Week 25 in ECC: China

China has been very interesting our first week.

Bible started off the week in Window on the World reading about China. It was great to read how the government there hasn't been able to get rid of Christianity. There was also a John 3:16 page in Chinese to color. We read about Hudson Taylor this week in Hero Tales. A very faithful man. And our memory verse was about being a servant. Our Bible discussions have been good.

We started our week deciding it was better to fly to China from India, because of all the mountains in between. Tigger was our pilot for the trip. I did skip doing the Chinese Checkers activity as I didn't have a Chinese Checkers game to use, and didn't feel like making one. We read interesting things about China and the Far East in our Illustrated World Atlas and played the Geography Game. We are now using all 5 continents we've covered thus far.

Science has been about Avalanches, Mt. Everest and Volcanoes. We had two volcano experiments to do. The first was to show how the earth moved when magma moved up through the soil. You cut a hole in the bottom of a yogurt cup (use an exacto knife), and push an open tube of toothpaste through the hole. Fill the cup 2/3rds with sand. Then squeeze the tube. We used one of those little trial-sized tubes from the dentist office. It was interesting to watch the sand shift around as the "magma" moved up. Here's a couple of pictures of that:

The other volcano experiment was to create a volcano out of clay, and do the traditional vinegar and baking soda thing. We had some left over clay from an earlier art project (more on that later). We made the volcano in an empty Nucoa margarine tub, and let it set over night. We used a test tube in the center to make the "crater" neat. Then, we used a funnel to pour in some baking soda. Ours was so small, we used only about a teaspoon of baking soda. Then we poured vinegar and watched the action. Tigger and Pooh loved this experiment.

We did two art projects this week, as we didn't do one last week because we didn't have any clay. A trip to Michael's last weekend took care of getting the clay. We were also suppose to use fake jewels, but they were expensive, so I got those pretty colored stones, instead. Here is our jeweled box we made:

The clay was still wet in this picture. It has dried pretty nice. The other project was to make a printing press. The book suggested cutting up an old shoe insole to make the design. We cheated and used foam shapes instead. Here is our "press:"

The book said to dip it in a "puddle of paint," but that didn't work as well as painting onto the press and then stamping. You have to use a very thin coat of paint when you do this. Here is the results of a couple of tries:

For math, we finished skip counting by 8, and are now working on multiplication by 8. The only new fact to learn is the 8 x 8 fact. We've been using Dianne Craft's Right Brain Multiplication Cards. If I tell Rabbit the story title, she immediately knows the answer, so I made a "game" for her to work on remembering the title to go with the problem. I wrote just the story titles on one set of 3 x 5 cards. Then on another set I wrote the multiplication problems, WITHOUT the answers. Then on a 3rd set, of half-sized cards, I wrote the answers. I put contact paper over all the cards. Now, we can either lay the titles out on the floor, and she matches the problems, or lay out the problems, and then she matches the titles. Then, she puts the answers on them. She really likes playing this, and will do it herself.

For reading, we've been reading the next Abeka reader, The Secret in the Maple Tree, I think is what it is called. A very touching book - made me cry.

We've continued our work on English. I forgot, and only did one day of "extra writing." But, Rabbit got a letter from her pen pal today, so I imagine we'll make up for that. And, we made it to Worship Dance this week. Hopefully, we won't miss that any more.

We've been reading Gladys Aylward's biography. She sure had an adventure just getting to China.

Tomorrow is Home School Day at the Capital here, so we'll be going to that for Friday. We'll finish off China next week.