ECC 2nd Edition: Day 2

So, I promised the kids we would just do Bible, Geography, and Science, and then whatever else we could fit in our 4 hours for the day, and we'd try my new schedule out on Friday. (Tomorrow we'll get spelling, English, Math, Math Drill, AWANA, Spanish, Typing, Reading, etc.)

We started with Bible, which was a reading about the Garden of Eden in POE. That was good, and I had the kids narrate. Actually, I asked them if they had learned anything new and what it was they learned. That went well, and didn't take very long.

Next we did geography. I read the pages from the Maps and Globes book. Then, we had an old blow-up globe from National Geographic Kids that had a hole in it. So, instead of drawing on oranges, we tried laying that flat. Even after cutting it up, we couldn't. We decided that if we had completely cut each section, we could have laid them flat, but it would be a hard map to follow. Here's a picture of our cut-up globe:

Science was pretty light today, reading out of Living World Encyclopedia. Then I had the kids each make a science page. That turned into a bit of a challenge having three kids share one book. But, it was fine.

After science we did our John 3:16 picture. I have a huge stack of old National Geographic magazines that we got our pictures from. It took quite a bit of time to cut out pictures and glue them, but we got a really nice result:

 I hung it on the wall over our world map as a reminder that everyone in the world needs Jesus.

By this time, it was 10:00, so I let the kids take a snack break. Rabbit went off to do her work, while Tigger and Pooh finished off math from yesterday and did their handwriting. (I'm not making Rabbit do handwriting review, as her handwriting is good.) I also let them read to themselves to finish off the day.

I do feel like today was MUCH lighter, and we really could have done a full school day, but I had already promised the kids yesterday that we would only do part of a day. We still did 4 hours, as our state requires, and Rabbit usually gets in 5 or 6 hours, by the time we do Math and Science (which we will hit this afternoon).

Oh, and I feel VERY blessed. I am getting to purchase Saxon Algebra 1 (3rd edition), Saxon Algebra 2 (2nd edition), and Jacobs Geometry (2nd edition) from a homeschool mom that has graduated all her kids. I feel like as long as they aren't 1st edition, they'll be fine and the price is so good! I'll order the MFW lesson plans for Algebra 1, since the editions are the same. I'll need to find out if the lesson plans MFW has will work for Algebra 2 2nd Edition and Jacob's Geometry 2nd Edition (they show 3rd edition on the web site), or if it would be possible to get old lesson plans from them.  I'm excited about this because it will save me some real money long term. $55 for all 3! The Saxon sets include everything but the videos, which I'm okay with because we didn't like the DIVE CDs. Rabbit prefers me to be her teacher in Math. I don't know for sure what the Jacob's Geometry has, so I may still need to find a teacher's guide and test bank.

[Editing to add: I found out that the Algebra 2 2nd edition has the same content as the Algebra 2 3rd edition. Woo-hoo! I did find out that there were some significant changes between Jacobs Geometry 2nd edition and 3rd edition, so I'm still deciding on what to do about that one.]

ECC 2nd Edition: Day 1 Continued

Okay, hmmm, I think the schedule is going to be hard to figure out. I think the main thing is going to be starting earlier. Here goes...

We started with spelling - All About Spelling. I spend 15 minutes per kid. But, it takes my kids about 5 minutes to transition from their independent activity to spelling. So I really need to budget closer to 55 minutes for spelling. And that's okay, now that I know that. So while one was working on spelling with me, the other two were doing Math Drill and studying AWANA verses.

Next was English with the boys. So, I worked with Tigger first while Pooh did The Easy Spanish with Rabbit. My thought is he needs to understand what some Spanish words mean in English before he will be successful with Rosetta Stone. When we switched, Tigger wanted to do The Easy Spanish with Rabbit instead of Rosetta Stone because Pooh had, so I let him. Tigger does pretty well with Rosetta Stone, it just isn't his favorite. My other option is to get out my old Power Glide and let them try to do that independently. Not sure on that yet. I had originally scheduled 15 minutes each, but think I can scale that back to 10 minutes each.

After that was time for the boys to read to me. So, while one read to me the other did Typing Instructor on the computer. Pooh was a little rusty and skipping words, but I think he'll be back into it soon.

Next the boys did Math. It was a review lesson from the textbook, so no new teaching from me. I got them started, and then worked with Rabbit on her English assignment. That one was even a challenge for me. I certainly had a hard time figuring out which pronouns were being used as possessive adjectives vs. regular pronouns. I think it would have been helpful to gradually build and give a better explanation of a possessive adjective. 

While the boys continued their math work, Rabbit and I did her Physical Science experiment 1.3. After about 30 minutes of discussion Rabbit finally got the point of what "concentration" meant - it helped her to think of it as percents. We did film the experiment. That's always fun. :) The experiment had two stages. The first was to dissolve a Tums tablet in 3 different amounts of vinegar. That's this video:

Then the next part was to dissolve a Tums tablet in 3 different concentrations of vinegar. That is this video:

After reading the text in the textbook, I got the feeling we should have waited until the Tums tablets dissolved completely, but that seemed like it would have taken a really long time.

That all took until about 12:30. So we had lunch and then I did Math with Rabbit. We didn't get too far in the lesson, but she got her answers right on the problems we did do.

I think tomorrow we'll just do the Bible, Geography, and Science from ECC, and then Math and the handwriting practice. See how long that takes. Then the next day do the other things. Just kind of ease into it, you know? I may switch and do Bible, Spelling, English, Reading and Math first, and then the Geography and Science. We did that last year (substituting History for Geography), so I'm game for trying it. Just means I have to rework the schedule.

(Oh, and as I learn about this blog thing, I will probably try to make the videos just a tad smaller for streaming. Learn something new every day, ya know?)

ECC 2nd Edition: Day 1

Whew! Things are taking a lot longer with 3 doing them.

First, it didn't help that we didn't start on time. Will work on remedying that. So, we start with Bible, which was to read from Window on the World. Well, the kids (with their new Bibles) wanted to look up and read all the passages referenced in the introduction. And then my kids are picky about word choices ("Why did they say 'might' in that sentence? Jesus saves everyone who believes."). So that took longer. But, on a good note, they have memorized John 3:16 for AWANA so that's a no-brainer.

Then we did all the Geography activities. Reading from Maps and Globes was fine. But, then filling out the Passport Application - my-oh-my! I had to explain about filling out forms in print instead of cursive. Then, with two dyslexics, I had to spell everything and remind them of birthdays and such. And of course, writing the address on the front of the envelope takes more time. Yes, it is very tempting to do it all myself, but I know it is better for the kids if I let them do it. So I did, and so it took WAY longer than the 20 minutes allotted for Geography.

Next we worked on Science. Reading from Properties of Ecosystems (to be referred to as POE from now on) was fine. Though we had to go over and over all the new vocabulary words. I was tempted to make a vocabulary sheet before we started with all the new words from today. It was a lot to remember. I think I might do that for them as a reference. Then we did the Ecozones activity. Can I just say out loud that there needs to be an answer key for this one? Reading the descriptions of the ecozones in the book was slightly confusing. And then, because the print is rather fine on that green background for these old eyes, I misread some of the boundaries of the ecozones. It's fine. It's just general information for the kids to know, but it would help this type-A person to know whether or not we got the maps right. I definitely would skip this for a 3rd grader and below.

Tigger thought coloring the areas on the map was fun. Oh, and having the placemat maps from Explorers to 1850 or 1850 to Modern Times was handy for the kids to copy ocean names and such onto their maps. Our wall map is in a different area from the table where they were working, so I grabbed those and they used them to copy from. I think those would be a good addition to ECC.

I sent Rabbit off to do her school work while Tigger and Pooh did cursive practice and math. Poor Pooh. He really struggled. I showed him how to do the letters on the whiteboard, and then on his paper. I had him do only 4 copies. We still had some tears. I made sheets in StartWrite software, and they have the arrows to show how to form the letters. I also have them do words with the letters we've covered (or just letter combinations) to work on connections - especially letters like b that have a "tow-truck" (to use Handwriting Without Tears terminology). 

Take a week off of math and my boys almost forget how to add and subtract. Sigh. I ended up having to write the problems on my whiteboard and then have them tell me what step to do next. But, we got it done eventually. 

After lunch I worked with Rabbit on her math. She finished Test 18 in Saxon 8/7 today. We'll keep on working 8/7 until we finish it and then start either Algebra 1/2 or Algebra 1. I'm thinking Algebra 1, which will give her more time before 9th grade starts.

So, tomorrow we will do what we didn't get to today: English, Reading, Spelling, Math and Wee Sing. I'll see how that goes before we add any of the ECC stuff. It may be that doing those things first will work better for us than doing Bible, Geography, and Science first. I also need to check the work Rabbit completed today.

Tonight I will go by the  library to pick up our one book that has come in.

I almost forgot to take first day of school pictures:

The boy on the left in the back is Tigger. The boy on the right in the red shirt is Pooh. The girl is Rabbit. And those nicknames fit their personalities. The dog is Chloe - and yes that is her real name. We call her Klo for short.

Starting Early

Rabbit has decided to start some of her school for this fall this week. She is doing her Apologia Physical Science, writing, and her Progeny Press guide for Anne of Green Gables. Today we did the first science experiment. Thought I would post pictures and issues we ran into for others. (The boys also joined in to watch - anything using wires and a battery has interest to them!) 

So, first we had to set it up. The hard part was getting the wires to stay on the terminals of the 9-volt batter. We tried electrical tape, but it was too slippery. So then we went with masking tape and that worked better. There is one piece of tape over each wire and terminal, plus another piece of tape over both.

We definitely got bubbles going off our wires when we got them in the water once we used the masking tape. If you don't get bubbles, your wires are not taped to the terminals very well.

And here you can see how the copper started to turn that blue-green color copper usually does. It was kind of weird that it only happened to one of the wires. Not sure why.

We're using the Knowledge Box Central lapbook journal lab reports with the introduction and procedure all filled in. All we have to fill in are the observations, diagrams, and summaries. We also created a page with these pictures to go with her lab report.

1850MOD - We're Finished

Well, we've been "finished" for a while. Our state only requires 172 days. When we hit that, we're done! 

I did want Rabbit to at least hear all the history (the boys will get it again in 5 years), so we buckled down one day and spent 2.5 hours listening to and reading the last week of history. She has also listened to the rest of her General Science book. We are still working on Saxon 8/7. We usually only get to about 4 days a week of that. I have finally gotten her to use a calculator: I got a Calculator app for my iPad. She loves the big buttons, she can change the skins, and we can check the history to find her mistakes. 

I didn't worry about the boys finishing the 2nd/3rd grade supplement stuff. They finished Singapore 2B recently and we started on 3A this last week. I've been able to teach them their lesson and then work with Rabbit while they do the workbook. They can then come to me when they have questions. That has worked pretty well. 

We've just been doing Spelling, Math and trips to the library this summer. My plan is to start ECC on August 5. I've upgraded to the 2nd edition and Rabbit will be doing the 7th/8th grade supplement. I've been trying to figure out a schedule/routine for the fall, but I keep feeling overwhelmed with it all. I'm sure it will come together soon, but right now it's AAAAHHHH!

Seeing the Accomplishments

Sometimes we forget to really look at all we and our kids are accomplishing in our homeschool days. Take yesterday, for example. Rabbit really struggled through her hour of math. She was really frustrated by the end of it. She said, "Mom, I feel like my brain has melted." But, last night, I was thinking about how much math she did in that hour, and it was amazing! She had two problems to finish from lesson 86. Then she did the practice test for lesson 87, which was 12 problems. We worked through the two example problems in lesson 87, did the 8 practice problems, and 10 of the problem set problems. That was 34 math problems! My dyslexic Rabbit did 34 math problems in an hour, plus learning the new concept in lesson 87.

I could look at it as we have 2 weeks of school left, and we're only on lesson 87 out of 120. But, even at our current pace of 2 to 2.5 days to complete a lesson, we'll have finished 75% of the book in a school year. Not bad! And we'll continue through the summer. 

I look at Rabbit and see a young lady who is a hard worker, tries hard, has a good attitude (most of the time), and is growing spiritually. What more could I ask for? Those are the important things, not whether we finish a math book in a school year.

So, in spite of days where things look bleak, really try to see what you have accomplished for the year, not what you haven't finished. 

1850MOD: Week 28

Here we are on week 28... We have about 4 weeks left to get our official school days count in. I really need to blog more often.

Let's start with Bible. We loved Tales from Persia. On AWANA missionary night, the missionary who spoke was someone who reaches out to Muslims in America. The missionary was asking the kids if they knew what Muslims believed, and because of that book they were able to answer the questions. It was a big surprise to the missionary that any of the kids knew anything about Muslims, but it also confirmed that the book is accurate in their beliefs. Then, my husband took the book to work and gave it to a coworker who is interested in Christianity who comes from a Muslim background. Although the stories are written to appeal to children, I thought the gentle way it presented the concepts of Christianity from a Muslin perspective might help.

Now we're doing the T.H.U.M.B. prayer section and continuing on in A Young Person's Guide to Knowing God. We have good discussions on the topics.

History is interesting. Just Rabbit and I are doing Story of the World. They added the writing from an outline component, which has been challenging, but Rabbit is getting the idea more. I don't always agree with the organization of the outline, though, and that really challenges us sometimes. The boys enjoy the US Facts and Fun book. Most of their history comes from book basket. Tigger has even read one of the American Girl books and enjoyed it.

The boys LOVED the Fun with Magnets kit for the 2nd/3rd grade supplement, and the experiments don't take too long. The World of Science book is sometimes over their heads, but they do like looking at at the pictures while I'm reading it (and some of the computer stuff is a little outdated). The Apologia General Science hasn't been too bad for Rabbit. I have been using the alternate tests from the Yahoo group. We're on module 13, which has lots of terms and things to memorize about the digestive tract, so Rabbit has asked for a couple of extra study days before taking the test.

Math has been Rabbit's nemesis. Here test scores started going down, and after researching it, I realized she needed to be doing all the problems. Since we started doing that, her test scores have gone up. However, it takes 2 to 2 and a half days to do one lesson. We still have quite a few lessons to go. We'll continue over summer. My thought is to try to do an hour in the morning and then an hour in the afternoon to get caught up.

The boys have been doing pretty well with Singapore. Occasionally they struggle with a concept, but they have really gotten it. I wonder if Pooh will ever learn his math facts. I have tried several different methods, and now he is using math Wrap-Ups. Tigger really works hard at it and seems to get them much quicker. It will be a focus this summer.

I am pretty pleased with everyone's progress so far. We'll see how the rest of the year goes.