World Cake for Week 2, Day 5 of ECC

The Science activity for this day is to bake a "round cake" and decorate it to look like the earth. We did this yesterday (a Saturday), as baking a cake on a school day would be too stressful. Rabbit helped with measuring and mixing. We talked about if it said 2 2/3 cups, how that means 2 - 1 cup measures and 2 - 1/3 cup measures. We made 2 - 7 1/2" round cakes. We let them cool for several hours after it was done. (Rabbit has a dairy sensitivity, so this cake recipe is dairy free, and egg free too.)

Then, we just got Pillsbury frosting from the grocery store and put blue food coloring in it and covered the cakes. Someone on the My Father's World message board suggested using fondant to make the continents. I bought some at Michael's and kneaded in green food coloring. (Warning: the food coloring can squirt out of the fondant as you knead it, so make sure you are wearing an apron. I'm waiting to see if it is going to come out of my shirt in the wash next week.)

We measured the cakes, and then looked through the Intermediate World Atlas, measuring the maps until we found one that was close to the size of our cakes. We used tracing paper to trace the continents and then cut out the continents from the tracing paper. We rolled out the fondant (make sure you have lots of confectioner's sugar on the counter) and used the tracing paper continents as guides to cut out the continents from the fondant. Then we tried to place them appropriately on the cakes.

Here's our Western Hemisphere:

And here is the Eastern Hemisphere:

Today was the last day of summer Sunday School at church, so we took the cakes to share with the kids' Sunday School class. It was a big hit, even with the kids who were scared to try something new. I also took it because for next summer's Sunday School we're going to do a missions study.

Week 2, Day 4 in ECC

Wow. Today was much better. Last night I wrote out what we had to do today by topic, and I listed which Brain Therapy exercise we would do after each topic. Then, today, I stuck by it. I didn't put time limits on any topic. If something took us 1/2 hour, then it took that long; if it only took 10 minutes, then that was fine.

I really did most of the drawing for the activity for geography, but I made her "drive the car" and give the directions. The boys didn't like Rabbit playing with one of her cars. For science, I let her use tracing paper to trace a picture from the book, then cut it out and glue it to her paper.

After reading through Dianne Craft's web site, I saw where she said to only spend 15 minutes on the writing-eights, then the next day, pick up where you left off. So, we did, and got through about half of them. Eventually, she should be able to get through the whole alphabet in 15 minutes. That really gave me an idea of how fast she should be going around the eight. I also asked for the "Writing without Curriculum" and am going to use that for a while to see if that can help improve Rabbit's writing.

I put the boys down early for a nap. Rabbit finished her math page before the boys fell asleep, but she missed quite a few. I went through them with her and showed her the mistakes. Then we read from a Pathway Reader and did subtraction math windows. She did more than on Tuesday, so that was an improvement.

All in all, I felt less stressed today. Eventually, the exercises will feel like a natural part of our day as long as I stick with it. Next week, on Friday, I am going to do the Repatterning recommended by Dianne Craft. The book says it should take about 20 minutes. Eventually, when our Friday's fall on Friday, it will be easy to work those in as Friday's tend to be lighter in ECC.

Week 2, Day 3 in ECC

Well, to start with, we started late. (That was totally my fault.) We started with the Pledge and Bible. The Bible lesson was short. We're reading from Rabbit's NIrV. The passages were good, and she seemed to get the point of each passage. Then we read about Hinduism from Window on the World. It was interesting how similar it is to Buddhism. Sure, there are differences - Hinduism sounds like more fun with all the excuses to have festivals, but the idea of reincarnation and having to work extra hard to be extra good to keep from being reincarnated is similar.

Geography went quickly. Basically, we read about the difference between a political map and a physical map, and then looked at a couple of those. Easy things. Then we reviewed the continents and oceans. She's got North America, South America, Australia, and Antarctica fine. I think she messes up Africa and Asia, but she won't for long.

We finished up our science experiment from yesterday. One of the things I thought that was interesting was that the xylem seemed to not only transport water, but it actually seemed to provide support for the celery stalks. We had one intact celery stalk in red-colored water; one intact celery stalk in no water; and one celery stick with the xylem removed, in water. The one with the xylem removed really curled up and wilted. The one in no water, but that had xylem, was getting softer, but it did not curl up. The one in water with it's xylem still in place felt really firm. Here's our photo of the celery after 24 hours. The one on the left is xylem intact with water, the one in the center is xylem intact with no water, and the one on the right is the has no xylem, but is in water:

It was pretty neat to cut the celery and see the red dots where the red water went up the xylem. Here's a photo of that:

Today was also nature walk day. We took about a 1/2 hour walk. Rabbit gathered up some leaves, but we forgot to take any bark rubbings. Someone along the path we took has a peach tree! So, I let the kids all feel the peaches and see what they looked like on the tree. I did let Rabbit take one leaf from the peach tree, but no peaches.

When we got back, Rabbit made rubbings of her leaves for her nature notebook, and worked on her handwriting while I did preschool with the boys. I tried doing bulletin board time with them, but that was a flop. I really had to insist they participate. They may not be ready yet. Or, maybe every day is too much. They really like me reading stories to them, and then playing with one of the toys from the My Father's World preschool kit. I'll have to see if I can work what I'm doing for bulletin board time into those.

While I made lunch, Rabbit did book basket time as usual. She was really into whatever book she was looking at, so she spent about a 1/2 an hour on it.

I put the boys down for quiet time, while she started on her math page. She got to a question that had her stumped. I talked it out with her, and she figured out on her own how to solve it, but it frustrated her, because she hadn't seen a question like that one yet. (I can relate to that from my college math classes.) We reviewed our poem really quick, and then I got out Primary Language Lessons. She ran and hid then. That got me frustrated, because we had done everything orally up until then. (She did return when I called her.) I looked at the lesson, and it was to practice writing addresses out the way you would for an envelope. I thought it was important enough to try to do it. We only did two addresses, but she acted like it was the hardest thing in the world. I managed to hold my tongue during the lesson and sit by her and help her through it. Then, we looked at some real mail to compare. We finished with doing addition math windows for the day.

After school, I asked her if she had liked today. She shrugged her shoulders, kind of rolled her eyes, and said, "I don't know." I lost my cool then. I talked, or rather lectured, to her about her attitude just then and during writing and how that made me feel. I shouldn't have gotten on her case. I need some verses for attitude - besides the "Do everything without complaining or grumbling" one. I probably need some verses for myself, too. I'm trying really hard to just work with her and help her as much as I can and not yell or get upset with her, and then to have her throw attitude in my face at the end of the day... well, I'm sure you can relate.

Week 2, Day 2 in ECC

Today we got way off schedule, but that was because of the science experiments. I should have picked just one, but I did both. (A lesson learned for next time the teacher's manual lists two experiments - just do one.) We did the celery experiment - at least got it started. Here's our beginning picture of the celery stalks:

Then we planted 4 apple seeds. We had apples yesterday for lunch, so I soaked them overnight. Letting them each take a turn to put potting soil into the planter made it take sooooo long, and they spilled it all over mom! For her notebook page, she drew a cut-away view of a flower and we typed up sentences about "boy parts" and "girl parts" and that's how the seeds are made.

Geography wasn't too bad, but she didn't like labeling the map. She was looking at the big wall map, and then trying to write small on the map for her notebook. She isn't very good a writing small, and looking up at the map, and then down to write it was getting her frustrated. I offered to spell the names out loud for her, but she got huffy over that.

I didn't get in all the Brain Integration Therapy today, but I did get in some. The boys did do bulletin board school today. I'm thinking I may switch that up and do it during their preschool time as Rabbit is having trouble not dominating.

The other night at our Keepers meeting, one of the other moms said she just spends the first 30 minutes of school doing the Brain Integration Therapy, except the "Writing 8's." I have considered that, but another book I've read on the subject suggested doing the exercises through-out the day. For example, do the "Eye 8's" right before reading, as that exercise is meant to help with eye-tracking while reading. So I need to go through our schedule and just pick which exercise to do with each part of the schedule.

The short lessons for English, using Primary Language Lessons, have been a blessing. As right now she has been fighting writing, I've just been doing them orally. We're doing a few of the second grade lessons that I think Rabbit needs a little review on. She does fine with it. I told her as we move on, I will expect her to do some writing, but for now, answering out-loud is fine.

She was able to watch the math lesson and get one page done while I put the boys down for a nap, and then we did another page. I hope we finish up this week, and then do the unit test and final exam next week. I'm looking forward to moving on to multiplication.

For the art project - the chain paper dolls - Rabbit decided to draw her family on the dolls. That was a great way to make it her own project. If something is her idea, she will enjoy it much more.

Week 2, Day 1 in ECC

I think I'm going to sound like a broken record...

The boys didn't want to do bulletin board time this morning, so Rabbit and I put out the flag and said the pledge. Then we came in and did cross crawls. As soon as we were finished, Pooh and Tigger wanted to show how they can do them too. But that was enough. We read in Window on the World about Animism. I was kind of hoping it would help Rabbit with her fear of going upstairs by herself (she thinks there are monsters or something up there), but no such luck. Maybe I should have tried to related it more to that.

After that we did a the calf stretches and then moved on to geography. When I looked at what was assigned for today, I thought, "Man, that's a lot." But we plowed through it. It took about an hour, especially explaining and practicing latitude and longitude. I think we still need to practice it, but she got through it. I really understand it now. Then we did Science. We read about Cycles in Nature. I showed Rabbit the pages, and asked her what she wanted me to read about, so we read about the Nitrogen Cycle.

During snack time we listened to our Power Glide CD tracks. I stopped it a couple of times to see if she could remember some things from last year, and she did! After recess, she did her handwriting page and science notebook page while I did preschool with the boys. We played with the shape and lace toys. When we finished with that, Rabbit was done. It was only about 11:15, so we did the "Writing 8's" again today. It took a good 30 to 35 minutes to do those. After lunch she did her math quiz, reading, and addition math windows.

It was a pretty low-stress day. And, we didn't spend all day on it. God has been so good to us.

Week 1, Day 5 in ECC

I really like this curriculum. It was a good day. We started by hanging out our flag and doing The Pledge. Then we did cross crawls. We did bulletin board time today. It's funny, because Tigger is such an eager-beaver. He pours himself into it. Pooh, on the other hand... We tried the "Ear-8's," but Rabbit said they made her dizzy, so we did cross-legged toe touches and hamstring stretches instead. We read about Christianity today in Window on the World. It was a good overview. Then we prayed for Christians around the world. She knew our Bible verse for the week.

In Geography we read about scale. The activity was to draw a 1" = 1' scale map of Rabbit's room. However, we couldn't fit it on her paper. So, we scaled down to 1/2" = 1' map. That made it tricky. We used some graph paper that Dad had left over from college. I helped her a lot with this one, as she really didn't understand until we were almost done. I think it showed her how hard map making is. Then we did our Vocabulary cards. I wrote the words on the front, and had her draw the pictures. Then I wrote the definitions on the back for her. We said them a couple of times.

I really need to work with Pooh and Tigger about interrupting. Rabbit and I were looking at the scale on the large world map and the globe, and they kept interrupting with questions and ideas. Some of them were relevant, but some of them weren't. Little boys with such big ideas.

During snack time we did the first track in Power Glide Spanish Jr. Level 3. Then I gave them a 20 minute recess. During that time I made up handwriting sheets for the rest of the letters. I picked out a couple of sheets from The Complete Curriculum for 3rd Grade that I picked up at Sam's Club a few weeks ago. After recess, I did "preschool" with the boys while Rabbit worked on a handwriting sheet and the two sheets from the Complete Curriculum book. She really struggled with the writing for the two answer she had to write on those, so I spent 25 minutes doing the "Writing 8" exercises with her. Then, I had her do book basket time while I made lunch.

After lunch, the boys had nap. Rabbit finished her next math page in about 15 minutes - the best time since the beginning of the year. Poetry and reading were next. We've been reading from the 3rd grade level Pathway reader. Finally, she finished her handwriting sheet from earlier. I also had her write out the grocery list for me. Her handwriting is so neat. But, if she has to think about what she is writing, it is very hard for her.

One thing I have been thinking about is trying to get my hands on the Abeka 3rd grade readers - just to have some good readers around. I'll have to go through Sonlight's catalog and see what they're recommending for 3rd grade readers, and maybe pick up a few of those from the library from time to time.

I did lose my cool once with Rabbit - over writing those answers on the Complete Curriculum pages. That's when I decided to do those "Writing 8's." I felt like she wasn't even trying, or that she was intentionally fighting me on it.

Week 1, Day 4 in ECC

Each day gets more comfortable. Thursday, Tigger and Pooh did not want to do bulletin board time, so that sped things up. I wanted to get done early, as Rabbit was going off to spend the weekend with her grandparents. And, we did get everything done - even a day from Writing Strands 2. (I know, My Father's World doesn't recommend starting Writing Strands until 4th grade, and then using Writing Strands 3, but I got it cheap, and there are some topics I want to cover with her in it.)

The main thing was to work on learning the continent names and locations. I bought a book from Amazon.com called Our World: A Country-by-Country Guide and there was a continent map in the back, so she colored her map the same as that map.There is a song in the teacher's manual that is very cute that helps with learning continent names. We did cover it some last year, but it is good to review.

The other fun thing was to create a John 3:16 poster. Rabbit and I cut a bunch of pictures of people out of some National Geographic magazines. Then, I wrote just "John 3:16" on a piece of paper for each of the kids. The kids picked out pictures to glue on their poster, and then glued the "John 3:16" on their poster somewhere. Rabbit put hers in the front cover of her 3 ring binder for geography. I put Pooh's and Tigger's up on the bulletin board. (One of these days I'm going to have to get around to getting the pictures into my blog.) The idea is a reminder that God loves everyone in the world.

I forgot to add in the Brain Integration Therapy things on Thursday. But, this weekend I worked with the teacher's manual and my schedule and tried to come up with ideas where to work things in. I think the hardest thing to work in is going to be the "Writing 8's." If I can just make these things part of the routine, as habits, then it will be just part of our regular day.

Tomorrow is Monday, but we'll be doing Week 1, day 5. That would normally be a Friday. We have enough 4 day weeks coming up that it will be fine to be "off" - we'll eventually get around to lining back up again, or we'll do school on a Saturday one day.

Week 1, Day 3 in ECC

We liked today. Rabbit really liked the nature walk. We took an hour for that. I sketched a pine cone and Rabbit sketched a leaf. We are lucky enough to have a stream that goes through a near-by park. This summer we had seen ducks in the stream, but they were not there today. We saw water bugs and dragonflies, cattails and other grasses. It was a perfect morning for a nature walk. Pooh and Tigger nap after lunch, and we're more likely to have afternoon thunder storms, so I thought doing it in the morning was best. Here is a picture of the kids sitting on a bridge that goes over the stream.

After Rabbit struggled with her Primary Language Lesson yesterday, I made a fill-in-the-blank worksheet for her to do today. She did better with that than trying to do it orally. We'll see if Primary Language Lessons will work for us. Rabbit is very a very creative, artsy girl, and the book is kind of plain black-and-white. She balked when I first opened it yesterday.

Geography took us a mere 10 minutes at the most today. We had covered the same topic last year, so she pretty well knew it. I looked at tomorrow, and all the coloring and labeling may take us a bit longer. Setting 15 minutes for Bible time seems to be just right for them to color the John 3:16 pages and for me to read from Window on the World about that country. We even look on the map for the country. It's funny, because for some things, Rabbit is definitely a perfectionist, but not on her artsy things. I haven't quite figured that out yet.

Even math went quickly today. We moved on to lesson 29 in Beta, and she did the first 2 pages pretty quickly. She said, "This is easy." I said, "That's kind of nice after all that long subtraction, isn't it?" We also did addition math drill with flashcards today - she only missed 2, but really had to think about some of them. I explained to her that each week we would be doing something different in the math drill department. This week it's flashcards, next week math windows, the next Math-U-See online drill, and then math Wrap-Ups. Then we'll rotate back through again. I also explained that it will be only 10 minutes a day for math drill, so when she does the math windows next week, she'll just do as much as she can for 10 minutes.

I suppose that is the gist of our day. It's not in chronological order - more like favorite highlights order. I did have to remind her to have a good attitude about a couple of things, but nothing major. We're still trying to find our groove.

Week 1, Day 2 in ECC

In some ways, today was even better. We started on time, and actually had snack and recess at 9:30. We got through Geography faster. The "orange" activity was very good. Trying to lay the peel flat really made it sink in why the maps are distorted toward the poles. I got The National Geographic World Atlas for Young Explorers from the library, and it had a page on exactly this problem, so we read about it in there, too. Bible time, Science, and Art were good, except for writing sentences for the Science notebook page. The boys colored the pages, listened to the geography reading, watched us peel the orange, and each made a John 3:16 poster. This afternoon we also did lessons 24 and 25 from Primary Language Lessons. We did them orally, just so she could get the feel of the book. And, I even spent 10 minutes with her and the subtraction flashcards.

In other ways, the day was harder. It is hard for me, because I try to give her the time I think she needs to complete the assignments, but sometimes she doesn't (or can't) get it done. Usually, I make her stop and go on to the next thing. But, that means a lot of her afternoon time is finishing up. And, I usually have to be right next to her to get her to stay on task. I really want to have time with Pooh and Tigger, which means Rabbit has to be working on something. Rabbit will dominate the preschool time if I let her participate, and that time is for the boys. Today I had her work on her handwriting page and her Science notebook page. I know she can stay on task - she has sometimes in the past. I just can't figure out why it is only sometimes. Maybe I'm expecting too much from an 8 year old? She can't do math if there is any noise, which is why we save it for the afternoon when the boys are down for a nap/quiet time.

I also want to incorporate some Brain Integration Therapy (Dianne Craft ideas) into our days. I think it helps her a lot when I do it consistently. Again, though, it means more time with her, and I have two little boys saying, "Do preschool with us, Mommy, please." I know the boys could do some of it with us too. I'll have to be creative. Throw in some cross crawls during bulletin board time and such.

I love how flexible I was able to be, today, though. For example, after preschool time with the boys, I realized Rabbit was really starting to get frustrated with doing her handwriting page. So, I was able to say, "Hey, let's do our art project now." We made our John 3:16 poster. Then I had her do 15 minutes of book basket. That way she had a 45 minute break from writing before going back to it. I feel like those kinds of things help her. I know I read in one of my Charlotte Mason books that you should try to switch tasks so the next one is as unlike the previous one

as possible, so that's what I was trying to do. I try not to have back-to-back writing for her.

Today, Rabbit's toughest task was math. She did Math-U-See Beta quiz 28. She only missed one problem, so that was fine. She's glad to be moving onto the next topic. Again, I had to have her sitting next to me so she would stay focused on it. It took her 45 minutes to do those 15 problems. It probably only took her 15 minutes to do the last 4 problems - the other 30 minutes I was putting the boys down, answering the door and opening the gate for the gutter installers and such, so I couldn't be right next to her.

Week 1, Day 1 in ECC

Today is our first day of school for 2008-2009. I've changed things up just a little from last year.

We started our day putting our U.S.A. flag up on the front of the house and saying the Pledge of Allegiance. I took a few picture of the kids, too. (Thanks to the ladies over at the MFW message boards for that idea! I didn't take any last year.) Then we went inside and worked on reciting John 3:16. The boys got a little bored with it, but I wanted them to start getting the idea for when they start Cubbies this fall.

Next we did "bulletin board" time. We counted up to 18 (today's date), said the days of the week and the months of the year. I briefly talked with Rabbit about different ways to write the date - you know mm/dd/yy or dd/mm/yy in the rest of the world.

Then we sang the A,B,C song and said the alphabet a couple of times through. Part of alphabet time is spelling Pooh and Tigger's real names. Finally, we sang a couple of songs from the Wee Sing Bible Songs CD. All of that took 15 to 20 minutes of our time. It was good and engaged the little ones.

Next we started our Exploring Countries and Cultures time. We read the suggested reading from Bible time and went on to Geography. I gave the boys a page to color while Rabbit and I filled out our maps to see how much (or how little) we knew about countries and such. She did pretty good for an 8 year old. She was a little disappointed with her "score," but I told her that we will do it again at the end of the year and see how much we have learned. I told her I was proud of her because she knew at least one country on each continent - some kids don't even know that. My score wasn't that great either, but the world has changed a bunch since 6th grade geography. When she filled out her "Passport Application" she used what I taught her during bulletin board time about dates to use a mm/dd/yyyy format. I was surprised she remembered. I liked reading from the Maps & Globes book, as it gave us a bit of history. Pooh sat next to me and listened, while Tigger drove his cars around on the floor. By then it was 10:00am - time for snack and recess. Actually, that was late. We usually do recess about 9:30.

After recess we did Science. We read the book, and then talked about her making a science notebook page. I didn't know plants took in oxygen at night and expelled carbon dioxide, while doing the opposite during the day! Even I learned something. She decided to draw some flowers and write about photosynthesis. She only wrote one sentence today, but I was fine with that. This was the first day, and I wanted to be sure she enjoyed it.

About 11:00 I was going to have "preschool time" with Tigger and Pooh. I gave Rabbit her handwriting page, and told her to do that and finish her science page. Well, Tigger had an incident in the bathroom which required washing walls and floor. That took about 15 minutes. After that, I read Miss Rumphius to the boys. They enjoyed it, but by the time we were done, it was time for me to go make lunch. I set the timer for 15 minutes, and told Rabbit to enjoy the book basket.

I didn't pick up again until 2:00 (I really need to work on that, I really should start back up by 1:00), when the boys were having their "quiet time." We worked on a math page. She seems to really struggle with focusing on her math if I'm not right there next to her encouraging her to do the next column or problem. I folded laundry while she worked on math. Finally, about 2:45 she worked on finishing up her science page and handwriting page. I had forgotten to give her the new colored pencils I bought for the science notebook pages and nature walk notebook pages, so I gave those to her, and that motivated her to finish up. I bought a bunch of page protectors at Sam's Club last week, and she asked for her science page to be put in it.

At about 3:45 we headed for the grocery store and listened to the Wee Sing Around the World song recommended for the week. I love it when I can get two things done at once. We didn't do English (Primary Language Lessons) or Math Drill today. It took a long time to fill out the pre-test maps and passport application during geography time. But, tomorrow looks better.

I think it was a great day because no one cried or yelled about school. Thanks My Father's World for a wonderful first day of school!

My main thing I took away from the day is that I need to work on sticking to my schedule and use the timer!

Take Courage

Well, I've been working hard, and I'm almost ready for school!

I finished our triangle flashcards for multiplication and division. I ended up going to WALMART and buying a $24 Scotch brand laminating machine and 2 packages of laminating pouches. Saved us a ton of time, and managed to laminate all the flashcards in 30 minutes. I tried using the contact paper, but it drives me crazy when it wrinkles. I figure the laminating machine saved my sanity, and it will be used a bunch in the future. Well worth it.

I've also got everything entered into Home School Tracker Plus (HST+) except our poetry class. That was time consuming. Exploring Countries and Cultures has lots of little details. I got really specific for most of the topics, except geography (go figure!). I just made a generic template for that. But, I really made lesson plan items for everything.

For poetry, I've typed up the 9 poems in the second half of Primary Language Lessons. Abeka has a real nice poetry lesson plan. I'm going to try to follow it. I think all I need to do is take last years poetry course and re-use it, changing the poem names to the new ones. I don't know how easy that will be, but I'll certainly give it a try.

Rabbit is continuing on in MUS Beta. The next three lessons are just extensions of borrowing. I said she could just do one review page, and if she did well, take the quiz the next day. We'll be doing quiz 26 tomorrow. We'll probably have about 3 weeks of Beta for the beginning of this year before going onto Gamma. I'm so glad she caught on to borrowing. Hardest thing for her to remember is that if the number on top is not bigger than the bottom one, you have to borrow. She's getting it. She did all the thousand subtraction without any help. Way to go, Rabbit!

This summer, I bought My Father's World's preschool package at our convention. To kind of ease back into school, we've been doing a little preschool each day. I read to the kids, and then I get out a couple of the new toys, and we try some things with them. They love the new toys. It has been good. Rabbit participates, too.

I have to admit I've been stressing a bit about our schedule for this coming year. Exploring Countries and Cultures seems kind of parent intensive. Not much to just give to Rabbit and say, "Go do these pages," so I can have preschool with the boys. But, God gave me some thoughts. The first is, I don't have to finish school by noon each day. In fact, it is highly likely we won't. Eventually, there will be a season when we do finish by noon, but not for a while. The second is, Pooh and Tigger will join in on some of the other subjects, so they'll be getting school then, too. The third is, Rabbit can join in on the preschool time as long as I don't let her dominate. Some of it will be way too easy for her, but some of it will be good review that will help her. I don't think school is going to drag on until dinner every day, like it did many days last year. So, I'm trying to let my heart take courage.

Wait for the Lord;

Be strong, and let your heart take courage;

Yes, wait for the Lord. -Psalm 27:14