KOTTEN KANDY'S BOOK ACTIVITY - INKHEART BY FUNKE

Kotten Kandy has really enjoyed the Inkheart trilogy by Cornelia Funke. She has bought all the books with her own money and devoured them in an instant. She loved them so much, that now I am reading them so she can talk about them with me!

When the girls' finish a book, I require them to do an activity with the book. Kotten Kandy choose to write an interview with one of the book characters. I thought her book "report" was really well written. She really has a great "voice" when it comes to writing. So I thought I'd share her work here (with her permission). But be warned, the following narrative does contain a lot of SPOILERS!

When the news showed up, Mo was upset. He accused Elinor of calling them. Elinor repeatedly promised she didn't. When they said they wanted to interview a few people, Mo was even more upset. When they asked to interview Meggie, he was red in the face.
No!" he said. "Now please leave and stay left!"
Meggie pleaded with Mo, "It's all right if they interview me, they won't go away until they get to interview someone."
"Fine" Mo replied. Mo went over to the news reporter and said, "only a few questions and then we'll have to leave. Do not follow us." The news-caster looked cheerful and agreed. They set up and began.
"Hi, my name is Inksinker, and I am your news-caster for today. I am talking to you live from Capricorn's Village! We are here with Mortimer, Meggies father, Elinor, Meggie's Mom's Aunt, and Resa, Meggie's mother. And of course we also have Meggie, or Miss Silvertongue! Dustfinger and Farid won't be joining us today."
"Aawwwwww!" groaned the crowd.
Inksinker continued, "Unlucky for us we will only interview Meggie."
The crowd groaned again.
"So sit tight and in just a moment we will be interviewing Meggie." Meggie came forward and waved awkwardly. "So, Meggie how are you doing this fine morning?"
"Good, how about you?"
"Good. Our first question today is, how did you feel when you first saw the mysterious visitor, Dustfinger?"
"Well, I felt kind of like I was imagining Dustfinger. I wasn't scared until I saw Mo's face when I told him about Dustfinger."
"All these years you thought your dad always told you everything. How did you feel when you found out he had secrets?"
"Well, I thought it was kind of strange that he was lying - I could see the lie in his face. It was when he hid the book from me and yelled that I was frightened and confused!"
"How did you feel when you first held the book in your hands?"
"I felt kind of curious." Meggie remembered. "When I saw Dustfinger's marten, Gwin, in the book - I was really bewildered!"
"What did you first think about your mother's aunt, Elinor?"
"When I first met her I thought she was crazy, but then I got to know her better."
"So do you like her better now?" Inksinker probed.
"Of course she thinks I am wonderful" thundered Elinor. "Besides, I didn't allow her to leave unsupervised. I kept her safe."
"Uh, thank you, Elinor, but we are interviewing Meggie right now."
Elinor was about to explode in righteous indignation, when Mo shot her a warning glance.
Inksinker continued, "Meggie, when Dustfinger showed you what he could do with fire, how did you feel, what were your emotions?"
"It was amazing! But when we heard the voices inside and Mo was being kidnapped, I suddenly wasn't too interested anymore."
"When Dustfinger came back and told you he knew where your dad was, did you suspect him of being a double agent, or were you just desperate?"
"I was mostly worried about Mo. I trusted Dustfinger. I should have listened to Elinor."
"When you first saw Basta and Capricorn, did they terrify you?"
"Both of them unnerved me. Capricorn's expressionless face was enough to horrify shadows, and Basta liked to torture and torment everyone. He was pure evil."
"I can only imagine how scared you were. So, when you found out that your dad had read your mother INTO the book and that he had read Dustfinger, Basta and Capricorn OUT of the book, how did you feel?"
"I thought Mo was just joking, like he usually does, but his face remained grave." Meggie then got a far away look in her eyes as she continued, "Then I heard Mo read out loud. I lost all my senses and only had ears for his voice. I could smell the story. I could feel the story. I had a desire to read like that. I wondered why he didn't ever read out loud for me before, but I quickly remembered what he had told me had happened to my mother, Resa."
"What happened when Dustfinger came and rescued you?"
"I first thought Dustfinger was Basta. When I saw it was Dustfinger trying to rescue us, I was relieved. During the rescue, Mo said we had to rescue the boy, Farid, too. So we did."
"When you first found out you were going to see the creator of the story Inkheart, what did you think?"
"All I wanted to do was go back to Elinor's house and have everything be all right like it was. But, at the same time, I wanted to meet the man who could think us such frightening characters like Capricorn and Basta."
"Speaking of Basta, when he showed up on your door step, were you scared again?"
"Well, I was more scared for Mo. I wondered if they had kidnapped him again. I was relieved when he said he was looking for Mo."
"Let's skip ahead in your story. When you found out you read things out of books like your father, were you excited? Or were you worried about the penalties that came with the gift of reading?"
"At first I was really excited and I couldn't believe it. But then I remembered the penalty. I was worried. When we heard Basta coming, I was even more panicked."
"When you first saw your mother, Resa, was she how you imagined her?"
"I wanted to hug her and never let go. But I knew they wouldn't let me." Meggie smiled at her mother. Resa smiled back.
"When the shadow first made an appearance, how did you feel?"
"It was nothing you could ever imagine. It was horrible. I could feel the terror."
"Don't ask her such question. We all want to forget what the Shadow looks and feels like!" Elinor interrupted.
"It's all right, Elinor." Meggie replied. "Elinor sat back and stuck out her chin rebelliously.
Before the news reporter continued, she shot a look at Elinor that seemed to say, "are you finished?" Then she pursued, "Meggie, are you glad all the exciting and scary stuff is over?"
"Very!" Meggie emphatically proclaimed. "I am glad Capricorn is dead, but I am worried about Basta and the Magpie. They escaped, you now."
"Yes, I heard." Inksinker lamented. "Well, thank you for letting me interview you, Meggie. I know you are very busy, so that will be all for today. Thank you all. And I hope everyone has a nice day."
"Mine's already ruined," muttered Elinor.
By Kotten Kandy

GENEREAL CONFERENCE EXCITEMENT

How fortunate I am! My family LOVES General Conference. I'm captivated as I hearken to the leaders of the Church. My adorable husband thinks the world of the apostles and prophets and enjoys studying and pondering their inspired words. Even my daughters get energized and excited as they "listen to a prophet's voice!"

We celebrate every year by eating homemade cinnamon rolls while we watch the four sessions (of course, Scott gets to go to five) of General Conference. The past few years have been even more delightful as the girls have matured enough to really take notes, pay attention, and share their thoughts and feelings with us about each inspired sermon.

FIELD TRIP - THORTONS

My husband argues that we take a field trip to Thortons Gas Station every day. I really love coke icees - and they have the best! Only $0.89 and every fifth one is free! Well, today we went to Thortons, and their promotion was FREE hot chocolates! So both girls decided to get hot chocolate. I still wanted my coke icee so I went to the cash register to purchase my drink. Imagine my surprise when my icee was free too! We left with 3 drinks and didn't pay a cent! When my husband asked what we learned on our "field trip," I replied that we learned about good deals and saving money! Okay, I know it's a stretch, but I sure love Thortons Gas Station!

INSOMNIA MUSINGS

I suffer from insomnia. It's frustrating at times. It's 3:00 A.M. and I am still awake working on my MANY projects:

I just finished making baby shower invitations for my good friend, Brandi, who is expecting her first (a boy) in December.

I also finished making my daughter's 13th Birthday invitations. (By compromising with my husband, we have agreed to give the daughters a total of 4 Birthday parties, complete with friends, by the time they are 16 years old. This is Key Lime Pie's third party.)

I also wrote my piano news letter for my music studio. My studio is really growing, and I'm excited about it! I now have a total of twelve students! The exciting news is that Key Lime Pie is also teaching private violin lessons. She has two students!

I've also STARTED my Christmas cards/letters this evening!

I still need to write in my daughters' reflection journals so I better keep this post short....

RANDOM THOUGHTS, DRESSES, AND FORGET-ME-NOTS

Hello, my name is Sundy. And I am a blogaholic. I enjoy reading blogs, especially if they have to do with gospel topics, piano/music education or homeschooling.

I am confessing my addiction here to tell you how much I have enjoyed The Celebration of the Family that has been going on for the past two weeks on four of my favorite blogs. There have been some awesome posts and I feel like my understanding and love of the Proclamation has really grown. Since I am new to blogging, I'm not sure how to put links into my posts, but the four blogs that I have been following are: The Redheaded Hostess (http://www.theredheadedhostess.com/), Chocolate on My Cranium (http://www.chocolateonmycranium.blogspot.com/), Weclome to the Madness (http://www.rovinroberts.blogspot.com/) and We Talk of Christ, We Rejoice in Christ (http://www.beinlds.blogspot.com/). Check it out. The posts were AWESOME!

In other news: My daughters finished making their dresses for the wedding on Friday. They turned out beautiful! Of course, part of what makes the dresses so pretty is that these two girls are gorgeous on the inside as well as the outside! I am so proud of their accomplishment of making their own dresses! Kotten Kandy wants to make her wedding dress someday. (At least, she says she does!)



I especially like the laced up backs. Aren't they pretty?



What a lucky mother I am!



The wedding was unique. I didn't know the couple well, but the groom's parents are AWESOME! (Their daughter was married in the temple 7 months earlier and it was a wonderful experience!) Unfortunately, their son married a young woman who isn't a member of our church. Her pecular tastes included that the wedding guests dress in Renaissance apparell, and dragons adorned the cake made of scones. Her dress was white, but when she turned around it was laced with black ribbon and she wore HUGE black earrings. After the "I dos" which included a sand ceremony and a candle lighting ceremony under a canopy, we left (due to the cold weather.) On the way home from the wedding, our daughters commented on the celebration. (They had attended the reception of the daughter 7 months earlier.) They both agreed that they could feel the Spirit of the Lord at the first wedding but not at this one. It was a great learning experience about the gifts of the Holy Ghost and the importance of temple marriage! I'm glad my daughters could make the connections and come to the conclusion that they both desire temple weddings someday.

In other, other news: My good friend, Amy, who is also homeschooling, was telling me about how her sons are memorizing the poem "The Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll. Her grandfather used to recite the poem to her and she is passing down the tradition. It made me remember how my grandmother used to recite poetry to us. There were WONDERFUL poems Grandma T would recapitulate, including "The Outlaw" and "Little Orphan Annie." I decided that my daughters shoud also spend some time memorizing. So I decided that they would start with a SIMPLE poem (6 lines) that Grandma T used to narrate:

FORGET-ME-NOT (Author unknown)

When unto the flowers the Father gave a name
There came a little blue-eyed one, so timidly it came.
And standing at the Fathers feet and gazing in his face
He said i sweet and gentle tones with kind and loving grace
"Dear Father, the name that thou hast given me, alas, I have forgot."
Then kindly looked the Father down and said, "Forget-Me-Not."



Imagine my surprise and delight when this evenig at the Relief Society Broadcast President Uchtdorf (my absolute FAVORITE general authority speaker) talked about Forget-Me-Nots. I can't wait to share this talk with my daughters while studying and memorizing the poem. Here are President Uchtdorf's 5 reminders (using the 5 petals of the Forget-Me-Not flower):
1. FORGET NOT to be patient with yourself.
2. FORGET NOT the difference between a good and a foolish sacrifice.
3. FORGET NOT to be happy now!
4. FORGET NOT the "WHY" of the gospel.
5. FORGET NOT that the Lord loves you!

What a fabulous talk! I'm sure you can hear it again (or for the first time) at http://www.lds.org/.

What an incredible week!

WORKING HARD... SOMETIMES

I believe that this week has been eye-opening for my daughters. They come to the conclusion that if they get to work on their school work right away in the morning, they have more "free" time in the afternoon to do whatever they want. For the past two days, Key Lime Pie and Kotten Kandy have woken up early and started working hard on their Math, History and Science. It has been inspiring! They have finished early and been able to read for fun, cross stitch, work on Personal Progress projects for Church, and created beautiful works of art. This week has been great! Especially if you think that working hard is great! My father has always said, "When you do good, you feel good!" It's true. Even Key Lime Pie said she felt so productive and happy the past couple of days!

Last week, I felt like we weren't getting enough done and then this week, my daughters have really "stepped it up a notch!" I guess there are days when things seem to be going well. Then there are days when you wonder what you've gotten yourself into.... Isn't that just like life?

HOME ECONOMICS 101

Learning to sew was our aim this week. We were invited to a Renaissance wedding next week, and the girls needed dresses to wear. Trina Fielding volunteered to teach Key Lime Pie and Kotten Kandy how to sew costumes for the event. It took two days... but I think the dresses turned out AWESOME!

Here are a few things we have learned while sewing:

Math is important with EVERYTHING. We learned to take measurements. And we learned to use those measurements while cutting out material. The measurements also came in handy when putting the pieces together.

We learned vocabulary -- Backstitch is used at the beginning and end of a machine sewn stitch to reinforce and anchor the stitch. Bobbin is the piece of your sewing machine that holds your bottom thread. Gathering allows a long piece of fabric to fit with a shorter piece of fabric. Grain is the direction of the fabric that runs parallel with the selvage edge. Lining is used to finish the inside of the garment. The pressure foot is the piece of the sewing machine that holds your fabric in place. The selvage edge is the part of the fabric that does not fray due to the manufacturers finish. Learning new words and understanding them is essential to sewing.

We learned to read directions and follow patterns. Sounds easier than it is.

The skill of sewing was also something that needed to be learned. And it is a fun talent that the girls would like to learn even better....

Key Lime Pie loved learning to sew but did not like having to turn things right side out again after sewing. Kotten Kandy was a perfectionist throughout the process. She expecially liked the ironing and making her bobbin. Both girls thought that sewing the gathered skirt to the top of the dress was the hardest part.

Don't they look pretty? We haven't finished the backs yet. They need to be laced... Kotten Kandy is in green. Key Lime Pie is in blue. We had a great week of home economics 101!!!! Mom is jealous that she can't sew and her daughters can! But she's also pleased in the results and the skills they are learning....

FIELD TRIP!

Step back in time to 1781. That's what we did today. We learned all about early Kentucky history by attending the Painted Stone Settlers' Day Camp and The Long Run Massacre re-enactment. It was fascinating and fun.

We learned about pioneer cooking, spinning flax, hunting, horsemanship, survival skills, entertainment/music, surveying, frontier doctors, customs, laundry techniques of the 18th century, blacksmithing, and about the history of different flags relating to the history of our nation. We even saw a re-enactment of the Long Run Massacre and learned the history of that dreadful day in Shelby county.

There was so much to do. And so much to learn. Next year we want to do it again to see the things we missed. (Yes, we missed a lot. We missed the magician, and dying wool, and everything about the Native Americans in Kentucky.) When I asked the girls what their favorite things were, Key Lime Pie eagerly talked about the horse and the rats and the music. Kotten Kandy was impressed with the doctor and the laundress. I just loved it all! What a fantastic field trip!

Here are some men who played the fife and told us the history of the different flags that flew over Kentucky at some point...

The "actors" fired the cannon about five times. It was awesome! This is where we learned about the history of military tactics in the 18th century. If you owned a cannon, you won!

Both girls LOVED grooming the horse, April Fool. She was a beautiful horse. And we learned that horses were very valuable as a means of packing supplies used by hunters and bringing back hides from hunting trips.
This frontier doctor was amazing... He showed us standard surgical kits of the time period, which included dentistry tools and instruments to remove lead balls. He was the doctor, the dentist and the surgeon. He made us laugh when he explained about "stupid older brothers" who accidentally shot their younger brothers. He also showed us all of the teeth he had pulled.

What an AMAZING day! We love homeschooling!

For those of you who are curious, like us, here is a SHORTENED version of the Long Run Massacre story. (We live right where it all happened, here in Shelby County.)

Squire Boone, brother to the famous pioneer Daniel Boone, first came to present day Shelby County in 1775. He took a stone out of the creek and with a mill pick, he picked his name and the date on it. Then he painted the letter and figures red. That is how the place got the name of Painted Stone Station.

Squire Boone and 13 families (and several single men) came to the area. They built a large station with cabins on an acre of land.

One morning in April 1781, Indians attacked three young men clearing ground outside of the station. Other men coming to their aid were also killed. Squire Boone was wounded too. More and more Indian raids were reported and by the fall the decision had been made to abandon the station.

On the morning of September 13, 1781 the militia came to help evacuate the station. The Indian attack during the move became known as the Long Run Massacre. On the following day, 27 men under Col. John Floyd of the Jefferson County militia rode out to bury the dead. The ambush that followed became known as Floyd's Defeat. Of the 27 men that rode out from Linn's Station that morning, only 10 returned. Seventeen were either killed or captured.

DeGOOYER DAY 2011

Today was DeGooyer Day! Our annual family holiday! A day where we declare no work to be done and we do nothing but play! We had sooo much fun! Our theme this year was "Let the Good Times Roll". We rolled the dice for everything we did today so the day was planned by chance - a roll of the dice! We started off rolling for breakfast. The dice declared that we would have donuts for breakfast. We played 3 or 4 games this morning. Once again, which games we played were determined by the dice...


For lunch we roled DQ and then a walk at Lake Shelby. It was beautiful!

Then we went bowling. Katia and Kiara bowled better than either of their parents....

We went window shopping at WalMart and PetCo and then dinner at Fazolies. Finally, we watched "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrerick Rules". It was a super fun day! We all agree that DeGooyer Day is one of the best holidays EVER! We love being DeGooyers and celebrating the fact!

REFLECTIONS, PIES, FRESCOS AND O LIVRO DE MORMON

Home schooling is GREAT! My daughters love it. I'm enjoying it. And I think we are learning a lot together. The week has flown by and I feel good about what we've accomplished. There are a few things that I am really excited about:


1. We started using reflection journals this week. It's an idea my mother gave me. She used it with her classes and I felt it would be beneficial to my own daughters. Every day my daughters reflect in their notebooks about the day and can write anything they like to me. I reply every night. I usually try to write something uplifting of spiritual back to them. They like it. And I like it. When I was at BYU Education Week, Merrilee Boyack had suggested writing your testimony and writing love notes to your daughters. Our reflection journals give me an opportunity to do that! And the girls love them!


2. Thursday night was our first Portuguese class. Scott loved sharing his knowledge with Key Lime Pie and Kotten Kandy... and they picked it up FAST! They are constantly saying "Como se diz?" (How do you say?) And they can count to 13 already!


3. The Book of Mormon "class" (O Livro De Mormon in Portuguese) is my favorite! The girls and I read one to two chapters per day. We take notes on what as inspirational, what we had questions on, and what touched our hearts. We share our notes and thoughts when we are finished. I am impressed with my daughter's understanding of the gospel.


4. Friday was an unusual, but super fun, day! We spent the entire day with my friend, Amy and her children. Amy taught my daughters how to make pear pies! They were DELICIOUS! And she also taught the kids about frescoes. I didn't even know what a fresco was. It is paintings on plaster. The earliest known examples of frescos were done in Crete and Ancient Egypt. So all six kids poured plaster, allowed it to "set up" and created their own masterpieces with water color paint. The water color paint really soaked into the plaster making an extremely pale painting, but it was fun and beautiful. Unfortunately, my pictures didn't turn out of the frescos. But the pie tasted as good as it looked! Wish ya'll could have tried it too!