When RocketMan was about 4 he could count very high and he became giddy whenever we talked about numbers. One day we took him to a buffalo farm and walked around looking at all the animals. He loved seeing those huge "cows" and thoroughly enjoyed his day. Near the end of the day, we went down a long path that led to a lookout over the big pasture where you could see out over the herd. He was just a little guy so his Pop Pop picked him up to show him all the buffaloes scattered about the field. RocketMan looked them over briefly and said, "33". This all happened incredibly fast so it took me a minute to figure out why he would have spit out that random number so suddenly. Then I looked out at the buffalo and counted. Yep, there were 33 of them! There was no way he could have counted those animals so quickly unless he skip counted. Then I saw that the buffalo were loosely grouped in fives. I couldn't believe it; my kidlet skip counted buffaloes by 5's. No doubt about it, this kid LOVES numbers. I had so much fun homeschooling my kidlets for three years. If I had my way, we'd still be doing it today, but life happens and they are at a great public school and thoroughly enjoying themselves.

We found out a few weeks ago that RocketMan had been selected to represent his school in the local academic competition. It is called the Mayor's Cup and the students selected from schools across the county take a written assessment in different subject areas. RocketMan was selected to take the math exam. Today was the awards ceremony and we found out that RocketMan took 3rd place! He got a medal and lots of pats on the back! I am so proud of him!