What the Dickens!

Gabby's December reading assignment was Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Here's what our plans looked like:

Week one:
Read Stave 1 and complete the worksheet.
Do 4 vocabulary webs from the Stave 1 vocab list.
Read Stave 2 and complete the worksheet.
Do 4 vocabulary webs from the Stave 2 vocab list.
Watch A Muppets Christmas Carol with the family.

Week two:
Read Stave 3 and complete the worksheet.
Do 4 vocabulary webs from the Stave 3 vocab list.
Read Stave 4 and complete the worksheet.
Do 4 vocabulary webs from the Stave 4 vocab list.
Watch Mickey's Christmas Carol with the family.

Week three:
Read Stave 5.
Do 4 vocabulary webs from the Stave 5 vocab list.
Go to the Christmas display at Byers Choice.
Watch Scrooge with the family.

As you can see, there was a lot of movie-watching here. Shall I pretend there was an educational purpose to it? I'm sure it showed how influential and popular A Christmas Carol is. We really just watched them for fun.

I got our vocab list and worksheets from a FABULOUS website called "In the classroom with Least Tern." It also has a grammar unit that Gabby, well I can't say "enjoyed" but at least completed without too much complaining. I like it because EVERY example is taken from A Christmas Carol. ALL the exercises are from A Christmas Carol. I know that learning grammar is considered the greatest drudgery of English studies, but I really liked these lessons. They were challenging and made you think about what the sentences were really saying. The explanations weren't always the best and so sometimes even I couldn't come up with a good answer. Still, I think it helped in understanding Dickens language -- from a very different time and place than my Gabby lives. I hope that doing the grammar will help Gabby have better reading comprehension in the future as she studies more classic literature.

We capped off the reading by going to the Byers Choice Christmas Museum. I find the dolls a little freaky-looking myself, but nevertheless, all together spectacular. The Christmas village is filled with them, flying in hot air balloons, ice skating, and of course, caroling. I love the colonial doll room and the green Irish santas in the gift shop.



We went because there is one room decorated like London in Dickens' time and dioramas of Ebeneezer Scrooge with Crachit, Marley and each of the 3 ghosts.
You'll also find a creche display there and an observation deck where you can watch the dolls being made. Here's an online slideshow.

When we were finished looking at the dolls, the kids got to dress up in old fashioned clothes and take pictures. William and Fielding were very patient with me as I dressed them and said, over and over again, "Just one more picture!" I think Gabby actually enjoyed the dress up.




That's it, no essays or literature webs. Maybe I should have assigned her some project. I didn't want too, though. I didn't want schoolwork to get in the way of enjoying the holidays. With all the extra time we've done some fun things. I taught Gabby how to make evergreen wreaths. We've worked on our annual Christmas puzzle, baked togther. We've had a great time -- despite the grammar! -- and I wonder how we'll top it next year.