7QT: Q&A

~1~

Sarah asked, "What is Junior Classics Literature?" Here you go, little mama...

Junior Classics Literature {affiliate link}

Starting in about 2nd or 3rd grade, whenever my kids are reading proficiently on their own, they start using these books for their literature study. Heavy on the literature, light on the "study". Basically, it's just a matter of exposing them to a lot of different kinds of great stories. We don't worry about book reports. We do a little discussion when they come to tell me about something exciting or something irritating they read. But "literature study" for the younger grades has always been very laid back around here.

~2~

Sadly, I believe they are out of print. I purchased mine as a set from Amazon many years ago, but you can purchase them individually {affiliate link} to acquire them a little at a time. I think mine are a 1948 edition. I don't know if other editions have all the same stories or not.

~3~

Bigboy's favorite so far has been book #2 Stories of Wonder and Magic. This book has many great and wonderful stories including The Magic Fishbone by Charles Dickens, Prince Rabbit by A. A. Milne, The Light Princess by George Macdonald, Aladdin from Arabian Nights, How Boots Befooled the King by Howard Pyle and various stories from Hans Christian Anderson. Most are short stories although in some other books there are excerpts from novels. All of my kids have read these books. Usually averaging 2 books per year (sometimes 3), these books comprise their "literature study" for 2nd or 3rd-6th grade. Light on the study mind you, heavy on the literature. They either read for a set number of minutes or a set number of pages per day with the option of finishing a story if it captivates their attention and they don't want to wait.

~4~

Not all of them have loved every book. The Professor slogged his way through the third book, Myths and Legends (because he really isn't a fan of mythology) and then was rewarded with Hero Tales (above) which he loved. But the point was, he had to read the myths and legends. He has always been a great reader but likes to stick to his comfort zone. These books forced allowed and encouraged him to expand that comfort zone. And sometimes, reading the excerpts inspired him go off and read the whole novel... Gulliver's Travels for example.

~5~

Mind you, these are not "readers". The books do not start out at an easy reading level and get progressively harder. That why I count them as literature study, not "reading". These books are for kids who are reading on their own or else could be used as a read aloud resource. I admit that we don't do a ton of read alouds. My husband has done more of them with the kids than I have. They enjoy audio books and they enjoy reading to each other, but they have also very much enjoyed reading on their own. What I love is that the stories come from great works of literature but are very child appropriate. Here are some shots of the table of contents of a couple of the books.

 #1 Fairy Tales and Fables

 #3 Myths and Legends

#5 Stories that Never Grow Old

You'll notice that the Lamb version of Midsummer Night's Dream is in this book. I know there are some people who believe that a story version of a classic such as this isn't a good idea. Just wait until the child can read the real thing. I think these people believe that exposing them to a story version will diminish their desire to read the real thing someday. I've found that these versions almost always lead to a greater interest in the original work.

~6~

Tracy asked about the figures on The Professor's shoulder. Hmmmmm... how to explain this? Well, he has a summer job. He is going to work as a camp assistant for a group that teaches engineering principles using LEGO. So basically, he's getting paid to help kids build with LEGO. Seriously! It's like every LEGO fanboy's dream job! Well, he had to submit a picture for the company roster and they said he could include a favorite LEGO or two. He chose his two favorite minifies to sit in his shoulders.

~7~
It wasn't until after we submitted it that I realized it looked a little like this:

Yeah, riiiiiiiiiight!

Oh well, they did say it could be a fun picture!

{p,h,f,r} End-of-Year review edition

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~ with the lovely ladies at Like Mother, Like Daughter

Sarah started something last year that was just too much fun not to continue. She's gonna host a link-up later so get yours ready! My kids love getting to pick out their cover photos and then see what Mom comes up with on Picmonkey. I've already printed out their monthly collages with little picture reminders of what they did the past year. Here are the covers for this year (with their blog names, not their real names.)

{pretty}

This was taken back when they were dressed up to go see The Hobbit. I love her answers! For those who have never heard of the Blockness Monster, that's another way of saying writer's block.

{happy}

BigBoy is such a happy kid. He's a very easy-going little brother and I know he's appreciated!

{funny}

Her pose here makes me smile. This was from her birthday shopping trip and is pretty much a perfect picture of my Sunshine.

{real}

"I'm pretty good at identifying a villian's motives." Hah! He's such a very real 15 year old boy.

A Hobbit Birthday with a Dwarvish Twist

A Dwarf axe and a beloved Gandalf hat

Chip the glasses and crack the plates!

    Blunt the knives and bend the forks!

That's what Bilbo Baggins hates-

   Smash the bottle and burn the corks!

That's exactly what BigBoy wanted for his birthday. A Hobbit birthday with a Dwarvish twist!

He asked for a Hobbitish feast for breakfast. We had a wedding to attend later so we had breakfast early and used paper plates... so they wouldn't chip. (That's what Bilbo Baggins hates!)

 Steamy hot sausages and mushrooms!

 Pumpkin spice waffles

 Candy mushrooms for those who don't like the real ones.

 A pot of cinnamon spice coffee

 Oven scrambled eggs... my new favorite brunch dish.

 Bilbo for a day!

We re-used some decorations from birthdays past.

We also found this fun poster {affiliate link} and made a sign to the birthday boy from the Dwarves. It says, "Happy Birthday, BigBoy! Save some (more) cake for us!" and it's signed by them all.

We headed out to see my cousin's beautiful daughter get married and then came back for cake and presents.

 This was my second Hobbit hole birthday cake and I have to say, I really liked it! BigBoy had picked out this Hobbit Cake Topper Kit {affiliate link} and asked me to create a cake for the background. I used a small French White 8 x 11 Corningware dish for the bottom layer and cooked the cake mound on top in a small saucepan that was rated for the oven. I froze both layers overnight and then shaved it down to shape it.

The door and windows were made from candy melts. I drew the size of door I wanted on the wax paper and piped on the melted candy. I drew the lines in with a toothpick and let it all harden. Then I piped the grass on using a Wilton grass tip {affiliate link} and used candy rocks and brown sugar for the path. A piece of a cashew bar served as the chimney.

 This is the face of an almost two-year old who is being spoon fed cake and ice cream. Looks like we're torturing her, right?

This is the face of a little girl who is happy to do everything "BY SELF"!

And this is the face of a very content little Hobbit man.

 

A Pink Paris Birthday

Our back-to-back birthday extravaganza was this past Friday and Saturday.  Here is the first of the recaps:

After watching Audrey Hepburn charm her way into Humphrey Bogart's heart, Sunshine asked for a Pink Paris birthday party for her 14th birthday (with a nod to Miss Audrey). She asked if we could make t-shirts (which has become a tradition), do a little shopping and have lunch at a bistro in an antique store. We also watched the remake of Sabrina {affiliate link} to compare the two. (I actually like the remake better than the original. I think they did a better job of fleshing out the characters and showing you the transition from infatuation to real love for both Sabrina and David, but just so you know, it is more "grown-up" and we skipped over certain scenes. I have notes on which scenes we skipped. If anyone wants those, email me.)

All things were accomplished... with style!

We started the day with chocolate croissants and café au lait for breakfast.

 A chocolate muffin for Cupcake.

You can see some of the decorations in the background. I found a pretty poster of Paris in 1909 {affiliate link} and used some pictures of Audrey from this calendar {affiliate link} along with some other pictures I found and posters I made on the computer. I used black card stock to make corner pieces to give the impression of an old fashioned photo album.

For the table, we used some really cute books and this paper Paris city scene provided by Made by Joel along with some fun fabric I found at Hobby Lobby. The birthday girl has plans to sew something cute with it.

 This tiny little book expands in an accordion style 3D cityscape of Paris {affiliate link} and made a great table decoration. We added some Paris scented lotion, hand sanitizer, body spray and an Eiffel Tower air freshener for her closet.

Charlotte in Paris (tee hee!) {affiliate link} was another fun little book that Jessica brought to my attention along with E is for Eiffel Tower {affiliate link}. They also made for some fun decorations.

After our girlie outings and movie watching, we made croque-monsieurs for dinner and served them with...french fries. What is a "Mister Crunchy", you ask? It's basically a fancy grilled ham and cheese sandwich that can be found in French cafe's.

For her cake, she asked for a small bundt cake from our favorite bundt cake bakery. They put a pretty ribbon on top and I made the cards.

It was a lot of fun and she had a blast. I will post about the super easy, super cool t-shirts we decorated later. And even though it was a very girlie affair, the boys still found a way to have some fun!