history, we learned about the Nomads and how they eventually became farmers. After learning all about them, we pretended to be Nomads, moving our tent from place to place in search of food. We found berries and hunted wild animals (AKA the family cat) to eat. Finally we settled in the "Fertile Crescent" and learned to farm. Rupert really enjoyed this little game, and I know that playing it really set the things we learned this week in his mind.