Week 6 in CTG

I’ll start with Sukkoth. Ends up we didn’t even put up the tent. Rabbit was getting tired of the readings every day, and she doesn’t quite get the idea of the feasts. So, we basically read the readings as a part of our Bible time. Some of them were quite long, which was part of the issue. I tried to explain to her the connections between the feasts and how they were looking forward to the Messiah, but I don’t think it has sunk in yet. But, I learned a lot. I loved the connection between pouring out the water and God pouring out His Holy Spirit on us. The other thing I thought of was Jesus pouring out His blood for me.

Science has been more intense than last year. We’ve been doing pyramid and ancient Egypt science 3 or 4 days a week. It is tough for me to stay on top of that. (But, I better get prepared, as others have told me that Science steps up to 4 days a week next year.) We have tried the growing crystals experiment. We got some on our beaker, and a few on our string, but none on our paper clip. I thought about doing one with baking soda and another with dishwasher soap, but there are warnings all over the dishwasher soap box, and that scared Rabbit off from trying that.

It has been interesting reading about how all these ancient civilizations developed in History. Basically, they each developed by a fertile river valley. The river would flood each year, leaving silt deposits that were very fertile. The people would plant and harvest each season. Because they could grow so much food, not everyone needed to be farmers, so lots of people had time to develop other skills – like architecture, writing, metal work, pottery, etc. It was just neat that all these places developed separately from each other, but similarly.

In Bible we are going to be memorizing The Ten Commandments over the next ten weeks (on top of our regular readings that follow along with where we are studying in History). We have a box of packing paper that kids use to paint or do other large art projects on. So, I took a sheet, folded it in half, and then cut an arch at the top. Then I crumpled it up in a ball and then undid that and flattened it out. Now we have our stone tablets:

I used Photoshop Elements to type up the commandments, and then used some bevels and shadows to try to make the words look like they were carved. Probably more complex than what the teacher’s manual said to do, but it was more fun for me to make it this way.

We studied Job one day, and now we are reading about Abraham, or Abram as his name hasn’t been changed yet. I thought it was interesting that Hagar runs away, and she’s not even seeking God, yet He seeks her out. Isn’t that just like God? He seeks us out, even when we aren’t necessarily looking for Him.

This week, the curriculum added in copying the memory verse and dictation of the memory verse. So, on the days we do that I’m not going to have Rabbit do her Handwriting Without Tears book. Learning the Greek roots has been good. We now have enough words where we can start to see how other words are put together. What is really neat is when a root comes up in our Reading time.

English has been pretty good. We do most of it orally, or she dictates to me and I write it – especially on days where there has been a lot of writing already. Writing Strands has been more of a struggle. We got through the second lesson, but it was sure hard for her. I’ve been trying to explain that we don’t just write once and get done with it. But, she just doesn’t like writing. I need to get more consistent about teaching her typing.

This week we finished Step 22 in All About Spelling Book 2. If she can just keep her attitude good, we get through the lessons just fine. It’s when she has a bad attitude, or misses too many words during review time that she gets upset. I’ll need to be ordering Book 3 soon.

Rabbit pretty much likes God and the History of Art, but she said this week she wished it was more drawing and art lessons and less history. She had to draw a picture of her family for her AWANA section this week, and I see a lot of what she is learning from art carrying over.

We listened to Vivaldi’s “Summer” - what a wide range of musical style in one song. It was quite interesting. And Spanish is going well. I like that it is really low stress. And the stories are quaint.

We finished The Tanglewood's Secret. I read ahead in the book so I would know what was happening, and yet I cried again reading it out loud to the kids. They loved the book, and were always interested in what was coming next. I love how you could see everyone’s change of heart as they met Jesus, or re-established their relationship with Him. The book made the comparison of Jesus being the Good Shepherd so real. It was just an excellent book.