The Boxcar Children should be required reading for every child.( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boxcar_Children ) It was one of my favorites and I read it many times. I also read it to my older children, and now Dilara and I are about halfway through it. It is just wonderful in so many ways. Tonight when we were reading about the children preparing to make a swimming pool by damming up a brook, she asked me how they would keep the fungus and leaves out of it. I love her "interruptions" while I am reading. That is something you can't do in a group setting, like a classroom story time, because if every time a child had a question or comment they were allowed to interrupt, the story would never get finished, and the whole story would get thrown off. Dilara is so full of such wonderful ideas I am very glad that in the flexible setting of a home school, she can express herself freely. We also stop videos and discuss points that she notices in the movie, or things she has questions about.
One day when I was sick we watched "Finding Nemo" and "Flipper" (with Chuck Connors) and by the time we were finished, I had 5 pages of notes of things we had discussed, and could explore later, such as why children should be obedient; how some people can be annoying, but still be valuable friends; hurricanes and the damage they cause; the Florida Keys (and what "key limes" are and how a "key lime pie" is not a lime pie with a key inside, which is what she thought at first!); how nice it is when a man hugs and kisses his wife when he comes home from work; how important it is to never swim alone, etc., etc.---Lydia
One day when I was sick we watched "Finding Nemo" and "Flipper" (with Chuck Connors) and by the time we were finished, I had 5 pages of notes of things we had discussed, and could explore later, such as why children should be obedient; how some people can be annoying, but still be valuable friends; hurricanes and the damage they cause; the Florida Keys (and what "key limes" are and how a "key lime pie" is not a lime pie with a key inside, which is what she thought at first!); how nice it is when a man hugs and kisses his wife when he comes home from work; how important it is to never swim alone, etc., etc.---Lydia