Is the cup half full, half empty, or ...?

I was just thinking of Thanksgiving, and how much for which we have to be thankful. Some people look at the cup half full. We have a roof over our heads, food on our table, clothes on our backs. Life is good. Some people look at the cup half empty. The roof leaks, the food is left overs, the clothes have holes. Life is hard. Then, I thought of David. He said, "My cup overflows." (Ps. 23:5) Do we see how our cup overflows? God is so good to us, so gracious, so faithful. We can cast our cares upon Him. We can approach the Creator of the Universe about anything. "Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever." (Ps. 23:6). My cup overflows!

Gracious Reminding

Psalm 119:29

Remove the false way from me,

And graciously grant me Thy law.

I've really been working hard at not being too hard on Rabbit. I am much better than last year, but there is always room for improvement.

This morning during my Bible reading time, the verse above stood out. Interestingly, the two verses before it were already highlighted, but not this one.

The first part of the verse was like a prayer for myself - I want the false way removed from me. Then the psalmist asks God to grant him His law. But not shove it down his throat - give it to him graciously.

I think of dealing with my kids, and I'm not often gracious. I get on their case, I even sometimes yell. Occasionally, God grants me graciousness, but I know it must come from Him, because it isn't in me at all. And it gets old, telling them over and over and over:

"Start a new sentence with a capital letter."

"Please turn out the light in your room."

"Pick up your toys in this path, or Mommy is going to get hurt!"

"Three times seven is twenty-one, not twenty-four."

And we grow weary saying the same things. But, in Philippians 3:1b it says, "To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you." If it is no trouble for Paul, and no trouble for God, to remind me again and again of my character faults and places that I need to improve, then it should be no trouble for me to remind my children over and over.

I get frustrated with having to remind them, but I shouldn't. That means my expectations are way out of whack. That means I expect them to remember and comply every time from that point onward. But, can I even do that? How many times have I read through the Bible? How many verses have I memorized that tell me of God's love for me, and yet I doubt?

So, don't grow weary. It is no trouble to say the same things again and again - it is a safeguard for them. I just need to learn to do it graciously.

Week 12, Day 4 in ECC

Today's Bible passage was the one where Jesus tells the guy, "Foxes have holes, birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." So, we talked about the cost of following Jesus, and if we would be willing to sleep on the ground for Him. Hmmm. Lots of food for thought there.

Then we did Geography. We had a metric conversion activity, but it was too cold to go measure the yard, so we measured our sunken living room (it was over 4 yards). Then it was funny, I didn't really know how cold it was, so I said, "Well, let's just say it is 40 degrees." Then we followed the steps in the book: subtract 32 - that gave us 8, then multiply by 5 - well then we're back to 40, and then do the last step, which brought us to 4 degrees celcius - that eve sounds cold! I ust thought it was funny that we didn't really have to do the first two steps if you start at 40 degrees. Then we played the Geography Game. I told Rabbit if she wasn't sure about where a country was, she could look at the atlas. I didn't want her to remember the *wrong* place.

After that we did Spanish. I think we're not so keen on Tell Me More any more. Rabbit has a real hard time pronouncing the words in the sentences all together. So, what I did was have her do each word individually, and then I did the sentences. You have to pronounce the sentences correctly 3 times before you can go onto the next one. That got to be no fun real fast.

After snack, Rabbit worked on her Awana verse while I did preschool with the boys. We read Welcome Back Sun. It definitely had a different tone than The Day Hans Got His Way. It was a much more serious story. Then we worked on their verse. Tigger wanted a workbook page to do, so I found one on the letter "b" and they enjoyed that, and actually did quite well for a couple of 4 year olds.

Then Rabbit and I did writing eights. For writing time, I found a picture in a National Geographic magazine and had her write a sentence about it. She did good, except she forgot to capitalize her first letter. Also, while doing our writing eights, we listened to some Edvard Grieg. It was beautiful - it sounded like spring. We think some of the music is in Fantasia.

For book basket, Rabbit read a book of Disney Princess Stories. I told her that wasn't really book basket, but at least she was reading something, I suppose. After lunch we continued on with math, spelling, reading and poetry. For some reason, math took her a while today. Seemed like she got in a brain slump this afternoon.

Overall not bad. Sometime this weekend we are going to go ahead and do the Bible time and vocabulary pages that are scheduled for Day 5, so when we start up again after Thanksgiving, we start up on Week 13, Day 1.

Week 12, Day 3 in ECC

Ahhh, no meetings, no classes, just a regular day.

We started with the usual. Rabbit did a very good job narrating the Bible passage back. We talked about serving Jesus because of all He has done for us.

We read from Illustrated World Atlas about the Northern European countries. That was interesting, and then took a pass at the Geography Game, even though it wasn't scheduled. Rabbit was disappointed about how she didn't do that well (as compared to me), but I try to encourage her that in a couple of weeks, she know it really well.

Then it was time for Spanish. We break the speaking sentences down to words, and then put it together. She still has trouble though, but it is getting better. Then snack time and recess, while I put together a crock pot meal.

I had her work on her Awana book for and multiplication Wrap-Ups for seatwork while I read a story to the boys. We read "The Day Hans Got His Way." The kids thought this was hilarious. It was a pretty funny story. Then they wanted to draw on the easel, so I set them up for that. Rabbit and I did writing-eights, and then she did her writing sentence. Another great job. I think I might have to start increasing it to two. Then we did English - it was a picture study, so that was different than usual.

After lunch, I was about to go out the door, when I saw a bunch of sparrows on the ground by our Russian Sage we have planted out front. Then I saw 3 woodpeckers. I called the kids over to see. Then one of the woodpeckers decided to fly onto the house, so I decided it was time to scare them off (you should see the damage they have done to the neighbor's trim on their house). Anyway, that was our Nature Walk for the day. It was too cold (high of 36 degrees) to do a "real" nature walk. Looking through the window, seeing woodpeckers putting their long beaks into the ground to dig out seeds and bugs was going to have to do for this time.

Rabbit did a math page, and did awesome, while I put the boys down. Then we did spelling, reading, and poetry. We actually finshed by 2:45 today.

Then we went to the library. I was trying to find some more Norwegian books to read to the kids, so I searched online for some titles and went to check them out. Most of them talked about "spirits" or "trolls." (Did you know that Three Billy Goats Gruff will come up when you do a search for Norway?) The spirits were usually evil, and the stories implied that the spirits could actually do things and hurt people. I didn't want those to be in our book basket. The other thing I noticed about a lot of the Norwegian folk tales and stories, is how the woman is usually made the hero, or usually right at the end of the story. Sometimes it almost seemed "feminist". I did find 2 books not on the book basket list that I thought the kids would enjoy. We'll see.

Week 12, Day 2 in ECC

Of all days to start late, dance day is not one of them. And then, I was interrupted by an important phone call, so we didn't get started until 9:30...

We started with Awana verses and then Bible time. Rabbit was surprised that Jesus would be "amazed" by anything. So, that was a good discussion.

Then on to geography. Of all days to have to make the geography game! It takes so long to make the cards, and Rabbit wanted all 23 countries. So, that took us up until Spanish/snack time. (At least there was no science scheduled.)

After that, I spent a little time with the boys for Preschool, and then it was time for me to make lunch. I made Rabbit do book basket, as I finally had a couple of books to read.

During dance, the weather was so nice, I was able to take the boys to the park. It was good to have them run around, because they napped during quiet time.

Then Rabbit and I worked on math, writing eights, 2 English lessons, spelling, and writing. Whew. Then it was time for art. I had a cardboard chest that I bought from Michael's earlier this year, so I let her paint that. She didn't really do the "Rosemaling" pattern - I just let her paint it. She can sometimes feel pressured to "do it perfect," so I let her paint it however she liked. It was 4:00 before we finally were done for the day.

Week 12, Day 1 in ECC

Today was presentation day. We had to get done by 2:00 - and we did! Although I missed a couple of things.

For Bible, we read about Romania in Window on the World. The story was about a lady who was will to trade her best clothes for a Bible. So, I asked the kids if they would be willing to trade their favorite toy(s) for a Bible. Uh, we're not there yet.

Next, we were off to Norway. Rabbit wanted to take a boat to Africa (from Brazil) and then fly to Norway, so that's what we pretended. Then I put the flag stickers in their passports and dated them. For science, we read about conifer forests.

Rabbit did Spanish on the computer again. She does fine saying individual words, but when it comes time to put them into a sentence - well let's just say it sounds like mumbling. If I say it with her she does better, but we have issues. Maybe I need to do ear eights before Spanish and do fencers before geography?

After snack and recess, Rabbit had quite a bit of seatwork: a coloring page from Bible time, copying the memory verse for the week, the Flag Sticker Book, and addition Wrap-Ups. So, she worked on those while I did Cubbies verses and stories with the boys. Then the boys wanted to color their coloring page form Bible time. After that, it was time for me to make lunch, so Rabbit worked with the boys and they all did their Flag Sticker books together.

After lunch, Rabbit did math while I put the boys down for quiet time. Since we were short on time, we didn't review the x3 math facts. We did writing-eights and then spelling . I forgot to do English! We were going to read the next story in her reading book, which was The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy. We have the original somewhere, and as I was reading ahead in the book I noticed they had changed the story just a little and I didn't really like the wording, but we couldn't find our book. So, we skipped ahead to the poem and did our poetry class real quick and then music.

Finally, we went to presentation day. Rabbit said a verse she is working on for Awanas. Both Tigger and Pooh each sang the "ABC Song" - separately. I decided they should do it separately, since they sang at different speeds, and tended to get lost at different places. It was very cute, and I'm glad they had the courage to stand up in front of the kids and do it. After that, it was soooo beautiful we went to the park with all the other families and had a blast there.

Week 11, Day 5 in ECC

Well, at least we were able to easily meet our 4 hour requirement, even on this Light and Independent Friday. (I know, really it is Monday).

I had forgotten (again) to get the kids verses ready, so I had to do that. We started late because of that. We then worked on the verses, and did ECC Bible time. After ECC Bible time, I still needed to print out the vocabulary pages for Rabbit, so she read the younger YWAM Nate Saint story to the boys. Rabbit prefers that I draw the pictures and she colors and writes, so that's what we've been doing.

That took us to snack time. After snack I had Rabbit work on writing a letter to Grandma, while I did preschool with the boys. I read them the story out of their Cubbies book, and we worked on their verse. They weren't keen on much else, so I did repatterning with Rabbit and then writing. She wrote a very good descriptive sentence today. She really is getting so much better at it. Spelling is still a challenge, but she is really trying. We also read the next story in our reader.

While I was making lunch, the kids watch a video called Families of Brazil (or something to that effect). The Teacher's Manual called for cooking, but the two recipes offered had milk products in them (whipped cream or condensed milk). I couldn't think of a substitute. But, in the video, it talked about what they typically eat, so I figure that covered it. One thing I really like about ECC is I don't feel bad if I don't follow things exactly - I feel like I have a lot more freedom to substitute something equivalent if I want (like if I don't feel like cooking some foreign recipe).

Rabbit watched the next chapter on the DVD while I put the boys down. Then we reviewed the right brained flash cards. After that we did the first workbook page for that chapter. Mostly we just need to review a lot to memorize those facts. Then we did spelling - she didn't miss a single word from last week - hooray! And, she did very well for this week's new words. The last thing I was going to work on with her was Spanish. She had been having a little bit of attitude issues through-out the school day, and they all came out during Spanish. She was mumbling and wouldn't speak clearly into the microphone, so the software was having a hard time figuring out if she was saying anything. After about 2 minutes I called it off. I was getting frustrated with her, and that's no good. I actually think she must of had some small amount of milk product sometime this weekend, because she had other behavior things that were indicitive of that.

Well, tomorrow we're off to Norway. I think it will be a better day. The kids always have lots of fun the first day into a new country.

Week 11, Day 4 in ECC

We started our day with the usual. Rabbit wasn't too upset about the Nate Saint story today. Then we worked on our memory verse.

During Geography we were to look at the Maps of South America. These maps had different data expressed on them. It was kind of fun to see how population and economic development went together. We talked a bit about the data, and worked a little more on the geography packet for South Americia.

We read the science pages. Rabbit asked not to do a science page, so I said okay. She does one most days. It was about living in the rain forest, and how the tribes clear areas and build their houses. The soil is not very deep or fertile, so after a couple of years, they can no longer grow crops, and they move on.

We did about 15 minutes of Spanish at the Tell Me More site. Her favorite part is trying to say the phrases. After snack the kids had a bit of recess. Rabbit worked on writing her letter to her pen pal while I had preschool time with the boys.

After writing eights, we worked more on Rabbit's pen pal letter and finished that up. I figured that counted for writing. The writing eights are going well - she is now able to finish the complete alphabet and numbers.

After lunch, I gave Rabbit a math page while I put the boys down. She took out the test booklet and took the next test for skip counting by threes. She did fine - only missing one question. But, I was a little agitated, as I had asked her to do one Systematic Review page before doing the test. Then I went over the x3 right brained math flash cards with her, as that is coming up next week. Then we worked on spelling, reading, poetry, and music. A pretty good day.

Week 11, Day 3 in ECC

We started our day with the usual, and then we got to Bible time. The passage was where Jesus is talking about good fruit and bad fruit, and that the trees that produce bad fruit get cut down. We talked about how hard it is to bear good fruit. We compared ourselves to the Waorani people - while we don't kill to take revenge, we still do take revenge. Rabbit was quite upset, and wondering about if she was "really saved.' So, I asked her, "Did you ask Jesus into your heart - ask Him to show you how to live?" She said, "Yes." Then I said, "Then the the blood of His death covers and pays for your sins. Ask forgiveness and try again when you sin." I talked to her about how I read the Bible and see how far off I am from God's standards, and then I pray and ask God to help me live up to those standards. It is a struggle. It was a good discussion, and hopefully we'll have more of those.

Up next was the Geography game. The boys started out hanging out with us and pointed where we said, but Pooh lost interest. But Tigger stayed with us and we would tell him what number, and he would find it on the map. After that was science. I will warn you if you read from the "Living World" book for the day, there is a picture of an eagle that has killed a monkey and it shows some blood coming out of the monkey. This upset Rabbit quite a bit, but she got through it and traced the tiger for her science page.

We worked on Spanish again, using the Tell Me More website. She really likes trying to pronounce the words into the microphone. Not sure she is really learning what the phrases mean, but she is learning better pronunciation. After a quick snack and 15 minute recess, it was back to work. Rabbit worked on math drill using Math-U-See's online drill, and then did her science page while I did preschool with the boys. We read a story from the Book Basket, and then did calendar time - counting up to 13 for today. Then Pooh reviewed days of the week while pointing to the headers on the calendar. He needed reminders, but it was good. We worked on our Awana verse briefly. Tigger said he'll sing the ABC song at Presentation Day next week, so we practiced that. Then they wanted to do pages in their workbooks, so we worked on those.

Rabbit finished her writing-eights in record time - not sure if that is good or bad. Then, she wrote an excellent sentence. I used that opportunity to say that now we're seeing fruit from all the work we're doing with writing-eights and spelling and English. Those good sentences are fruit from all that other hard work. Then we did the English lesson. I let her do it verbally. After that, book basket time while I made lunch.

While I was putting the boys down, Rabbit watched the next section on the Math-U-See DVD - skip counting by 3. We worked on that a bit, and then did the first page together. After that I went through the right-brained multiplication facts for x3 with her. Then we did spelling, reading, and poetry. We got the boys up, and started our nature walk, but the wind picked up about 3 minutes after we left, so we only went around the block.

All afternoon and evening, Rabbit worked on skip counting by 3. By the time she had dinner, she could do it. Very impressive when she puts her mind to it.

Week 11, Day 2 in ECC

Well, yesterday we just finished what we missed on Monday. That took us our full 4 hours. And then we had today.

We started with the usual - Pledge, Awana Verses, and then Bible time. We read our verses, and then read a little about Nate Saint that is in the Teacher's Manual. We talked about how even taking revenge without killing is wrong, so that was a good discussion, not that it carried into our day our anything.

Geography was quick - just reading in our Illustrated World Atlas. (Can I say that I've heard that some people don't like this book, we do?) Then on to science. We read about jungle birds, and Rabbit picked a hummingbird to trace for her science page. (Then we had a hiccup in the home computer network, and it took me 15 minutes to get the page to print - arrhg!) We also had a science experiment - to see how strong the "arch" shape is. It called for using egg shells and then stacking books on it. Here is our first book:

So, we added books and books. Rabbit was afraid of the eggs collapsing, so we used small books. Here is our picture just before the eggs collapsed:

Then finally we added one more book, and the two eggs on this end of the photo collapsed:

So, we weighed the books, and it was 13.5 pounds of books. But, we weighed without the last one and it was 11.5 pounds of books. The last book weighed 2 pounds. It would have been interesting to try again using smaller books, but we were out of eggs by now.

So, that took us most of the morning, then at 11:10 I realized we needed to leave at 11:45 for Rabbit's dance class, and I still had to feed the kids lunch - aaaaahhhh! Okay, so I quickly made them sandwiches, grapes (okay, so I didn't make the grapes, but I did rinse and pick them off the stem), and potato chips and managed to start a crock pot meal for this evening. Plus, I got Rabbit's hair up into a pony tail. (Faster than a speeding clock, stronger than frozen pork chops - it's a bird! No, it's a plane! No, it's Super Mom!)

After dance, the boys went down for quiet time, while Rabbit did her next math quiz. She did great - only missing 1 question. Then we still had writing-eights, English, spelling, reading, poetry, Spanish and math drill. So, we breezed through all that and finished up with an art project. We did a Carnival Dancer. I went to Michael's this last weekend and found some floral wire that had rafia wrapped around the wire. The wire seemed pretty stiff, and it was all they had. Then, we used the yarn I had bought for another project, and the quilting quarters for another project. The final result:

Rabbit wrapped one foot, the legs, and arms. I did the first foot, torso, and head. Having the rafia wrapped wire was good because the yarn kind of clung to the rafia. Also, we used a little Elmer's white glue to hold the yarn in place at the beginning and the end. The wood was a piece of left over scrap from our Awana pine car derby. A fun project, and the boys wanted to do one too, but there just wasn't time.

So, we finally finished at about 4:15 this evening. Whew. I'm hoping light Friday's will fall on Wednesday again soon.

Week 11, Day .5 in ECC

Well, we only did about 3 hours of school today. Bible time took us an hour. Rabbit made her own MAF plane, but I had to help the boys. We got in Geography and Science time, and Rabbit did some of her seatwork for the day.

After lunch, Rabbit wasn't feeling well, so I had them all 3 lay down for quiet time. She still wasn't feeling well after she got up, so we scrapped the rest of school. I don't think it is anything serious.

We still have a bunch to get done tomorrow: reading, writing eights, English, math, spelling, poetry, math drill, science page (from today), Spanish, and music. She needs to write a letter to her "Snail Mail Buddy" too. That ought to take us most of our school time tomorrow.

Week 10, Day 5 in ECC

We started late today, as we had a field trip for church. (Our church is trying to decide if we want to move to a new elementary school. I was asked to come along for a look.) Rabbit worked on a couple of things in the van on the way.

When we got home, she finished her math and vocabulary pages. After that we spent about an hour on the Geography Packet. We're using the computer - we have Encyclopedia Britannica - to look stuff up, but have more luck with Wikipedia. We tried doing the lat/lon island page and the atlas that came with our curriculum, but we couldn't figure out several of the islands. I'm not too worried about it, as she'll do it again in a few years.

After lunch, we did Bible, spelling, poetry, repatterning, writing, and reading while the boys were down for quiet time.

Fridays are pretty light, but I today I filled in extra time with the Geography packets and math review. We never got in our Nature Walk this week, unless you count doing the "Welcome Committee" stuff with me today.

Week 10, Day 4 in ECC

Rabbit wanted to rush through the Pledge and her Awana verses today, but I made her slow down. We went through them 3 times each. Then we delved into our Bible time. The passage was the "Do Not Judge" passage, and the "Speck and Log" passage. I tried to help her understand what they were talking about, but I'm not sure how well I did. She does really well narrating the passage back.

Next we read from the Illustrated World Atlas about the Nature (animal and plants) of South America. There were a couple of places I had to reword about "global warming," but it was good. For science, we read about nocturnal animals of the jungle. Rabbit wanted to draw a deer mouse, but the image in the book wasn't very good, so we found a picture of one online, and copied that to her notebook page. I still had her try to trace it.

We had time, so we did some reading for 15 minutes. She is really enjoying the first 3rd grade reader from Abeka. I think it is good for her to still read aloud to me every day. It helps me see and hear where she is still struggling. Then I talked to her about Spanish. She agreed to try out the "Tell Me More" online. After getting us "set up" she spent about 20 minutes with it. We had to find a microphone that didn't have any buzz in it. It has things where a native speaker says a word, and then you say it, and it shows you the graph of the word, and you try to match it. She really liked trying that. We'll see how it goes. Right now we are only working on pronunciation and expression. Then she had snack and recess.

For seatwork, I had Rabbit work on her science page and then division math windows. I read a book to the boys, and then we played a game with this 2 inch frisbee they have. They love that. Then I got out the Lauri lower case letters and let them play with those, while I worked with Rabbit on her division math windows. She was finally starting to "get" it toward the end. I only had her do the numbers we've covered for multiplication. After writing eights, I had her do her sentence. She did an awesome sentence today. Then she did book basket.

After lunch, I let them play outside. It was a little cold, but they really loved it. The boys both napped. Rabbit and I worked on math, spelling, poetry and music, and we were done. No fussing or tears. I love it.

Week 10, Day 3 in ECC

Today, Rabbit rushed through the pledge and her Awana memory verses. I know we have dance today, but I was surprised she rushed through. Then we were off to Bible. The passage was about not worrying. (After yesterday's election, well, let's just say it was the perfect lesson for me.) And then we worked briefly on our ECC memory verse.

We played the Geography Game for Geography. We are doing both North America and South America, and reviewing the South American capitals as we play. Then we did science. She really liked the gliding tree frogs, but the one picture in one of the books with the big air sac made her not want to look at them any more. Anyway, for her science page, she traced one of the gliding tree frogs. She did an awesome job tracing and coloring it. I told her it was her best science page yet.

Today was the "final" in our Spanish book. The first time through, I let her just kind of listen to the whole thing, so she can get a feel for how it is going to go. The next time through, we'll do more of the performance challenges and try to take it more "seriously." We have access to an online Spanish program (the tellmemore.com people, I think) through the county library, but Rabbit was so against Rosetta Stone last year, I don't know if I'm going to do it with her. We'll talk about it and see what she wants to do. I'd really rather get Rosetta Stone, but that's probably going to have to wait.

Rabbit worked on the multiplication math windows, an English page, and her science page while I did some things with the boys. I read a book to them, we went over their verse, and played a couple of matching games. Then it was time to make lunch, so Rabbit finished her work and book basket while I made lunch.

After dance, we had math, spelling, writing eights, writing, and poetry. Whew. Glad we are done for the day.

Week 10, Day 2 in ECC

We started with our usual. Rabbit wasn't too interested in her verses, but we went through them. Then we moved on to Bible time. It is kind of short this week, as it is just the Bible passage and the memory verse. When we add in Hero Tales it takes just a little longer. Today was memory verse dictation day, and Rabbit did great! I let her have a word bank, and she didn't miss any spellings.

Geography went quick. It was learning a few words in Portuguese, as they speak in Brazil. Then we did science. (The boys haven't joined in this week.) Rabbit was interested in the structures the scientists built in order to study the rain forest, more than any information about the rain forest. She traced some of those pictures for her science page. Since we were "ahead" of schedule, we did reading next.

We had snack time and Spanish next and then 15 minutes of "free" time. Then, Rabbit had seatwork: her science page, math windows, and an English page. The boys and I did preschool. We read some books about the rain forest from the book basket. Then we played Alphabet Lotto. They thought that was great.

Next up was writing eights and going over her English page. Then she did book basket while I made lunch.

Rabbit started watching the next section for math (multiplying by 9) while I put the boys down, and then we reviewed the right-brained x9 math facts. Last, Rabbit worked on an art project. They wanted us to make a costume like would be worn at Carnival, but I didn't have an old pillow case or fabric paints. So, I took a sheet of butcher paper, folded it in half, cut the shape like shown in the book, and then she painted her design. Once it dried, she had a real pretty design, because the paints were kind of pearly.

Week 10, Day 1 in ECC

Today we started late. I forgot to get our memory verses typed up so we can hang them on the door to the basement. So, that took a while. Plus, I had to print out the "fancy frame" that I have for Rabbit to do her verse copy work. My fault.

We did the Pledge, and then went through Rabbit's new verses for Awana. Then we did Bible time. We read about an interesting native people group that live on the border of Venezuela and Brazil. There are only 19,000 or so of these people left, as many of them have been killed by "white man's" diseases. Then we started on our new memory verse for the week.

Geography was good. We read the pages in the Illustrated World Atlas, and played the Geography Game. We went ahead and added in North America today. I made it a little easier on her, as the cards for North America are white, and the South America cards are neon yellow. But, she got every single country right. We're also at least saying the capital city of the South American countries.

For science we had to do a passage out of each science book. Rabbit decided to draw about the Asian sun bear, as it "looks cute." It was definitely interesting information in the books today. The boys did not join in today. In fact, this morning, Pooh said, "Mom, I'm tired of doing school."

After snack and Spanish, I told Rabbit to start work on her seatwork - she had plenty. I told her we were skipping recess, as we started late. She didn't fuss about it. She had to do her verse copy work, her science page, and her math windows for addition. She didn't miss a single math problem, and wrote 3 backwards only once! A major improvement.

While Rabbit worked on seatwork, I read the next Cubbies section to the boys and we worked on their verse. Then I wiped off "October" from our dry-erase calendar and started November. Pooh was kind of bummed - he wanted to know what came after 32. Then, he wanted me to start November on the first square. I had to explain to him about how calendars worked. Then we looked at the letter "D" and I had them try to think of words that started with the sound /d/. I got lots of /l/ and /p/ words. I'm not too concerned. Next I got out the number puzzle game. The boys usually love that. But, Pooh wouldn't answer me when I had asked him earlier what he wanted for a snack. After 3 times, I decided he didn't want a snack. Well, Pooh was hungry by the time we got to the number puzzle, but I said no. He wailed and wailed, so he got sent to his room. Tigger had a blast matching the halves of the numbers together. He is getting very good at counting peg holes. Then I had him put the pieces in order from 1 to 10. He is getting to know his numbers pretty well.

After that, Rabbit and I did her writing eights. She did them very slowly today, so we only got to "t." Then we did our English lesson - a repeat of the infamous lesson 86. Hopefully that one will sink in by the end of the year. While I started lunch, Rabbit did book basket. I believe she read one of the books to Pooh.

Rabbit decided to do Test 9 for math today - I told her she could do one more practice page, but she decided she was done with this section. She only missed one. She couldn't tell if she should have done 3x9 or 3+9. I told her that she should always draw a picture of the word problem if she isn't sure. Then we did spelling. She only missed one of her words from last week, and didn't miss any from our new group. For reading, we started on our first 3rd grade Abeka book. We read about 11 pages worth. We finished up with music and poetry.

I'm thinking we may have to do our Nature Walk tomorrow, as the weather is turning much colder, with possible rain/snow mix on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Plus, Wednesday is our worship dance day, so it may just be easier to do it tomorrow.