last week i heard this several times, when i’d offer to take quinn somewhere fun or present an activity option:
“nah, i was going to go work on james and his friends.”
“we need to go work on james and his friends!”
“but i was just going up to work on james and his friends!”
it all started when quinn was talking about a spider, and i helped him whip up a quick spider out of a wooden bead and four black pipe cleaners. soon he was weaving the spider’s legs into a web of afghans, the spider turned into miss spider of james and the giant peach, and we busted out egg cartons and paint to create the rest of the cast of characters from one of our favorite stories.
from left to right: the earthworm (he has pink glasses), the silkworm, the glowworm, the centipede, james (he’s the slender guy with 2 hairs sticking straight up), the old green grasshopper, the ladybug, and miss spider.
this has been not so much a craft at our house this week, but more of a “unit of study”, given the amount of time and energy quinn has decided to put towards it!
side note: it’s good to have a large peachy-colored buoy (beach-combed, preferably) to use for a giant peach. you may also want to have copious amounts of string on hand for when your kiddo wants to re-enact the scene where the friends have to attach strands of silk to 502 seagulls, in order to lift the peach out of the ocean to escape from the sharks! you’ll need to ad lib the sharks and seagulls. i’m not intentionally trying to poke fun at homeschool tutorials, 😉 but to convey the point that these things develop in a seriously organic manner around here. but i thought i’d toss this out into the wonderful ocean of ideas that floats around the net, from whence i often glean ideas, rarely actually read through instructions, and proceed to go our own way about things. have fun!
***if you’re inclined to enter a giveaway to win a free handmade wooden rattle, click on over to earth huggy and join in the guessing game!***
i am soooo glad i got him James and the Giant Peach when he was just a wee Mini-Boo ;o) It makes me feel all fuzzy knowing he is enjoying it.
i love you lb! yes that copy of james is well loved, and i am so happy you left "wee" a little note in the front cover because i know he is going to treasure that book for a long time to come!