Things to Accomplish before Saturday 9/26

Nelson will start writing our story. One or two pages max. Mainly introduce the setting and character(s). Characters can be developed later on in the story. 

Finish reading Traveling Book Club book: "Small Steps". Write new words down on cards. 

Don't forget to turn in your one and only club logo design!

Read 4 Fun Book Club T-Shirt Design Contest

Today we had an art class. Oh yes, by the way, I teach the same group art lessons. How blessed am I? If we have to have visions(which in many cases, we do), they've got to go above and beyond indoor activities. I plan to take them to places so we get more inspired. Nature, God's creation, man-made creation, events, fairs, museums, exhibits. No matter where we go, we just have to go as a team, stimulate our senses, and let the experiences guide us. 

We'll go to places.

We'll go as a team.

Team needs uniforms.

Fun uniforms like t-shirts.

T-Shirts with logos. 

Read 4 Fun Club logo!

Six kids will create a logo for our club. The winning design will go on our T-Shirts. Yay! 

The deadline is this coming Saturday, a week from now. This page will be updated with the results. Stay tuned!

 

No Pressure Writing/Presentation Assignment

What Inspired me?

This summer, my kids and I went to Washington DC for a week. Before our trip, I did some homework on places of interest. Since DC is rated top 10 most kids friendly cities in the States, it wasn't that hard to know where we should go. Well during the search, I stumbled upon National Gallery of Sculpture Garden website. 

Immediately I thought how nice it would be for kids to read some information on the 
website, pick their favorite sculpture and talk about it? Hence the assignment:

1. Pick one or two sculptures of your choice.
2. Write the following:

• Name and title of the sculpture
• What is it made of?
• Brief intro of the artist (name, nationality, specialty)
• What do you see and feel?
• Why do you like/dislike it

3. Everyone will share it next club time. Pay close attention to how you present what you write. Show enthusiasm. Nobody likes it if the presenter is not connected with the audience.

It's something short and sweet hopefully. That's why I call it "No Pressure Writing/Presentation". We'll see how it goes!

The benefit of Book Club Blog

Yay! I have now caught up with my book club starting from this summer. Too many reasons to start a blog about the club. The most beneficial for kids, parents and I at this moment is: I plan to have kids take responsibilities by reading the blog every week for activities we'll do together. No more serious business through wechat from now on! Parents, you are set free! But if your child is missing club time because he didn't finish home assignment, please don't bite me. :)

Summer Session Graduation Celebration

Sorry for lacking of better word. If you think of a good way to give a title. Please don't be shy. Leave it in comment box below.

I'm calling it graduation. We need a sense of achievement. Completion seems an understatement. These kids could've played the whole summer, gone to movies, parks, road trips, zoos and museums, ALL summer long. But they chose to come my club, MY club, out of all other places, EVERY Wednesday. It's not just a mandatory thing now. Ashley would refuse another invitation because she has a fun club planned already. My heart just melted with cheese when I heard that. No kidding.

SO...what will we do? How will we celebrate it?

I thought about giving them awards. Does everyone have to have one? I decided no, well, I'm thinking about my 8-year-old son. I'll give him a participation award. For now at least. Maybe parents are all tough to their own child. And we have reasons to. 

My wonderful artsy colleague Chuck was so creative and nice to actually bake me a sample medal the day I told him about my plan. 

Here it is:

I was amazed! Then we thought about promoting the idea and selling them to the world. But that's another blog. :) 

I use clay, so this is the final product. 

On the party day, kids were so happy hanging out together, eating, and getting this most precious award necklace ever. I know, I have to give myself praise with that. 

No, I'm really proud of them. We did it! And our bond is stronger than ever! My son Aiden's best friend is Nelson now. That's made official through nights and nights sitting and rolling on the floor together. He started to look out for Nelson too when he almost tripped over a table once.

Lots of things start small in life. It's like a snowball, when you roll it, you never know how big it can become. 

A Brilliant Idea --- Children Reviewers

One day I talked about book club with my colleague, a history PHD and book editor and reviewer for major publishing companies. Two things I remembered so vividly so that I'm compelled to write them down now. Something to hope for later. 

He wished someone was doing the same when he was little. What an encouraging compliment to say huh? 

He recommended kids to start writing reviews and post them online. Who knows, the publishing companies may look for them for more reviews in the future. Reviews from a child's perspective. Think about how influential that could be! Guess that's why "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" became so popular there were girl version that came out after. 

Hopefully we will get on that track, and who knows, soon they may get free books to read! 

Hmmm, should I pay for his idea? Shhhh......

Amazing Book Shelves

Stumbled upon these book shelves today. How cool! 

Tree of knowledge.

Two things we can't live without
Books and Music

Pick a book on your way to somewhere.

A playground or bookground?

A Book House

Organize your books with categories?

Hey, a cushion might be even better. Put your legs up!

Two book worms perfect for each other. 

Maybe more for decoration than function.

Talking about storage 

This gets even better. Wow! Now I'm getting jealous.

What a nice side coffee table and book shelf!

Hmm, I get the idea, but.....

Now THIS is more comfortable. A foot rest please?

About Presentation

Kids showed up at the meeting. First thing we were going to do is having them tell the story of what happened in their summer camp. While they were preparing it at home. I searched online and borrowed this rubric for kids presentation. It's just the beginning of sharing stories, so I went easy on them. They'll just read the story they wrote. Here is the rubric. 

Everyone talked about their story. Some were longer than others. But they all did a good job! Well, by "good job", I meant they took the time to write a story, and they read it. Three months later, I can't remember any of the details of the story except my own kids' only because I was part of the preparing process not because of the way they told the story. So that's the evidence of not impacting your audience by thrilling them with your enthusiasm and fascinating plot. Or maybe life is just not all that exciting in general. Just kidding! What am I talking about? We should all eat life, AND share it in a killer story telling way! 

Then we looked at the criteria for a good story sharing. They each became a little teacher critiquing others' work. What they lack of include eye contact, voice, and pace. I started to emphasize on engaging audience and helping them hear what the story teller is saying. I'm not worried since we'll have plenty of chance to practice later. Stay positive, captain!