Canada Highlights

We have left Canada and entered Brazil.  But I wanted to take a few moments to highlight some of our Canadian adventure.  Until our recent studies, I never desired to visit Canada.  Now, I think it would be really neat to see the Inuits that I grew up to know as Eskimos.  And to see the Northern Lights would just be phenomenal!  We learned that the Aurora Borealis shows a display at least once a week, which is quite often, but the Canadians never tire of seeing it.  They say it's never the same, so it's always amazing.

We made soap sculptures similar to how the Inuits carve into soapstone, which is how many of them make a living.

And some of them really do live in igloos! So, we made our own igloos from sugar cubes. I got to the igloo a little late with my camera and it was already falling apart by the time I snapped the picture! Nonetheless, they were fun to make!

We found many great books at the library on Canada - some we read, others we looked through.  I think I had about 100 books checked out at one point (for both kids)!

At the end of our last week in Canada (Friday night), we popped some popcorn, nestled under blankets on the couch and had a girl movie night while Daddy worked.  We watched Anne of Green Gables since it was made in Canada on Prince Edward Island.  I wasn't sure how my girls would like it, but they both loved it.  I even overheard my youngest talking to her friend about it the next day!  The book would have been a great read, but it's quite long and too much for either of my girls.  I did check it out anyway, hoping to read it myself, and to show them that the movie was made from the book.  Yes, I admit, I've never read this book!  Add it to the list of books I've never read but always wanted to!

One other fascination with Canada was Niagra Falls.  Emily really wants to go there now.  What a fun trip that would be!

Even though Canada wasn't quite as "festive" as Mexico, I think we learned more on this trip because we didn't know as much about the people, provinces, and territories; and we had fun doing it!

Kingdom Tales

We are loving this book. All the symbolism reminds me of the Chronicles of Narnia, which we have not read together yet. If any of you have the first edition of ECC in MFW and didn't know this is recommended in the second edition, please give it a try!  We loved it from the beginning and Emily is actually comprehending far more than I thought she would. I love the brief discussion questions that MFW includes at the end of each chapter. It makes me glad that I decided to order the book directly from MFW instead of trying to find it elsewhere. The interest that this book has sparked is well worth the money spent on it. Truly a good read for adults and children alike. I believe one could read it over and over and pick up different things each time! I love books like this and apparently, Emily does too! Yeah!!!

Complete Book of Animals

Today, we began working in the Complete Book of Animals workbook. I taught from this book last year in our co-op with my daughter in the class, so we should breeze right through it. I debated about skipping it since we've done most of it, but decided that it would make for a good refresher and help with reading and writing skills. The pull-out stories are great too. Before adding them to our book basket (as recommended by MFW), I put them inside sheet protectors inside a binder with divider tabs for each continent. This should help preserve the pages and keep them organized.

I've been on this organization kick for a while and have learned many things that are working for us. Binders are just one of them!

My Father's World ECC

This year, we are Exploring Countries and Cultures with My Father's World with my 9 year old and MFW Kindergarten/First Grade with my six year old. I'm wondering if anyone has any advice on using the World Geography book with my 9-yr.-old. The book is written for grades 5-8, so I'm wondering if I should hold off on it or just try a few pages with each country we visit.

We started week 3 today and it's going really well so far. I like it more than expected. We really liked Adventures last year and I miss the United States history, but this is exciting too and we've learned so much (together) already!

My 6-yr.-old started Kindergarten late last year, so we're finishing that this year before moving on to first grade. She wanted to jump right in to first grade once she saw the science books. I hated to tell her that she had to finish K first! She's starting to read, which is very exciting. Her older sister went to public school for K & 1st, so teaching a child everything about beginning reading is new to me. I wasn't sure I'd be able to do it, but I owe God the credit. He led us to this curriculum and is guiding our days. I couldn't do this without Him!

All in all, we've had a great start to a new school year.