Week 24 in ECC: India

We finished up our week today, in spite of sickness. We loved the story of Amy Carmichael, and how Hero Tales lined up with the read aloud. Another interesting thing was how the Bible passage for today talked about being a servant, and that was what the Hero Tales entry was about. We had a good discussion today.

Geography was good. The facts in Illustrated World Atlas were interesting. Playing the Geography Game was a big hit. Even Tigger and Pooh joined in on making the Indian flag. Today we made Chapittas - we ate them with honey. Everyone but Tigger tried them and liked them. Here are are Chapittas:

Science was good. Rabbit did a page every day but yesterday, because yesterday we started our science experiment for the week, and finished it today. Rabbit learned that water expands when it freezes. Here are our before and after pictures:

We didn't do the art project this week, as I didn't have any clay or "jewels." Maybe this weekend, after the storm passes, I'll get to a craft store. We did listen to the songs recommended.

For reading, we finished up Abeka's Pilgrim Boy. We really enjoyed the story. I had never heard about the Speedwell and the problems they had with that boat, before they came over on the Mayflower.

Math has been skip-counting by eight. Rabbit is frustrated with it. She gets 40, 48, 56, 64, and 72, but she has trouble with 24, 32, and 40.

For spelling, we have just kept on in Sequential Spelling. We still split the list into 2 sections, doing half in the morning, and half in the afternoon.

We did our 3 pages in English, and two days of "Writing Without Curriculum." I used pictures from her stories from the book basket for her to write about.

We also did Spanish about 4 days this week, and went to Worship Dance class

Tomorrow: China!

Frustration over sickness

Okay, can we just stop getting sick, yet? Yesterday I woke up with sore throat and sniffles. I had assumed it was allergies, since it had been so warm here, and I have allergies to 6 to 8 different types of grasses. But, by yesterday evening, I was running a low fever, sore thoat, and body aches.

Then, last night, Tigger came home from AWANA's with a 101 degree fever. It was 102.8 this morning! Ibuprofen is taking it down. Rabbit is still running a low-grade fever and coughing, too.

Our Principal (dad), called off school today. He wants everyone to rest. Still trying to decide if we can make it to our Keeper's meeting tonight. We're suppose to bring snacks, but I don't know. I'll have to see if my fever has broke. My throat is still killing me, though.

Looks like we're having summer school this year... I'm really bummed out....

Week 23 in ECC: India

This week we started on India. We read in Window on the World about India, and reading Amy Carmichael's biography is really tying things together that way. For our memory work, Rabbit has been learning the Lord's Prayer. She did very well. I gave her a week to do the "copywork" part of it, and then we took 3 days to do the dictation of it this week. We've also been reading about Adoniram and Ann Judson's work in Burma (or Myanmar).

Rabbit did well learning her x7 math facts, and aced her math test this week. I am really pleased with her understanding.

We've been continuing on in Sequential Spelling. I cut back to doing one list a day as Rabbit was getting overwhelmed. We do half of the list in the morning, after writing-eights. Then, we do the second half in the afternoon. Usually, the words in the second half are harder and she needs the quiet. She still frustrates easily. We're almost to lesson 40. There is an "evaluation" quiz to give after day 40 if I want. I'm debating.

For English, we've been doing most of the lessons orally, though one day I combined it with our "writing without curriculum" lesson. The English lesson was to continue a story. I knew Rabbit wouldn't have an idea on how to continue it, so I drew a picture for her, and then wrote the questions she was to answer from the picture that would continue the story. It worked great! I love how I could combine the two for her to make it easier.

We were more faithful this week doing math drill - it was a week where I scheduled doing the drills on the computer at the Math-U-See web-site. I try to alternate between Math Windows, computer drill, wrap-ups and flash cards.

For Geography, well, we went into India. Rabbit is enjoying the stories from the book basket. I made up the Geography game cards and my game board on the weekend, so that went faster this week. We did a puzzle from A Trip Around the World and read some about Southeast Asia. Our first time through the Geography game, we were mostly trying to learn where the countries are - especially all the "-stan" countries. I think we got it now. Creating those Vocabulary pages still take Rabbit quite a bit of time, even though I draw the pictures for her. (I'm concerned about using English From the Roots Up next year if she hates doing vocabulary this year...)

Science seemed more like sociology/anthropology this week. A lot of it was about how people survive. But, she still did a science page every day.

The art project this week was to do face painting. While Rabbit would have loved this, I changed it up a bit. I drew a face like the one in the book, and let Rabbit paint on that. She had fun with it. (We had errands to run, and I really didn't want Rabbit going out with paint on her face.)

For reading, we've been reading through Pilgrim Boy - an Abeka novel. She is really enjoying this book. We're near the end.

We've continued on through Power Glide Spanish each day. It is a repeat now, for the third time, so it isn't as exciting now. I'm trying to figure out about next year. I can't justify the cost of Rosetta Stone at this time. I'm looking at The Easy Spanish, as it is Christian based, story based (Rabbit loves stories), and has more grammar built into it. And, it's relatively inexpensive ($139) and can be spread it out over 3 years. That would cover us from 4th through 6th, and then I might consider Rosetta Stone. Unless I can pick up a used Rosetta Stone version 2 at a used curriculum sale.

Week 21-22 in ECC

We finished this about a week ago, with an interruption due to sickness - Rabbit had pneumonia. But, she's fine now.

Saudi Arabia was rather a "dark" country. Not many books at the library. I found a few about their religion and how important oil is to the region. We read facts from our MFW books. We didn't do any of the activities from the Trip Around the World book - I really didn't like them. We did try to copy the Arabic alphabet. Rabbit thought it was interesting that they read and write from right to left. We also made the flag.

We did try making hummus - that was one of the scheduled activities. Rabbit didn't really like it too much - thought it tasted funny. I thought it was interesting how the different flavors don't hit you all at once. You taste the garlic, then the sesame, then the lemon hits you. Must be how the different areas of the tongue taste those different favors.

We didn't do one art project, and the other, the "Cylinder Seal" we modified. I just had Rabbit press different shapes into the Play-Dough to see how the impressions were made.

There was one science experiment to see how a big foot helps keep camels from sinking into the sand. We tried doing it in our box of cornmeal that we use for spelling, but it didn't seem to work. So, we went out to the sandbox and tried it there, and were really able to see and feel the difference.

We started reading Amy Carmichael for our read aloud. One thing that has stuck out to me is her desire to do only things that please God. That would really improve the world a lot, if we all did.

A good couple of weeks, and I felt good that we tried the food activity. I'm not sure how much Rabbit is ready to learn about Islam, so I pretty much veered away from that. We'll hit this again in 8th grade, so we'll probably discuss it more then. I want her to have a real good Biblical foundation before looking at other religions too much.

Oh yeah, in Awana's she is working on her "Silver" sections in her book.

For the boys, I've just been doing the usual. Trying to really get them to learn the days of the weeks, months of the year, basic counting, letter names, spelling their names, phone number and address. Tigger knows if phone number, address, days of the week, and months of the year pretty well. Pooh, well, he can do his phone number. He doesn't seem to really care too much. He always misses Thursday when reciting the days of the week. But, he knows his letter names pretty well.