Homeschool Discoveries

Having just spent the past 45 minutes or so writing and reading posts on the forum for our new spelling curriculum, I just don’t have a lot of energy left for a really “serious” Read Aloud Thursday post yet tonight.   I’m still working through my current read aloud with Miss M, and we haven’t read anything really notable for science or history lately.  That would normally bring me back to a picture book or easy non-fiction post…but the boys’ library book basket has been languishing the past few weeks in favor of more time to play outside, draw pictures of ideal Angry Birds levels, and creating stories of their own.

Tony reads to the boys at night, so I not sure how some of the interesting-looking picture books I picked out at the library have turned out.  Most of what I have read to the boys lately have been run-of-the-mill books on their favorite topics.

One type of book that comes home with us almost without fail after each library trip is a Star Wars book of some sort. If you have a young Star Wars fan in your house, you might have also discovered that a lot of what is available for young fans is well, dull, for the grown-up reading to their padawan learner.  Most of what’s out there is either DK readers with limited vocabulary (great for the reader at that level, I’m sure…but Mr E can’t even read a level 1 reader on his own yet since they are not particularly phonics based) or they are Episode/Movie rehashes.

A few new Lego Star Wars books are breaking this mold.  We discovered “Lego Star Wars: Save the Galaxy” at the library a couple months ago.  Then Mr. E received “Lego Star Wars: Darth Maul’s Mission” for his birthday.   Both of these books are funny and entertaining for kids and grown-ups alike.

“Darth Maul’s Mission” retells the main story line of Episode I with Darth Maul as the central figure, of course. This book is designed in a somewhat comic book style, which I often find can be hard to read aloud.   A main thread of the story is told at the top of each page, and since the boys really wanted to know who said what, we went through each dialog bubble with me pointing to who said it.  After doing that once or twice, they pretty much had the whole book memorized anyway.  😉

Many of the lines in “Darth Maul’s Mission” are funny and irreverent to the original movie.  Obi Wan Kenobi claims a Wookie ate his homework and Darth Maul sets a trap by setting up “Darth Maui’s Party Town.”

Purists will probably complain because the story doesn’t actually stay true to the movie at the end — for example, a good guy character who dies in the movie instead gets shoved in a closet in the book.  But even though my boys are familiar with the “real” story line, they still get a good laugh out of what happens in the book.

Mr. E discovered a fun cookbook on our last library trip called “Wookie Cookies.”   While I wouldn’t normally consider a cookbook a read aloud, the boys and I have had a lot of fun looking through the book together and finding the Star Wars characters in the pictures, talking about the recipe names and what they really are.  “Wookie Cookies” are really chocolate chip cookies, in case you were wondering.  It turned into a fun game of alliteration as we made up new food-name ideas.  Mr. K would like some Emperor Palpatine Eggs, Mr.  E wants some Storm Trooper Spaghetti and I’ll take a Leia Latte, thank you very much.  🙂

I’m linking up with Read Aloud Thursday at Hope is the Word!