We switched

Galen has decided that reading is fun. Of course, this is only because he's starting to "get" it. He's still not convinced he can read a whole book by himself, although I have a couple that he certainly could read on his own. I won't push it for now, but his skills are easily up to reading the first few books in the Bob Books series.

Math seems to also be switched around. Math is hard again, but only because we're trying to learn how to write the numbers, and his fine motor skills are getting a real workout. I was expecting this, so we're taking it slow and I'm supplementing with lots of tracing practice. I know it's not the same as learning to write the numbers, but it gives him practice making the pencil move in the correct pattern, and he's happy to do it. Unfortunately I asked Daddy to oversee that tonight and now I have to teach Galen how to write 5s the correct way, but at least he only did one line. It's my own fault for forgetting to make sure Daddy knew to have him draw the top line last.

I've been surprised by the number of things that are so automatic that I actually have to sit down and think about how I do them. For example, most of the fonts on my computer have a closed 4, but Galen's math books and all the handwriting programs I've seen have an open 4. I actually had to go look at some papers I had written numbers on to figure out how I was taught to do it, because when I tried to sit down and write out the numbers both ways felt unnatural (because I was thinking about them, of course - ironic isn't it?).

I've decided that when we start formal handwriting lessons I will be doing them with him. That is, I'll be learning to write with my left hand again. My mother said I didn't seem to have a strong preference before starting school, so I suspect it won't be too arduous, and it will help me teach him better if I understand what it's like to write with the left hand when our entire writing system seems geared to rightys.

Today we drove over to my old apartment in Ahwatukee to gather caterpillars for a science project. We have these huge moths out here that are often mistaken for hummingbirds because of their size. I found one of the caterpillars a couple years ago on our driveway and tried to raise it, but he never emerged. We picked up eight off one shrub and they're currently living in an old bucket with a few inches of loose soil from the yard, some water, and an assortment of greens from the part of our yard closest to where I found the other one. Hopefully I'll know tomorrow which of the plants they prefer to snack on - the one I found a couple years ago was looking for a place to bury himself and never ate anything before vanishing into the dirt. These are mostly all smaller than the first one, so they probably have some more gorging to do. Wish us luck!