Week 31-32 in ECC: Australia

Welcome to the world Down Under! We learned some fascinating things these last two weeks.

For Bible, we read about Papua New Guinea and New Zealand, and continued on through Matthew. Rabbit is getting much better at summarizing her narrations. The boys also listened in quite a bit more these last couple of weeks.

For Geography we read about the many different foods and animals of Australia. We tried Kiwi fruit, but ours was a bit sour. Since we only added 3 new countries to our Geography Game, we didn't have to learn that much new. Rabbit and I did our favorite pages from the Geography Packet together. Everyday Pooh asked if it was "Flag Day" - the day we make the flag of our country. He was so excited when it was finally Flag Day. So, he colored the copy of the flag and cut it out. It was also fun to learn what the different Australian expressions mean. We didn't do any Australian cooking, as Rabbit looked through the Cooking the Australian Way book and didn't see anything she liked, but we did light up the barbie and grill steaks.

For science, we read about coral reefs, how islands form, and the dry forests. All the kids did "science pages" every day. We actually got in a Nature Walk over at the reservoir this week, since dance is finally over for the year. We ate lunch there, and then went on a walk that was not around the lake.

We missed art the first week because my mom was hospitalized, and so we had to take care of that. Then we tried making the koala bear treats this week, but those were a flop - I couldn't get the confectioners sugar to mix into the peanut butter. So, instead we spread peanut butter on Ritz crackers and used raisins to make the eyes and nose of a koala bear. Here is our picture of those:

We're repeating lesson 24 in Gamma. Rabbit is really trying, but she is having reversal problems again. If it is 7 x 4, she is writing the 2 and carrying the 8. However, when she adds, she doesn't do this any more. So, we're going to do all the pages again in the lesson and see if we can get her to stop reversing, and remembering where to write the numbers. I'm copying all the problems onto graph paper for her so it is easier to line things up.

For spelling, we decided to try something new. I ordered All About Spelling Level One. I felt like I should start there as Rabbit is not familiar with the Orton-Gillingham (or Spalding, too) method of phonics. I figure we'll finish the first book really quick, maybe even before summer is out and go from there. She is excited to be using the letter tiles. I also got her a pink "composition notebook" for her to write spelling words in. We're having to learn all the sounds each letter can make, so we're having to relearn the vowels, c, g, s and y.

English has still been going through Primary Language Lessons. We only have 3 lessons left, and one week of "official school" so it worked out perfectly. Still doing most of it orally. I think Emma Serl must have really liked birds, because she had this whole conversation lesson about birds. Then I got Intermediate Language Lessons used, and noticed it had at least one lesson in the 4th grade section on birds. I don't know much about birds. We might need to get a bird book just for English. I'm a little concerned about how much ILL steps up compared to PLL. I hope Rabbit is up for it next year.

For reading we're continuing in our Abeka reader. We finished Power Glide Level 3 Spanish for the 3rd time, so we're done with that. For Math Drill this week we used the wrap-ups.

So, next week we head off to the cold land of Antarctica.