C.S. Lewis and Other Stuff

We have been reading the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis. For those of you who don't know, I read to the family at the dinner table when I'm done eating. We just finished "The Magician's Nephew" and loved it. We have enjoyed every book in this series. We have laughed out loud and been made teary and run through the gauntlet of emotions. It has been a really good time for us.

His writing is superb. The last couple of books seem to be a little harder for me to read out loud. It's almost like he was getting a little too fancy in his writing. But the stories have been phenomenal. It's nice to see characters reappear in a new novel, and sad to say good bye when you know they won't be showing up anymore. Reepicheep was one of our favorites. He makes us laugh in the "Prince Caspian" movie, too.

"The Magician's Nephew" is actually the sixth book in the series but is written as the first book in the series. It was interesting to see how Narnia started. It was sad to know that such a beautiful place started with evil already in it. If you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it. It is full of adventure, fun, drama, excitement, and really creative writing. The big girl will be doing the Progeny Press study guide for it next year for language arts. We have started the last book in the series which is "The Last Battle". It is about the end of Narnia and we are anxious to get to the end of the book already.

We have also been reading the Harry Potter series. We have done that one as a books on CD. Those books are way too big for me to read at the dinner table. But we travel so much during the week that we just pop a CD in, and by the time we get home, it's done. We have really enjoyed it as well. I like the fact that the man reading the books, whose name escapes me at the moment, does voices. I don't do very good voices, but I'm working on it with our Narnia books. The other thing I like is that it's the same man reading each book. Then we don't get confused about who is who.

We just finished the "Prisoner of Azkaban" and it was really good as well. They are very well written books and the kids have enjoyed them. We already have "Goblet of Fire" and we'll probably start it tomorrow. I think the Harry Potter books are very creative and inventive. I admire the imagination of both of these writers. They have taken a fantasy land and made it real in my mind. It helps we've seen all the Harry Potter films to date. It helps the visualization.

We are working on Easter lapbooks this week. I love lapbooks. The kids don't think they are working and they will do them for hours if I would let them. We have a couple more things to add, and then I will post some pictures.

There are some really good websites out there for lapbooks and lapbook ideas. One of my personal favorites is Lapbook Lessons. It has some really good ideas for a ton of lapbooks. They also have a free one every monday through CurrClick. I also really like Homeschool Share. They have mostly literary lapbooks, but they do have others and they have a ton of free templates to use.

We have learned why we celebrate Easter, a new Easter song, and why eggs can represent new life. We have also learned where brown eggs come from and where white eggs come from and the parts of an egg. We have learned about Good Friday and the significance of it. We have learned about Holy Week and what that means to people around the world. We have discussed the prophets and their telling of a Savior in the future, given by God.

We went to a Maundy Thursday service at church tonight. It is a service that celebrates the Last Supper and the importance of being good servants to Christ. The Last Supper has been our topic for our after school program that we attend. We take communion during the service and hubby and the boy got to help serve. The Pastor had asked the big girl if she wanted to help, but she was feeling very shy for some reason. Then the boy said he would and then hubby got asked. It was so good to see my boys serving communion and doing a great job. It was very special to me to have them serve our family and our church family during such an important service.

During the service, at the end, they showed a pretty graphic picture of Christ being nailed to the cross while the pastor sang a very beautiful song about being on bended knee. The kids and I actually learned it yesterday during our after school program. She has such a clear, clean voice that is just magical. God has definitely given her a voice that is perfect for praising His name. The big girl got a little upset at the picture. It touched her that Jesus suffered as much as he did. I just held her and let her cry. I shed some tears myself.

We have lots of plans for Easter, most involve family. We hope that you have a safe and joyous Easter.

Have a great day!