- From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg - Alex read this on her own. My mistake was in not reading it, too, so we could have found some of the places mentioned in the Met. I could have even set up a scavenger hunt - there is probably one online.
- You Can't Take a Balloon Into the Metropolitan Museum by Weitzman - We LOVED this book! It is a wordless book and we "read" it several times while taking turns adding the narration.
- the Adventures of Amelia the Pigeon website - We went through the story on this site a few years ago and Alex did this on her own this year. It is a cute story and gives background on places like Central Park & Battery Park.
- You Wouldn't Want to be a Worker on the Statue of Liberty by John Malam - about the Statue of Liberty, of course!
- Johanes Vermeer (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists) by Venezia - to prepare us for the special exhibit of Vermeer at the Met.
- Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett - also for the special exhibit.
- The Day That Was Different: September 11, 2001 - When America Was Attacked by Terrorists by Carole Marsh - for the site of the World Trade Center.
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Monday, November 30, 2009
How We Prepared for NYC
I try to prepare for our vacations by reading information about places we might see and visit. I should have posted this a long time ago, but here are some of the resources we used while getting ready for NYC:
Oh what a bummer you didn't know about that book to incorporate at the museum. Oh well! =)
ReplyDeleteWe used to do unit studies for trip prep before TOG. Now TOG sort of is the trip prep. So many ways to do it.
Definitely...my kids are older, 16yod and 14yos. My dd is very young for her age while my son is quite a deep thinker. If you look back at our unit celebrations, you can see how they have changed over four years. We started quite simply, mainly showing art projects and doing one presentation. As they got older and better, I required a bit more. However the kids have fallen in love with these unit celebrations and I have to stop them from preparing more stuff so we can put on the show and move on. My dd wanted to memorize more poetry, by Robert Frost, but she is so far behind in her other subjects, I told her only if she caught up. My son wanted to do a power point presentation on airplanes. And we were going to make a newspaper at the print shop with their writing, but my time has been tied up in the Lafayette costume. I asked my son, which does he want more? I suggested we do the newspaper at the end of the year and they loved that. In the meantime, he's developed a sudden interest in flying his paper airplane collection.
So it's all a matter of tailoring it to the child, whether it's homeschool in general, TOG, or a unit celebration. =) I'm going to miss this sooooo much when they graduate!
Oh, I just typed all this the morning after I put up our unit celebration, forgetting that you commented on the EFT. LOL We took a TOG break that week and I was thinking papers and my son had these other ideas! I thought it was hilarious. But my previous wordiness helps explain my idea boy! =)
lessings,
Laurie
These are some wonderful books. I like this idea of preparing for a trip by reading about the places you'll visit.
ReplyDeleteOh, Mixed-Up Files was one of our favorite, favorite books! I'll have to remember that if we ever make it up that direction. Thanks for posting the others, too.
ReplyDeleteWe loved the Mixed Up Files...we read all the time so of course we have to read up on places before we visit! On the way to the Statue of Liberty we got caught in a traffic jam -imagine that(!)- but that was okay with us because we just read through some of the books that I'd packed!:) Great stuff- loved your post. Blessings!
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