Rowing Madeline…

A few weeks ago, we rowed “Madeline” by Bemelmans. I was surprised by how much the boys enjoyed this classic story. The rhyming helped a lot, and they could both recite large chunks of the book by the end of our rowing. I got a couple of other Madeline books from the library, and they enjoyed those as well.

Of course, we read books on France, and Seth decided to attempt making a model of the Eiffel Tower one day. We didn’t have quite the right blocks for it, but I love that he took the initiative =).

I also checked out “Anatole,” a story about a little French mouse who wants to help out in exchange for his morsels of food, so he tastes cheese and gives suggestions to those in charge at a cheese factory. This led Seth to want to try some French cheeses, so we had a little Brie with our lunch. =) I started calling bread, cheese, and fruit “French lunch” (instead of lazy mommy lunch), and it seems to have stuck. =)

This link has been floating around the internet for French related food creations, but I didn’t have it in me to try and risk falling sugar wafers. So we made cheater pain au chocolat instead. It was easy for Seth to help me with this, and the fruits of our labors were quite delicious. I think we should try this one again with pie filling, etc.

While it was baking, we watched an episode of Madeline on YouTube about the Eiffel Tower…

There is a lot of symmetry in this book, so I had the boys make symmetry paintings. We just dripped paint on half of a piece of folded paper, and then they smashed the other half down on top. Et voila! I also held up small objects in front of a little mirror, and they could see the balanced reflection.

This book gave a great chance to talk about the digestive system. We found a wonderful book in the library about digestion, and I did the first experiment on this link with them. I used vinegar for stomach acid, since I didn’t have any orange juice on hand. We also watched this short video from Children’s Hospital to show what its like to go to the hospital and have surgery… just like Madeline!

We also sang “Frere Jacques” every day of the week. My boys love to sing with me. =)

Oh, and I can’t forget the Impressionist painters. We read a book called “Katie Meets the Impressionists,” and we talked about how France is known for delicious food and the arts…