Week Four of ECC

This week I'm linking up with My Father's World Highlights at Discover Their Gifts.

We had another really great week of school.  We continue to find our groove and I am more and more blessed by the hard work my children are putting in.  I already see so much improvement, and I think a lot of it has to do with a change in heart and attitude in ALL of us!

We were blessed to receive this basketball hoop from Josh's aunt and uncle.  I had actually been thinking it would be nice to have one, maybe keep my eyes peeled at yard sales, but then we were given one!  Mister really loves to play and is encouraging Brown-Eyed Girl to join in.  She was feeling discouraged so we got the kitchen stool out (which reminds me, it was a gift from the same aunt and uncle when we got married! Funny!)  and she had a lot more success.

 Sometimes a little competition is healthy, but overall, I am not a fan of competing.  I want the goal of my "team" to be to encourage one another to do their personal best, to strive for their own personal best, and to be committed to the success of everyone.  When we stop trying to outdo everyone else, we can begin to rest in our own strengths and weaknesses and let others do the same.  Mister shows promise with the basketball....

Brown-Eyed Girl shows lots of promise in art.  And yet we can all appreciate each other's work and continue growing in every area!  I, personally, am no athlete.  I'm no artist either.  Yet I feel like I have the freedom to play ball and create like I never did before, when I join in with my children.  We're not trying to beat anyone or trying to get a 4.0 GPA.  One of my personal joys of homeschooling.

As part of our stop in America, we all made a "quilt" block using scrapbook papers.  I made mine with nine patches and then embellished it.  I let the kids have at it, but in hindsight, I should have had them make a nine patch too.  Brown Eyed Girl saw mine and wanted to make another one like it.  Mister's quilt is a crazy quilt, I think.

You never know what might happen to enhance our homeschool journey. Thursday afternoon I went out to get the mail.  Mister was at the door and said, "Uh, mommy, what's that thing in the driveway?"  I glanced about and cringed. That thing was a giant dead porcupine.  It must have met it's fate in the night.  Ug.

I called Josh to let him know he would have a job to do when he got home.  "There's a giant dead porcupine in the driveway!" I said.

He was laughing when he responded. "I know! I thought you and the kids would want to see it, so I left it!"

"You mean you saw it this morning and didn't get rid of it?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's really cool.  There are some quills lying on the ground.  Go out and see it."

I did not take the kids out to see it.  I let him have that pleasure when he got home from work.  This picture is as close as I got to it.  The quills are rather cool, hollow inside, and reminding me of shish-kabob skewers that are burnt on the end.  The kids want to show everyone they know.

I'm happy to report Josh did his job and removed the kill.

 Mister has been such a blessing, helping me out with Petite a lot. She loves to be read to and he has willingly done this many times. She is so happy to sit with him.  He is a great big brother.  Math for him has been SO much better this year, so far.  He doesn't seem as stressed, can work a bit more independently.  He's in the book we began with last year and had so much anxiety and trouble with.  While I think he was capable of the concepts last year, he wasn't mature enough to handle them.  I had moved him back a level last year and things got much better.  I feel that he is where he needs to be.  Another blessing and benefit of home educating.  The age of your child doesn't necessarily determine their grade.  Not all 1st graders are 6, not all kids graduate at 18.

We got our latest issue of of God's World News on Thursday.  The kids love getting mail and perusing the pictures and games.  I love that it gives them a gentle introduction to news around the world, carefully showing them what life is like in other places.  Things like poverty, injustice, and war are big things for little kids to process.  It must be done gently.

Brown Eyed Girl has made a giant leap in reading.  I'm so glad we spent time over the summer in this area.  She is becoming so much more fluent and wanted to make a card file of words she wants to learn.  I am so pleased with her diligence and desire to read more.

This week's Cousin's Co-Op was a field trip to the Commonground Fair, a yearly country fair held in our lovely state.  For several years we have wanted to go.  The first two years the weather prevented us, last year it was the day the movers brought all our belongings to our new house.  Which means we have been here 1 ... gulp... year.

There are no rides at the fair. It's more about agriculture, organics, crafts, sustainability, etc.  There is a lot of wonderful stuff to see and do for the kids.  The girls made these cute owls out of felt scraps.

There are lots and lots of animals. We were frequently warned that fingers look like carrots.  Mister especially looked like a carrot in his fleece.

It's hard to see, and the kids didn't notice it, but we had their picture taken here because of the sign in the background. "Kids For Sale".  Naturally, it meant goats, but I'm not so sure it wasn't a little joke on behalf of the sellers too.  Brown-Eyed Girl is pretending to be a sheep dog. We saw a wonderful demonstration of sheep dogs earlier.

A large hill is a paradise of fun for the kids.  They repurpose some old cardboard and use it to sled down the hill.  This was a great fair and we will definitely return in the future.