Wizard of Oz lapbook

We just finished reading the book Wizard of Oz. It is a fantastic book, filled with great imagery, and wonderful story telling. I have never read it until now, and It was soooo much better than the movie. In fact as we were watching the movie my daughter kept asking if particular parts of the book were going to happen and I turned to my husband and said- wow, she is going to be very disappointed in this movie. She wasn't but she thought they should have added a few more of the different lands, especially the china land. It was her favorite. It allowed for some great discussion though. We completed the lapbook as we went through the story, placing in different pieces as they happened. It was our first lapbook to complete this year, and I'm excited to be adding more of these into our schooling.

Here's a quick look at the finished Product

We found this lapbook off of Homeschool Share

As we were reading together yesterday we read a book called The Christmas Cobwebs, the book was about a cobbler whose home and business catches on fire and they have to move to a new home before Christmas. I asked my kinder girl if she knew what a cobbler was, and she said "someone who cleans up cobwebs? " Makes perfect sense to me :)

Book Club

One of the things I love about homeschooling is that it gives me an excuse to read great children's literature. Right now we are reading The Family Under the Bridge. It's a great little story that takes place in Paris about a hobo names Armand and a family who recently became homeless. Their worlds come together when Armand discovers the family has moved into his spot under a bridge. Armand is a self proclaimed loner and is struggling to keep his heart from becoming too attached to the children he refers to as starlings. We are only 5 chapters into it but I'm loving the story.

The Hundred Dresses

Our read aloud for the past 2 weeks has been The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes. This is a great book that has allowed for some great discussion between Zoe and I. Although I think some of it might have been a little over Zoe's head, I'm sure that the general message was able to get through, I am also sure that it is one of those kind of stories that will stick with us for a while. The Hundred Dresses, is about Wanda, a poor immigrant girl and her way of coping with her poverty and the constant teasing she receives for wearing the same blue dress to school everyday, One of her ways of coping is to tell a story to the little girls about how she has 100 dresses in her closet. We find out by the end of the story that she is not exactly lying. The little girls in the story are not necessarily portrayed as being terrible, they are just immature and materialistic. The story ends sadly with the little girl moving away because of the treatment from the children in her class. This leaves the girls with feelings of remorse and they attempt to make it right with Wanda, but they find out that they are a little too late.
As you can imagine there are so many great discussions that can come from this book. I have decided that when Zoe is just a little older I will put together a mother, daughter book club and this is one of those books we will revisit again.