Get Your "Life with Lily" Literature Activities Now!

Enter the current giveaway here.

It's time!

If you've been wanting to host your own kiddie book club or start holding literature circles with your family or in your classroom, I've got a great place for you to start:

with Life With Lily.

This book makes the best book club events!  Lily is mischievous, adventurous, and fun.  Her family provides wise counsel in response to her adventures, and because she's a young Amish girl, the possibilities for fun activities are endless.  Lily bakes, sews, has animal adventures, and is involved in lots of science experiments.  You won't lack for fun projects with Lily around - and my new Literature Response packet has more than 25 activities, recipes, hyperlinks, and projects to keep the Lily fun - and the Lily learning- coming.

You can find the brand new Life with Lily Literature Response activities here - and don't forget to enter to win a copy of A Surprise for Lily's Literature Response activities!

Guest Posting & A Giveaway!

I love to read.  I think books are such wonderful pathways to adventure and learning that we spend a lot of time reading here - for fun and for school.  Usually those two purposes become pretty blurred, because school can be really fun.

One of the ways that we play around with books is to hold monthly book club events.  I say "event" because this is no round-robin discussion.  We don't sip tea and nibble on cucumber sandwiches while secretly wishing that it were over already.

Instead, we do what the characters in our stories do - and one of our favorite characters of all time is Lily Lapp.

Why is she so special?  I'm guest-posting today over on Suzanne Woods Fisher's blog about that.  She's the author behind The Adventures of Lily Lapp series.  Hop on over here and find how to start your own - or kick the adventure up a few notches - in your kids' book club.

I'm also writing book club guides to accompany our favorite stories.  The first is now available in my TpT store.  These packets include everything that you need to host a great book club event with your kids.  You can find out more here.

Want to win one of your own?  Use the widget below and enter to win your own "Response Activities for A Surprise for Lily."  
 

Entry-Form

"A Surprise for Lily" Response Activities Are Here!

I love sharing fun and educational ideas with you.  

I love great books even more.


That's why Suzanne Woods Fisher's Adventures of Lily Lapp series is so wonderful for kids:  it's a high-quality story with wise characters, fun adventures, and brimming over with learning opportunities that are fun for everyone.



I realize that not everyone shares my enthusiasm for digging into a book and finding all the great things that you can do with it, so I've done it for you!  New in my TpT store tonight are sixteen pages of science, cooking, sewing, history, discussion, art, and mission activities that are all pulled from A Surprise for Lily. Everything that you need to host a kids' book club, literature group, unit study, or family read aloud time is here.  

By digging into the story literally and trying your hand at Lily's activities, your child will be able to relate to Lily much better.  Your child will be able to understand Lily's choices and discuss her trials and triumphs with you.  S/he'll be able to compare his/her life with Lily's from a knowledgeable perspective - and you might just discover some new talents at the same time.

So hop on over to my TpT store and check out Responses to "A Surprise for Lily" for yourself!

"A Big Year for Lily" by Suzanne Woods Fisher

Lily Lapp's family has settled into their new home in Pennsylvania, but life still holds big changes and big steps for Lily. Good changes, like once again living close to her beloved cousin and best friend, Hannah. Bad changes, like a mean girl who plays tricks on her. And no change at all where Lily would most want one--Aaron Yoder sits near her in school and relentlessly teases her. Surprises are in store for Lily as she learns, with Mama and Papa's help, to manage the ups and downs of growing up Amish.

The third of four charming novels that chronicle the gentle way of the Amish through the eyes of a young girl, A Big Year for Lily gives children ages 8-12 a fascinating glimpse into the life of the Amish---and lots of fun and laughter along the way. It combines Mary Ann Kinsinger's real-life stories of growing up Amish and the bestselling writing of Amish fiction and nonfiction author Suzanne Woods Fisher. With charming line drawings in each book, this series captures the hearts of readers young and old.

Lily is back, and she's better than ever!  We loved the newest installment of the Lily Lapp series.  Within a week of receiving the book, my daughter read it twice - and is working her way through the series again.  Any book that will encourage a love of reading like that is a winner in my book.

A Big Year for Lily is as full of childish adventures and parental wisdom as the first Lily book.  She deals with issues like what is truth?, who are my friends?, and how important is stuff?.  The story teaches about these important lessons while entertaining in a fun way.

I look forward to our upcoming book club event centered around A Big Year for Lily.  There are so many opportunities within this book for children to act out Lily's adventures!  Besides math, quilting, and cooking ideas, there are art and game options, too.  For more specific plans, email me at amybradsher@gmail.com or keep watching for our book club post on a Friday in November.  I don't want to give anything away here just yet if you haven't read the book!  ;-)

My Big Helper is already asking when the next Lily will be released.  I'm not sure if Suzanne Woods Fisher and Mary Ann Kinsinger plan to collaborate on any more books after that one, but I hope that they do.  Our kids need more books like this - books that are strong in family values, respect, honesty, truth, and, yes, adventure!  Adventures that kids can really go and replicate on their own or with an adult's supervision.  Please, keep'em coming, ladies!  

You can read other reviews on this bloggy hop here or purchase your own copy here.

Suzanne Woods Fisher is the bestselling author of the Lancaster County Secrets series and the Stoney Ridge Seasons series, as well as nonfiction books about the Amish, including Amish Peace. She is also the coauthor of a new Amish children's series, The Adventures of Lily Lapp. Her interest in the Anabaptist cultures can be directly traced to her grandfather, who was raised in the Old Order German Baptist Brethren Church in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Suzanne is a Carol Award winner and a Christy Award finalist. She is a columnist for Christian Post and Cooking & Such magazines. She lives in California. For more information, please visit suzannewoodsfisher.com and connect with her on Twitter @suzannewfisher. Get Amish proverbs delivered right to your iPhone or iPad! Download the Free App! http://bit.ly/134r55G

Learn more about Lily at http://adventuresoflilylapp.com/

I received a free copy of A Big Year for Lily from LitFuse Publicity in exchange for an honest review.

Back to (Home) School 2013

It's that time again!  The stores are beginning to hold their back-to-school shopping sales, and people everywhere are discussing plans for the upcoming school year.

I'm knee deep in plans, books, and curriculum for our next semester.  As I do, these are the things that I'm thinking about ...

My Big Helper is now eight and entering the third grade.  She's a great reader but isn't as fond of writing as she used to be, although she continues to be rather good at it.  She loves to learn about how people live and is growing an interest in science, but mostly she likes to do 'projects.'  She wants to build, cook, sew, or create what happens in her studies.  She works rather slowly because she thinks about all aspects of what she's doing and prefers to do everything cooperatively.  While she works independently, she tends to carry that work around the house so that she can be beside me, wherever I might be - whether I'm working with her brother or completing some housework.

Art is another new interest, and it, too, has been growing rapidly.  She recently started her own art business and is excited about the possibilities this may create.

She's very mission-minded.  This is something that I have to be intentional about encouraging, as this gift of hers is not one of mine - but it's very important to her, and so I'm learning along with her.

Her book club, although currently on summer break, will resume in August.  My Big Helper is excited about getting together with her friends once again to interact with literature.  She is a wonderful reader, and the possibilities for her are now limited only by our imaginations, so I'm trying to dream big.

Which brings us to my Little Man, who is no longer so little.  He's six and entering first grade, and for the past few months has been determined to have his own book club and monthly gathering with friends.  When he asked me several months ago for this, I told him we'd start one when he could read chapter books - and so he promptly worked very hard on his reading.  He now picks up and reads short chapter books in a single setting, so his very own book club will begin in September.

Of course, this means that My Little Man now loves to read.  If he doesn't have a book in his hand, then there was one there just a few minutes ago - and you're sure to find several under his pillow, tucked into his bed rails, and beside his seat in the car.  If he's quiet and somewhere in the house, chances are good that he got distracted when he walked past a book, and I'll usually find him on his tummy, head in his hands, eagerly devouring the pages.  He'll read anything - fiction chapter books, preferably mysteries or adventure stories, or any kind of non-fiction research book, from dictionaries to field guides to books about animals and machines.

Math comes easily to him, so I'd like to move him through the rest of his first-grade math goals and into harder ones quickly so that he has more options when he's older.  He's very mechanical, as well, and I love to see how he's able to explain movement and basic physics.  

Science is his favorite subject, so we read lots of science books and spend time just discussing how and why things work.  This thrills him to no end.

Writing is not exactly his favorite thing, but he does well at it - and he likes to write in his journal.  He's not enamored with lowercase letters, so although he knows well what they look like, convincing him to use them is a bit of a struggle.  If this is any indication, he's going to be a brilliant doctor someday.  ;-)

Me?  I love to read, and besides that, history is my favorite subject.  I like to learn about the people - how did they live, what was important to them, what did their everyday lives look like.

Why do my likes matter?  If I'm teaching in way that's totally foreign or uncomfortable to me, then our lessons become more stilted.  We have worked out compromises on our differences.  For example, I'm learning to be more scientific and mission minded because those things are important to the kids.  They have learned to get their hands dirty, to read recipes, and ask questions because those things are important to me.  This balance keeps all of us happy and enables us to learn together as a group, with each kid working to the best of his/her ability and taking assignments as far as they are able to go.

This post is linked up with A Classic Housewife's Back to (Home) School's 2013 carnival.  Come back next week to find out more about the curriculum we're planning to utilize in the 2013-14 school year.

Life as a Pilgrim: Fun & Games (Part Three)

This month our Book Club girls read Ron Roy's The Mayflower Treasure Hunt.  I was pleasantly surprised by this book - the descriptions of the Mayflower are historically accurate, the initial movement of the Pilgrims are tracked throughout the Cape Cod area, and the modern Plymouth is well depicted.  I love the way that Roy added a believable mystery into the Pilgrim story, making it easy to tell which parts are fiction and which are true while still maintaining a fun and exciting story.

I had lots of events planned for this club meeting and was very excited - and then it became possible for us to travel to a local park for a "Pilgrims at Play" program, where they promised to teach about the fun side of Pilgrim life.  This seemed like the perfect place to meet about this book!

Several of the girls traveled with my family, and they talked a bit about the book on our way to and from the park. They also learned quite a bit more about Pilgrim life while there.

The program began as Hilary, the presenter, talked about basic Pilgrim facts.  As she prepared them to use books to study Pilgrim life, she taught the kids a few phrases in Wampanoag and in Elizabethan English. This was by far my favorite feature of this program. Who would expect to hear Elizabethan English in a small park in North Carolina?

Next, Hilary pulled out tubs of supplies and let the kids play Pilgrim-style.  Mine never moved past the ball-and-cup.  They were each determined to get the hang of it!

After learning about the foods available to the Pilgrims for their first Great Harvest Celebration, the kids made painted fish impressions.  They painted a textured rubber fish and then rubbed it onto plain paper to transfer the colorful image. 

After a picnic lunch on the center's beautiful stone porch and some playtime in the museum, we headed out.  Even though the rain had stopped, the girls were too happy to pose under this vibrant umbrella.

Next month we're looking forward to discussing a good Christmas mystery and spreading some Christmas cheer.

What good books have you read lately?

Shared at I Can Teach My Child.

DIY Safari Vest

When my Big Helper was planning this last Book Club event, she was really excited about the safari theme - and she wanted everyone to dress up.  Since her brother has a super cool safari vest that he received as a Christmas gift, she wanted one to wear, too - but purchasing another wasn't possible.

So when we came across an old khaki-colored t-shirt, we knew we'd found our answer.

This is how we turned a junior-sized t-shirt into a kid-sized safari vest:

• First, she tried on the t-shirt.  I used chalk to mark the neckline, sleeves, and hem.   Together, we figured out where she wanted the edges of her vest to be, and then I drew lines right on her.
• Those lines made it very easy to cut off the extra fabric.  Because it was knit, supposedly it wouldn't fray.  This made the project easier in that we didn't stress about turning under every edge, but of course, stretchy fabric is never easy to sew.
• After cutting off all the extra fabric, we sewed a simple, straight seam about an 1/8 of an inch in from the cut edges.  This helped to prevent any tearing or fraying and made the vest look more "finished."
• My Big Helper got a sheet of paper and drew how she wanted the pockets to be laid out on her vest. This gave me an idea of the number of pockets and their proportions to the whole project.
• Then we put the main vest piece aside and spread out the pieces we initially cut off.  
• Using those pieces, we cut out squares and rectangles for the pockets and rectangular pocket flaps.  To make the vest look more "finished," we used the turned-under seams - the parts that had been the sleeve edge and the bottom hem - and used those as the bottom piece of each pocket and the bottom of each pocket flap.  That made each pocket look more uniform.
• She wanted to have "Safari Guide" embroidered on one of the large pockets, so we chose some green embroidery floss and got to work.  It didn't take long, and soon the words she desired adorned the pocket.
• We pinned each pocket and flap in place and then sewed a simple straight seam around the bottom and sides of each pocket.
• For the pocket flaps, I pinned them in place as if they were open and pointing up.  Then I sewed the seam straight across.  Now, when the pocket is closed, you can't see that seam.
• We used Velcro circles to hold each pocket closed.  
• To hold the vest itself closed, we sewed on four buttons rescued from the spare button bin and sewed them on.  Then we cut tiny slits on the opposing side of the vest.  Someday, when I learn how to sew a buttonhole, we'll do a real one, but this works well for now.

The vest that we made is certainly simpler than the fancy one her little brother has, but it works just as well.  We had fun making it together, and she was super excited to wear it when her friends arrived for the safari.  

Come back tomorrow for a recipe worthy of any Olympian!