My seven year old son has two complaints about his book club.
First grumble, he is so bummed that I couldn't find the Dragon flyer's I have used in the past for this book. (Oriental Trading wasn't selling them anymore.)
Second complaint, and I quote "book club is never LONG enough!"
I think book club is "just right"- have fun and then out the door. It keeps them wanting to come back week after week to book club. If book club d-r-a-g-g-e-d on... no one would want to be apart of it!
Salt dough is fail proof. SERIOUSLY!
1/2 cup flour + 1/2 cup salt + 1/4 cup water= perfect molding dough!
I made these 3 hours before book club- because they have to bake at 200 degrees for 3 hours before they are ready to be worn as necklaces.
If you are wondering- "What the heck is she doing with a beater?!?" While I have been compared to Amelia Bedilia in my home making skills...rest assured- I know the conventional way to use a hand mixer. In this picture I am emphasizing an important point- I am making the hole -where the string will go later. (don't forget to do that.)
Since we couldn't find dragon-flyer's I asked for my son a lot about what would be fun to do at book
club. (The book being the inspiration.)
The book talked about dragons protecting their eggs and treasure. ( Great son! Some kind of chase game) I took out our plastic Easter eggs and each child was given some eggs and chocolate gold coins. They made a spot with their loot.
Then I challenged them to run and try to steal other peoples eggs and treasure. I told them the winner would have the most eggs and money at the end. After 5 minutes of solid running, I called halt, and they looked at their loot again. Ironically most had the same amount they started with!
It was a good- get your energy out- type of game. Only one boy was crying at the end, so not fail proof. (He wanted to just sit on his eggs and protect his spot.)
As my son read about the deadly breath of dragons- he wanted some kind of smoky-concoction. (dry-ice in some kind of drink- you got it kid!)
We took it outside- the dry ice was rattling around in the pan- having never used dry-ice before, I wasn't sure how it would react when I poured the root-beer on it. I thought it might splash all over my kitchen, so we took it to the yard and I made the kids stand a distance away. But there was no need to worry- it didn't do anything crazy- except make really cool smoke! (Warning: Don't touch dry ice with bare hands. It is so cold it will burn. I was happy to learn they sell dry ice chunks at our local grocery store. I told them I wanted a small chunk for this and they hooked me up.)
We came inside and ate sugar cookies and drank the dragons breath. The cookies were a flop- but what I love about boys, they are so forgiving!"they look like dragon scales!" someone exclaimed before I could apologize for the appearance.
It is a good thing I had four boys- I can do cool- I am lucky that I don't have to make things look cute too~!
(I mean, really- in what world do those sugar cookies look appealing? only to a group of 7 year old boys!)
As we ate sugar cookies I brought out our last book for this summer's book club.
I read the first page of book one: Miss Daisy is Crazy by Dan Gutman. I love Dan Gutman. He is one of our favorite boy authors. This series starts with the first day of second grade. The main character, AJ hates school.
At first the boys were like, "NO- I am not reading ANYTHING about school!"
I read the first few pages and they were hooked. They wanted to be best friends with AJ.
And a bonus? Half these kids are starting second grade in a few weeks too!
So much for them not wanting to read anything about school! I couldn't get them all to look up at the same time.
*it really helps reluctant readers get excited about reading when they have the book in hand! I can't say it enough... passing out the books at book club... raises the likelihood they will read the book by a millionth percent! (okay I don't know the actual percentage- but their is truth to the statement.)
