Weekly Wrap UP - 10/21/10-- Book club and French festival

For our Book club this week the boys worked on two books creating their own written stories based on the books illustrations.  It was great to see the boys working together and being creative and deciding together what to write.

The first book the boys worked on was this one which is a story entirely of pictures.  I simply asked the boys to write down a story.  We briefly discussed the basics of what makes a good story and I left the boys to it.  I rarely intervene on their writing process!  It was so nice to see them working together and bouncing ideas off each other.

First the boys went though the book and looked at the pictures to give themselves an idea of what the pictures were saying.

Then the boys decided what they wanted each character to say and wrote it down on post it notes.

I was surprised they got through the books so fast and had a story written in just under 45 minutes!  They enjoyed the process and loved their story!

Since they were still excited about writing a story I brought out another book I had and this time I encourage the boys to write more of an narrative for the book in addition to what the characters might say.  This was more of a struggle for the boys.  I did intervene a bit more, encouraging them expand their writing and give more details but all in all not too bad :).

The boys did a great job working together but working on a narrative story was harder for them all.

My husband is studying French and heard about a French Fete about an hour away.  Since he has been off work for a week, due to surgery, he is going a little stir crazy and needed to get out of the house.  Also this week he got to see first hand just how busy we are at this homeschooling thing.  :) I think he has a better understanding why some things don't get done around the house in a timely manner as I quote his words "are you ever home during the day!"

I also got to drive my new car a longer distance and try it out on the back roads.  I love it!

The state of MO was originally settle by French settlers and  this small encampment showed how they might have lived era mid 1800's 

small distilleries used for medicine 

MarioFan checking out the different types of fur that may have been found in the area for the trappers

Various tools the local indians may have used 

Playing some children's games.

Being shown how indians may have drilled holes into shells 

They had French music playing and my husband said he could understand some of the words.   His French lesson are paying off:)

Making make pork crackling--- the original chip the guys said.   

We tasted a French pastry

Watch them make rope

We had a nice afternoon out enjoying the sights, sounds and tastes of the era:).  You can tell it is fall time as there is a nip in the air:)