Geography or Cultures?

[doubleportion]

ECC countries question - Cultural "immersion" in ECC?

I thought with the country study that we would be immersed in that country, that we would be all things that country. Maybe my expectations are too high?

I know I will start reading more of the Book Basket books to myself and the kids... then I can lead discussions more effectively (the kids have been reading/looking at the BB books on their own).

I found the Wee Sing CD really added to that "immersion". Some countries felt more full than others.

What week are you one? Mexico and South America felt very immersed for us. Canada was a little more challenging.

Are you doing the Trip Around the World pgs etc? Are you doing the music and art?

The Book Basket books helped us a great deal in getting a better taste of the countries. You can do as much or as little as you want. Maybe giving more details about what you are or are not doing might help with more specific answers.

Sometimes making the activities less "school" like has helped at our house to get through a tough day. Other days we do what we can and then double up on things another day. As long as we get everything done by the end of the week, I consider myself still on schedule.

I have also found with my dd there is a huge change from what a 2nd grader can do and what a 3rd grader can do.

Edie

[cbollin]

One way I did it....

we would get a cookbook from the Lerner Publications series: Coooking the <> way (norweigian, Mexican, etc.)

then, we'd do breakfast from the book for several days. Our favorite: hot drink and breads.

we'd play the Wee Sing a bit more.

and then I splurged once a while...... bought party theme decorations to decorate the dining room. We had a US desert theme thing from Factory Card Outlet. Then, Mexican theme decoration. We kept the flag posters up all year.

we definitely read about the typical day of a child in the country. We got Schlessinger videos on the country. Or the other one.... uh..... Media Communications, Families around the world

you're probably doing fine.

-crystal

[Julie in MN]

I'm one of the folks who always calls ECC an "immersion" approach. You know, yes, you can add lots through book basket and such. But I'm quite sure we had an "immersion" feel even before that. Some of these were already mentioned, but are you enjoying --

- the native songs
- the regional art projects
- cooking projects listed in the teacher guide
- trying to speak the bits of local languages in A Trip Around the World, John 3:16, etc.
- the flag discussion & making a flag
- the native dress in the John 3:16 sheets, as well as some of the teacher manual ideas (I remember using bed sheets to drape ourselves in most of the Asian styles of clothing)
- using a passport to "travel"
- extra local activities listed in the teacher guide, sometimes from Trip Around the World but other times just listed in the grid such as making an Eiffel Tower or looking at German castles
- and of course the science and geography all have pictures as well as information about each area, including the plants we grew and the scenes we created (desert, rainforest)
- glimpses into other countries through the read-aloud and prayer focus

Other things we did probably were built from book basket ideas or just from A Trip Around the World and other books we were reading. I'm not sure where the Mexican paper flower and pinata ideas we used came from, but soon, our house looked like Mexico! We got into German fairy tales and architecture. We enjoyed Chinese tangrams and Japanese Haiku. A few of the book basket books have project ideas for all year. Books like "Count Your Way Through..." have lots of things "typical" of an area to explore further. And of course the MFW "Ideas" board has even more!

One thing that's snuck up on me before -- if I had to skip something, I found I was skipping the fun stuff. If that's what you feel is missing, then maybe an extra effort to skip everything BUT the fun stuff? There's probably just as much learning in it.
Julie

[RachelT]

We have listened to the Wee Sing cd on more days and more songs than is written in our lesson plan and that has been fun!

I have also used library books to supplement our book basket with books about Brazil, the rain forests, the animals of the rain forest, etc. I also found a book about a day on the Amazon River with pictures of a real Brazilian family. Very interesting. Now, next week for Norway, I don't know what I will find, but maybe more pictures books?!

To comment on your post, I think that the book basket is designed for the children to "browse" through the book baskets themselves, so I think if that's the way you are doing it that is fine. In our family I end up reading books from the book basket at times, because my oldest child is dyslexic. My 1st grader can actually read through the book baskets independently herself and she likes to do that! So every family is different. If you are wanting to have more discussions about the people and cultures or the habitats, then you can read some of the books with them and do that, too. I think either way is fine!

Rachel

[cbollin]

I don't have an ECC TM, and I am trying to learn more about it.

If ECC does 34 countries using WIndows of the World. How many countries does it study in the geography section? Is it the same number learned in the geography games; or, how many countries does it learn placement of in the geography games? Lastly, how does the science tie in?

Thank you!

It's a multiple stage answer on this:

Did you see the table of contents on the sample page? Let's start there
http://www.mfwbooks.com/downloads/pdfs/ ... manual.pdf

All continents are covered.
ECC geography is organized first by continent, then countries, then people groups within those boundaries.
There are 15 countries that are studied more in depth than others. those are seen in the country column on page 3 of the TOC sample.

Window on the World tends to cover more of People Groups within continent, not necessarily just the focus country.

The Geography Game - you'll get the fun of learning names and locations of about 107? ( i think? better yet. let's just say "ooh more than 100"

Science - see the table of contents... Science is via biomes and habitats. And you study the ones that match the continent you are studying. does that make sense to see the unseen? lunch time here so I miss things

-crystal

[Cyndi (AZ)]

I'm going to say the same thing as Crystal, with my spin -- it might help, it might not --

You do a unit study of 15 different countries, but get glimpses of many more countries in the continent you are studying - there's 7 distinct sections to study each continent.

The people groups that you pray for from Window are based on the continent, not just the country.

The geography game is based on continents. You change continents, you add a new map -- expanding as you go. By the end of the year, you have learned the placement of over 100 countries.

Since I shelved POE and only did blue box assignments and brief summaries of the readings, most of our science in ECC was based on the climate and topographical info we were learning from geography time, and the local animals -- CBoA, Living World, Great Animal Search.

[gratitude]

Thank you Cyrstal and Cyndi! Between the two of you I feel like I got a good picture of it, and a spin with perhaps younger children if POE is too much.

I didn't even think of the table of contents... zoomed right past it to the grid. LOL.

Thank you again. It makes sense. Thinking about next fall a little...

[erin.kate]

This was very helpful to me, as well, to see what/how you approached it without POE on a deep level. Geography sounds like fun.

[Cyndi (AZ)]

I just received ECC in the mail yesterday! {happy dance}

I have heard of a lot of this 'shelving' of POE. Is there something I need to know about POE before we dive head first into it? Just curious...

I'm going to answer "no."

Some people really like POE and get a lot out of it, so I don't want to taint anyone's impression of the book before you try it. I tried it. I had a personal problem getting into it and being excited about it. My dd was only a 3rd grader and I decided she was getting plenty of science from the ECC core (there are experiements in the TM as well as POE) and the animal books, so I felt comfortable skipping over most of POE. But I would say to try it first, because you might really like it.

[cbollin]

I just received ECC in the mail yesterday! {happy dance}

I have heard of a lot of this 'shelving' of POE. Is there something I need to know about POE before we dive head first into it? Just curious...

agreeing with Cyndi. try it. if you feel like "blah"... ask out loud for some tips. try them... .

I'm beginning to think that the archiver needs to make a thread on the Ideas or ECC archives with a FAQ for this book. julie...

here are my quick tips on POE when oldest is 3rd grader:

*realize this is a multilevel book. So I recommend in the first part of the year to plan to "teach the information" instead of just read it as a read loud. As the year progresses, that might change for the student.
*do the blue box experiments with all ages!

I got crazy one day and wrote a lot of specific helps for many chapters here...
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php ... che#p80957

It's textbook style. great photos. nice give glory to the Creator kind of book. Designed for many ages... it's just a tiny learning curve for many/some starting 3rd grade coming into multi level teaching? that's a guess on it based on listening to a lot of chat for 3 years on it.

-crystal

[MommaK]

Crystal,

Thank you for the wealth of information! I have made a note of this, so I can come back to it should POE seem challenging!

[cbollin]

Explain the study of people/cultures

I understand the science, missionary emphasis, book of Matthew, geography game, biomes, ecosystem study, etc. in ECC and where those elements come from in the program.

Is all of the study of the people of the different countries come from Windows of the World and book basket? Is the library needed in order to study the other cultures? To what extent does the program study the cultures? Is ECC primarily the missionary study, science, book of Matthew, geography, and then the other cultures and the people of those cultures through prayers for them through WotW?

I found other aspects of cultural study in the hands on activities such as cooking, crafts, games/activities (as found in A Trip Around the World), some of the music... learning a few phrases of that land, etc.

in my personal opinion, while some of that is from book basket or other library resources, it doesn't come from "reading", it comes from trying it out. Let me give you an example/analogy.... you can read all about me on this forum, and you can PM em and "get to know me"..... that's reading about me and getting to know me.. or julie, or trish, or you.. and you might even see blogs or other places with pictures...

but until you get on a plane and come down here to southwest TN and take an exercise class from me... you don't get to know me.. now.. granted.. you're not coming here and I'm not going there..... so.. you might try the brand of exercise that I teach in your own home... "oh... this is what it's like for her. hee hee... you mean she really did that shimmy on stage and there were 2 people from her church in her class. LOL LOL. blush. giggle.. ". or you might try a recipe that is commonly available in my life... "ooh... that's what's it like. gross that's yucky... or oohh that's the best bread recipe I've ever tried.".... or you might find a song that i'm singing.... "oh.. ok.. she's an odd bird, but a nice bird to have around. God loves her.. ok.. bless her heart.. she's weird..."

now you know my culture.

it's like that with ECC. MFW put in little stuff that you get to bring a part of other people and other places into your home and get to know it.... you'll find it in the music, the crafts, the food (even the new cookbook they offer in the email blast this morning....) but until you hear, taste, touch those cultural things,... your children don't get it....

it's like taking someone from Hoosier country and placing them in a land where autumn colors don't happen...... where it goes from basketball to "hunting and fishing".... but in ECC you dont' have to move to experience it.

Postby cbollin » Mon Oct 22, 2012 8:26 am
thought of another way it has been for our family....... we sponsor a child through Compassion International.

The things that S (my compassion child) asks me in letters tells me the real things that children want to know about other places. And surprisingly the things that I'd like to know about him. Do you have this kind of food in your country? it's my favorite. (no.. I had to look up that food in a book. wow.. it looks like a dragon's eye. that's not grown here. It's not warm enough. we like something called strawberries, do you have those?)

Is it always hot where you live? Do you have shade trees to rest under in the summer? What do you do in your church at Easter? That's my favorite time at church. We celebrated our new years (in his country new years is a middle of spring holiday on our calendar.. sometimes right after easter) They do a lot with splashing of water at new years. I wrote him that hearing that holiday reminded me that Jesus is the living water. Then I told him our new year's holiday is in the middle of winter on our calendar and we don't toss water, we toss pieces of paper called confetti and drink juice with bubbles in the bottle.

It's stuff like that... and those little things are in books like A Trip around the World. you can do them as you read about them... or something in honor of them...

anyway... can you tell I just got a letter from my compassion child recently?

but it's in the little things in the books that add up... books like A Trip and Another Trip... the Wee Sing music.. the art/craft thingy.. you know... .more than the sum of the parts... do you have to have great library? it will help... book basket is part of mfw.

[MelissaB]

ECC was our very favorite year. You will *love* this curriculum.

The Illustrated World Atlas, the Trip Around the World books will also provide indepth information about how the people in those countries live. The missionary biographies provide very indepth social studies. The Trip Around the World books are so full of culture and information, you really don't need library books, to be honest.

The extra benefit of the library books are the visual images & you might read some extra interesting facts. * If you have the internet, you easily achieve the same results by looking at each countries' tourism website.* - no library trip needed.

[TriciaMR]

For us, the library books gave us stories (like Cinderella or Snow White in our culture) of other cultures. Toni would come to me and say, "Mom, this is such a good story. You should read it to the boys at bedtime." But, they weren't essential, but Toni LOVED them.

[Cyndi (AZ)]

Wow . . . umm . . . I don't know how to answer other than "no." The culture part is way more than WotW. Let's see . . .

In Global Art, you are reading more about the country being studied and then doing a craft. You cook something special for each country. If you can get only one book for each country, I suggest "Cooking the _______ Way." Those cookbooks for kids have a ton of local culture info in them besides recipes. The Trip Around the World books have tons of activities that you give you a hands-on experience. "Pretend Traveling" to each new country and exchanging money is so fun - and we always talked about what she would be studying on my dd's "Student Visa" or how she should dress (warm/cool) and what would be available to purchase. Keeping our John 3:16 poster up all year (it's still up . . . ) reminds us of different ways people dress in different areas. Oh - and the music cd is great! Songs in other languages.

There is actually so much to do in ECC, I was very thankful that it falls into a pattern - you know that you're going to do maps one day, crafts one day, cook one day, etc. It helped me to have the cycle of study repeat in each country.

If you prefer to buy just one book and have no library to add in a cookbook..

consider a new item in MFW's collection... Kids' Multicultural Coookbook... This item, along with a whole bunch of others.... was listed in an email blast this morning as well as a link on the homepage...
here.. got to scroll a bit...

http://www.mfwbooks.com/products/M50/110/1/0/1

I like Cooking the ____ way..... but if you didn't have those in your library and need an inexpensive solution... this new to MFW book is a good option.. I just happen to have that book already. It was a gift to me. interesting how those weird things in life connect.

Whhhaaaaattttt?!! (said in my best minion voice) What fun stuff! That cookbook looks so good, I think I'll get one for us even though we're still a few years from repeating ECC.

[gratitude]

Thank you ladies! All of your answers and information was very helpful to read.

[Mommy22alyns]

Kids' Multicultural Coookbook...

We got this and the second one - our library actually had one,
The International Cookbook for Kids, Matthew Locricchio

[gratitude]

Thank you for bumping this up Mommy22alyns. It is so strange that you did. I ordered CTG and have been reading the TM and absolutely LOVE what I see. Yet, some part of me feels so strange to even consider really moving forward with CTG without doing ECC first and I have been considering the possibility of doing ECC first after all.

By the way Crystal your sum of the parts makes a lot of sense to me. MFW is like that. ADV really came together in my mind more in reflection than in the doing. It was almost like all the parts had to come together into a big picture before it really hit me what we accomplished in it.