Dinner and a Movie- The Hobbit

Both the children and Bryce* have read, and enjoyed, The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.  When the first movie came out over a year ago, Bryce had every intention to take Grace to see the movie but it just never happened.  At the time, I didn't think that Harris was old enough to see the movie and when Bryce broached the subject this past weekend of watching the movie together as a family, I was still unsure if Harris was old enough.  However, Bryce felt that by watching it together, having had read the book and taking into account Harris' personality that it would be ok for Harris.  And honestly, it was!

I thought it would be fun to make a few "themed" items for our dinner before watching the movie.  These items are a bit of a stretch but the children don't seem to care and as they get older they think it's funny to have a "One (chicken, broccoli and cheese) Ring" main course.  We also had hobbit door cookies and Seed Cakes that Bilbo Baggins would have served himself.

*I'm reading it now, I couldn't stand being the only one who hadn't read it!

Midsummer

One of my fondest memories from teaching fourth grade was our yearly unit on Shakespeare.  We would read Romeo and Juliet and then put on the play.  The children handled everything from scenery, to scripts, to costumes.  I knew that we had succeeded in getting the children excited when my big, cool fourth grade boys insisted on wearing tights as part of their costumes!  I always used the Shakespeare for Kids books by Lois Burdett and  I cannot say enough wonderful things about these books.  They put the stories into language, while using rhyming couplets, that children can understand and get excited about.  The illustrations are done by children and are absolutely inspired!

Last evening, to celebrate the first day of summer, we read A Midsmmer Night's Dream.  The children were a bit perplexed about why midsummer is on the first day of summer, but a bit of google searching explained that it's actually the mid growing season in England.  We stopped fairly often to explain a little more thoroughly what was happening in the story to Harris- Grace seemed to follow along easily.  However, he didn't have any problem grasping the part where the lovers in the play killed themselves- he promptly acted that part out for us!  If we had more family members we would certainly be acting this one out!

Dinner and a Movie- The Water Horse

We used to do dinner and movie nights a lot.  We would watch the Little Mermaid and eat seafood or watch Curious George and have banana pancakes.  The children always loved it and it made dinner a little special for those family nights.  However, somewhere along the way those dinners disappeared, along with our regular monthly family nights!  We've decided to make Family Nights a priority again and we started with dinner and a movie.

Months ago we read the book, The Water Horse by Dick King-Smith and really enjoyed the sweet, simple story of friendship, hope and love.  I thought the children would enjoy the movie but, I was stuck on themed food.  In the end, I ended up sticking a dinosaur bath toy in each of the children's soup (I washed it well!) and hoped it looked like the loch ness monster!  I think the children got a kick out of a toy being in their food as much as anything else.  I also made pudding for dessert and stuck a cut up gummy worm in it (I used a food writers pen to draw the eye).  I'm not sure why I thought the loch that the water horse lived in was swampy looking-  I'm pretty sure the lochs in Scotland are crystal clear and beautiful not brown and dirty looking.

I have to note that the children didn't enjoy the movie as much as I had hoped.  They found it scary in several parts because of the addition to the story of the war and bomb attacks.  Also, Harris was devastated by the idea that the boy wouldn't see his "best friend" ever again.  Having read the story, I assumed that the movie would continue in the same vein and I didn't preview the movie before watching it.  That was an error on my part, especially knowing how sensitive my children are to movies.

Sunflowers

In the children's garden we have a most magnificent sunflower!  It stretches toward the sky and is heaven for about 5 bumblebees at any given time.

After reading, Camille and the Sunflowers, A story about Vincent van Gogh by Laurence Anholt we  spent an afternoon painting our sunflower.  I set the easel up in the garden, gave each child a canvas and some paints and told them to paint the sunflower however they saw fit.

I think that the results were darling- including the bees.

P.S.  I want to note that I have found that the children respond the most favorably to creating when they have quality art supplies.  I don't really buy "children's" paints anymore. Rather, I've found that it's not too much more expensive to buy artists paint at Michael's (especially if I use a coupon).  The results are worth it!