ECC is going great!

Sorry I haven’t updated in awhile!  Between school starting and adjusting schedules with that and Isaac, we’ve been too busy for me to mess with uploading photos.  LOL!  So this is kind of a catch-up post.
Weeks 1 and 2 we learned all about maps and globes.  Latitude and longitude.  Different kinds of maps, how to read maps, what kind of info maps can tell us.  We peeled an orange and tried to flatten the peel to see why flat maps are so distorted.  We also memorized the names and locations of the continents and oceans.  At the end of the 2nd week, we made this cake.

We also re-visited John 3:16, and colored some sheets that had it in different languages.  We learned that we were going to be studying and praying for different cultures and people groups around the world.  We would also learn about various missionaries and Christian heroes.  Vincent made a chain paper doll, and Andrew made a chain of hearts. 

We started weeks 3 and 4 off right here in the USA.  At the end of the 3rd week, this proud mama gave Vincent a blank map and and alphabetical list of the states, and he placed each one correctly without any help!  I was just beaming with that one, as I thought he would balk at it.  We learned an Omaha Indian song and sang the Eentsy Weentsy Spider.  We started reading the book of Matthew in the bible (Matthew is the focus this year…the Great Commission and all that).  We also started reading a missionary biography about Cameron Townsend and his missions in Mexico and Central America.  Very interesting reading.  We are learning about desserts for science, and we made Navajo sand paintings.  Here’s Vincent’s:

We just bought colored sand from Walmart and painted glue in a design, and sprinkled away!  Beautiful!
Oh, and I colored in on a map all the states we have been through/to.

Still have quite a few to get to, don’t we? 
We just finished week 5.  Weeks 5 and 6 are Mexico.  We are still in the dessert for science.  All week long, I have been having fun learning new Mexican recipes to try, and we have all been having fun eating them!  I will continue next week, although I will probably add some Carribean stuff, too.  We have been playing a game to help us learn all the countries in North America, as well as the major islands in the Carribean.  We’ve only played it twice and Vincent’s already bored because he already knows all the countries.    We’ve learned some Spanish expressions, and we’ve learned a little about the Mexican culture and people.  We’ve especially gleaned a lot by reading about Cameron Townsend.  We will learn more about Mexico next week, and then we will "fly" to Canada.  (Yes, Vincent even has a passport!)  Oh, yeah, Vincent’s been learning his cursive this year, too.

And here’s a couple silly shots.  Andrew’s learning to be goofy.  LOL!

And Isaac learned to smile!!!

Okay, that is a *really* cute last picture to leave y’all with!  This was a really long-winded post (whew!), and I’m really really going to try to keep current here!