Week 33, Day 1 in ECC: Antarctica

Okay, I thought I would blog today, since it went so well.

We started with reading about Samoa, which was so interesting. I love the fact that they ring the church bells at dusk to remind people to read their Bibles and pray.

Then we worked on Geography. I didn't dig out their passports. We looked at the globe and saw how it is at the bottom of the world. We also compared to how the Arctic is mostly ocean and the Antarctic is mostly land. Then I had Rabbit do the map work as assigned.

After that we read our science pages and did our science experiments/demonstrations. The first one was to look at what an iceberg looks like in the ocean. I remembered to read through the manual last night, and "froze and iceberg" in the freezer overnight. Then we floated it in a clear bowl. I asked the kids what was most interesting, and Rabbit noticed how most of it was under the water. (Good job Rabbit! You got the point.) We also talked a little bit about the Titanic - I thought that might be an interesting tidbit of history. Here is our picture:

Then I demonstrated how the north and south poles are in the dark all of their winters. I used a flashlight and the globe in the bathroom (so we could really see it). Even the boys enjoyed looking at the iceberg and seeing how the sun hit the globe.

After snack, it was time for preschool with the boys. Tigger was having an attitude problem, so he spent the time in his room, and Pooh got an individual preschool. Rabbit worked on her copy work and science page.

Next up, All About Spelling. Rabbit was bummed because she hasn't had a chance to write spelling words in her new spelling book. All of it is review right now, but I felt like we should start from the beginning. We've gone through 5 steps in 3 days. Tomorrow we'll do some spelling.

In English she was suppose to copy all these "Proverbs and Maxims." Instead we just discussed them, since I knew copying would have produced a meltdown. Rabbit read from the book basket while I made lunch.

After lunch, she finished up her copy work and science page, and then we did reading together. I wanted to give her a break from writing before doing math. She's getting better about really thinking about whether she's reversing numbers, but still does it a little. She is now writing all the numbers in the right places, so that's a major improvement.

Lastly, we did another lesson in Scoring High. It was picking "Topic Sentences" for paragraphs. It was hard for her, and for a couple of them I thought the choices were too close to each other to pick one over another. Oh well. It is probably something we need to work on.

Besides Tigger's bad attitude, it seemed like a great day, and we were done by 2:15! I love it when that happens.

Memorial Day Field Trip

A group of people from our church were going to see the professional baseball team of our city, and we got tickets too. Because baseball is a national past time, and the kids don't really know much, our Principle said we could count it as a field trip. Because it was Memorial Day, there was a special presentation for Veterans. Here are some pictures.

The stadium:

Here are the service men and women who presented colors:

And finally, the flag out in center field:

Thank you, all you who have served our country!

Week 31-32 in ECC: Australia

Welcome to the world Down Under! We learned some fascinating things these last two weeks.

For Bible, we read about Papua New Guinea and New Zealand, and continued on through Matthew. Rabbit is getting much better at summarizing her narrations. The boys also listened in quite a bit more these last couple of weeks.

For Geography we read about the many different foods and animals of Australia. We tried Kiwi fruit, but ours was a bit sour. Since we only added 3 new countries to our Geography Game, we didn't have to learn that much new. Rabbit and I did our favorite pages from the Geography Packet together. Everyday Pooh asked if it was "Flag Day" - the day we make the flag of our country. He was so excited when it was finally Flag Day. So, he colored the copy of the flag and cut it out. It was also fun to learn what the different Australian expressions mean. We didn't do any Australian cooking, as Rabbit looked through the Cooking the Australian Way book and didn't see anything she liked, but we did light up the barbie and grill steaks.

For science, we read about coral reefs, how islands form, and the dry forests. All the kids did "science pages" every day. We actually got in a Nature Walk over at the reservoir this week, since dance is finally over for the year. We ate lunch there, and then went on a walk that was not around the lake.

We missed art the first week because my mom was hospitalized, and so we had to take care of that. Then we tried making the koala bear treats this week, but those were a flop - I couldn't get the confectioners sugar to mix into the peanut butter. So, instead we spread peanut butter on Ritz crackers and used raisins to make the eyes and nose of a koala bear. Here is our picture of those:

We're repeating lesson 24 in Gamma. Rabbit is really trying, but she is having reversal problems again. If it is 7 x 4, she is writing the 2 and carrying the 8. However, when she adds, she doesn't do this any more. So, we're going to do all the pages again in the lesson and see if we can get her to stop reversing, and remembering where to write the numbers. I'm copying all the problems onto graph paper for her so it is easier to line things up.

For spelling, we decided to try something new. I ordered All About Spelling Level One. I felt like I should start there as Rabbit is not familiar with the Orton-Gillingham (or Spalding, too) method of phonics. I figure we'll finish the first book really quick, maybe even before summer is out and go from there. She is excited to be using the letter tiles. I also got her a pink "composition notebook" for her to write spelling words in. We're having to learn all the sounds each letter can make, so we're having to relearn the vowels, c, g, s and y.

English has still been going through Primary Language Lessons. We only have 3 lessons left, and one week of "official school" so it worked out perfectly. Still doing most of it orally. I think Emma Serl must have really liked birds, because she had this whole conversation lesson about birds. Then I got Intermediate Language Lessons used, and noticed it had at least one lesson in the 4th grade section on birds. I don't know much about birds. We might need to get a bird book just for English. I'm a little concerned about how much ILL steps up compared to PLL. I hope Rabbit is up for it next year.

For reading we're continuing in our Abeka reader. We finished Power Glide Level 3 Spanish for the 3rd time, so we're done with that. For Math Drill this week we used the wrap-ups.

So, next week we head off to the cold land of Antarctica.

Week 29-30 in ECC: Russia

The last two weeks have been interesting.

Bible time was good. We've had more discussions. There were lots of end times passages that we didn't totally understand, but we discussed them. AWANA is over for the year. So, that speeds up our morning time.

For Geography, we read about Russia, made a Russian flag, tried to pronounce some Russian words, and played the Geography Game. Pooh was disappointed every day that we didn't make the Russian flag. He really enjoys doing the flags as a craft. Rabbit enjoyed the Russian Ballerina page. We didn't learn how to play chess, as suggested in the manual. Dad has taught her a little, but I don't think she gets it yet. Maybe next time.

In Science, it was mostly reading about the Arctic. The second week, we just picked books from the book basket to read about science. Rabbit did a couple of science pages. Even Pooh wanted to make science pages.

For Music, we listened to the one Russian song, but we've pretty much been skipping it. For the Art projects, though, we've done those. I found nesting boxes at Michaels, but only 3 deep. I let her decorate those however. Then we did the Jeweled Egg project the next week. It was really hard to empty the eggs without breaking them. But, once I did, I remembered that I was given a box of stuff that my grandfather's 4th wife had used to decorate eggs. (She was really into it, and cut them open and put scenes inside them and everything.) So, we used the beads and ric-rac to create an egg. We each did one. I'll post pictures later.

We keep plowing trough Math. Rabbit only got an 83 on her last quiz, but they were mistakes from not lining up numbers correctly and such. She is pretty well enjoying Quarter Mile Math, but she is getting frustrated that she doesn't always beat her best time.

We keep going through Sequential Spelling. I keep asking her if she wants to change. I don't think she is really "getting" the rules. And I thought about switching to All About Spelling. So, I show her the web-site and an example lesson, and she asks, "Does it have a spelling workbook?" So I say, "What do you mean?" She says, "You know, a special book to write the words in." So this is the whole issue with spelling - she wants a bound notebook/workbook to write in. ARRGGH! I showed her some of her dad's composition notebooks, wondering if she would accept that as a spelling notebook, but I'm not sure. Grrr.

We did 6 more lessons in Primary Language Lessons. One of them I made into a fill in the blank. Some of them were writing letters, and since we had thank you notes to write for a recent birthday, we've been doing those for some of the PLL lessons and the Writing lessons.

Since AWANA is over, we've added in a little bit of keyboarding. I keep forgetting, so we haven't done much, but she is excited to start, and we will work on it over the summer.

We have to do 15 more days of school by state law, but I have 20 more days of curriculum - at least Bible, Geography, and Science. I think at the end of the 15 days, we'll do our 3rd grade testing as required. Then we'll just do Bible, Geography, and Science of those last 5 days - taking a break from everything else, and then switch over to "school lite" - which will be Math, Spelling, Typing, and Reading.