Week 18, Day 3 in ECC

Well, colds have overtaken the household again. In spite of stuffy noses and coughing, we started up again today - at least the days in the TM line up with the days of the week again.

We started with working on Rabbit's next Discovery in her TNT book. That took quite a while. Then, we did our cross-crawls and ECC Bible time. Rabbit tried very hard to copy the character quality out of the book very neatly. I told her I was very proud of the way she wrote. We did our ear-eights and then moved on to Geography. We read our "facts" pages about Kenya, and then played the geography game with our Africa game board. We played the old version. Rabbit said, "You only want to play it so you can win." Turns out we tied - we each missed one.

We were behind at this point, so we did lunges and headed for the kitchen for our snack. I shifted the laundry from the washer to the dryer, and we did Spanish. I got out our Spanish/English Dictionary so I could understand the story they were telling better. Rabbit thought it was funny that I narrated the story back to her in English.

Science was suppose to be a Nature Walk, and study of grass roots. Well, with wind gusts hitting 80 mph today, that was out of the question. So we talked about what roots do, and how they hold soil, and how that stops erosion. That was going to have to do for today.

Then, I had Rabbit work on her spelling list, and use some Wrap-Ups while I did preschool with the boys. First we worked on their Cubbies lesson. Part of the lesson was to draw Luv E. Lamb. It is so interesting to watch the two of them try to draw it. The next part had them coloring the letters of a word. Tigger finished up quick, but it took Pooh a bit longer. But, Pooh was a little more precise with his coloring. We worked on their verse for a couple of minutes. Then, we got caught up with the calendar, since we hadn't filled anything in since last Friday. We went over the days of the week, and months of the year, too. Then I had them say their phone number (they still got it) and spell their names. Tigger can do his first name without looking, but needs to look for his last name. Pooh cannot spell either, and doesn't even know all the letter names for his name. I need to work more on teaching them their letters.

After that, it was time for writing-eights with Rabbit. We worked on those. Then we did English. The assignment was about using quotation marks. I didn't do the dictation for it, yet. Then we had a "writing without curriculum" assignment. She wrote 3 great sentences, remembering to capitalize the first letter, and use a period at the end of each sentence. Plus, she used a comma in the right place in one of the sentences! Whoo-hoo, that is a big gain. I won't tell you her spelling, though. Then she did book basket. You really have to like a curriculum when your daughter brings you a book from the book basket, puts it on the counter and says, "Mom, you should read this book. It is really good!"

We took a long lunch break, and then did math and reading. We worked on skip counting by 4's and did the first page for this lesson. Then, we finished the last story in our Abeka book 2.

What a good day. I'm glad we pushed through sniffles, coughs, and sore throats and got it done.

Week 18, Day 2 in ECC

After 2 days of sickness, it was good to get back to school.

Bible time went smoothly, except for Awana verses. With two days of a cold, we did not go over Rabbit's verses and she struggled. We did the dictation of the memory verse. She printed instead of using cursive. I'm not 100% sure why. (Could it be the writing-eights are kicking in?) She does write faster in cursive.

For geography we made our Africa game boards. I had actually made mine last weekend (plus the game cards) so all I needed to do was laminate mine. Rabbit labeled and colored hers and laminated it. For science, we read about Grassland Plants. Rabbit decided to draw the pictures of wheat, oats, barley and rye.

For Spanish, we went on to the next story, but it is a much harder one. I think I will sit down with her next time and see if we can piece together an understanding of the story before moving on. We had no break, as we were behind at this point, so she worked on her science page and spelling page, while I did preschool with the boys. We did calendar time, and I tried to come up with a way for the boys to remember the days of the week. Not an easy task. Then, I drew A, a, B, and b on 4 x 6 cards and had the boys roll out play dough and put it over the letters. (I've done this with numbers before, and it really seems to help them get a feel for the shape of the letters.) I need to make cards for the whole alphabet.

After that, we had writing eights and English. For the English lesson, I had Rabbit dictate to me and I wrote her story down. She doesn't always get these "creative" stories, so I kind of had to guide her. It doesn't help that we also don't know exactly how a robin goes about building a nest. She read two or three books (or at least skimmed them) during book basket time.

After lunch, we moved on to math. We spent an hour going over skip counting by 4's. I forgot to have her read to me, but she read to her dad at bed time. I also read the next chapter of David Livingstone. When she was sick, she was asking me to read it to her, but I decided we would just follow the schedule on school days.

Week 18, Day 1 in ECC

Off to Kenya, Africa!

We started with our usual Pledge and review of Awana verses, and then our Bible time, reading about a people group in Northern Africa.

Then, for Geography, we got on our "airplane" (the stairs), and flew to Kenya. I put a sticker in each child's passport, and then wrote the date. Rabbit and I looked at the map to see that Kenya is right on the equator - so it is in both the northern and southern hemispheres. We also looked at the globe.

Next, we read our science pages and talked about grasslands. We then got out the Atlas and looked at the map of population and compared it to the climate and noticed how it very much correlated.

After snack and Spanish, it was time for the swearing-in of the new President, so we watched that and his speech. Then it was time for Rabbit to do seatwork, while I worked with Tigger and Pooh. We did our usual calendar time, phone number, and Awana verse. Then, we worked on what sound the letter "b" makes. That took all our time.

I realized I forgot to do all our Brain Integration Therapy between subjects today, so we did all those we missed, and then our writing eights. Rabbit had a better attitude about them today. After that we did Lesson 86 again in our English book - the proper use of "It is I," or "It was she." Since the library was closed yesterday, I didn't have any books from the library on Africa for book basket, so she did seatwork while I prepared lunch.

After lunch, we did the Math unit test - which she did great on. Then started our next spelling list. She got the idea that all the words had the long "o" sound, and we went through and discovered all the spellings and copied them to her spelling dictionary. Then, I did a sneaky thing with her. I had her spell "old." Then I gave her a bunch of other "old" words (mold, told, cold, gold, etc.) to spell. Then I asked her what they all had in common. She didn't see the pattern (that they all have "old" in them) until I pointed it out. Patterns are a tricky thing for her, that is for sure.

Last week we got a book to help us prepare for standardized testing that our state requires us to do in 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, and 11th grades. So, we worked on that some today. I think it is good, because it helps show us weaknesses. But, in doing it, I realized how unfair these tests are. For example, I call my purse a "purse." One of the things on the test was to make compound words. Well, the first half of the word was "hand" and then she had to chose between "bag," "glove," "foot," and something else. Well, she's never heard me call a purse a "handbag" so she didn't know that was a real word. Same thing came up with "streetcar." We don't live in a city, nor have we read any books or stories, that talk about streetcars. She doesn't even know what one looks like. Just because I've never called my purse a "handbag," doesn't mean she isn't smart. I've decided the tests are totally bogus, because unless you've experienced the use of these words, you're not going to know they are real words.

Then we wrapped up with reading, and I read the first chapter of David Livingstone to her. Talk about staring into the lion's mouth! Oh my!

Week 17, Day 2-5 in ECC

Well, between missing a day because of illness of the teacher, and just life happening, I didn't keep up with the blog.

Reading about John Wesley this week was inspiring. Quite the dedicated individual. We had some good Bible discussions, but the parables can be confusing.

Geography was fun. We mostly focused on the Geography game - which Rabbit continues to win. We didn't do the cooking activity yesterday, as we decided to go to the National Western Stock Show for a field trip. In Science, we read the book, and then did the Tree Activities in the manual. We only did one of the two, as I had to teach Rabbit how to do a bar graph. However, we did note correlations in the data we collected.

For math, we're continuing to work on mastering the times 6 facts. We're pretty close. I believe she could complete the next unit test. Spelling was challenging. She had trouble with "igh" words, and did not get a 100 on either test. I think we'll move on, but work on igh words a little. We've come up with a new phrase, to get us to laugh - "spelling accident." She caught a spelling mistake while she was doing her test. So, we now also have "math accidents" as well.

We've almost finished the next book in the Abeka series - I think we have one story left. And we finished George Muller. The organizations he started are still around today! Amazing!

A good week, except for my stomach bug.

My Whiteboard

Someone over at the MFW boards asked for pictures of people's whiteboards, so here is mine:

Basically, each strip has a topic: "Science" or "Math" or "Writing" or "Music" or "English" etc. To the right you see "Seatwork" and I have a strip for the different types of seatwork Rabbit might have. So, I have "Copy Memory Verse," "Science Page," "Math Drill," "Awana Pages." If there is something extra, I'll just writie it up there under the strips. I also have "Brain Integration Therapy" items on the strips that I mix in through out the day, so I don't forget to do them.

As we complete something, I either slide it to the left, or put a checkmark next to it. I've also put contact paper over each strip, so I could cross out over it, and then use window cleaner to wipe them clean, if I wanted. What I like about this, is it gives us an "order" but no "times." So, if we go long on geography, then we just go to the next strip on the board. Also, if something comes up, I can just slide the magnets around to reorder our day.

My plan is to use different background colors for each of the boys (when they finally start school) and make strips for them, and as we finish something, they can move them down to the bottom of the board. Each person will have their own column, and I will try to arrange the order so if I'm working with one, the other two have something to do. It may not work or I may not need it for them when we get there, but that's my idea.

Week 17, Day 1 in ECC

Yeah, I remembered to get on here and write about our day.

We started with the Pledge. Rabbit has really been insisting on it, even though we had let it slide toward the end of 2008. Then, we went through the next 4 sections in her T-n-T book for Awanas. It is really only 2 new verses, and lots of questions to answer. She will be doing the questions as part of her seatwork every day. We read about our country from Window on the World and prayed for them, and then worked on our memory verse.

For our geography lesson, we just looked through a page of German words. It is interesting to see the German words spelled phonetically, but sometimes I'm still not sure we said them right. In science, we read about the "deciduous forest canopy" - the main focus was insects. Rabbit did her science page on the life cycle of the butterfly. She dictated a whole paragraph to me.

After snack time, we tried the next thing in Spanish - which was to try to tell the Three Bears in Spanish as much as possible. She really didn't want to. Trying to decide whether to move on tomorrow, or just let it go.

Since it had snowed this morning, the kids went outside for 15 minutes of recess.

After recess, Rabbit got started on her seatwork, and it was time to work with the boys. I read to them from their Cubbies book, and then we worked on their verse. Then we spend a few minutes at the calendar. The boys finally know the first 6 digits of our 10 digit phone number. It shouldn't be long now and they'll be able to say the whole thing. I've also just been working with the letter "a" with them. We've played a few games. Mostly, I'm trying to teach them that if they see an "a" all by itself in a sentence, it says "uh." Even at bedtime, when I read their Bibles to them, we look for the "uh."

We did writing eights today. Rabbit said she wanted to do them by herself. I said, "No way." She still isn't having a very good attitude about them. Then, our English lesson was to copy a letter (you know, letter you send to someone through the mail) from her English book. Instead of doing that, we just worked on the format. I had her put the date on the upper right, then the "Dear So-and-so," on the left, we drew a box where the paragraph would go, and then signature on the lower right. I wasn't so concerned that she copy the letter as much as get the format right. After that, she read some books from the book basket.

After lunch, we did Spelling. We've been doing the study-test method. Today we looked at the words and found the common sound, looked at the different ways that sound was spelled, counted each way, and then she copied them into her Spelling dictionary. Unbelievably, she thinks this is fun. It is good, because it really makes her look at the words and think abou them.

Then on math, we're still working with times six. I had her build the problems with the blocks, write them down, say them, etc. She finally has 6 x 3, and maybe even 6 x 4. I put all the times six right-brained flash cards that she is havign trouble with up high (I don't really have a wall, as much as some drywall around a support beam) for her to look at. I also had her trace over all the times six problems as part of her seatwork.

Then we did reading, poetry and music, and we were done. A good day, with no fussing. Oh yeah, we read another chapter in the George Muller book. He sure traveled a lot!

Week 16 in ECC: Germany

Okay, so getting back into the swing of things, I forgot to update my blog every day this week, so I thought I would run a "week in review" summary.

For Bible time, we continued working on Rabbit's Awana verses this week. From Window on the World we learned about another European country. (I don't want to say specifically, because I wouldn't want to violate copyright. I would feel really bad if someone pieced together ECC from reading my blog!) I wouldn't have thought of this particular country as "third world," but they certainly have problems there. We studied our passages from Matthew and had a few good discussions. Rabbit seems to have lost a little of her ability to narrate over the Christmas break, so I'm breaking down the passages into smaller chunks for narration. Reading about Martin Luther this week has been great. I knew about his list of issues he had with the Roman Catholic church - but I didn't know all that other neat stuff.

For Geography, our focus was on Germany. The boys wanted to ride horses from France to Germany, so they did that, while Rabbit sat in the "stage coach." I don't know where they got that idea, but it was fun. I let all the kids make the German flag. I ran out of red construction paper, so I had Rabbit color a piece of white construction paper red. We played the Geography Game, version 2, twice this week, and Rabbit won both times. On Friday, we spent about 15 minutes going through the Geography Packet doing the fun pages.

We had a really good week in Science. Rabbit actually did science pages this week. One of our activities was to "Map a Forest Area." So, we went into the back yard and discussed each tree - was it coniferous or deciduous, about how old it might be, whether or not it was still alive (we have a couple of aspens on their last legs), etc. We took a picture of the back yard, Rabbit dictated a paragraph to go with it, and made that our science page for one of our days.

For seatwork, Rabbit worked on copying her memory verse, math facts, and her Awana verses, and sometimes some spelling activities. I did preschool every day but Friday with the boys during this time. The boys were glad to be back in the regular swing of things.

Writing eights were a struggle for Rabbit this week. On Thursday, I let her trace over with her finger, since she had all the texture of the previous 3 days worth of crayon on the page. On Friday, we had the Writing Repatterning. I explained we only had to do it for 4 or 5 weeks. She seemed pleased with that. I was looking ahead, though, and it looks like we're suppose to do Auditory Reprocessing for 18 to 24 weeks! The other thing I read was about doing the cross-legged toe touches every day except on repatterning day. I've been forgetting to do them. I need to double check the white board and make sure they're on the list.

English was good this week. We did everything orally. And then we did the "writing without curriculum" ideas from Dianne Craft. She is a little less wordy than she was before the break - which I think is good. On Friday, I let her writing assignment be writing her pen pal.

Some of the Book Basket books have been fun to read. And after doing the "Map the Forest" book, Rabbit took one of the books that talked about trees, and took it outside to help study our trees. I really like that she was trying to learn something on her own.

We are almost caught up reading about George Muller. Rabbit asked if God would take care of us the way He took care of George Muller and his orphans. I said, "Absolutely, yes." It is amazing how faith-filled he was, and how his example affected others.

Rabbit is having trouble with her times 6's. She'll know them for a little while, and then 15 minutes later, forget. I'm thinking of having her maybe do some Math-U-See math drill after she does book basket while I'm making lunch. I'll give her a times table and let her use that to look at when she doesn't know. Maybe 10 minutes doing that for a week would help. We've tried jumping on the trampoline while saying the facts; using the right-brained flash cards; using the magnetic numbers; and teaching some Barbie dolls. The only thing I haven't had her do is actually write them out - the whole problem with the answer. I was thinking of making a page and just having her trace over the top.

Spelling went well this week. I asked her about switching, but she says she doesn't want to, that the new way is "fun." (Could have fooled me!) She got 100% on her test on Thursday, so I didn't retest on Friday.

We're still using Power Glide Spanish. We're really trying to learn the Tres Osos story well this week.

Really, the week went well, except for math facts and me starting us late a couple of days. But, we got right back into the swing of things.

Time on my hands

It has been an interesting 2 week break.

I've been researching Sequential Spelling. I may change to it. We'll see. Rabbit is a great reader, it just doesn't carry over into her spelling, although she does spell phonetically and doesn't use "invented spellings," it still isn't good. I've e-mailed one mom who says she is starting to see improvements in her kids' spelling when they write.

Today, Rabbit asked, "Why can't we start school tomorrow?" Wow! That was an unexpected question. I'm guessing she is missing the routine. I told her, "You want to do school on Saturday?" But it makes me glad that she is wanting to do school. Yay MFW!

Happy New Year!