ECC 2nd Edition: Week 6

We tried something new this week: spelling first. Things went so much better. I know people always say start with Bible, but starting with spelling really changed the pace of the day. It seemed like it helped the kids get in the mindset of school time, and it gets our longest rotation out of the way.

In Bible time, besides continuing in Matthew, we also learned about Haiti and the needs of the people there. Haiti has a special place in our heart as last year our Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes went to Haiti. Someone on the Facebook ECC group suggested not only putting the flag sticker from the country we're studying for geography in our passports, but also the flags of the countries we study during Bible time from Window on the World. I think I'm going to start doing that. I also found a great article on World Magazine's website about some more current work in Haiti: Bearing fruit.

It seems like we're playing the geography game every other day now. It has been good for the kids to learn the North American countries. Pooh wins most of the time. This of course brings out the ultra-competitive nature of my boys!

Science has continued mostly on deserts. Properties of Ecosystems has gotten more interesting and we even done the demonstration/experiments.

In Math the boys started long division. That one is tricky. I suspect we'll be working on it for a while.

Both boys have finished their All About Spelling levels. We are now going through all the word cards. Any words misspelled will be put in the review section for the next level.

Rabbit is really struggling again in math. I think it is because she forgets how to set things up. And sometimes she forgets to finish a problem. For example, the question will be to find the volume of a cylinder. She'll get the area of the circle on the end,  but then forget to multiply that by the height. Little things, but they add up to some big frustrations for her. I'm not sure what to do. She doesn't want to change programs. I have thought about giving her a break from math once we finish up 8/7. Maybe not start up Algebra 1 until January, and just do math facts and whatever math comes up in science. It would give her brain some time to process what she has learned and some rest, too. Just a thought that occurred after praying about it.

In Apologia Physical Science we had a total fail on one of the experiments this week. We couldn't get the test tubes to balance on the battery, and "London Bridge came falling down." Plus, when the text said the water would be toxic, that made Rabbit nervous. But, our water as a solvent experiment went well. 

The kids are still working on our piñata. They have two sides done, but I'm not sure they will ever finish!

ECC 2nd Edition: Week 5

For Bible this week we read about Cuba. I typed up the prayer list and posted it in our pocket chart. I can't quite make it large enough for me to see across the room, so it stands on our coffee table. We continued in Matthew. I need to remember to have the kids narrate and ask them what they think God is saying to them.

Geography was either more about North America, or about Mexico. I'm not making Rabbit do anything that seems to babyish - she has enough on her plate as it is. I didn't have her color the sombrero page from a Trip around the World, for example. We also started the Geography Game this week. Pooh doesn't think it is fair that you have to skip your turn if you already have a marker on the country. 

Science transitioned to talking about deserts. I remembered to put up our desert biomes poster. The Properties of Ecosystems worksheet for this was on the back of the desert map. That was one thing missing from the notes in the TM.

The boys learned multiple digit multiplication this week in math. They are doing pretty well with it. Pooh does his with the traditional carrying method, and Tigger uses the Math-U-See method. Tigger occasionally struggles with where to line up the numbers, though.

Both boys are very close to finishing their All About Spelling levels. We will go back through all the words, and any they miss will go into the review section as we start the next level. I have a feeling Pooh is really going to struggle.

Rabbit had a science test and an English test. She scored in the 80s on her science test but only a 70 on her English test. She didn't read some of the questions the right way.

We are making progress in Rabbit's math. I think we will finish Saxon 8/7 by Thanksgiving. That is our goal anyway.

We started working on our piñata for our art project. We are not doing the traditional paper mâché piñata. Since we buy cereal in bulk, we have good sized boxes that aren't too thick, and then we hot glued party hats on. Here is the picture of phase one:

We'll add a coat of white paper over this to hide the colors before putting on the tissue paper.

I can tell things are getting a bit better. The kids are doing better about sharing books. And they are working bit faster on some things. 

ECC 2nd Edition: Week 4

Doing worksheets with 3 kids has been very challenging, especially with two spelling-challenged kids. We were doing the comparison between the Deciduous forest and Coniferous forest page. I was writing on the whiteboard, but then I had to write for Pooh. So, I ended up calling out spellings for the other two. Sigh. Even doing the little crossword was a challenge trying to help the kids with spelling the words that go into the blanks. I did find that the vocabulary pages went better when I just left the book out and told them where to look stuff up. They actually took turns pretty well.

I think doing the U.S.A. these last two weeks has definitely had a different flavor since we did Explorers to 1850 and 1850 to Modern times the last two years. It seems really superficial as compared to the first time. (We didn't do Adventures the year before the first time, we had switched from Abeka.) I think part of that is how much U.S. history we have done the last two years.

Science felt easier this week. We even did the "Advanced" Properties of Ecosystems assignment on Day 4. But, because we did both Living World Encyclopedia and Properties of Ecosystems we didn't do a science page for Living World Encyclopedia. I like doing the draw-your-own notebooking pages for Living World Encyclopedia, though. I type up a sentence or two for the kids as they dictate it to me, print it out, and give it to them to draw the picture. Tigger likes to trace from the book. Pooh tries to sketch something. I've decided Rabbit doesn't have to do Living World Encyclopedia draw-your-own pages, she has enough work as it is. 

We finally started on working through Matthew. There hasn't been much to "discuss" at this point. We are enjoying Hero Tales, but I think Pooh doesn't really like copying the character quality - but it's good for him so I make him do it!  For the Window on the World prayer list I wrote them on pocket chart strips and put a small pocket chart up in our school room to refer to for prayer time. I may print something up each week, though.

Finished the first section of Kingdom Tales. I've loved it. Rabbit says it sometimes makes her feel bad. We sorted it out, though. Went ahead and started Cameron Townsend. I like to stay just a little ahead on the read alouds.

The boys were a little confused about two step word problems in Math this week. The first time they were presented they were one step of adding and then subtracting (or vice versa). The next set was multiplication and then adding, subtracting, or dividing. Pooh got confused because he thought they could only be adding and subtracting . He got upset and had to go to his room until he calmed down. But, now he's got it. The rest of the week went fine, and I'm excited that we're heading into 2-digit multiplication next.

I had heard good things about Timez Attack as a math drill program, so when Homeschool Buyers Co-op had a coupon this week, I went ahead and got it. Here's the thing: the kids actually want to try it AFTER school, too! So, I think that is really good.

Pooh has been having a hard time with spelling, so I got a  free Spelling Test app for my iPad. I put in the words from our current step in All About Spelling. Then every day after I drill the  yellow, red, and blue cards I let him use the spelling app to practice the words. Today, he got all the words correct, writing them on paper! Yay! Now, he still has to do sentences for this step, but he got the spelling words. I also got the Logic of English app for him to work on his phonograms. They have some different sounds/sayings for some of the phonograms, but he needs more practice than I can give him each day.

We did the Calder Mobile project for Art over the weekend. I think either tissue paper or scraps of cloth would give the "desired effect" better. Here's a picture: 

Rabbit had one experiment this week. It was pretty cool. Here is the video:

My advice, if I were to redo this experiment, is to run the hot water in the sink during those 5 minutes the bottle is sitting in the bowl. At least at our house, it takes a long time for the hot water to get to the kitchen sink.  I think that would have a more dramatic effect. Or, use a second bowl, already full of hot water.

(I must admit, I had a little fun putting that video together. I was amazed how easy that was in Windows Movie Maker. I combined 3 different shots into one video. I feel like I have super-powers now!)

We have a church picnic this Sunday, so I'm not going to do a barbeque or anything. I will make one of the recipes that we like from last time (New England Pumpkin Cake) to take to the picnic. Just trying to enjoy the process.

I must say, I am really looking forward to week 5. Hopefully we'll get into a good routine. We'll see how it goes!

ECC 2nd Edition: Week 3

Thought I would change over to a weekly format now that the first couple of weeks are under our belts. 

This week was weird - it started on a Friday, then a weekend, then only 3 days of school, and then a 4 day weekend (with a camping trip), and one more day the following week to finish. I will have to add a padding day to get Monday in the TM to be on Thursday, due to all our outside activities on Wednesday, but not a big deal.

I tried both ways of the schedule; some days doing Bible, geography, science and then the rest, especially if we got started late. If we started on time, we did spelling first, then the other language arts and math, with geography and science right before lunch. I need to be more disciplined about starting on time. Either way can work for our schedule, I just need consistency for my sanity. If I switch, then I have trouble making sure we do everything.

Science and geography seemed a little easier this week. There was a map to do, but it felt a little lighter. Tigger loved making a science page from Living World Encyclopedia, but I had to make him finish it after regular school hours.

Rabbit started her geography packet this week. So far we've known what it was talking about or only needed the Classroom Atlas to find the information. We are having a little trouble finding all the information we want for our country summary page, though. One of the things we are suppose to find is the top products, but that hasn't been easy. Even a Google search didn't bring us what we wanted. We'll hit the library in earnest next week on this.  I didn't get a chance to do any pages with the boys, but figured we have several weeks to work on it. I need to schedule their flag sticker book - maybe have them do 4 or 5 flags a day.

Most of all the other subjects are going okay for the boys. Handwriting is a challenge for Pooh. I made pages for the kids to copy the character qualities from Hero Tales, with cursive example, and Pooh translated it back to print! Giving him lines to trace seems very 1st or 2nd grade for a 4th grader. Not sure what I'm going to do. I may have to give him pages where the words are right above a blank line. That seems to work best for him.

Rabbit had 2 tests this week. She got a 90% on her Applications of Grammar test #2, and an 83% on her Apologia Physical Science test for Module 2. She is doing okay in everything but Math. We have tears nearly every day, which is hard on me. She gets worked up if she misses a problem, and then it starts carrying over to other problems. I'm still not sure 100% if we should stick with Saxon, but we'll keep going.

We did the ultimate nature walk on our camping trip: we went to the top of Mt. Evans (the highest paved road in North America). At over 14,000 feet, it is basically like arctic tundra at the top. We saw mountain goats this year. (We went last year, but the road all the way to the top wasn't open, but we saw big horn sheep last year.) 

The whole family at the top of Mt. Evans.

Just the kids at the top of Mt. Evans. There was this big stack of rocks they climbed up on.

This is the Geological Survey Marker at the top.

Especially glad to see some wildlife at the top - mountain goats!

Oh, I did have the kids work on a craft on one of our days off. The boys wanted to do the Coup Sticks, so I went to Michael's over the weekend and got dowels, feathers, and ribbon to use to make them.

Kids with their Coup Sticks craft.

Rabbit did have a science experiment this week from Apologia. The first time we did it, we didn't get the expected results. But the second time, we "got the desired effect" as rabbit put it. Here's the video where it didn't work:

But, what was cool about it, was that the can sucked up all the water in the bowl. I think it was because we didn't let the water come to a vigorous boil. The second time, well, just watch:

Week 3 completed! Now, onto week 4. Well, we're going to do a "fill in" day - P.E. classes and worship dance classes start tomorrow, so we'll just do Spelling, Math, Reading, AWANA, and piano practice - because that's about all we'll be able to fit in before we need to eat lunch and head to P.E. class. Then Thursday we will start week 4.

Oh, and I did decide to use a Homeschool Buyers Co-op discount for Timez Attack to do math drill. Pricey, we'll see if it was worth it.