Where The Mountain Meets The Moon

Posted on October 10, 2015 by Christina C

We just finished reading this gem of a book as a family read-aloud.

(This post contains links to amazon.com. Should you decide to purchase any of the books, Thankfully Home will receive a small fee. This will not cost you anything at all! It helps us buy books for our family, so Thank you!)

My daughter and I were moved by it in so many ways. The story is a wonderful tale about the adventures of a young girl named Minli who embarks on an adventure to change her family’s fortune. Grace Lin weaves the tale beautifully, with delicious descriptions and vivid illustrations. It is simply a beautiful story and we couldn’t wait to catch up with Minli every night before bed. When it ended, we were actually sad. “Again!” DD exclaimed.

So, I thought I’d better come up with something to extend the excitement that we felt about this beautiful story! The author, Grace Lin, has a great blog. On it, she has an activity book and event kit that suggest fantastic discussion questions, art projects, math activities, recipes, and many other activities that are inspired by the story. What fun!

So far, my daughter has sculpted her own dragons, complete with their pearls, and is waiting for them to dry so she can paint them. She is hoping that her dragons come to life!

For our next Tea Time, we will read

to continue to foster the kids’ love of legends. We will make moon pies (which we made during the Moon Festival – they were a huge hit!) One child, Emme Licygiewicz, actually invented and shared a Where the Mountain Meets the Moon board game! We have already put the game board together and can’t wait to play the game! Thanks Emme!

We absolutely can’t recommend this book enough. My kids’ (especially my daughter) were so engrossed in the story, the wonderful characters, and the way Grace Lin manages to weave the story into an intricate tapestry where all of the characters share a profound connection. It truly changed us. Next on our list is the companion book

which has a boy as its main character. We can’t wait to dive into this adventure!

this post is a part of read aloud thursday at HOPE IS THE WORD.

Hands-On Science

Posted on October 10, 2015 by Christina C

In our house, we LOVE science! It’s even more fun to get our hands dirty and experience what we have been learning about first hand! We are fortunate to live near enough to Baltimore to take advantage of The Maryland Science Center, which offers classes for homeschoolers twice per year. This session, my kids got to learn about chemistry, plate tectonics, engineering, creepy crawly critters, herpetology, extreme weather, the science of colors, and much more! By signing up for classes, which this session were only $6.50 per child, you gain entry into the Science Center for your whole family for the entire day! That gave us the opportunity to explore all of the exhibits for the remainder of each day. The classes usually run for three weeks, so there’s plenty of time to explore and experience. As you can see, my kids were very interested in the prehistoric exhibits, where they got to dig for fossils, measure footprints, assemble skeletons, and meet a real paleontologist!

Isn’t this why we homeschool? To think and learn outside the box? To have the freedom to pile into the car and go on an adventure when the interest strikes? I am so thankful for this…

Spontaneous Gym Class

Posted on October 10, 2015 by Christina C

This is my favorite thing about homeschooling – FREEDOM. The freedom to pick up and go wherever, whenever, to have an adventure is something that I am so thankful for. The freedom to count everything as an opportunity to experience, to learn. This was our Gym class today.

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Doesn’t this look fun? It was a birthday party for a dear friend! Can you believe it counts as a Gym class? I know my kids would so much rather be doing this than picking teams for a dodge ball game in school (if that’s what they even do in Gym class anymore. I am probably dating myself!).

So, go have some fun with your kids today! Jump! Run! Bounce! Roll down a hill! Jump in a pile of leaves! It’s so much fun and it ALL counts!

Movies That Inspire

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Christina C

One of our favorite things to do at our house is watch great movies. We love to pile on the couch, pop a huge bowl of buttered popcorn, and indulge in cinematic bliss. Our favorite learning and lifestyle coach, Julie Bogart from Brave Writer, includes movie nights as part of the Brave Writer Lifestyle. For our designated “Movie Nights,” I wanted to create a list of movies that are worthy to make our cut. By “worthy” I mean movies that inspire. Movies that make us feel. Movies that ignite our imaginations and our appreciation for the craft. Movies that use beautiful language, visuals, and acting to make us cry, laugh, hold our breath. A movie that sparks a long, animated conversation is always a winner!

Here is our list of movies, many of which are also books that we love as well:

(Bear in mind that my kids are 8, 6, and 3. This is a living list. It evolves as we evolve…)

The Neverending Story

Song of the Sea

The Odd Life of Timothy Green

Black Beauty

The Golden Compass

Matilda

The Fantastic Mr. Fox

Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Lemony Snickets: A Series of Unfortunate Events

My Dog Skip