Cinderella, Cinderella

I LOVE UNIT STUDIES!

Ok, now that it is out of my system, I just have to tell you how much FUN we have been having this week! I have been trying to find a good rhythm lately, and find out what fits us, and I have learned that, at least for now, literature based unit studies is it!

About a year ago, we purchased the wonderful Before Five in a Row manual. While it is great, I felt I needed more structure as far as the teaching went, so I kept looking to add things to it. I added things from Letter of the week, Mailbox magazines, and other places, but the BEST resource I found was HomeSchoolShare!

I found this site because the wonderful ladies who run it use FIAR as well, and have added lapbook components and enrichment ideas to the already wonderful FIAR units.... just the extra structure I was needing/looking for! But they didn't stop there, oh no.... they have 100s of unit studies and lapbooks for wonderful children's classic literature, all FOR FREE!!

While we have had a blast doing the studies they have provided, I have been leery of contributing myself because I had no idea where to start. Last week I decided that I wanted to switch gears a bit and just have fun for a few weeks, so I thought it would be cool to study the Disney Princesses, and spring board a bunch of studies off of them. PLUS, I am actually really encouraging the girls to love the Princesses as I can then easily introduce the topic that they, too, are Princesses but of the Most High King!

So, I came up with some ideas, emailed back and forth A TON with Ami, the wonderful moderator of Homeschoolshare, and we ended up with THIS! It is based on the Charles Perrault classic version. (Please, click on the link and check it out.... I will wait..... AWESOME, RIGHT?!?)

Getting the lapbook components finished and posted took a bit, and then getting them printed took even longer, so we haven't started that part yet. . . we plan to start that tomorrow.... but we have done a lot of the lessons and have just been having the best time! We've read books, watched movies, cleaned the house (hey, I had to throw that in!), but, I have to say, that our favorite part has been the Daddy/Daughter Royal Ball!!!

The other night, after dinner, Gregg dressed up in a TUX and Jordan dressed up in her Sleeping Beauty costume (complete with pink high heel shoes, thank you very much) and they met for a lovely ball in our living room. Cali dressed up in her Cinderella costume but was a bit tired so she went upstairs with Mommy to play for awhile... she will get her own ball next year! Daddy gave Jordan a pink corsage (a pink hair scrunchi with pink ribbons on it), put on Classical music and they danced! It was the CUTEST thing ever!

I will definitely keep you posted on how the lapbook goes and post some pictures! After we complete this unit, we will start on Sleeping Beauty, which I am writing based on The Illustrated Book of Ballet Stories.

Can I just say again how much I LOVE homeschooling?!?

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!