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.

Week 9, Day 5 in ECC

Can you say, "Light" day. Today was really very lightly scheduled.

We started with verses an Bible, and then did repatterning. That went pretty smoothly, considering we were up half the night with Rabbit and her stomach pains. She was fine this morning, albeit a bit tired.

After that, we breezed through math, spelling and reading. We actually finished up More New Friends. So on Monday, we'll pick an Abeka reader and start through it. We only had one word to define for geography vocabulary today, but it still took a while.

Still wanting to get in at least 3 hours of school (we have to average 4 hours - most days we have 5, and on dance class day we have 6), we decided to carve our pumpkin for art class. That took us a full hour.

I forgot that we have one more science experiment to start - we're suppose to plant a potato. Our grass seeds from Tuesday's experiment still haven't sprouted. Perhaps I'll be off to the home improvement store tomorrow to pick up some radish seeds, between other things that must be done.

One thing about all these plant experiments... Our house does not have any south-facing windows. And with the sun so far south now, our one east facing window isn't getting that much sun. I'm not sure where I can grow stuff. We get lots of sun in the spring and summer, though.

Week 9, Day 4 in ECC

Again, starting with the usual routine. I think Rabbit may just be board with these three sections that we're working on. We have been working on them for two weeks. But, she still often draws a blank.

For geography time, we played the geography game. The boys joined in. We would look at the country name, and then tell them which number on the map to point to. I figured it was good for them learning to recognize numbers that are not lined up. Rabbit got all hers right again. I surprised her and gave her 25 cents for getting them all right for 2 days in a row.

The boys listened in about plants in science time. Again, they wanted their own science pages. We read about plants, so each of them drew some plant in the book. Tigger drew a palm tree - it was actually pretty good for a 4 year old. I'm not sure what Pooh drew. Rabbit drew every flowering plant on the pages.

After snack, Spanish and recess (it was too nice outside not to let them have recess), Rabbit worked on her division facts and some of her workbook pages. The boys decided, after calendar counting, spelling their name, and going over their verse, they wanted to do workbook pages too. They worked on tracing shapes.

Rabbit and I then did her writing eights and writing time. She worked on book basket while I worked on lunch.

Once we got the boys down for quiet time, Rabbit did her math page, spelling, poetry, and reading. I am always amazed about how easily she memorizes poetry.

It was really a good day, and we were able to go run some errands when we were done. Not something I always get to do after school because there are too many chores left to get done.

Week 9, Day 3 in ECC

Oh my. Dance class day...

We started with the usual. For some reason, Rabbit is having a real hard time with this week's Awana verses. We're going on 2 weeks of studying, yet she is still struggling. (I've got the sections memorized, can we please move on? )

Rabbit is continuing in her efforts to get the boys to join in. So, they sat around while I read the interesting facts about Brazil from the geography book, and Rabbit filled in the crossword. The we played the geography game. Rabbit already knows all the countries. We will definitely need to add in North America when we play next week.

We read our science sections, and I typed up a science page for Rabbit to draw on. Then the boys wanted pages to draw on too. So, I had them tell me something they learned, and I typed it up and printed it out. Pooh drew a "hoatzin" - a bird. Actually, Rabbit drew it for him, and Pooh colored it. He actually did a pretty nice job of coloring. Tigger wanted fish on his page, so we wrote about the fish in the Amazon river. I drew the first one, and then he actually drew several others. Some looked more like fish than others.

After Spanish and snack, I had Rabbit work on her multiplication facts by reviewing flash cards, while I had some time with the boys. After counting on the calendar and tracing some numbers I put up, they sewed some cardboard shapes. Tigger actually started one by himself - that's a first. I had them pick up and Rabbit do book basket while I made our early lunch. Then it was off to dance class for Rabbit and to the park with the boys.

After we got home from dance class and the kids finished their snacks, the boys went to quiet time. Rabbit worked on writing eights, writing, English, math, spelling, reading and poetry. Whew! But, we got it done. I'm still only having her do one sentence on the days we do writing. I have thought about doing it every day, but 2 or 3 days a week is fine for now. I will say I am starting to see better spacing between her words when she writes (or did I already say that somewhere in my blog).

Even for all that, we were still done by 3:15. But, I'm always glad Wednesday is over.

Week 9, Day 2 in ECC

Do you notice that making the geography game takes a lot more time than what is usually scheduled for geography? I didn't make my map in advance. Rabbit and I wrote our numbers on our maps, and then she went off and colored her map. Meanwhile, I was making the game cards. It just takes time. And then I still had to color my map. We used the laminating machine this time, as I don't like wrinkly contact paper.

Science was good. We used grass seeds (because we had some) for the experiment. We'll see if they work, as my husband said they were old.

The boys begged for preschool again. Pooh figured out how to write his name. Some of the letters were backward, and quite spread out across the page, but he did do it, with no prompting or help from me. We practiced counting on the calendar, and then I got a mini-whiteboard out and played a bunch of different games. We matched uppercase A, B, and C to lowercase a, b, and c. We matched numbers to groups of dots. We talked about the number of sides each shape have, and then they went and found things with those shapes. And, I let them draw on the whiteboard. That was the big hit of the day.

The rest of school - math, spelling, reading, English, dictation, Spanish and art was great, too. For math, we're working on skip-counting by 9's. I'm using some of Dianne Craft's tricks for that. In spelling, Rabbit missed "clothes" again, and then "through." For English, I typed up Lesson 94, putting blanks for Rabbit to write in. Then I had her dictate her answers to me, and then she copied my answers back into the blanks. She did great with the memory verse dictation. We're almost done with "More New Friends." A friend of mine has loaned us her Abeka 3rd grade readers, so we'll be starting those soon. (Thanks DY!)

The art project was weird. I cut the straw as explained in the book, and could make the sound (kind of sounded like a duck call), but Rabbit cannot make the straw buzz at all. But, she is having fun decorating as I type.

Really, things went great today (and I even got 2 blog entries up).

Week 9, Day 1 in ECC

Have you noticed, the first day of a new country in ECC has lots of extra geography? Not that we didn't get it all done today, but I really notice this. Especially when this falls on a day when we're having a meeting at our house in the evening and I have a bunch of extra stuff that I want to get done once we're done with school! But, the amazing thing is, we got it all done. Every last bit of it: pledge, verses, geography, science, Spanish, English, book basket, math, spelling, reading, poetry, and music. Okay, we didn't do any of the advanced geography pages (shh! I haven't even got them copied yet).

We have the Nate Saint YWAM book for the younger kids and I knew Rabbit had already read it. I asked her if she remembered what happened to Nate Saint. She said she did. So, I asked her if she wanted me to read aloud the paperback book. She hemmed and hawed, and then decided no. I think I'm going to read it to myself (in those copious spare minutes that I have). I'm okay with this. She is young and sensitive. And, reading ahead in the teacher's manual, I know that Marie (the writer of the curriculum) handles this in a very gentle way. I think that's going to be enough for Rabbit.

The boys participated a lot in school today. Joining us for getting their passports "stickered" and looking at the maps. Rabbit is trying to encourage them with this. Then, for preschool we did the Flag Sticker books - finished up North America and then did South America. They really enjoy that. When a flag won't fit on a country, we put it in the ocean, and have them draw a line from the flag to the country name. They really like that.

Like I said, I'm amazed we got it all done, but we did.