Seeing as how we have been a bit sickly this week and we haven't been doing much more than lounging around, I think I'd like to share with you some of what we were doing last year. We were using My Father's World's ECC (Exploring Continents & Cultures.) I can't begin to tell you how much I loved this program. For those of you who aren't familiar with ECC, you can check it out here. Basically, it is a fun-filled trip around the world, where the student explores diverse countries and learns of the people, their food & customs, the geographic area and the environment that makes up their ecosystems, It is a complete curriculum, including Bible, Social Studies, Science, Art, Music and Read-Alouds. We thoroughly enjoyed our year doing ECC. The reason I wanted to share a little bit of our experiences is because when I was using ECC I found it very helpful to see how other families were using the program and I would eagerly seek out any information I could find on the Web. Today, I'm just going to share some pictures of how we got started at the beginning of our ECC year. We had another family, who was also doing ECC, that joined us every Friday for an activity day. Fridays were seriously crazy days. The boys were always so excited to get together, because, well one they are boys and they're just wild, but also because they knew we had lots of fun activities planned for them. We always tried to include one or two art projects, a quick review where we let the boys show off how much they'd learned that week, some music or cultural decorations, and lots of good food from the particular country we were studying at the time. Basically just a big party every Friday! What's not to love. First, I have to brag on my dear, talented mother, who came and transformed this little hallway at the bottom of the stairs going into our basement into The Explorer's Express Airstrip in the middle of a lush, tropical jungle. Using cut cardboard, she painted this adorable air traffic control station that is being manned by our friendly little monkey. But you know what's really clever about this? She attached magnet strips on the back of the cardboard so that it could attach to the big ugly metal fuse box panel that is directly behind that lovely work of art!! Below, you'll see the Destination sign for the airport. Each week a child got to place a giant thumb tack next to the country we would be "flying" to. This too cut from cardboard. After marking the destination on the board, we would introduce the new country by showing them the location on the world map and letting them pin the country's flag on the map, and by reading a book about the country. And finally, we'd have the children go through "customs" to have their passports stamped, and they were allowed to board their little plane. The plane is made out of two refrigerator boxes cut and pieced together. I spray painted it silver and just let the kiddos have fun decorating her. We glued a world map inside at the cockpit so that they could take turns navigating. We asked questions like, "Which direction are we headed?" and "What country did we just pass over?" Here's our sign post so nobody can get lost :) The bulletin board is all finished now! I love it and can't seem to bring myself to take it down. Maybe I'll leave it up for future reviews? You can see we attached a piece of string from the country's flag to the activity or artwork that went with that country. So, that is my not so short introduction to our year with ECC. I hope to be posting more about what we did last year. I'll just sprinkle in bits and pieces here and there as time permits. It's refreshingly nostalgic to go back and look at what we've studied and what all we've accomplished. I know you've got to feel the same way too. Sure, sometimes you probably ask yourself if they are getting any of this, but as time goes on, you can see little glimpses (and sometimes even amazing strides) of what's being absorbed. After all, God's given us these little guys and girls that are miraculous little sponges - they just soak up all the experiences, and somehow, over time it all comes together into this thing we call knowledge! Wow, what a privilege it is that we can take part in that with our children!! Blessings out there, Vicki P.S. If you fall in love with paintings and want some information about the artist, her name is Diane Knowles and her business name is Daystar Designs. She is a professional muralist and a positively, lovely Godly woman.