Book #46

Although we have read the Little House on the Prairie series, I decided to include "Little House in the Big Woods" as the final book for our summer book club.  It has been several years since we listened to it and I've been thinking about reading it again so that the younger kids could have a chance to experience the stories. 

Even though the main characters are girls, the boys still enjoyed this  book.  We learned about time
period and how children were expected to act, and we discussed what it would be like to live then.  For our activity we played a game of charades.  I wrote down several events that took place and gave the kids an opportunity to act them out.  They were allowed to use other people and props.  They had a lot of fun and did a good job.  I wish I had taken videos of some of them. 

The kids and I are sad that summer book club is over, but look forward to started up book club again with our homeschool group in October. 

Book #44

The kids and I really enjoyed reading "The Bronze Bow" by Elizabeth George Speare last summer for our kid book club.  We also liked "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" which we read the year before.  This summer we picked another of her books to read--"The Sign of the Beaver"--and liked it just as well as the others. 

In this story Matt and his father move to Maine and set up a homestead, then the father leaves to fetch the rest of the family leaving Matt in charge.  The journey takes longer than expected and 13 year old Matt is left to have many adventures on his own.  While attempting to retrieve honey from a tree, Matt is attacked by bees.  He is rescued by an Indian chief and his grandson, Attean.  Matt agrees to teach Attean to read, but in the process learns a lot from Attean.  Matt learns that there are two sides to every story.  He starts to see how the indian people feel about the white people hunting on the land.  Matt learns different ways to do things.  He also learns the importance of family. 

After our discussion we ground some corn with rocks and made corn meal.  The kids discovered that it was hard work.  They worked for 10 minutes and only ground about 1 Tablespoon.  We also tasted some hasty pudding--a food that Matt ate until a bear snuck into his house and scattered the flour on the floor.  I had several toppings available, but most of the kids didn't like it any way.