Book Club Updates

We continue to enjoy meeting with our Book Club each month. Here's a peek at this school year's adventures thus far:

Robin Hood
A fun examination of this great legend and comparison of multiple versions of the story. Character studies. And shooting games, of course.

 

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving

Discussion of settings. Diorama-making. Descriptive language. Writing our own "Rip Van" stories.

 

The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks

Designing our own magical cupboards and creating imaginary characters that could "come to life" when ordinary objects were placed in the cupboards. Acting out the stories with plastic figures. Tee pee treats.

 

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate diCamillo

Recalling story elements while playing a board game, identifying themes in the story, comparing rats and mice, crafting mice bookmarks, and eating mice cookies and soup.

 

 

 

 

The Adventures of Sister Philomena,

a (fictional) secret agent to the Pope by Dianne Ahern and Bill Shurtliff

An exploration of the mystery genre, including some clue-following, scene-re-enacting, and "laser" maze navigation.

 

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Fun with word play, idioms, and synonyms. Creating our own imaginary worlds. Making dodecahedrons.

While I work with the boys, there's a fun group of girls in another room enjoying their own book club. This year they're working through the American Girl doll books. They've been entertaining us with little plays, acting out scenes from the books.

 

This year we've been meeting on Friday afternoons. On several occasions we've been able to stay together for socializing, dinner, and family Rosary (with the dads joining us after work). These have been really special evenings. We are so blessed to share our homeschooling and our lives with some great families!