Reading With My Daughter

Quite a while ago a good friend recommend The Mother-Daughter Book Club series by Heather Vogel Frederick to me and my daughter. She and her daughter had just finished it up and had really enjoyed it. After checking it out a bit, I thought it might be just the thing to read with The Princess.

The series kicks off with four 6th grade girls and their moms forming a book club and it follows the lives of the girls--their friendships, their trials, their triumphs--over the course of that school year. This first book has the girls reading Little Women and throughout it you will find fun facts about Louisa May Alcott, a discussion guide, recipes, and even a great goal-setting exercise.

Admittedly, I am selective about what my daughter reads and consequently shun much of modern juvenile fiction, but there are definitely good new books being written and I think this is a worthy series. It does include some middle school drama and while we escape quite a bit of that being homeschoolers there will always be some drama with girls in middle school no matter what, so the books are definitely relate-able. Plus some of that girl-drama gave my daughter and me some good opportunities to talk and discuss things of that nature.

The best part of starting this series, of course, is reading Little Women! My daughter is really loving it and I am, too! I hadn't read it in years--and I think it was just a short abbreviated version then. However, there were some spoilers in the book club book, so for the next one I will make sure we read the classic first then the corresponding book club installment.

There are a total of six books in this series. The classics the book club girls read are: Anne of Green Gables, Daddy Long-Legs, Pride and Prejudice, the Betsy-Tacy series, and Jane Eyre.

Since we'll be reading the classics as well as the books in this series, I anticipate it taking us a while. And that's okay! This has been a great experience for me and my daughter so far. I look forward to making some yummy recipes, watching movies of the classics, and having lots and lots of great conversations!

*****

What about you? Have you or your daughter read this series? What did you think about it?

The Making of an Egyptian Death Mask

We are learning all about the ancient world this year with Story of the World I and loving it! We've been learning a lot about Egypt, of course, which is completely fascinating. Most recently we have studied the New Kingdom of Egypt, which includes the story of King Tut. So we decided making an Egyptian death mask in the style of King Tut's would be a fun project. First since it was too cold at the time to paper mache in the garage (it probably would have frozen instead of dried-ha) and it was too messy to do it in the house, we decided to pick up a couple of cheap craft masks at Hobby Lobby. Next we cut out cardboard shapes to complete the shape of the death mask, attaching them with hot glue. Vince even put a little detail on the *beard* with the hot glue per The Princess' request. Then the kiddos started to paint them with this metallic gold tempera paint. It worked okay for the cardboard, but would not coat the plastic of the mask. We thought maybe a second coat ...

Door Hanger Chore Charts

My kids have had a chore chart for a while. It's one of those magnetic boards and they share it. However, it's not by their rooms and often they (and I) forget to update it. Plus it's a little bulky. When I saw the concept of a door hanger chore chart on Pinterest, I loved it! It was compact, right there were the kiddos could see it coming out and going into their rooms, and it costs almost nothing to make. I headed over to one of my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, of course. They have these little wooden door hangers for .79. I also grabbed a couple of packets of decorative buttons for $1.99 each. I already had the clothes pins and the paint so those cost me nothing. I began by painting the door hangers (I used tempera paints because that's what I had). Then I grabbed a fine point Sharpie and the clothes pins and started writing chores on them, making sure to write them correctly so they will ...

Fun With 4th of July Crafts: Part 3

I love my new patriotic front door wreath!! I had fun putting this together, although I must admit this is more of an adult craft than one for kiddos. I was inspired by this article in Family Fun magazine. I didn't have quite everything I needed for this one, but all I had to purchase was a few sheets of scrapbook paper and some double-sided tape. Then all I had to gather up were some scissors, regular Scotch tape, a ruler and some cardboard. First I cut four (5"x 6") pieces of each paper. Then by placing a piece of double-sided tape on one of the short ends of the papers, I rolled them into cones, pressing the seams together well. Then I cut a 10" circle out of cardboard and began to stick the cones on it. I used another piece of double-sided tape to stick the cones on, arranging them in a circular pattern. Next I used regular Scotch tape to attach them on the back to the back of the cardboard. After getting all the cones on, I was ready for my centerpiece. He...

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