kirchara

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

Oberon, who is furious at Titania, wants the Indian boy to work for him as a squire. Titania replies, "No, this is the son of a beloved friend." Oberon angrily takes revenge by making Titania fall in love with the first thing she sees, a man with a donkey's head. Puck mistakenly puts the flower's juice on the wrong person's eyes. Instead of making Demetrius fall in love with Helena, he ends up making Lysander fall in love with Helena. Since Titania is in love with Nick Bottom and isn't thinking right, Oberon successfully takes away the Indian boy. After he has the boy, Oberon reverses the enchantment on Titania.


Boxcar Children: The Mystery Cruise

The amazing Alden children, who are happily on vacation, meet Max on a cruise ship headed to Miami. Max wants to inherit his grandmother's house filled with antiques so he can open it as a museum, but someone is sabotaging him so he won't be able to get there in time to inherit. Tom/Thomas, who is in disguise, sabotages the trip by yelling "Man overboard!" and throwing something into the water. He tries to hide in the cabin during the passenger count, but the Alden children catch him. Tom also messes with the radio connections. The Alden children overhear Tom talking about 'C.' C turns out to be Carla, Max's cousin. The Alden children trick Tom into thinking the ship is arriving late. Max arrives on time, and Tom gets arrested.

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J has learned and read passages from MND (and Twelfth Night) but not the entire play. I also read Charles & Mary Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare to them, so they know the overarching plot of the play.

When they're a bit older I'll let them watch the 1999 movie (I didn't realize they're making another one). But I'd like to first finish reading Dawn Treader together so we can watch that movie together.

Who Was George Washington? by Roberta Edwards


American colonists did not want taxes on their tea, which was a very popular drink, because they were not represented in British parliament. They longed for freedom from the British government. General George Washington led the Continental Army against the British. Even though the army didn't have enough food and equipment, they eventually won against the British soldiers because they were fighting on home turf. More importantly, they wanted independence so badly that they were willing to die for it.

Boxcar Children: A Horse Named Dragon

The awesome Alden children catches a horse thief at Old Ranch trying to steal a bunch of horses. The horse thieves disguise the horses with hoof polish so people won't recognize the horses. The Alden children put together facts to solve the mystery. The thief steals a trailer covered with stickers to bring back two horses. One of the thieves, Vet, is arrested. Slim, who was making someone look bad, is given a second chance because he was the owner's best friend.

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Extra that J typed on notepad (re: current U.S. spending on the military):

[Half a page of "!!!"]
The Americans are unbeatable since they pay A LOT for...defenses!
[Half a page of "!!!"]

It's night and day from the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

Lucy, Edmund and Caspian are on an island called World's End. Three sleeping bearded lords, who have been sleeping for seven years at Aslan's Table, are under an enchantment after one of them stupidly touched a knife that the White Witch used to kill Aslan. They need to break the enchantment. The girl they met on the island says her father can teach Caspian how to do that.

Boxcar Children: The Mystery of the Soccer Snitch

At the Alden children's soccer practice, a girl named Kayla receives a mean message that says she should not be an international mascot because she isn't a team player, she is a show-off, etc. The Alden children investigates and find out who wrote the mean message and who broke the window (extreme temperature difference). Kayla intentionally did those things and sent the letter to herself because she didn't want to be a mascot and she doesn't like soccer. Her parents let her quit soccer and sign up for an art program instead. She likes drawing and being an artist.

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I was going to teach J quality adjectives (IEW), when I realized that he seldom uses adjectives in both his daily speech and writing. So for now I’m focusing on having him add one extra adjective to his writing.

I gave him the cue "The girl they met on the island," thinking that he would go with the predictable "beautiful girl" or "pretty girl." Instead, he went for "bearded."

He is an eight-year-old boy after all *g*

Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

The Dawn Treader, which is a Narnian ship, sails to an island with a magician and a bunch of invisible beings. The chief of invisible beings orders Lucy to go read the magician's book so that they can be visible again. Lucy happily looks through the magician's book; she loves the pictures, reads a story she really loves, and says out loud the spell that makes everything invisible visible. Aslan appears.

Boxcar Children: The Pumpkin Head Mystery

Every night there's a haunted hay ride at Beckett farm. A spooky floating head keeps on scaring people. ("Is that part of the haunted hayride? I don't like it very much.") The Alden children find clues and discover that Jason, the tractor driver/mechanic is the one putting on a black cape and a pumpkin head. Jason doesn't want strangers to be at the Beckett Farm, and he doesn't want the farm to be sold to Mr. B, who wants to build houses on the land.

Boxcar Children: The Garden Thief

Someone vandalizes the garden plots, and someone also steals all the growing food. The boxcar children look for clues and find out who the garden thief is. The thief is Lucasta who hates purple so she definitely will not take the purple carrots. She steals food to feed her bunnies. The vandal is an adult. The one giving back food is Lucasta's brother.

Boxcar Children: Mystery of the Fallen Treasure

A pilot, whose name is Adelita, accidentally drops a backpack of jewelry, which lands in the forest. Jessie's dog Watch thankfully finds the backpack. The boxcar children try to find the pilot. They know people won't lie to a dog, so they think Adelita is telling the truth to Watch.

Not a Fish by Marie Rippel

Kaylee and Harper, two fish in a river, are friends who argue a lot. Kaylee wants to not be a fish because being a fish is boring; all you do is swim endlessly in the river. She pretends to be all sort of different animals. Her friend complains, "That's not what fish do!" She answers, "Yes, that's because I'm not a fish."

Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

Eustace runs off and later on sees a dragon die. He is so greedy for treasure and acts like a dragon that he turns into a dragon himself. His arm gets swollen because he has shoved a bracelet past his elbow. He wants to not be a dragon anymore and return to his own world.

Geronimo Stilton: Mighty Mount Kilimanjaro

Geronimo Stilton, who works for the Rodents Gazette, journeys on an adventure to Mount Kilimanjaro because it is one of Bruce's deadly challenges. They buy a lot of stuff such as sleeping bags, camera, flashlight and extra woolen socks. Mount Kilimanjaro is 19,340 ft. above sea level.

A Picture book of Amelia Earhart by David A. Adler

Amelia Earhart lived in the U.S. in the early 1900s. She flew across both the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. She died while proving that women can fly planes and were up to the challenge in the air. She crashed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

Lucy, Edmund, Eustace and Prince Caspian are on a ship sailing in the middle of nowhere because Caspian wants to find his father's friends. Eustace starts writing in his little book, e.g. "E. [Edmund] is buttering up to C. [Caspian]."

Voyage of the Dawn Treader, ctd.

Caspian, Lucy, Edmund and Eustace are on Felimath Island. They're looking for one of the seven lords. Some people kidnap them to sell them as slaves. Lord Bern buys Prince Caspian because he reminds Lord Bern of King Caspian.

J is eight years old and have started third grade. His daily homework includes reading for 20-30 minutes and answering "What did you read about?"

I'm taking the opportunity to have him write mini book reports (2-3 sentences).

To help him organize his thoughts, we're using the story sequence chart from IEW*'s Teaching Writing: Structure and Style Unit III: Summarizing Narrative Stories.

I. Who?
When?
Where?

II. What do they need or want?
What do they think?
What do they say and do?

(Why?)

III. How is the need resolved?

I ask him the questions and write down his answers. He has learned the “-ly” adverbs and the who-which clause dress-ups.

J just finished Roald Dahl's Matilda; his first mini book-report is about the book’s ending. We're taking a break from the Hobbit and picked up Narnia again with Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

* Institute of Excellence in Writing

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☆ 03/100 moments in multiples of 50 words