End of Year Evaluation in ECC

Okay, not to brag on Rabbit, but I'm going to :) ...

I just did the end-of-year evaluation with my dd Rabbit. Remember, we finished school about 4 weeks ago and haven't done ANY geography since (just spelling, math, typing). Also, remember we came from a textbook/workbook curriculum to MFW - what a big change.

One of the evaluations is to label blank maps of each continent. We did it at the beginning of the year, and she could only label 11 countries. Well, we just did it again, and she was able to correctly label 83 things - some oceans and gulfs, and countries. So, the Geography game really works! Also, filling in the maps at the beginning of each continent works. We hardly ever discussed the Gulf of California, but she knew where it was.

We also went through each country we visited, and I had her talk about what she remembered. Most of it wasn't important stuff, but she did get something out of each country - either it was the largest (or 3rd largest), or the language(s) spoken, or the climate, or their main export (oil for Saudi Arabia), or their religion, or their animals (especially Australia). I would ask her what missionaries we read about went to that country or were from that country. She remembered some interesting little tidbits.

Finally, I asked her if we could visit any of the countries we studied for real, which would she choose? She said China or Japan. She found their cultures interesting and thought it would neat to see what she read about. Also, she loves rice, so she thought it would be neat to see how rice is grown.

Anyway, I'm so pleased with how well she did. We didn't really study the geography terms that much this year. She did them, but it was NOT her favorite thing. We'll get ECC again in 8th grade, so we'll focus on it a bit more then.

We also had to do standardized testing this year. We got her scores back last week. The area we need to work on most: language mechanics - you know, commas, periods, subject, verb. But, everything else was great. She did better than I expected in math, and reading comprehension was awesome. Writing is her weakest point. We did a lot of assignments orally, or she dictated to me, and I wrote, so use of commas and periods wasn't something we focused on a lot. I'll work on it more next year.

We really enjoyed this year, and our relationship is so much better.

Week 33, Day 1 in ECC: Antarctica

Okay, I thought I would blog today, since it went so well.

We started with reading about Samoa, which was so interesting. I love the fact that they ring the church bells at dusk to remind people to read their Bibles and pray.

Then we worked on Geography. I didn't dig out their passports. We looked at the globe and saw how it is at the bottom of the world. We also compared to how the Arctic is mostly ocean and the Antarctic is mostly land. Then I had Rabbit do the map work as assigned.

After that we read our science pages and did our science experiments/demonstrations. The first one was to look at what an iceberg looks like in the ocean. I remembered to read through the manual last night, and "froze and iceberg" in the freezer overnight. Then we floated it in a clear bowl. I asked the kids what was most interesting, and Rabbit noticed how most of it was under the water. (Good job Rabbit! You got the point.) We also talked a little bit about the Titanic - I thought that might be an interesting tidbit of history. Here is our picture:

Then I demonstrated how the north and south poles are in the dark all of their winters. I used a flashlight and the globe in the bathroom (so we could really see it). Even the boys enjoyed looking at the iceberg and seeing how the sun hit the globe.

After snack, it was time for preschool with the boys. Tigger was having an attitude problem, so he spent the time in his room, and Pooh got an individual preschool. Rabbit worked on her copy work and science page.

Next up, All About Spelling. Rabbit was bummed because she hasn't had a chance to write spelling words in her new spelling book. All of it is review right now, but I felt like we should start from the beginning. We've gone through 5 steps in 3 days. Tomorrow we'll do some spelling.

In English she was suppose to copy all these "Proverbs and Maxims." Instead we just discussed them, since I knew copying would have produced a meltdown. Rabbit read from the book basket while I made lunch.

After lunch, she finished up her copy work and science page, and then we did reading together. I wanted to give her a break from writing before doing math. She's getting better about really thinking about whether she's reversing numbers, but still does it a little. She is now writing all the numbers in the right places, so that's a major improvement.

Lastly, we did another lesson in Scoring High. It was picking "Topic Sentences" for paragraphs. It was hard for her, and for a couple of them I thought the choices were too close to each other to pick one over another. Oh well. It is probably something we need to work on.

Besides Tigger's bad attitude, it seemed like a great day, and we were done by 2:15! I love it when that happens.

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.

Week 29-30 in ECC: Russia

The last two weeks have been interesting.

Bible time was good. We've had more discussions. There were lots of end times passages that we didn't totally understand, but we discussed them. AWANA is over for the year. So, that speeds up our morning time.

For Geography, we read about Russia, made a Russian flag, tried to pronounce some Russian words, and played the Geography Game. Pooh was disappointed every day that we didn't make the Russian flag. He really enjoys doing the flags as a craft. Rabbit enjoyed the Russian Ballerina page. We didn't learn how to play chess, as suggested in the manual. Dad has taught her a little, but I don't think she gets it yet. Maybe next time.

In Science, it was mostly reading about the Arctic. The second week, we just picked books from the book basket to read about science. Rabbit did a couple of science pages. Even Pooh wanted to make science pages.

For Music, we listened to the one Russian song, but we've pretty much been skipping it. For the Art projects, though, we've done those. I found nesting boxes at Michaels, but only 3 deep. I let her decorate those however. Then we did the Jeweled Egg project the next week. It was really hard to empty the eggs without breaking them. But, once I did, I remembered that I was given a box of stuff that my grandfather's 4th wife had used to decorate eggs. (She was really into it, and cut them open and put scenes inside them and everything.) So, we used the beads and ric-rac to create an egg. We each did one. I'll post pictures later.

We keep plowing trough Math. Rabbit only got an 83 on her last quiz, but they were mistakes from not lining up numbers correctly and such. She is pretty well enjoying Quarter Mile Math, but she is getting frustrated that she doesn't always beat her best time.

We keep going through Sequential Spelling. I keep asking her if she wants to change. I don't think she is really "getting" the rules. And I thought about switching to All About Spelling. So, I show her the web-site and an example lesson, and she asks, "Does it have a spelling workbook?" So I say, "What do you mean?" She says, "You know, a special book to write the words in." So this is the whole issue with spelling - she wants a bound notebook/workbook to write in. ARRGGH! I showed her some of her dad's composition notebooks, wondering if she would accept that as a spelling notebook, but I'm not sure. Grrr.

We did 6 more lessons in Primary Language Lessons. One of them I made into a fill in the blank. Some of them were writing letters, and since we had thank you notes to write for a recent birthday, we've been doing those for some of the PLL lessons and the Writing lessons.

Since AWANA is over, we've added in a little bit of keyboarding. I keep forgetting, so we haven't done much, but she is excited to start, and we will work on it over the summer.

We have to do 15 more days of school by state law, but I have 20 more days of curriculum - at least Bible, Geography, and Science. I think at the end of the 15 days, we'll do our 3rd grade testing as required. Then we'll just do Bible, Geography, and Science of those last 5 days - taking a break from everything else, and then switch over to "school lite" - which will be Math, Spelling, Typing, and Reading.

Week 27-28 in ECC: Japan

Japan was great. It helped that my husband had taken several business trips over there and his employer gave him a bunch of information and fliers about Japan. He also took pictures when he was over there, so we had those, too.

For Geography, we read in the Atlas about Japan and read the interesting facts pages. The day came to make the Japanese flag, and originally, I was just going to have them color the copy from the book, but Pooh wanted to "make the flag." So, I drew circles on red paper, and let them cut them out and glue them on. Instant craft! Pooh loves doing crafts for some reason. Then, on the "colors" page, where we colored the fish, I just so happened to have eyelets left over from my paper scrapbooking life, so the kids cut out the fish, and I put the eyelets on so they could easily string them up.

In science, we had a couple of experiments to do. The first set involved salt water. I didn't have enough salt, so we skipped those. I think I might try to remember to do them this summer or something. The second set involved showing how cold water sinks. Ours didn't work to well. I think an aquarium would have been better. Most of our readings were about oceans, and the boys joined in and made science pages, too, a couple of days. Also, it was warm enough for us to do nature walks this week. We got to go just after the snow melted, and our "stream" through our park was really rushing, so that was neat for the kids to see how the water really moves, but it made me nervous walking over those bridges with no railings!

I just realized I haven't been doing a good job of explaining to Rabbit about why we're studying the biomes. I haven't been explicitly tying in the region. I think it was pretty obvious when we studied Brazil, Mexico, and Africa. But, I think Japan may be more subtle. I'll have to remember to go over that with her.

Rabbit did okay with her copy work, and writing. And, for the vocabulary words, she again wrote several sentences each week. I think having only one to do each week really motivates her to write more for that one.

We keep marching on with Sequential Spelling. I think she loves that she is spelling big words and getting them right (at least during spelling time), but I know she still doesn't like how long the lists are. We often break it up still, doing 13 words, then reading time, and then 12 words.

We've been doing most of English orally. One day I was able to make a fill-in-the-blank worksheet for her out of the lesson. I realize now, after going through the manual, I forgot to do the Haiku lesson with Rabbit. Maybe I'll catch it next time.

For math, we finished off lesson 21, and lesson 22, except the quiz for lesson 22.

For art, we've been doing the Origami - I didn't have the stuff for the art projects. The kids like the origami, and Pooh has done one "dog," too.

We finished up one Abeka 3rd grade reader and moved on to the next one. We really enjoyed Secret in the Maple Tree. It was like a chapter book. This next reader is a bunch of stories in one book. It is kind of funny, because we read some of these stories through the book basket list in ECC. Rabbit gets kind of bummed when I skip the ones we have already read.

We finished Gladys Aylward's book. What a great life, and I love how she lived out her passion. She was the third missionary who really focused on helping children.

We haven't done Spanish everyday, thanks to dance class, but we're progressing. We probably only have 15 lessons or so left. I'll probably stop doing an Spanish when we finish.

We also got two, "Families of Japan" type videos from the library. They were great. We also got "Big Bird Goes to Japan," kind of for fun. It was okay, but there was a scary scene where they show the "guards" of a temple (basically statues that look like goblins). If you have sensitive kids, I wouldn't get it.

Even though they believe in lots of gods, Japan felt a lot "lighter" than China. Perhaps because it is not a communist country.

Week 26 in ECC: China

I changed things up a little this week. We still started with Rabbit's Awana verses every day. Then, we did cross-crawls, ear-eights, jogger lunges, fencers, and cross-legged toe-touches. I was always forgetting those, so I thought we could get them out of the way. It only takes a few minutes. (We're still doing writing-eights before we do English/Spelling/Writing, and eye-eights before we do reading.) Then we did Bible time. We finished up Hero Tales with Gladys Aylward. It matched up perfectly with what we were reading in the YWAM biography.

For Geography this week, we made a Chinese flag (Tigger and Pooh joined in), played the geography game (the Around the World version), did Tangrams, and made Chinese lanterns. I let Tigger and Pooh do the lanterns too. Pooh did an incredible job cutting his lantern. I was concerned about his fine motor development, but I think he is progressing well. Here are our lanterns - we each made one:

In Science, we looked at Glaciers and Mountains. On one day we were to locate the highest mountain on each continent on our big wall map. The interesting thing was for two of the mountains we couldn't find them. So, a quick Google search and we found alternate names for them, and they were on the map with the alternate names.

Rabbit surprised me this week and did her whole spelling list each day in one sitting, rather than splitting it in two. I set the timer for 15 minutes, and it is taking us just about 15 minutes for the words in each day's list.

Rabbit did great in Math this week, finishing her times 8's and getting a 100% on her test. Next is a Unit Test, so we will be practicing all the times facts until she feels ready. Our goal is next Wednesday, but we'll see how it goes.

We've been plodding along in English, just working through the Primary Language Lessons book, doing most of it orally. And for writing, Rabbit wrote really well this week. Her spelling was still atrocious, but the ideas and content of her writing was much improved. She even wrote 4 sentences one day. I've also cut back to one vocabulary word each week. She did much better with that. And, she wrote 4 sentences for her vocabulary page. Seems to be a trend this week.

We got Quarter Mile Math this week. I got a really good deal through the Homeschool Buyers Co-op. Rabbit has been using that for her math drill this week. She really likes it. You can set it up to be either a race car or horse, and she likes to race as a horse. The boys like watching her race as a race car. We'll see if it improves her basic math skills.

We haven't been doing Power Glide every day this week, but I think we did 3 days. This is our 3rd time through the 3rd book, so I'm okay with taking it easy.

The art project this week was suppose to be making handmade paper, but we didn't really have a lot of fresh leaves and flowers to use, so we did Tangrams instead.

Reading Gladys Aylward's biography is fun. I did skip the part about the public execution.

Another new thing I started this week was being more organized. I got the idea from The Workbox System. This is mostly for me. I got an old hanging file-folder box that we weren't using any more and a bunch of file folders. I put in our books, paper, copies, etc., in each folder in the order we do our subjects. So, in the first folder is our Bible verse, and paper for copywork. In the second folder is any books for geography. In the third folder is our book for science, and so on. I even made a "seatwork" folder, to give to Rabbit when it is her seatwork time. I was always struggling to find our English book on English days, or our Spelling books on the bookshelf. This way they are all right there, and I can easily find everything.

Next week: Japan!

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.

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!

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.

Not keeping up...

Sorry I haven't been keeping up. Life has been busy this year. The kids keep getting sick, and I'm busy with real life - birthday parties of friends' kids, cleaning weekly for Life Group, etc.

Just some updates...

ECC is going great. We're not getting in Nature Walks because of how cold it is, but I'm not worried about it. We also don't get in all the art projects, but that's fine, we'll do them when we can. We should finish up Africa next Monday.

In math, Rabbit has surprised me by learning her x4 math facts, and doing just fine with them. So that's going well right now.

English has been tougher the last couple of weeks. Rabbit hates writing, and dictation has been the assignment for the last 2 weeks. We got through it, but it was painful.

We switched to Sequential Spelling about two weeks ago. Boring, but effective. I'm seeing it carry over to some of her writing. We're doing 2 sessions a day - 50 words a day! - to try to "catch-up" and finish book 1 before we head to book 2.

David Livingstone has been our missionary while we study Africa. It is interesting to read about his struggles.

Anyway, life got in the way of blogging. I'll try to do week-in-review summaries at least.

Week 19, Day 2 in ECC

Today, I managed to keep us on task, and in spite of the work load, we got it done.

We started Bible time a little earlier than usual, and worked through Rabbit's Awana verses. Then we did our 1 minute of cross crawls. It is really cute when Tigger joins in. He will do 4 or 5 correctly and then get "off," and have to stop and think before he gets back on track. But, he is doing them by himself. After that, we did ECC's Bible time. We read about Samuel Morris. It was amazing to think that God spoke to him audibly. Then it was time for the dictation of the memory verse. Rabbit really fussed about doing it, and it seemed to take forever.

After that, we did ear eights - just Rabbit and I, and then moved on to Geography. We read about the "nature" of Africa - animals and climates. Then we played the Geography Game. Just Africa today. I think I know where most of the countries are now. I help Rabbit by playing "warmer/colder" with her. We did our lunges, and then moved on to science. We read about how different animals survive when there is no place to hide, like in the grasslands.

We were doing good at this point, time-wise. So, we moved on to snack time and Spanish. While Rabbit was eating her snack and listening to the Spanish CD, I put together our crockpot meal. I gave Rabbit a 15 minute break, since we were ahead. After the break, we did lesson 3 of Sequential Spelling. She is starting to get it, but I think it might take a week or two before it fully sinks in.

Rabbit had to finish her science page, do on-line math drill, and work on an Awana page for seatwork. The boys and I read Ndito Runs. Tigger got a kick out of the name "Ndito." Then we worked on our verse, "... love your neighbor as yourself." Of course, Pooh said he only needed to say it once. We did calendar time, and worked on our days of the week and months of the year. Then, we practiced our phone number and worked on learning our address. After that we played games with the "Fit-a-Space" toy from My Father's World. First I had them string matching colors on the string. Then, I had them fill in the circles with the shapes, naming the shapes as they went. Next we worked on patterns - like red, green, red, green, what comes next? We did several of those going up to 4 colors. Then, I layed out 3 of one shape, but in different colors. I had them cover their eyes, and I removed one shape. I asked them which color was missing. We did that a couple of times. And finally, I placed them in a certain order (like, white, orange, blue), had them cover their eyes, and I mixed them up and when they opened their eyes they had to put them in the right order. They had lots of fun with that today.

Now it was time for writing eights. I let Rabbit just do it with her finger. But, I had to keep reminding her to go slower. Then, we continued on lesson 122 in English. We just did the next paragraph (one sentence) in the dictation. Tomorrow we will finish up. We had enough time before lunch at that point to play Mancala for 10 minutes. We got in two games. We tied the second. While I made lunch, Rabbit read books from the book basket, and worked on her Awana page.

After lunch, we read the next chapter in David Livingstone. Then, the boys had quiet time. We did another page in math. When I came down, she only had about 4 or 5 problems done, so I started working them on the whiteboard with her. She really liked that, and wanted to pretend there was a whole class with her. It seems to help her when she hears the problems talked out loud. We did Lesson 5 from Sequential Spelling next. She is starting to get it, and has no problems "fixing" her own mistakes. Again, she wanted to pretend there was a whole class with her.

After this, we did reading time. The stories were rather short today, so we read 3 of them. Then, we worked on "Scoring High." She did fine with it - it only took us about 5 minutes, to my surprise. After that, we picked an art project. I had her pick one of the easier ones. I told her I would make sure I had everything ready for next week for one of the other ones she really wants to do..

Me staying on task and getting us started on time was a big help to keeping our day running smoothly. It feels good that I was disciplined, and now I'll have time to do the other commitments I need to do today.

Week 19, Day 1 in ECC

They day started with the usual Awana review. There is only one new verse for Rabbit to memorize this week, the rest is review. But, she has two activities that she needs to do. The first is to do something kind to someone she doesn't know that well. That is difficult, because we're not sure what we can do for the neighbors we don't know. The other section she needs to wait to do until we hear back from the missionary we suport in the Netherlands.

Then we read in Window on the World about another people group in Africa. They lead a hard life. This particular group was once very nomadic, and now are basically confined to refugee camps.

In geography we read in our atlas about the people and places in Africa, and learned how to play Mancala. Rabbit really enjoyed that. For science, it was about predators and scavangers in the grasslands. The pictures are graphic, and Rabbit thought they were gross. I didn't make her write or draw anything as she was pretty emotional about them.

Then we did snack time and Spanish. The story we are learning is now completely in Spanish. It is much harder to follow. Then I gave her a 15 minute break. (She found Black Beauty at the library last week and has been reading it.)

She worked on copying the memory verse and doing math drill on the computer while I did preschool with the boys. We read their Cubbies book and worked on their verse. Then we read another book from the book basket. Next, we did calendar time. Pooh was so glad we were putting a 1 in the first Sunday on the calendar. Now, I'm starting them memorizing their address, and reviewing their phone number. Finally, we got out the number pegs and worked on those.

Rabbit and I then worked on writing eights and English. The English assignment is dictation, which she really doesn't like. I told her we would take 3 days to do it, one paragraph at a time. The point of this dictation is to practice using quotation marks. Then, we did the first lesson in our new spelling book: Sequential Spelling. It only had 4 words. It is different, based on patterns. After that she did book basket while I made lunch.

After lunch, I read the next chapter of David Livingstone. After getting the boys down, we proceded onto math. Rabbit definitely has the skip counting by fours. Remembering her math facts is another story. I made a "Multiplication Bingo" game last week - it has the answers on the card, and then I show her a flashcard and she is suppose to call out the answer and put a penny on the answer. She'll get there, it just seems slow. We did the 2nd lesson in Sequential Spelling. She did fine. It is very easy right now. We're going to aim for 2 lessons a day to see if we can finish book 1 by the end of the school year. We're suppose to do them at least 2 hours apart, so that means one in the morning and one after lunch. Finally, we finished up reading and music. We actually did the last story in our new reading book first. On Friday we browsed through the Table of Contents and Rabbit saw that "Pocohontus" was one of the stories. She really wanted to read that first. So we read about half of it on Friday and the rest today. Now, we'll go back to the beginning of the book.

It was kind of funny, because she asked if she would have to read "Pocohontus" again, and I told her she wouldn't since she read it once.

Whew. Mondays always seem like our busiest day!

Week 18, Day 5 in ECC

I like having light and independent Fridays. It's good for mom as well as the student.

After doing Awana verses and ECC Bible time, Rabbit went right to work on her vocabulary word. We only had one this week, so that made it easier.

Next we did spelling. But, she did worse than yesterday. Ahh. Poor kid. She missed "goes" as "gose" and "oh" as "ho" again. She almost missed "cold" as "clod," but caught it.

We did snack and Spanish time. There was a quiz, which she aced this time. It was worth really reviewing the story a lot this week.

She worked on math while I spent time with the boys working on their verse and such. They really like having that time. I read one of our book basket books to them. They really like that.

Then we did repatterning, and Rabbit did one more "writing" assignment. She really likes writing about what she sees.

After lunch, I realized we forgot to read David Livingstone yesterday, so I got caught up today. And that was it. I really like being able to take it a little easier on Fridays.

Week 18, Day 4 in ECC

We started our day with the usual. Awana verses, and then ECC's Bible time. More amazing information on missionaries from the past.

For Geography, we colored the Kenya flag. Each of the kids wanted to, so it's a good thing I made extra copies. Rabbit, on her own, wrote some facts on the back. Her spelling left much to be desired, but at least she remembered that part of the work.

In Science, we read about grassland plant eaters, and then did some an experiment in the manual. Again, all three kids wanted to try it out - it was about how water helps keep animals cooler.

We did snack, Spanish and then a short recess. Then Rabbit had some seatwork, in the form of practicing math facts. The boys worked on their Awana verses, calendar time, and days of the week. Pooh was quite excited that we were getting close to filling up the calendar. Also, I came up with way to try to help the boys remember the days of the week. On Sunday, I drew a sun. On Monday, I drew a moon. On Wednesday, I drew wedding bells. (If someone has a better idea on how to remember the "wed" that starts Wednesday, I'd like to hear it.) On Thursday, I drew a glass of water with a straw, because when you get "thirsty" you need a drink. For Friday, I drew a frying pan. On Saturday I drew a chair that we "sat down in because we're tired at the end of the week."

After this, it was time for writing eights. Then we had our weekly writing assignement. She wrote three sentences, but they really should have been two. Rabbit is finally remembering to capitalize at the beginning, and put a period at the end of a sentence. I'm about to owe her a dollar. She did book basket while I worked on lunch.

After lunch, we did spelling, and only missed one word. She spelled "oh" as "ho." Then math was next. I think she finally has skip counting by fours down pretty well. After that reading and music, and the day was done!

Week 18, Day 3 in ECC

Well, colds have overtaken the household again. In spite of stuffy noses and coughing, we started up again today - at least the days in the TM line up with the days of the week again.

We started with working on Rabbit's next Discovery in her TNT book. That took quite a while. Then, we did our cross-crawls and ECC Bible time. Rabbit tried very hard to copy the character quality out of the book very neatly. I told her I was very proud of the way she wrote. We did our ear-eights and then moved on to Geography. We read our "facts" pages about Kenya, and then played the geography game with our Africa game board. We played the old version. Rabbit said, "You only want to play it so you can win." Turns out we tied - we each missed one.

We were behind at this point, so we did lunges and headed for the kitchen for our snack. I shifted the laundry from the washer to the dryer, and we did Spanish. I got out our Spanish/English Dictionary so I could understand the story they were telling better. Rabbit thought it was funny that I narrated the story back to her in English.

Science was suppose to be a Nature Walk, and study of grass roots. Well, with wind gusts hitting 80 mph today, that was out of the question. So we talked about what roots do, and how they hold soil, and how that stops erosion. That was going to have to do for today.

Then, I had Rabbit work on her spelling list, and use some Wrap-Ups while I did preschool with the boys. First we worked on their Cubbies lesson. Part of the lesson was to draw Luv E. Lamb. It is so interesting to watch the two of them try to draw it. The next part had them coloring the letters of a word. Tigger finished up quick, but it took Pooh a bit longer. But, Pooh was a little more precise with his coloring. We worked on their verse for a couple of minutes. Then, we got caught up with the calendar, since we hadn't filled anything in since last Friday. We went over the days of the week, and months of the year, too. Then I had them say their phone number (they still got it) and spell their names. Tigger can do his first name without looking, but needs to look for his last name. Pooh cannot spell either, and doesn't even know all the letter names for his name. I need to work more on teaching them their letters.

After that, it was time for writing-eights with Rabbit. We worked on those. Then we did English. The assignment was about using quotation marks. I didn't do the dictation for it, yet. Then we had a "writing without curriculum" assignment. She wrote 3 great sentences, remembering to capitalize the first letter, and use a period at the end of each sentence. Plus, she used a comma in the right place in one of the sentences! Whoo-hoo, that is a big gain. I won't tell you her spelling, though. Then she did book basket. You really have to like a curriculum when your daughter brings you a book from the book basket, puts it on the counter and says, "Mom, you should read this book. It is really good!"

We took a long lunch break, and then did math and reading. We worked on skip counting by 4's and did the first page for this lesson. Then, we finished the last story in our Abeka book 2.

What a good day. I'm glad we pushed through sniffles, coughs, and sore throats and got it done.

Week 18, Day 2 in ECC

After 2 days of sickness, it was good to get back to school.

Bible time went smoothly, except for Awana verses. With two days of a cold, we did not go over Rabbit's verses and she struggled. We did the dictation of the memory verse. She printed instead of using cursive. I'm not 100% sure why. (Could it be the writing-eights are kicking in?) She does write faster in cursive.

For geography we made our Africa game boards. I had actually made mine last weekend (plus the game cards) so all I needed to do was laminate mine. Rabbit labeled and colored hers and laminated it. For science, we read about Grassland Plants. Rabbit decided to draw the pictures of wheat, oats, barley and rye.

For Spanish, we went on to the next story, but it is a much harder one. I think I will sit down with her next time and see if we can piece together an understanding of the story before moving on. We had no break, as we were behind at this point, so she worked on her science page and spelling page, while I did preschool with the boys. We did calendar time, and I tried to come up with a way for the boys to remember the days of the week. Not an easy task. Then, I drew A, a, B, and b on 4 x 6 cards and had the boys roll out play dough and put it over the letters. (I've done this with numbers before, and it really seems to help them get a feel for the shape of the letters.) I need to make cards for the whole alphabet.

After that, we had writing eights and English. For the English lesson, I had Rabbit dictate to me and I wrote her story down. She doesn't always get these "creative" stories, so I kind of had to guide her. It doesn't help that we also don't know exactly how a robin goes about building a nest. She read two or three books (or at least skimmed them) during book basket time.

After lunch, we moved on to math. We spent an hour going over skip counting by 4's. I forgot to have her read to me, but she read to her dad at bed time. I also read the next chapter of David Livingstone. When she was sick, she was asking me to read it to her, but I decided we would just follow the schedule on school days.

Week 18, Day 1 in ECC

Off to Kenya, Africa!

We started with our usual Pledge and review of Awana verses, and then our Bible time, reading about a people group in Northern Africa.

Then, for Geography, we got on our "airplane" (the stairs), and flew to Kenya. I put a sticker in each child's passport, and then wrote the date. Rabbit and I looked at the map to see that Kenya is right on the equator - so it is in both the northern and southern hemispheres. We also looked at the globe.

Next, we read our science pages and talked about grasslands. We then got out the Atlas and looked at the map of population and compared it to the climate and noticed how it very much correlated.

After snack and Spanish, it was time for the swearing-in of the new President, so we watched that and his speech. Then it was time for Rabbit to do seatwork, while I worked with Tigger and Pooh. We did our usual calendar time, phone number, and Awana verse. Then, we worked on what sound the letter "b" makes. That took all our time.

I realized I forgot to do all our Brain Integration Therapy between subjects today, so we did all those we missed, and then our writing eights. Rabbit had a better attitude about them today. After that we did Lesson 86 again in our English book - the proper use of "It is I," or "It was she." Since the library was closed yesterday, I didn't have any books from the library on Africa for book basket, so she did seatwork while I prepared lunch.

After lunch, we did the Math unit test - which she did great on. Then started our next spelling list. She got the idea that all the words had the long "o" sound, and we went through and discovered all the spellings and copied them to her spelling dictionary. Then, I did a sneaky thing with her. I had her spell "old." Then I gave her a bunch of other "old" words (mold, told, cold, gold, etc.) to spell. Then I asked her what they all had in common. She didn't see the pattern (that they all have "old" in them) until I pointed it out. Patterns are a tricky thing for her, that is for sure.

Last week we got a book to help us prepare for standardized testing that our state requires us to do in 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, and 11th grades. So, we worked on that some today. I think it is good, because it helps show us weaknesses. But, in doing it, I realized how unfair these tests are. For example, I call my purse a "purse." One of the things on the test was to make compound words. Well, the first half of the word was "hand" and then she had to chose between "bag," "glove," "foot," and something else. Well, she's never heard me call a purse a "handbag" so she didn't know that was a real word. Same thing came up with "streetcar." We don't live in a city, nor have we read any books or stories, that talk about streetcars. She doesn't even know what one looks like. Just because I've never called my purse a "handbag," doesn't mean she isn't smart. I've decided the tests are totally bogus, because unless you've experienced the use of these words, you're not going to know they are real words.

Then we wrapped up with reading, and I read the first chapter of David Livingstone to her. Talk about staring into the lion's mouth! Oh my!

Week 17, Day 2-5 in ECC

Well, between missing a day because of illness of the teacher, and just life happening, I didn't keep up with the blog.

Reading about John Wesley this week was inspiring. Quite the dedicated individual. We had some good Bible discussions, but the parables can be confusing.

Geography was fun. We mostly focused on the Geography game - which Rabbit continues to win. We didn't do the cooking activity yesterday, as we decided to go to the National Western Stock Show for a field trip. In Science, we read the book, and then did the Tree Activities in the manual. We only did one of the two, as I had to teach Rabbit how to do a bar graph. However, we did note correlations in the data we collected.

For math, we're continuing to work on mastering the times 6 facts. We're pretty close. I believe she could complete the next unit test. Spelling was challenging. She had trouble with "igh" words, and did not get a 100 on either test. I think we'll move on, but work on igh words a little. We've come up with a new phrase, to get us to laugh - "spelling accident." She caught a spelling mistake while she was doing her test. So, we now also have "math accidents" as well.

We've almost finished the next book in the Abeka series - I think we have one story left. And we finished George Muller. The organizations he started are still around today! Amazing!

A good week, except for my stomach bug.

Week 16 in ECC: Germany

Okay, so getting back into the swing of things, I forgot to update my blog every day this week, so I thought I would run a "week in review" summary.

For Bible time, we continued working on Rabbit's Awana verses this week. From Window on the World we learned about another European country. (I don't want to say specifically, because I wouldn't want to violate copyright. I would feel really bad if someone pieced together ECC from reading my blog!) I wouldn't have thought of this particular country as "third world," but they certainly have problems there. We studied our passages from Matthew and had a few good discussions. Rabbit seems to have lost a little of her ability to narrate over the Christmas break, so I'm breaking down the passages into smaller chunks for narration. Reading about Martin Luther this week has been great. I knew about his list of issues he had with the Roman Catholic church - but I didn't know all that other neat stuff.

For Geography, our focus was on Germany. The boys wanted to ride horses from France to Germany, so they did that, while Rabbit sat in the "stage coach." I don't know where they got that idea, but it was fun. I let all the kids make the German flag. I ran out of red construction paper, so I had Rabbit color a piece of white construction paper red. We played the Geography Game, version 2, twice this week, and Rabbit won both times. On Friday, we spent about 15 minutes going through the Geography Packet doing the fun pages.

We had a really good week in Science. Rabbit actually did science pages this week. One of our activities was to "Map a Forest Area." So, we went into the back yard and discussed each tree - was it coniferous or deciduous, about how old it might be, whether or not it was still alive (we have a couple of aspens on their last legs), etc. We took a picture of the back yard, Rabbit dictated a paragraph to go with it, and made that our science page for one of our days.

For seatwork, Rabbit worked on copying her memory verse, math facts, and her Awana verses, and sometimes some spelling activities. I did preschool every day but Friday with the boys during this time. The boys were glad to be back in the regular swing of things.

Writing eights were a struggle for Rabbit this week. On Thursday, I let her trace over with her finger, since she had all the texture of the previous 3 days worth of crayon on the page. On Friday, we had the Writing Repatterning. I explained we only had to do it for 4 or 5 weeks. She seemed pleased with that. I was looking ahead, though, and it looks like we're suppose to do Auditory Reprocessing for 18 to 24 weeks! The other thing I read was about doing the cross-legged toe touches every day except on repatterning day. I've been forgetting to do them. I need to double check the white board and make sure they're on the list.

English was good this week. We did everything orally. And then we did the "writing without curriculum" ideas from Dianne Craft. She is a little less wordy than she was before the break - which I think is good. On Friday, I let her writing assignment be writing her pen pal.

Some of the Book Basket books have been fun to read. And after doing the "Map the Forest" book, Rabbit took one of the books that talked about trees, and took it outside to help study our trees. I really like that she was trying to learn something on her own.

We are almost caught up reading about George Muller. Rabbit asked if God would take care of us the way He took care of George Muller and his orphans. I said, "Absolutely, yes." It is amazing how faith-filled he was, and how his example affected others.

Rabbit is having trouble with her times 6's. She'll know them for a little while, and then 15 minutes later, forget. I'm thinking of having her maybe do some Math-U-See math drill after she does book basket while I'm making lunch. I'll give her a times table and let her use that to look at when she doesn't know. Maybe 10 minutes doing that for a week would help. We've tried jumping on the trampoline while saying the facts; using the right-brained flash cards; using the magnetic numbers; and teaching some Barbie dolls. The only thing I haven't had her do is actually write them out - the whole problem with the answer. I was thinking of making a page and just having her trace over the top.

Spelling went well this week. I asked her about switching, but she says she doesn't want to, that the new way is "fun." (Could have fooled me!) She got 100% on her test on Thursday, so I didn't retest on Friday.

We're still using Power Glide Spanish. We're really trying to learn the Tres Osos story well this week.

Really, the week went well, except for math facts and me starting us late a couple of days. But, we got right back into the swing of things.