For the Love of Books

When I was growing up, books were in abundance.  Both of my parents loved to read.  We frequently visited our public libraries on the weekends.  On Wednesday nights, we would visit our church's tiny library before church.  I read and re-read the adventures of Encyclopedia Brown, and as I grew older those of Janette Oke.  I attended a small Christian school with an equally small library where I tackled every Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mystery.  For Christmas when I was in seventh grade, I received the entire Anne of Green Gables book series and read them immediately.  When I began my public school education, the library of my middle school overwhelmed me!  I would check out the maximum amount of books allowed each week, and I was a library helper (nerd alert, but I'm ok with it).  Expanding from the Christian book genre of my childhood, I was exposed to stories of romance and intrigue.  I read everything from Sweet Valley High to The Hobbit (even though that was to impress a boy).  In high school, I read everything that my teachers would throw at me.  I developed a deep love for allegory and satire.  I loved historical fiction.  Even now, when I have the opportunity, I will lose myself in a book for days at a time.

The books I read when I was quite young were mostly faith-based.  With the growing availability of literary styles in middle school, these different aspects of writing would captivate my imagination.  One such poem was Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll.  I remember reading the fanciful and nonsensical language and wondering what in the world was going on?  I read it again.  I knew the story of Alice in Wonderland, but I had never read the novel.  I had watched the Disney adaptation back in the day when the Disney Channel showed classic movies on Friday nights.  The form of writing was so unique to me, that I wanted to read more.  I checked out Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and my love for fantasy writing began.  I appreciated the literal representation of creatures like the dragon fly, rocking horse fly and bread-and-butterfly.  I remember thinking, "that sounds exactly like how I pictured things in my head when I was little". 

As I grew older, I kept learning about the different types of literature.  When I was in college, I took a British Literature class where we discussed the interesting life and works of Lewis Carroll.  I learned that the writing of Alice's Adventures is Wonderland is what started children's literature, and that Carroll was the pioneer who made the way for stories written for children. At the same time, I was working as an after-school teacher for elementary school-aged kiddos and was a tutor at the local elementary school.  I knew stories and poems and plays and books would speak to my little friends.  I began my own collection of children's books while in college.  My Mama gifted my an entire box of Robert Munsch, Arthur, and Jan Brett books to have on-hand.  This collection grew as I became a Nanny, a teacher's assistant, a babysitter, a Mama, and an Aunt.  I love that the kiddos in my life associate me with reading.

My love for Alice grew, too.  While I do have an extensive Mickey Mouse collection ('cause I'm all about that Disney), I realized recently that my oldest and most intentional Disney collection is that of Alice's world.  I have several copies of different adaptations of the books.  I enjoy the various film versions of the story.  My sister gave me my first Alice coffee mug when I lived in Florida.  She and I purchased tea sets together in Virginia, and mine was modeled after the Red Queen.  A sweet friend gave me an exquisite tea pot on theme.  My children have found me little trinkets or drawn me pictures from the silly, sweet realm.  When I had to downsize from a big house to a tiny apartment, many Mickey items had to fall by the wayside, but all the Alice memorabilia stayed with me. 

I was so excited to learn that the Upcountry History Museum in Greenville, SC was housing a Wonderland exhibit.  My family and I visited this past weekend, and it was such a treat.  On display, there are illustrations on loan from the Smithsonian.  There are "new" pieces of art as Alice has been reimagined by artist, Charles Santore.  There is information about Lewis Carroll.  The highlight for us was seeing the costumes and models from Tim Burton's interpretation of Alice in Wonderland.  If you live locally, I would definitely recommend going to check this out whether you are a fan of Alice or not.  If you enjoy the written word, you will find this exhibit to be a treat!

Is there a book, story, poem, play that you loved as a child?   Can you remember the first thing you read that made you think?  That engaged your imagination?  I would love to hear from you!

Play with your food!

Do you remember when you were younger, and your mom would say, "don't play with your food!"?  I remember because I say it to Titus at almost every meal.  Titus can turn carrot sticks into a soccer game, grapes into race cars, and French fries into football games.  Almost everyday, I am saying to Titus, "please pay attention and stop playing with you food!"!  A couple of days ago, I was prepping vegetables, and I noticed how pretty the design was on the bottom of the stalk of celery.  I know that sounds strange, but I couldn't help but notice it.  I was reminded of the wonderful artist God is, and how He even made produce pretty!  The idea popped into my head that we could do an art project using some of our vegetables.  I kept the bottom of the stalk of celery, some broccoli, and I sliced up some tops of carrots into different shapes.  Yesterday, I put out the paint on the table along with paper and the vegetables.  I told the kids we were going to paint with vegetables.  Cecely immediately lit up, and Titus said, "that sounds gross".  I told him we weren't going to eat the vegetables after we paint with them and that these were parts of the vegetables that usually end up in the trash or compost pile.  That rational worked for Titus, and so, the painting began.  The kids had a great time and the end product was pretty neat!

Disney Appreciation

The Disney "Bookstore"

There are a few things that I really do love: my kiddos, homeschooling, and anything Disney.  The past couple of weeks, I have been able to combine those three things for the perfect storm of magical learning fun!  Once we arrived at the "20 Days Until Disney" countdown, Cecely and Titus lost focus and interest in school work.  I decided to take a break from our normal studies and write out some Disney Appreciation Lesson Plans.  It has been so much fun for the three of us.  I used some resources from TheMouseForLess.com as well as FamilyFun.com.  Both of these websites had some great activities for writing, exploring, and creating.  I was able to use our "movies of the day" to put together math word problem worksheets.  It is amazing to me how much more interested in adding together double digits and multiplying my kids become when their favorite characters are the stars of the math problems! 

Titus is all "ears".

With our upcoming trip to Disney World, I thought it would be fun for us to have a Disney movie marathon.  Each day we watch a couple of Disney movies, follow up with arts and crafts, have a writing assignment, and do math.  We have really enjoyed watching the Bonus Features on the DVDs and Blu Rays.  We have learned a lot of Disney history and watched some really neat footage of the olden days of movie making magic.  We have compared and contrasted princesses.  We have discussed the differences between computer-animated movies and hand-drawn movies.  We have learned of many of the pioneering efforts of Walt Disney and his cohorts.  It has been very educational as well as fun.

Our informational chart about the World Showcase.

On this upcoming trip to Disney, we are going to spend a day at EPCOT.  Last time, we weren't able to enjoy all of the World Showcase.  But, this time, we are planning on visiting every country.  The World Showcase at EPCOT has been a great inspiration for this week's learning.  We discussed geography, culture, and language.  We categorized which continent each represented country is on.  We looked up what kind of money each country uses, what their flag looks like, what their capital city is, and tried a few native words.  We also made our own EPCOT passports for the World Showcase.  In each country, we are going to look for some kind of sweet treat, write it in our passport, taste them, and rate them.  If the country has a ride or movie, we are going to participate.  If we meet any characters, we have places for them to sign our passports.  I have read that there is a fountain in each country, but some are harder to find than others, so we are going to check off every fountain we find.  Finally, we also have a spot to ask a Cast Member for a stamp of each country!

Our EPCOT passports (I could not get the image to adjust for some reason).

While we won't be going to the Animal Kingdom Park this visit, we are staying at Kidani Village at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  Upon arrival, we will get a field guide of all the birds and animals who live on the different savannas.  We have made our own field guides where we are going to locate the animals, take some notes (was it sleeping, eating, playing, relaxing?  Was it alone or in a group?  Did we see it in the day or at night?), and attempt to draw the animals.  When I told the kids about this project, Cecely lit right up.  She said, "We'll be just like Jack in Magic Treehouse!".  I LOVE that she made that connection!

Animal Kingdom Lodge Field Guide

So, as we anxiously await for our departure to Disney World, we are filling these last couple of days with a few more movies, making a few more crafts, and enjoying all of those fascinating Bonus Features.  We are also beginning to prepare around the house.  Today, the kiddos wrote (or drew) their packing list for the trip.  Tomorrow, we will begin the adventure of packing...I'm going to try my best to NOT be a control freak and let the kiddos be in charge.  Wish me luck!

Fun art from FamilyFun.com.

Our chart identifying where Disney movies have taken place.  For example, Three Caballeros is under South America, Peter Pan is under the U.K., Cars in under U.S.A., Mulan is under Asia.

Fun Fraction Food Friday!!!

I do love using alliteration in a title...over the course of this week, we have been working with fractions.  The kiddos and I have used all kind of manipulatives and played different games using fractions.  We have also spent time talking about how we use fractions in real life...the most common place I find fractions is when working with food.

We also have been reading about Italy this week, and the most famous food from that country, Pizza! We've read stories, watched documentaries, and made some pizza art.

So, today, we had Fun Fraction Food Friday.  We combined our themes and made semi-homemade pizza rolls, performed fraction problems with goldfish and marshmallows, and ate a Hershey's bar 1/12 at a time.  Tonight, we are going to make a dessert pizza using chocolate chip cookie dough, strawberries, and Cool Whip!!!

Step 1: unroll crescent dough, then spread sauce

Add cheese

Roll 'em up

Time to bake!

Goldfish fraction work

See, math can be fun!

Recording data

Pizza Rolls hot from the oven

Dessert!

Titus has 1/12 of a Hershey's Bar in his mouth

Make that 1/6

Possibly 1/4

Dr. Seuss Week

This week has been lots of fun.  We've been reading Dr. Seuss books, doing activities, and watching Dr. Seuss movies.  I love Dr. Seuss.  His books are amazing.  Of course, they teach great writing skills: using creativity, descriptive words, silly words, and rhyming.  But, more than that, his stories are loaded with amazing lessons that are timeless.  And, it's not that hard to tie Dr. Seuss' lessons to those from the Bible.

One of our favorite stories is The Sneetches.  We watched the old cartoon that used to come on CBS, then we read the book.  This tale is full of real-life problems...all about prejudice and discrimination.  The kids and I talked about the "star-bellied" Sneetches and how they thought they were better than the other Sneetches because of their stars.  We talked about how the Sneetches "without stars upon thars" wanted to do what they could to be like the Sneetches.  We talked about how God made all people unique.  We all have something special, and God DID NOT make any of us superior to others. 

Another one of our favorites is The Lorax.  I know that some people have negative views of it because of the strong environmental themes.  But, I believe The Lorax can work right along with the Bible.  God has blessed us with a beautiful earth full of animals, plants, and amazing places.  The Lorax "speaks for the trees", and I believe God has given us the responsibility of taking care of the wonderful Earth He created!  We really enjoy the book, the classic movie, and the new movie!  There is a silly App for iPhones and iPads...check out the kids!

Cecely as the Lorax

Titus as the Lorax

We really have a good time reading all of Dr. Seuss' stories.  Today, we are using Green Eggs and Ham as our kick-off.  I made Green Eggs and Ham Breakfast Sandwiches this morning.  We've watched the old cartoon, Cecely has read the story out loud, and in a little while we are going to talk about green food, how to use similes, and maybe even write a poem using green things.  It's going to be a wubblulous-wondermous-fantasmical week!

Green Eggs and Ham Breakfast Sandwich

Thoughts before the 1st bite...

Here we go!

I'm thinking the smiles mean they like it!