tales, treasures and tidbits!!

Every other Monday, (starting next Monday) notions & threads will feature a story, with a related craft and recipe. It incorporates many of my favorite parts of homeschooling; reading, cooking and crafting. This is something I have been thinking about for a while. Since Kelly's death, a year ago, I have struggled with what to do with this space. This blog was very important to her. For this reason it didn't feel right to close up shop. But at the same time, it didn't feel right to go on business as usual. And when I look back at this years posts, it seems like a whole lot of sadness. I feel it was necessary, but now I hear Kelly's voice saying, "enough already!" This is what she has helped me come up with. Kelly was always so encouraging and supportive in everything I did. But what seemed to bring her the most joy, were the projects I did with the kids.

What to expect
Each week I will start with a quote from the featured story. I will do my best to provide a link to the featured story in some form. Then, I'll write a bit about the story and why I chose it. Following that will be a tutorial for a related craft and then a recipe.

Join us

Following a model I learned years ago from The Junior Great Books program, this is how we are implementing Tales, Treasures and Tidbits into our life. On Monday we read/listen to the story. That is it. Unless they have a question, we are done. On Tuesday, we reread the story. This day, I ask if there are any lessons they have learned from it. This usually leads into a discussion. I love to hear their little minds at work. On Wednesday, we read the story again. This time we start to work on our project. On Friday, we read again but first we make a snack to enjoy after story time. We make our snack, read our story then enjoy our tidbit. So thats it. It's pretty simple. Mortimer Adler wrote a whole book on how to read a book and the benefits of rereading so I won't try to impart all the benefits of it here. In a nut shell, I believe the repetition helps them to take in all the story has to offer. I've definitely seen good fruits in working this way with my crew (at least in the 1 year old!!), but of course, join in however best fits your life.

So that's it! I'm pretty excited. So are the kids. I hope you join us. I promise great fun :)