General Ideas for ECC

[Marie]

General Ideas for ECC

[kellybell]

Our family did pretty good learning the North American and South American countries in the geography game, but when it came to Europe and Africa, we were much slower. We found that the first time we played these games, it took a long time and we found ourselves guessing and not remembering, etc. that first time or two.

So, instead of making the entire geography game, we put just about 8 or 10 countries on the board at first (usually the ones we knew and maybe 2 or 3 "new" ones to learn). We made the cards for the 8 to 10 countries. When that became easy, we added about three more countries. We added a few now and then until the game board was filled up with the countries on the list.

[newat2]

Passports - the part I am MOST excited about is when they have to "apply" for them. My husband is going to be the place where they have to go get their photo. After they fill out their application and check, they will go to our guest room/office where he will take a picture with our digital camera and then print it out. They will have to include that with their "check" and application. I think this is going to be so much fun!!! We are going to start August 9th!

[mamax3]

I am a member of a board that has several international members. I put out a request of money, flags, postcards, newpaper, recipes and whatever else they could find. We have gotten so many neat thing from many different countries.
The other thing is my dh is a pilot and in his travels, I have him pick up flags, money, take lots of pictures, etc.
This has been a great little added feature to ECC for us.

Sybil

[lmjmann]

Hi - Here is a site where you can have some math practice making change with currency.
There are 5 different countries that you can choose from (Canada, United
Kingdom, Mexico, United States and Australia) to use their currency to make the change.
I was hoping there would be an aspect of comparison to US currency on each one, but you just see the different currency of the countries. That is okay, though, because it is a unique site for math practice that I think the kids might enjoy.
http://www.funbrain.com/cashreg/index.html
Laura

[lmjmann]

Here is a link to a really cool site that has panoramic pictures of locations
around the world. You feel like you are really there! This should integrate well with ECC.
http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/
http://geoimages.berkeley.edu/worldwide ... index.html

Laura M.

[ittybittypunkpinpie]

We LOVE music. We enjoy the Wee Sing Around the World, but we also have a couple of others that fit extremely well with this curriculum. Both are wonderful compilations of music from across the globe and are by Music For Little People (http://www.mflp.com -- but can be purchased at Amazon as well).

A Child's Celebration of the World includes such noted musicians as Raffi, Joan Baez, Taj Mahal, Papillion, and more. It features counting in Spanish, Swahili, Japanese, and French., "Baby Jesus" in Italian, "On a Vacation" teaches select and rather amusing phrases in a few languages.

Also one of our favorites is called World Party. It has traditional songs from all over the globe....Spain, Brazil, Italy, Morocco, South Africa, Venezuela, Chili, New Zealand and more. All of the songs are great for dancing in the living room -- very energetic and fun!

Whenever we need a break, we get out these CD's and enjoy dancing or playing rhythm instruments while listening to beautiful languages and songs.

[MichelleD]

I was browsing around at Walmart and found the neatest sticker book. It's called First Learning Sticker Activity: World, put out by Priddy Books. It was $5 at my local Walmart, over by the coloring books. There were also series for letters, numbers, colors, and shapes. But this one has over 100 stickers. There are stickers of continents, countries, landmarks, people, and animals. I am thinking this will be great not only for passports but for decorating notebook pages.

There are stickers of Aztec pyramids, penguins, tigers, sand dunes, the Taj Mahal, a Brazilian team soccer shirt, Arctic birds, buildings in Berlin, the Eiffel Tower, the Sydney Opera House, elephants, the Great Wall of China, koalas, llamas, parrots, a Masai girl, kiwi fruit, a Buddhist statue, etc. There are pages in the book to put the stickers on, but I think it'll work really well to use them for our various lessons this year. I'm really excited, and if it's at MY Wal-mart in the sticks in Iowa, surely it'll be at someone else's too!

Michelle D.

[Angela in ID]

Here's the link to a neat site for learning the locations of countries on each continent.

http://www.lizardpoint.com/fun/geoquiz/usaquiz.html

So far we have used it for North America - the United States and Mexico. My son did far better than I!!!! LOL

Blessings,

Angela

[lmjmann]

Here are two neat sites that go along with the ECC biographies... you might want to check them out.
Glimpses for Kids
http://www.crossroad.to/Books/children/ ... impses.htm

Portraits of Great Christians [click from list along left side]
http://ww2.intouch.org/site/c.fiJRK2PDJ ... stians.htm

We are LOVING ECC!!!
Laura in MO

[Heather (WI)]

Here are a few websites that we have found helpful with ECC:

http://www.coloring.ws/countries.htm

http://www.dltk-kids.com/world/index.htm

http://www.lizardpoint.com/fun/index.html

http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/world.htm

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/glossary/g ... index.html

http://www.ri.net/RIGeo/rigea/links.html

[Lisa B]

We find ourselves at Week 13, Norway, during this Christmas season. It has been fun and interesting to learn how Norwegians as well as some other countries and cultures celebrate Christmas. For example, Scandinavians have a tradition of hiding an almond in a rice pudding on Christmas Eve. Whoever receives the serving with the almond is believed to have his wish granted! Don't miss Annika's Secret Wish during your Norway unit. I about started crying while reading it aloud to my children!

I think we will do the rice pudding/almond this Christmas Eve, as well as "hide the pickle ornament" on the Christmas tree, which is a German tradition. The first one to find the pickle is the first one to open a present. We have also been reading a little on "Las Posadas", a Mexican tradition. I just wanted to write in and encourage you to investigate some of the Christmas traditions of other countries, whatever country you happen to be studying right now.

A neat book I found at the library is called Christmas Long Ago from A to Z by Bobbie Kalman, the same author of the series (Country) from A to Z as listed in the curriculum's recommended resources. Along with its beautiful illustration, it describes some traditions/Christmas origins from many lands, along with Bethlehem, the true reason for the season.

Here are some Merry Christmas greetings from around the world:

Feliz Navidad (Mexico)
Feliz Natal (Brazil)
Tin Hoa Niam (China)
Joyeux Noel (France)
Froehliche Welhnachten (Germany)
Burra Din Ki Mubarik (India)
O-Medeto (Japan)
Gledelig Jul (Norway)
Gud Jul (Sweden)
S Rojolestvom Christovim (Russia)


Have a Merry Christmas in My Father's World!

[LSH in MS]

Check this out for FREE games! www.sheppardsoftware.com/web_games_menu.htm

Under geography games they have sections for learning the the locations of the states, the capitals, and info about each state. In world Georgraphy they have games to learn the oceans and continents, the locations of the countries on each continent, and the capitals of each country.

My sons beg to do these. You can use them to help you learn the info or as review.

[Julie - Staff]

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007
Author: gwendy

As a review of the countries learned, we purchased The Global Puzzle by A Broader View. It is a 600 piece puzzle with the pieces the actual shapes of the individual countries. I worked the water and our son loved putting all the countries in their right places. It was a little more challenging than playing the geography game because we filled in all the countries not just the ones with a circled number. I highly recommend this puzzle for the kids and ourselves!

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 11:49 pm
Author: JoyfulDancer

I just got a set of 5 GeoPuzzles for my dc for this year. The pieces are much bigger than the global puzzle, and with a 4.5yo, 7yo and a 9yo who doesn't like puzzles I figured these would be of more use to us. It was a splurge for me, but Timberdoodle sells the whole set for much less than buying them each separately.

I'm especially excited about the North America one, since we just finished Adventures and now will get to find all the cute, tiny state pieces.
Laurie

Posted Mon Oct 27, 2008 7:17 am by Jenn in NC

We used The Global Puzzle. It is available in two different formats for older and younger kids. Lots of fun! Timberdoodle dot com has some pic's of each puzzle and a helpful review. While you are there you could also check out Geopuzzles, which are also good. These are done by region instead of... well, the whole globe. :)

Posted Mon Oct 27, 2008 10:47 am by dhudson

We enjoy the Junior World Map Globe by Ravensburg

Posted Mon Oct 27, 2008 5:49 pm by 705emily

We really like the Geopuzzles. In these puzzles, every country is a separate piece--which allows kids the opportunity to visualize sizes and shapes of countries as well as what they are adjoined to.

Posted Mon Oct 27, 2008 7:07 pm by Willow

These are hits in our house too. The Global Puzzle was too hard for my dc (it has over 600 pieces) but the Geopuzzles -- each continent is a separate puzzle -- are perfect.

[Okie Liz]

If anyone is interested, persecution.com is the website for Voices of the Martyrs. I recently began getting their newsletter and have had my eyes opened to struggling living family members of martyred Christians that are trying to remain true. VOM has a few resources that might work well for a missions minded family that is teaching ECC with older children.

They also have a video (animated) about jim Elliot, that I have not viewed, but it would make a nice treat for after your children read the book!

[cbollin]

I hadn't seen this mentioned for ECC -- We used Geography Songs from Audio Memory as an aid for learning country names.

crystal

[Julie in MN]

When you do your geography cards and learn your geography terms, don't miss the illustration in the front of your Classroom or Intermediate Atlas (pp. 6-7). It illustrates many of the terms in a more realistic way. Seeing something in more than one way often helped my 3rd grader understand the vocab words better.

At convention, I even picked up a placemat-type version of this illustration at the Geography Matters booth for a few dollars. I think it was this one: http://www.geomatters.com/products/details.asp?ID=23

[sawiggins1]

Just want to encourage all of you not to skip over the art projects or cooking.... it is worth the extra effort to make it fun for the kids to learn about the various countries!

So true! That's what they remember, even when it is a flop!

[Karen in NC]

Hi,

New here and this is our 2nd year homeschooling. We were all in public school (including me--elementary art teacher) and are loving ECC. My 2 girls (9&12) are very creative so MFW has been a good fit. Anyway something I have discovered is an e-postcard website. They have postcards from all over the world. Each country has several photos to choose from so we look at all of them and see highlights of the country. We pick one and send it to my husband with a message that includes info we have learned. The website is: Flyyy.com

Time for kids also has some e-postcards but you can't send messages and they don't have the volume of the above site.

Our favorite so far has been Nate Saint and Snow Treasure--so exciting!
Also a book about Lapland that was very good is Elli of the Northland by Margaret Ruthin.

[Kristen]

I found a great book titled Kids Around the World Play by Arlette N. Braman. This book has lots of easy and fun games that children in different countries play. Our children have enjoyed the games we have played. It would be a great companion book to the entire curriculum.

[Janeal M]

I just ran across some fun resources that would work great with ECC. They are from Rand McNally-schoolhouse.
Geography & Map Activites (intermediate ages 9+) ISBN 0-528-93470-8 It contains short, quick, colorful worksheet pages containing activities for:
Maps (symbols, legends, cardinal directions, grids, scales, thematic maps)
Intro to World Geography (hemispheres, continents, oceans, climate, latitude and longitude, equator, prime meridian, time zones)
Continents (geography, customs, culture, animals and landmarks)

I also picked up flash cards for States and Capitals (US) and Facts and Landmarks (world) also by Rand McNally-Schoolhouse.

I got these at a military base exchange, but I'm sure Wal-Mart or other stores may carry them. you can try www.randmcnally.com but I didn't see them listed on the site.
Happy Traveling!

[tkbbrl6]

Do a google search for money from various countries the first thing on the list is a calculator for figuring the exchange (for example I just did one for Norwegian money and it lists 1 Norwegian krone = 0.154435384 U.S. dollars). I'm letting my dd use this info to figure out various amounts of US dollars for a Norwegian krone.

[MJ in IL]

I ran across a neat supplement for our studies through our local 4-H chapter.

They had several "culture kits" available for checkout--free! I just got a large Rubbermaid tub about Australia with money, maps, stamps, postcards, newspapers, grocery flyers, a shirt, "Kangaroo crossing" road sign, local cloth, a boomerang and some food packages... I haven't gone through the whole thing but it looks very interesting and has some nice hands-on items that I didn't have access to.

I don't know if you have to be 4-H members or not to check these out but our local 4-H/Extensions office was happy that someone was excited to use them.

Hope this helps someone! Molly

[sewardmom]

As we began our ECC year, we also began reading

The Adventures of Missionary Heroism by John C. Lambert aloud.

This book contains lots of missionary stories from around the globe. Lesser known stories. It was a nice addition throughout the year.

[buzymom]

I found a great resource off of a list I belong to .. it is great..

here is the link: http://www.lcms.org/pages/internal.asp?NavID=9629

All you have to do is send an email and request the number of passports you need.. they are FREE!! I also received a lot of other information about how to involve children in missions... a lot of the info and resources look like they will work great with ecc..