Z is for Zebra

Z was definitely a lighter week for us.  Given that I'm still in catch-up mode with posts, I can't even remember exactly why, but we didn't do a whole lot beyond the basics.  

One of the things that was part of our curriculum was to draw an outline of Africa and then color, cut, and attach the African animals from the sheet that was included.  Isaiah was really adamant to find out exactly where in Africa each of the animals lived so that he could put them on the map in the "correct" spot.  I tried explaining that several of these animals are found throughout Africa, but he really wanted to look up each one and place them on a particular spot on the map.  Thankfully, he did at least settle for placing it somewhere within a region as long as he saw on a map online that that particular animal actually lived in that area.

It was also a good chance to mark a couple of specific countries on the map and pray for some friends living there.  My cousin and her husband are in Senegal for a year, so we looked at their blog, marked Senegal on the map, and then prayed for them.  Also, one of the families on our team was working on opening the office for our business in Kenya, and they actually had pictures on facebook from a safari, so we got to look at pictures of many of the animals WITH them!  And, we got to pray for them and for Kenya as well.

 The math concept for this unit was tally marks.  There was a practice sheet included, but I decided to also have Isaiah practice with something he was interested in.  One of his very favorite things is Zita the Spacegirl, so we took one of the books and started tallying the number of frames (it's a graphic novel) in which each of the characters he chose appeared.  He actually took to tally marks really easily.  It wasn't much work at all, which was nice because I honestly find it such a boring task that I was glad to not have to dig into it too much.

We also printed out blank zebra pictures and used q-tips to paint black stripes on the zebra.  Unfortunately, what seemed like a quicker and easier activity (and which Zeke enjoyed), Isaiah actually ended up really frustrating Isaiah.  I'm not sure if it was the task or his mode for the day, but he was really struggling with it not being "perfect" as he had imagined somehow in his mind.  That is an ongoing struggle for him, and sometimes it appears during projects or activities that I don't expect it to.