Nov. 1, 2009 - CtG: Week 12

This week covers from The Burning Bush through the first five plagues in Egypt.

At first, the kids were excited to act out the plagues. Rabbit was Pharaoh, Pooh one of Pharaoh's priests/magicians, and Tigger was Moses.


However, by the end of the first day of acting out the plagues, well Rabbit was in tears about being Pharaoh, because he was the bad guy. This upset Tigger and Pooh, and well, things only went downhill from there. So, to ease tensions, I agreed to play Pharaoh for the rest of the plagues and Rabbit got to be Aaron. It went much better after that.


For the river turning into blood, I got a large cake pan, and just put about 1/4 inch of water in it. We set it on the floor, and then I dropped some red food coloring in as Moses pretended to strike the river. Very cool effect. We only made about 40 or so frogs, but did spread them out all over the living room floor. Here is our frogs piled into a heap, as described in Exodus:


We didn't do anything extra for the plagues of gnats and flies, but we did talk about how there is one rest stop in our state where we have stopped to have lunch has lots and lots and lots of flies. (My husband said, "Yep. That rest stop did have a plague of flies!") We decided it must have even been worse than that place in Egypt.

The plague on the livestock is the first plague where there was a distinction between the Hebrews and the Egyptians. So, we took half of our stuffed animals and put them in one corner of the room, and half in the other. After we "acted" our parts, I sent the priest to check on the livestock and report back his findings. We talked about how God protected the Hebrews from harm.

We didn't do any science experiments again this week. I think we needed a break. (As a side note, I've read ahead to next weeks experiments, and I think we will try those - they look interesting.) But, we read through them and discussed them as best we could.

The book basket list was light for this week, so I got books about the animals you might find in Egypt during that time - sheep, goats, camels, etc. Not sure that Rabbit really enjoyed those, though.

Rabbit got a little tired of our Pathway reader (we're almost done with it anyway), so we've switch to the Abeka 4th grade readers for now. We're reading Song of the Brook and enjoying it.

Rabbit is doing well with the vocabulary. Right now I'm just typing up matching quizzes for her to do by herself, but I help her with most of the steps of learning the new words.

We're already on step 13 in All About Spelling Level 3. One thing I started doing about 4 or 5 weeks ago during dictation is saying, "Sentence check," which is a hint for Rabbit to check punctuation and capitalization of her sentences. At first, I said it for every sentence. Then I started only saying it for sentences that she missed one or the other. Well, this Thursday or Friday, I didn't have to say it for a single sentence, and she didn't misspell anything on dictation that day. I am so proud of her. Slowly, I'm starting to see the spelling carry over to her writing some. Once, she knew something was spelled wrong, but she couldn't see how to spell it correctly. I am just glad she is beginning to recognize when she is making mistakes.

In math, we finished lesson 6, and have started lesson 7. She seems to be doing fine with it, so we'll continue on.

In Writing Strands, we're working on a lesson to show how characters in a story "think." We have a story from personal experience, so it's going pretty well. Again, I'm helping a lot, but I think modeling how to do this stuff is a legitimate way to teach writing.

We didn't paint a stone, because by the time we got to a day to work on that project, we had 6 inches of snow on the ground. I told Rabbit we'd pick another day to try to do that lesson.

Star of Light was a terrific book to read. The kids loved the story and always wanted to know what was going to happen next. I'm looking forward to our last of the Patricia St. John books from the Deluxe package.

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Nov. 1, 2009 - CtG: Weeks 10 & 11

I'm just going to do some highlights from these two weeks. (We actually juts finished week 12, so I a little bit behind on my updates.)

Rabbit is doing great with the memorization in Bible. We've had some good discussions, too. Basically, these two weeks cover from Joseph interpreting the Baker and Cup Bearer's dreams to Moses fleeing from Egypt.

Reading about the ups and downs of Egyptian history has been interesting. It is easy to understand why the Egyptians would have wanted to enslave the Hebrews after the Hyksos domination.

I want to encourage anyone who thinks making costumes for acting out the 10 plagues is too much work. We kept it really simple. We used our Pharaoh's crown from earlier in the year for Pharaoh. Then,  I used one old pillow case to make a shepherd's head piece, and another one to make Pharaoh's priest's leopard skin cloak thing. I used some of the pictures from Ancient World to make them. Do they look authentic? Not at all, but I think it makes acting out the plagues more fun.

Another activity was to make a clay pot. We used Crayola Model Magic for this. Way cool stuff. We loved how easy it was to work with. We did let our pot dry for about a week before anyone was allowed to touch it. Here is a picture:


We haven't really been doing any science experiments for these two weeks. Some of them we've done before, and I didn't feel like doing them again. Others, I didn't have the supplies and wasn't sure where to get the supplies.

Rabbit continues to make progress in the basics, so not much new on that front. Writing Strands 3 is a big challenge for her, but I think it is good. I'm trying not to set my expectations too high. Yes, I want her to try, but I'm not opposed to helping her as needed, especially to avoid frustration.

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Oct. 11, 2009 - CtG: Week 9

Bible

We covered from Jacob meeting Rachel to Joseph and Potiphar's wife. I wasn't quite prepared when I was reading from Victor's Journey through the Bible and the Bible, and ended up having to edit on the fly. Not sure the kids are quite ready for some of that adult stuff. The wording in the NIV is pretty mild, so it wasn't too bad, I just was taken by surprise. I almost wish there was a little note in the Bible square on the grid that said, "See notes before today's reading" with a little reminder. I know it's at the top of the column on the grid for the day, but I forgot to look.

History

We did some activities that looked at Abraham and his descendants and how they are all related to each other. Not sure how much that really helped Rabbit get the bigger picture.

We read about Egypt's Middle Kingdom, and then looked at what houses, games, and how Egyptians may have generally lived their daily lives. We did NOT build a house (an activity suggested in the manual), but we looked in detail at all the pictures. Plus, we had a book finally come in through the library that had some more pictures that Rabbit remembered applied to what we were studying, so we looked at those.

We added the 12 tribes and Joseph to our time line.

Science

Science was just a tad bit frustrating this week. One of our experiments was to fill a pan full of water, put a candle in it, light the candle and then place a jar over it. We were suppose to see two things: first, the candle going out because it used up all the oxygen in the jar, and second, the water level was suppose to rise inside the jar because the water would be taking the place of the air. We tried several different variations of the jar and pan and how much water, and just could not see it. The candle would usually go out before I could get the jar completely down in the water. So, the water in the jar would be lower than the water in the pan. Now, one time, after the candle went out, the water started rising - and we could see it - but it seemed like it was just the water back filling from in the pan.

Anyway, I want to try this experiment again. Perhaps getting a tall see-through plastic jar or cup, and cutting the bottom off straight. Set the cup in and make sure the water level is equal on both sides and then set a saucer or something on top that will close up the jar and then see if the water rises. I think our lower oxygen levels at a mile high may be the reason we weren't able to see everything the book said. 

The other experiment for this week (called "Carbon Dioxide") worked great. We had a large grape juice plastic bottle to mix our solution in, and were able to blow out the candle twice with one mixture. The kids thought that was way cool.

We didn't do the weather balloon experiment as it was already too cold here, and I don't have a small thermometer or a bunch of helium balloons.

Language Arts

We are moving along in All About Spelling Level 3. There are days when I actually see Rabbit's spelling carry over into her writing, and other days, well, not so much.

Using Intermediate Language Lessons is working well. I like how it gradually works on skills and we can do it together, to make sure she understands.

Rabbit aced her Vocabulary test this week, but couldn't remember what pyrophobia meant for "extra credit," even though she is VERY pyrophobic (which made science a challenge, too).

She finished her story in Writing Strands (see my last post) and we looked at the next lesson, "Description of a Friend." She wanted it to be "Description of my Favorite Horse or Horses." Perhaps I should try to adapt it - she might enjoy it more. But, I'm not sure how. I don't know enough about horses.

Math

We finished Lesson 5 in Delta, and Rabbit got a 100% on her test. It was "flashcard" review week - which she really doesn't like all that much. I found some dice with numbers and math symbols and thought about using them for review time sometimes. But, usually I leave math review time to be "independent work."

Art and Music

We looked at Monday's Art lesson, but Rabbit felt overwhelmed by it. I didn't push - she's young for this book. Wednesday's lesson was a "Doodle" page and she had lots of fun with that.

Rabbit drew her picture for Vivaldi's Autumn this week. The directions said that the first movement was of the harvesters celebrating and then the second movement was them sleeping from drinking too much wine. So, Rabbit drew a Maypole with all the people dancing around it, and had all the dancers holding cups of wine (they kind of looked like martini glasses!) with the wine splashing out. It's amazing what they'll think of. We are enjoying the music.

Read Aloud

Of course, every day they ask for the next chapter in Star of Light. The story is wonderful. Sometimes the kids are in tears, though, worried about Hamid or Kinza and what might happen next. The kids are really connecting to the characters in this story.

It was a pretty good week, except for science. Just loving this curriculum!

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Oct. 8, 2009 - A Writing Strands 3 Sample

We've been working on the "write a story about a kitten raised by a duck" lesson in Writing Strands 3. Rabbit is 9, and we did one paragraph a day. The first 3, we worked together, but today, K took a lot longer than usual with Tigger and Pooh, so Rabbit went ahead and wrote the last paragraph by herself. Then, together we did a little editing. I'm really proud of her effort, so I told her I would type up her story and put it on my blog.

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Oct. 4, 2009 - CtG: Week 8

Bible (and I suppose History) this week covered from Abraham offering Issac to Jacob's ladder. What a week of ups and downs! The faith shown by Abraham's servant to go and find Rebekah, and then the deception of Jacob and Rebekah. Yet, God is still sovereign and still has His way in His plans.

We looked at the projects for painting in Ancient Egypt and the Pyramids, but didn't do them. Rabbit did color the tomb painting notebook page. She also did a good job with her summary of Abraham and Isaac. I ended up having to make another copy for her as she got flustered with several mistakes on her page right from the start.

Science was a bit of a challenge this week. First, we went to the local hardware store and bought a piece of 1 inch x 1/4 inch x 8 foot strip of pine trim. Then I cut it down to 30 inches, as recommended for the Karate Kid experiment. We used 2 layers of newspaper over the stick, and Rabbit could still flip the stick off the coffee table. We also tried the kitchen island, as it had a smoother top, and still Rabbit could flip it off the counter. I noticed we had a real hard time pressing the newspaper around the stick and getting it to be really smooth. Remembering something I read over at the MFW message board, we tried a ruler instead. Since it was a 12 inch ruler, we had it stick out over the edge of the counter about 2.5 inches. Because the ruler was more rounded over the top, we were able to flatten the newspaper over it better. Plus, the newspaper was about 6 to 8 inches longer than the ruler (our newspaper was only about 1 or 2 inches longer than our 30 inch stick, which may have been part of the problem). Using the ruler and paper, Rabbit could not flip it off the counter. It bounced a little, but she definitely got the idea of air pressure.

The Straw Drinking Race was easy. Tigger and Pooh agreed to be the racers. Tigger had the straw with the holes, and it took him about 5 minutes to get all of the water out of the cup. The Old Updside-Down-Glass-Of-Water Trick was a bit different. We tried the clear disposable plastic cups that we got for last week's experiments, but the sides were too flimsy when we flipped the cup over. So we went ahead and tried a glass cup. Sure enough, it worked. Later on I tried with a hard plastic cup (to show my husband), and I could see the "vacuum" bubbles at the top of the cup. (My hard plastic cup was a yellow First Years cup that have the spout lids - not clear, but you can see into them.) We didn't try to do any larger cups or containers.

We finished another Math lesson this week, and started All About Spelling Level 3 for Spelling. Using Intermediate Language Lessons has been going well, although some of the lessons seemed a bit archaic (we don't know all that much about birds). We're writing "The Kitten Raised by a Duck" story in Writing Strands, basically doing a paragraph a day. Rabbit is actually kind of excited about it, and has been reading it to her brothers and dad as she finishes each paragraph. I've been trying to give her ideas to get her jump started, and it goes pretty well.

In God and the History of Art, one of the lessons was to do cross-hatching for shading. She did a  pretty good job, be we talked about how hard it is and how much practice we need. We listened to "Autumn" from the Vivaldi CD, and she did the cross-hatching while we did that.

So far, Star of Light is an interesting story. The kids are asking a lot of questions about why the little girl, Kinza, was born blind. I've read ahead, so I know how the story ends. Oh, what good stuff is in this book! Don't skip it.

One interesting side note... I was cleaning up the school room, and found a paper Rabbit had written on. She basically summarized what she had learned about pyramids. Now, the spelling wasn't that great (pyramids was spelled "pearumids"), but I loved how she summarized. She got that the base of the pyramids were perfect squares, and the sides perfect triangles and that we really don't know exactly how they built them. Anyway, I never told her to write it, she just did. That is so encouraging to me that she is trying things on her own like that.

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Sep. 30, 2009 - CtG: Week 7

Boy, school is going so well so far. Yes, we have our ups and downs, but overall, things are going well.

Bible this week was about Abraham - from God making his Covenant with him to Hagar and Ishmael being sent away. One of the things that I thought was interesting about Hagar is she wasn't really seeking God - yet he found her twice. He sought her out. God seeks us out.

History was about writing and reading. It was quite interesting how they made paper from papyrus reeds. Rabbit made a Cartouche and hung it on her door.

Science had some fun experiments. Everyone joins in. I really worked hard at just guiding Rabbit, and only helping her when she was really doing it wrong. We bought those clear plastic cups that are like the Solo cups, only smaller for our experiments. We were able to do the experiments in the sink. (The bathtub is out of the question due to water restrictions. If anyone ever offers you an aquarium - accept it. They will come in handy for science experiments even if you never have any fish.) Rabbit was really surprised that you could keep paper in a cup dry if you put the cup in the water upside down. Even after doing the "pouring air" experiment, she did not expect that result at all. Seeing that air has weight (or mass) was another interesting experiment. Blowing up the balloon and watching our scale "tip" toward the air filled balloon was another surprise. Rabbit expected the balance to stay equal.

We've almost finished All-About-Spelling Level 2. It has been a good review for Rabbit, and I see some of her spelling getting better. She's starting to recognize when words "just don't look right." Now, that doesn't always mean she can fix them right, but she's learning.

Math is going well. We've finished Lesson 2 and began Lesson 3 in MUS's Delta. She's doing great with it. She really remembers the division facts faster than multiplication at this point. I think when she sees a product and one of the factors, she easily remembers the other factor that goes with it - kind of like a number bond. Just seeing the two factors doesn't always help her remember the product, though. However, she is getting faster with her multiplication facts. But, her addition and subtraction facts have gotten slower.

Art and Music continue to be fun. She didn't quite finish her picture for Vivaldi's "Summer," so no picture for the blog.  The art lessons are good for her. They make her think and try new things. She gets a little frustrated, "because I'm not that good at it." But, I think the skills build on each other, and long term will make a difference.

The kids caught colds toward the end of the week, but we still managed school every day.

The boys are doing well with Abeka's K. We've done up to lesson 31 now. It is funny, Tigger sounds out each sound and then blends them together - he still gets the blends/words right, but he will say "/c/-/a/-/t/ cat." Pooh, on the other hand, blends each sound right from the beginning. He stretches the sounds out a little slower, but he still does it. Sometimes, though, he adds a sound onto the end of a blend that isn't there (most commonly /t/), but he is getting it. They love the silly games in Abeka. (Rabbit didn't really get into them all that much when she did this program.) One thing I did for "review" drills is opened a manila file folder and drew a race track, with spaces that are just the right size for a matchbox car. Then, each one picks their favorite car, and when the say the right sound/blend/whatever, they get to move their car one space. They LOVE this, and it was so easy to do.

Another thing I am doing for the boys is focusing on writing numbers for the next 2 weeks. I never did for Rabbit, we just plowed into Primer and she didn't really know how to write the numbers. We had got through lesson 5 in Primer with the boys, and I realized I hadn't taught them how to form their numbers. So, I made up some worksheets, and each day we practice one new number, and review the two previous. We'll do 0 - 4 this week, and 5-9 next week. Primer will have lots more practice for them, but I just really wanted to focus on forming those numbers correctly before we got too far into the year.

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Sep. 20, 2009 - Abeka K5

Well, mostly my blog has been focusing on MFW's programs. This year, I am doing Abeka's K5 program with Pooh and Tigger. I used it with Rabbit, and still have all the games, flashcards, and other things I made to go with it, so I thought I might as well use it. Some people have said that you shouldn't teach your twins together. So far, though, it is going okay. Their desks are right next to each other, with a lamp in between.

We start out with phonics. Usually it is some game, or song, or review activity. Doing this together works pretty well. Sometimes it is a blend ladder (or ladders), and those I do one-on-one.

Next we do handwriting. If we are learning a new letter, I get out our Handwriting Without Tears hands-on activities and we do those together. But, when they practice writing the letter on their slate, I watch them each one at a time, to make sure they are doing correct formation. If it is a review of a letter, then I have a Rubbermaid container of sand that they each practice in. Usually, I sit with Pooh when they actually do their worksheets. (Tigger has much better fine motor skills.) I talk him through the letter formation. Now, we're using Abeka's manuscript pages for handwriting worksheets, but we do single-stroke formation instead of ball-stick. Most of the time, I've crossed out the arrows and numbers and put in the way I want them to do it. They think it is fun that we're breaking the rules. Tigger actually goes slower than Pooh when doing his handwriting worksheet. So, after I'm done with Pooh, I go assist Tigger. Usually, it is to keep him from getting upset over little mistakes.

After that, we do our Phonics Review time. Again, this is usually some kind of game, or song, or other fun activity. I do try to do these together, but make sure that both of them get a chance at all the flashcards. If it is blend ladders, though, we do those separately.

Then the boys do a math page from Math-U-See's Primer. (Though, the next two weeks, we're going to stop and focus on learning to write our numbers.) This usually takes 5 minutes, tops. It is funny to see how different they are. When Tigger is counting items on a page, he numbers each one so he doesn't lose track of where he is. Pooh just puts a mark through each one and counts as he goes.

Some days we add in the Cuisinare Rods Alphabet book. They enjoy doing these activities. I don't normally sit with them while they do these. I could, and have them do all the questions/suggestions on the pages, but they just prefer to build. It is still problem solving skills, so I'm okay with it. Most days that takes about 1 hour. Sometimes 1 1/2 hours.

The boys can get on each other's nerves playing with each other all day. I'm thinking about scheduling time for one of them to go play, while the other does an activity from our old preschool toys, and then switch off again. I'll probably really need to do this when we start reading the little Abeka books for K5 - I'll need some activity to keep one occupied while I work with the other. I realize that's what the "seatwork" is for, but I can see my boys finishing that stuff pretty quick.

We'll be on day 27 tomorrow, so I feel like were making good progress.

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Sep. 19, 2009 - Thoughts about Science

Doing Science with my kids for home school has been a real struggle for me. You’d thing a Computer Science major with a Math minor would have no problems. I think I had a lot of negative experiences in school. I remember trying to do a “making crystals” experiment in elementary school. We never got any crystals to grow on our screw – we only got rust. Then, I remember doing dissections in 7^th grade biology. I always got C’s or D’s. I could never really tell the animal’s body organs once we opened it up – they were never in the same place as the drawings in the textbooks. Experiments in Chemistry class were always hit or miss. I think the only class where most of the experiments actually worked was Physics. Even in college, I think I just got B’s in my Physics lab class.

So, when we’ve been doing our Science stuff for school, mostly I’ve been reading the book, and doing the experiments with Rabbit (and Pooh and Tigger as observers). And really, it is me doing the experiments. Now, some of that is because Rabbit is afraid of something “bad” happening (like she was scared of the sparks from squeezing the mints). But, the other part of it, I’m not sure.

Well, the other day, my friend mfwrocks posted some thoughts about doing science in the elementary years:

1. Let them read the material with you.
2. Ask them, “What do you think will happen?”
3. Then say, “Ok, let's find out.”
4. Have them try the experiments on their own, as much possible.
5. Let them go "cool" and "wow" and laugh at science nerd jokes.
6. Teach them to observe what is going on.
7. Make them clean it up and put it away.
8. Ask them, “What did happen? Is that what we expected? And why?”

Now the other observation that my dh made was that we need to teach the Scientific Method without being hung up on the teaching the terms and phrases of The Scientific Method. You just want the kids to be so comfortable with asking, “What will happen if I do this?” Set it up, observe and figure out why --- that it becomes how they think about science. And not a check box to say, "Ok. I covered scientific method in the curriculum and that's good, right?"

See, I’m the one doing the experiments. I should really be letting Rabbit try the experiments, and just being there as a guide or assistant. It is usually the other way around. Then I get frustrated when she doesn’t do anything but stand there or sit there. I also have a hard time with #7, as my kids aren’t really that good at cleaning up. But, that’s part of the training process and I just need to get over it and start training them.

Anyway, it was just such a timely post, and it really made me think about what I’m doing as a teacher that is either helping or hindering the kids.

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Sep. 19, 2009 - CtG: Week 6

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 Book 2 of All About Spelling. 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 Tanglewoods’ 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.

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Sep. 13, 2009 - CtG: Week 5

Another fabulous week of school. Monday, of course, was Labor Day, so we didn't do school then. But, that's okay, since Friday on the schedule is a feast day.

Bible has been working more on memorizing the Old Testament books. I love all the verses that they picked for us to read. Such encouraging verses.

History has been learning about Ancient Egypt. Our books didn't come in until Thursday, so now I have a bunch of books on Egypt when we're almost done. It was interesting to read about pyramids, why they built him, how we still don't know for sure how they built them, etc. Rabbit really likes it when the notebook pages are just coloring - one of them was this week. It was also very interesting to draw the map of the Middle East Today over our map of the Mediteranian area.

We're still in the Pyramids science book. One project this week was to build a step pyramid from sugar cubes. That was fun! Here is our final result:

We didn't do all the science activities, but one of the activities we're doing is to figure out how the mummification process prevents decay. So, we've got our sandwich bags set up and waiting for mold to start growing:

Rabbit enjoyed listening to Vivadi and creating a "Spring" picture this week:

In math, Rabbit decided she wanted to learn division, so we've switch back to Math-U-See's Delta. I know, probably not a good idea, but I figure if she wants to do it, then it will go easier. She finished lesson 1 in 3 days - including the quiz. She's also read some silly stories from the library about kids who have had trouble learning their math facts.

The rest of school is going well. We didn't get to Writing Strands or Spanish on our last day because of a doctor's appointment. Spanish I'm not worried about. We'll just move on to the next lesson. For Writing Strands, I may do a lesson on Friday, just to get all "caught up." It's been a lot of writing for Rabbit, so it has been a challenge, but I'm trying to encourage and help her as much as possible.

We're not going to build a booth for Sukkoth. We're probably going to set up Rabbit's pup-tent, and do the Sukkoth readings in the tent, and maybe enjoy a snack there. The kids love it when we set up the pup-tent. We did read the passages in the Teacher's Manual. It is neat how the emphasis is on celebrating, being joyful or having joy, and praising God.

One other thing. On days we start by 8:15, we usually finish by noon. On the days we don't, then we're doing 1 to 1.5 hours after lunch. More motivation to get started by 8:00!

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Sep. 13, 2009 - CtG: Week 4

Wow! I just have to say we love this curriculum so far.

We celebrated Rosh Hashanah over the weekend, and have been blowing the shofar every day and reading the "reasons" to remember. I've tried to talk to Rabbit about the symbolism of the different parts, but she's not quite getting it. Anyway, here is our shofar:

Here is how our table looked for Rosh Hashanah:

Besides the crown on the globe, Rabbit made crowns for herself and the boys.

For Bible this week we've been working on memorizing the books of the Old Testament. Rabbit has already learned these for Sunday School and AWANA, so it has just been review. However, mfwrocks posted a great idea for a game. We write the numbers on the back of the "flashcards" and place them in order on the floor or table. Then, one of us flips one over. The other person has to name the book before and the book after. I figured this would help Rabbit be able to find the books quicker in her Bible. We enjoyed this game.

Most of History has been studying Egypt. One day we looked at the Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. The kids acted it out. Here is Tigger and Rabbit with their crowns:

And of course, Rabbit had to be King Menes. Here she is with the combined crown:

Rabbit enjoyed coloring the notebook page. We did not make the reed boat. We thought about using corn stalks or leaves (our corn didn't grow this year) as an alternative. We may still try doing this sometime. Reading about Egypt has been interesting, but many of our books from the library haven't come in yet.

Science has been fun playing with the different aspects of pyramids. I think the kids were surprised how strong they were. If you do the experiements, get LOTS of sticky-tac.

Rabbit is doing well for her other subjects. Right now we're working in Singapore math. Rabbit decided she wanted to try it.

She's enjoying the stories in The Easy Spanish. I'm not having her go too in depth. At this point we're looking at "exposure" to the language.

The God and the History of Art lesson are fun. I see the exercises carrying over into her other drawing.

The Tanglewoods is such a good book! Don't miss it if you can.

We didn't do the Yom Kippur feast. We talked about it a little, but had other plans this weekend. But, it was kind of funny - for the boys bed time our bookmark was at the story of Jonah, so we got to talk about it a little bit.

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Aug. 31, 2009 - CtG: Week 4 Day 1

I just wanted to report: We actually finished school by lunch today!!!! Our kitchen sink faucet is out of commission, so I couldn't do dishes this morning. We started at 8:15 and I finished reading our read aloud during lunch. Then, after lunch, the kids went outside and tried to make mud bricks and build pyramids, like they learned about in school. You gotta love it when the kids take their education into their own hands like that. It gives me hope that when dance class starts we'll be able to get done before Rabbit has to go.

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Aug. 31, 2009 - CtG: Rosh Hashanah

Well, we went on vacation last week, so we really only did 4 days of Week 3. I wanted things to line up with the manual, so we did the Rosh Hashanah feast yesterday evening (Sunday), and caught up with the weekend readings, so Monday lines up with Monday.

For the feast we did grilled salmon (no fish heads), grilled corn on the cob, and a salad. I had talked with the kids what a traditional meal would have and why, but we didn't do it all. I got a loaf of Sheepherders bread from the grocery store to use as our "round loaf" and we just used grape juice for our wine. Rabbit made the crown and ladder. We followed the steps in the lesson plan. We chose pineapple (they were only $1 each) for our "new fruit." That's when we had a meltdown. Pooh doesn't like fruit, so he threw a fit when we told him he had to try a bite before he could have more bread (he LOVES bread).

Afterward, the kids acted out the Abraham sacrifices Isaac story, so that was cute. Anyway, it was a pretty neat little celebration, point us to Christ as our sacrificial ram. I'll put up pictures of our table when I can get them on the computer.

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Aug. 31, 2009 - CtG: Week 3

This week we learned about Noah and the Flood, Noah's Descendants, and the Tower of Babel in our Bible time, and began memorizing the books of the Old Testament. Rabbit has already memorized these for Sunday School (thanks for that!),  AWANA and Keeper's, so it is just review for her. The boys are starting to learn them, but there has been some resistance. I love how there are key verses from each book to look up.

The Greek vocabulary words are going fine so far. I'm still helping her with sentences and looking up words in the dictionary. Neither dictionary we have is really good about showing the original Greek or Latin. Some words have it, some don't, so that has made it trickier.

We've been continuing on in Writing Strands and that goes pretty well. I ended up having her dictate to me, and then write on the white board, and she is copying it back into her notebook. We finished up our Handwriting Review this week. She is excited to start in the Handwriting without Tears workbook.

For math, we finished up Beta, lesson 29. I looked at what lesson 30 is, and decided we're done - it was just more multiplying large numbers. We're going to switch over to Singapore 3A and see how it goes. I think it may be more at her "level." I'm going to crack open my Delta teacher's manual and see how they teach division so I can work with Rabbit on her that when we hit it in 3A.

We keep going through the Intermediate Language Lesson book lessons. The picture study was a little different this week. Rabbit is really struggling with her imagination and these pictures. Maybe we just didn't do enough of this before.

I keep forgetting to do Spelling with Rabbit. We only got to it two days this week. We finished one lesson, but the other, I could tell she was struggling (step 12, Book 2 of All About Spelling). It was hard to guess whether it was attitude or food sensitivity kicking in, so I stopped the lesson.

History is still tied in with the Bible a lot right now. So, we've been doing the Bible and then History readings all together, since the History is covering what's in the Bible. Makes Bible time last a little longer, and means we don't have a separate History time. Rabbit is still working on her notebook pages. She has trouble copying her writing, though. Oh, and the cuneiform project - that was a bomb! I used "canned" sugar cookie dough from the grocery store, and the tablets expanded to much when they were baking, and the writing disappeared. Next time we'll use clay.

Science was interesting and fun this week. The burn-things-up-with-the-magnifying-glass experiment didn't work. I've done it lots as a kid, but the magnifying glasses we had wouldn't work, or it was too early in the day. The other experiments, with the winter green candies and the penny did work! It did take a while to find a glass that would work with the penny, but we did find it. The little guys really thought it was cool to make the penny appear.

Reading is still the Pathway Readers. The stories are just so good. Sometimes we work in the workbook, but most days, I do not.

I think Rabbit is liking The Easy Spanish. I'm still helping out a lot. I like that it is gentle.

Rabbit is enjoying both Art and Music. I think the Art will help her, even though she is a little on the young side.

I'm loving The Tanglewoods' Secret. I read ahead to myself to see where the story went and balled my eyes out. My kids just rolled their eyes. How I wish there were many more stories like this one.

The boys finished learning all their vowels this week. They're still having trouble hearing the vowel sound in the middle of words, but we'll keep working on it. Pooh is going to really struggle with writing, being a lefty. He really doesn't have the fine motor control. I'll keep doing things on the slates and stuff with hime to help. Tigger has incredible fine motor control for a 5 year old boy, but has trouble "touching the lines." Oh well. The Primer math book is perfect for the boys.

School is going well. I'm totally pleased.

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Aug. 16, 2009 - CtG: Week 2

Bible: We continued work on our memory verse, then read about The Fall, Cain and Abel, and Noah. The fun part is this is lining up exactly with what the children are learning in Sunday School and what our pastors are preaching about in church. I love it when God works things out like this. 

History: We're studying the same topics as in Bible for History. We looked at the Jewish calendar to compare how it lines up with our solar calendar. Rabbit made some notebooking pages. One day, I wrote her narration and she drew the picture. The other days, she copied what I wrote down for her. We also added Noah to our timeline. One day, we went out and measured the length of the ark. It would just about go from one end of our street to the other. Maybe short by 50 feet.

Here's a picture, no zoom applied, of the length of the ark (the little white circle is where our starting point):


Then I zoomed in so you could really see the flag:


Our street is slightly curved, so it is a little misleading. We stayed on the sidewalk to measure, so we curved as we walked. My guess is the ark would have filled our street, end to end, and sat on top of the houses.

Science: I really don't like it when science experiments don't work. First we tried making the glowing hand on the T.V. We have an old CRT style TV in the basement (that is plugged in). (I'm pretty sure this probably wouldn't work on an LCD TV). It's pretty dark down there, but there is one window on the north side of the house that lets in some light. So, we tried this, and barely saw the glowing hand for 1/2 a second. I'm guessing it wasn't dark enough.

The second experiment was difficult because, as far away as we could get from the TV, the remote still worked. However, we tried blocking the remote with our hand, and that worked. One thing we noticed, when we got close to the TV (about 1.5 feet), our hand had to be totally over the end of the remote. If we were more than 1/2 a centemeter away from the bulb on the remote, the TV would turn on. So, that was kind of wierd.

Math: Rabbit moved on to Lesson 29 in Beta. It's a pretty easy lesson. She even did one of the pages all by herself this week.

English: I just love how Intermediate Language Lessons works. Rabbit has managed the lessons pretty well. We've still done most of them orally.

Writing: We finished up Exercise 1 by having Rabbit do the same thing with a different starter sentence. She dictated to me and I wrote on the white board, pointing out punctuation and capitalization. We read through Exercise 2, Day 1 and discussed it a little bit. I found my notes from mfwrocks, so I think we'll discuss a few more things this next week based on those notes.

Vocabulary: Learning the Greek roots has been easy so far - but it is only 2 words. I've been trying to guide Rabbit in how to write good sentences with the words. Looking some of the derivatives up in the dictionary has been very good practice.

Art/Music: Rabbit has enjoyed God and the History of Art this week, as it was all drawing lessons. We learned some about Vivaldi for music. He was a busy man, that is for sure.

Reading: The 4th grade level Pathway reader has been a hit. We read a story a day. If it is short, we'll work some of the workbook. If it is long, then we skip the workbook. I don't think the workbook is really necessary, but it does give good practice on vocabulary words and usage.

Foreign Language: We starting using The Easy Spanish this week. The way it is designed is for 5 days a week, but I'm only using it 3. On Monday we listen to the story and vocabulary, and do one of the activities or worksheets suggested in the manual. On Wednesday (this may have to shift to Tuesday once Dance class starts), we listen to the story and vocabulary, and do a "Yo Soy!" activity. Then on Thursday, we listen to the story and vocabulary one more time, and then she narrates back to me what the story was about. Very relaxed, very Charlotte Mason. The characters in the stories are Christians and home schooled. We like it so far.

Read Aloud: We started The Tanglewoods' Secret this week, reading a chapter a day. So far we're enjoying it. The chapters are very short, making it for a quick read.

A couple of days this week we started late. But, I really worked hard to start by 8:30 the rest of the days. I think if we could start by 8:00 am we would actually be done with everything but math by 12:00. It is a goal I am hoping to hit.

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Aug. 12, 2009 - Celebrating Sabbath in CtG

Part of our curriculum is to celebrate several Old Testament Feasts. The first one we did was the Sabbath celebration.

In the morning, I read a little bit to the children from the Celebrating Biblical Feast books about the Sabbath. I explained that it would not be a regular school day, that we would have a celebration instead. (Of course, at this point, Tigger asked if they would be getting presents.)  Then Rabbit and I got busy. I started with making challah - special bread for the celebration. I didn't follow the recipe in the book. Since I grind my own whole wheat grain, I just followed my recipe and braided the loaves instead of baking them in a pan. Here's what it looked like:


Then we cleaned the house. Dad came home early, and read through the pertinent pages so he would be well prepared for the meal.

Rabbit had made the challah covering earlier in the week. We followed mfwrocks' idea of just photocopying the picture from the book a placing it over the bread:


(I don't think the picture does it justice.)

We had gone camping a few weeks ago, and one of our fellow campers gave us 3 fish from their fising expeditions - 2 trout and a salmon, we think. So, we grilled the fish (I don't bake fish in the house, because I don't want the house smelling like fish), made mashed potatoes, and had a salad. We used grape juice instead of real wine. My kids aren't into soup, so I didn't follow the recipe or meal suggestions from the book. Besides, I figured it was the symbolism of the bread, wine, and candles that were important, not the exact food. Here is the table all set for the meal (except for the fish):


We didn't wait until sundown to have our meal - it would have been 9:00pm, and that is way past the kids' bedtime! We went through the steps as outlined in the teacher's manual and book. I lit the candles. Dad did all his steps. The children really loved having their Daddy lay his hands on them and pray a blessing over them. You should have seen the smiles.

We did not finish the Sabbath celebration on Saturday. We ended up going to a local amusement park for the day, and by the time we got home, exhaustion was settling in. I figure we can choose another Saturday evening to finish.

Anyway, it was a neat experience, and I'm looking forward to doing some more feasts.

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Aug. 10, 2009 - CtG Week 1

Well, Week 1 went really good. We had school Monday through Thursday. I didn't count Friday, even though we were learning about another culture.

Bible time has been interesting. I read the passage(s) suggested, and then the kids narrate. Sometimes I read a paragraph and then pick one of the kids to narrate. Tigger and Pooh don't always quite get it yet. Rabbit usually does fine. After we're done with that, I ask, "What does this passage teach us about God." Sometimes their answers are cute. I've been writing them down in our special Bible notebook. I keep my NIV Study Bible handy to check the notes for anything interesting.

History was just going through Dinosaurs of Eden. The boys really like looking at the pictures. It is kind of neat because the children are going through the "Seven C's" curriculum from Answers in Genesis in Sunday School this summer, and the information they are learning there has applied to both Bible time and "History."

While some may find the Science book, Genesis for Kids, corny, we've been enjoying it. Thursday we had an experiment to show how we all have a blind spot. The kids thought that was especially cool. I was really glad our first experiment worked. I had tried it over the weekend before to make sure.

At this point in the day, Rabbit usually breaks off to do her "homework" as she calls it. Mostly this is a handwriting page, her notebook page, math drill, and sometimes "English from the Roots Up" work. On Thursday, she actually did her Writing Strands work by herself. I was so proud of her. She needed a little help with the last sentence, but she did most of the work herself, and didn't complain.

So, I've been working with the boys while Rabbit does her homework. We start with Phonics, and that works pretty well. Then we do handwriting. I have to work with on at a time when we do handwriting. I've been throwing in activities from Handwriting Without Tears, like pencil grip activities, using the wooden pieces to build the capital letters, and writing on the slates. Then we have Phonics Review time, which is usually some kind of game. We finished all the pages from the first lesson in Math-U-See's Primer this week. One day I let the boys do the "I" pages from the Cuisinare Rods Alphabet Book. They loved this. Pooh said, "This is fun, but tricky." Just up his alley. They've asked every day since we did that activity to do it again.

Once the boys have finished, they are free to play. Sometimes they draw or color, sometimes they go outside, and other days they play in the basement. Rabbit and I are then free to continue working on school. Monday through Wednesday we have English, so we work on that. Wednesday and Thursday were Writing Strands. She's been reading to me from the Pathway Reader for 4th grade. She has only done the workbook pages once. We are continuing on through All About Spelling Level 2. We're half way through step 8.

Math and Art has fallen in the afternoon. Rabbit has had some issues with the Math. Not that she can't do it, but it is a lot of writing when you have 3 or 4 digit numbers times 2 and 3 digiti numbers. Sometimes Art is just art history, and other times there are actual lessons. I think she has been enjoying it.

I'm so pleased with how the first week of school has gone.

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Aug. 3, 2009 - Creation to the Greeks (CtG): Day 1

We did it! Hooray! We made it through the first day of school, teaching 3 kids. Here are Pooh, Rabbit, and Tigger:


I started off doing Bible, History, and Science together. I think it might have been a little over the boys' heads, but it was good. I bought a notebook just for writing down "What does this passage tell us about God?" Today's answers: "God is all powerful. God has always been here." In History we read from Dinosaurs in Eden. The pictures of the dinosaurs were a big hit. It didn't take too long to read it. Then, we read the introduction in our science book. The kids loved the silly puns and fun discussion. They were ready for it to be done, though.

Rabbit worked on her handwriting page, addition math windows, history notebook page, and book basket while I taught the boys. We did lesson 1 in Abeka's K program. Then we did the first lesson in Math-U-See's Primer. Next we did some exercises from Handwriting Without Tears. One of the exercises was a trick to show the kids how to hold their pencil properly. It was funny watching Pooh do that the rest of the day, every time he picked up a writing utensil. Tigger already has a good pencil grip. I think the boys were a little disappointed that their time was over (we spend an hour together), but they had no problem running off to play.

Next, Rabbit and I worked on her Singapore Math. This was a number pattern lesson, and she was really struggling with it. Finally, she got to the last problem, which was a big puzzle to fill in. (It looked like a crossword, but there were patterns of numbers with blanks, and she had to fill in the blanks.) I didn't think she could do it. She was getting frustrated, so she took her book and ran off to her room. About 20 minutes later, I went in and checked on her, and she had figured out all but 4 blanks on the puzzle! I was amazed. I helped her think through how to fill in the last 4.

Then we did the first lesson in Intermediate Language Lessons. I let her do it orally. Then we read from her Pathway Reader and she filled in the workbook pages for it. She didn't answer any of the questions that required a long answer. I was fine with that. She just did the fill-in-the-blank types. I'm letting her use a pen for some of her writing, and she really likes that.

After lunch, they had recess, and then I did the "Lesson on Frustration" from God and the History of Art. None of kids could make any marks on their papers with their pencils in their mouths. 

Rabbit trying:

Pooh trying:

Tigger trying:

So, then they tried with their "non-writing hand" and that was hated as well. After that, they just colored their copy of the butterfly.

The boys had their quiet time, and Rabbit needed about 15 minutes more of school to get in our requred 4 hours. So, we did spelling. Things took a turn for the worse on attitude about then. We got through the lesson, but she lost computer priviledges for the day. In talking to my husband about that, he suggested we go back to the attitude chip cups we did last year. Last year we had paper clips, this year I have the pretty decorative marbles from Michael's Craft Store that are flat on one side. I made a cup for each child and will begin implementing immediately. I need to come up with a chart of consequences. Last year if she lost 5 chips, she lost computer time. I also made it so she could earn chips back by doing extra chores. I need to come up with consequences for losing more than 5 chips. I need to find un-fun stuff.

I feel pretty good about our first day, in spite of the attitude issues. We got it all done, and I didn't end up in tears!

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Jul. 29, 2009 - Getting Ready

I have been spending the summer basically getting ready for school. I've been researching curriculum, trying some things with Rabbit, and entering lesson plans into Homeschool Tracker Plus (HST+). We are actually going to start next Monday! The kids are really excited about it.

This summer, Rabbit and I have been doing All About Spelling. We finished Level 1 in about a month. It was a good review of the basic phonics rules. I really like the hands-on aspect of the letter tiles and the built-in review. We started level 2 a couple of weeks ago, but there have been a bunch of last minute doctor's appointments and a camping trip that have cut into getting to spelling.

We also started working on Singapore 3A. What?!?! You may ask. Well, I think Math-U-See is great, but I feel it is lacking in some aspects. I managed to pick up the Singapore 3A and 3B textbooks used at a used curriculum fair this summer, and then I bought lesson plans and the workbooks from MFW at the CHEC Conference. The textbooks are color, but the workbooks are black and white. I think the Singapore books really work on the concepts of math in a more concrete way. One of the things about MUS that has been bothering me is the order. In the Alpha book, they teach both addition and subtraction. Then, in the Beta book, they teach carrying and borrowing, gradually building to bigger and bigger numbers. In Gamma they teach multiplication, including big numbers. Then, in Delta they teach division, including long division. I think it would be better if they taught the basic multiplication and division concepts in Gamma, and then in Delta teach the carrying and long division, similar to the way they did additon and subtraction in Alpha and Beta.

The little bit of Singapore we have done has been challenging to Rabbit. She has really struggled, but I think it has been good to show her new ways of looking at math and numbers.

Rabbit still struggles with writing, but we did a year of Brain Integration Therapy, and have only seen minor improvements. My husband thinks it may be partly a maturity issue. We have done some typing this summer, but I haven't been consistent with it. I found an online game that will at least let her do it by herself. Maybe as a part of her "independent" time each day.

I love using Homeschool Tracker Plus to plan out my weeks. It took quite a bit of work to get the Creation to the Greeks (CtG) material entered. For History I just made the Lesson field say "Week X, Day Y" and then in the notes it says, "See T.M. for details. This may include reading, notebooking, and timeline work." I did something similar for the Bible subject. For Science, Art/Music, and Read Alouds I went ahead and entered the book and pages.

In English we will be using Intermediate Language Lessons. Again, a lot of this can be done orally. I have some ideas from my friend mfwrocks that will really help.

ForWe'll be finishing MUS Gamma, and then possibly alternating between Delta and Singapore for Math. Rabbit really hasn't had division yet, so I feel like she needs some exposure to it before we get too far into our Singapore book.

Since Rabbit has struggled with printing (her cursive is beautiful), I got Handwriting Without Tears' (HWT) 5th grade printing workbook. We'll do the 3 weeks of handwriting review from the Creation to the Greeks manual, and then I'll have her do 10 to 15 minutes from the HWT every day. She has looked through the workbook and is excited about it.

For Reading we will be using the 4th grade level Pathway Reader and the Abeka 4th grade level readers. The stories will be good, and I know they should be just the right level for her to read to me. I'm going to start with having her read aloud to me every day. If she shows signs she is doing well with it on her own, then I may cut that back 2 to 3 times a week.

For Spanish we will be using The Easy Spanish. It is very Charlotte Mason and Christian, and Rabbit will love the stories. Creation to the Greeks only schedules Foreign Language 3 days a week, so it will be interesting to see if that is enough or if we need to do it every day.

Tigger and Pooh will start Kindergarten. I am using Abeka's Phonics and Manuscript Handwriting. But, I will be modifying the handwriting to follow the way HWT teaches to form the letters. I really think the ball/stick methods of Abeka confused Rabbit somewhat and contributed to her handwriting problems. I really like that HWT teaches a single stroke for all the lowercase letters. We'll be using the Abeka handwriting worksheets. A friend of mine (thanks Marla!) gave me her HWT teacher's manuals and wood pieces and slates, so I'll be using those to help teach writing. I've got it all into HST+ as lesson plans. I will use MUS's Primer this year with the boys to just get them started.

I was really starting to panic about how I was going to teach all the kids. But, I read through everything we're going to do with Creation to the Greeks this coming Monday, got all the copies together, and all that, and I realized it is going to be okay. We're going to do Bible, History, and Science all together first. Then, Rabbit can do her History notebook page, handwriting, math drill, vocabulary card, and book basket while I'm working with the boys. The first week isn't too intense, and I don't think it will take more than 1 hour to work with the boys each day. Then, when I'm done with the boys, I'll do English, Math, Spelling, Reading, and Art/Music with Rabbit. Science is really only 2 days a week, sometimes 3. We don't add in any Read Alouds or Foreign Language until the second week. The Read Alouds I'll try to do at lunch, or just after. Spanish can wait until after lunch. Math may have to come after lunch while the boys are having a "quiet time" so Rabbit can focus.

Dance class starts mid-September, but it doesn't start until 2:00 in the afternoon! Hooray! I will probably move Wedneday's art classes to Thursday, or maybe even the lighter Friday so I don't feel stress about having everything done before 1:30.

Anyway, after going through everything today, I'm feeling much better about starting school next week. Thanks to all of you who have helped me get going this year. It is going to be a great year.

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Jun. 25, 2009 - ECC - End of Year Evaluation

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.

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