Book club activity

Our dinner with the Beavers was so much fun! I had some great little helpers in the kitchen while I worked on the marmalade roll.



I used the ideas from the Pioneer Woman's marmalade roll recipe, but since it makes so many, I opted for this more manageable size roll recipe from the Frugal Girl.



And since I usually prefer not to mix fruit with my dessert, I only made half a batch of marmalade rolls and made the rest cinnamon rolls.

The kitchen was a bit of a disaster afterwards!
I didn't manage to get any pictures of our actual fish dinner. It was delicious! Our kids loved having tea with dessert after dinner.
She was totally thrilled to be drinking tea like the children! And she loved updating Daddy on what had happened recently in the book.
There's just a week left until our first virtual meeting; I hope you're enjoying the book and wrapping up. We finished a little earlier and Emma enjoyed getting to watch the movie of The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe. Some parts were a little scary, so we skipped over them, and we broke it up into 3 different viewings. I checked a copy out from our library, which is a great free option! The older BBC version is closer to word-for-word with the book, but is quite a bit longer and not as exciting.

After you finish reading the whole book, take some time to review the complete story. My daughter loves doing this, and the pictures are especially helpful in remembering the sequence of events.

A great way to hear what the child has retained is to have them tell the story to you. Try not to help them too much; let them tell it in their own words. If they remember something incorrectly, try saying "that's not exactly what happened, think about it again," or something like that...instead of just giving them the answer. Encourage them to use the pictures to tell what happened in the story!

Here are some questions we'll be talking about next week:

1) Who goes to Narnia first?


2) What season is it in Narnia?

3) Who is the "bad guy"?


4) Who is Aslan?

5) What does Edmund do that is wrong?

6) Where do the children meet Aslan?

7) How is Edmund reunited with the others?

8) What does Aslan do to rescue Edmond for good?

9) What happens to the statues in the witch's house?

10) Who wins the battle? Who kills the witch?

11) Will the children return to Narnia? Will it be through the wardrobe?

I will elaborate on a few of these questions, going beyond what simply happened to some deeper thinking questions. I hope you will join us! I am looking forward to hearing how your children reacted to different points in the story, what details in particular they remembered, and what creative ways you have gotten them excited about the story!

Also, next week we will be picking the book to read in June and I would love to hear your suggestions! Shoot me an email - thriftylivingde(at)gmail(dot)com or leave a comment on any of the book club posts.

Book Club Activity: Dinner with the Beavers

Last week's Turkish Delight activity was a big hit in our house. Did you make some too? Not only did I get some great help mixing and stirring,



they had a lot of enthusiasm at the end as we prepared to put in the food coloring and flavor.


Side note: that picture looks remarkably like the first time we made Turkish Delight, except for how much my kids have grown over the past year!

Here is a look at our finished product! We made lemon again, at the request of my daughter. I really want to try almond next though.






The texture was completely spot on this time. Practice makes perfect!




Now, on to this week's preschool book club activity.

We are having dinner with the Beavers, and on the menu: pan-fried fish, potatoes with butter, milk, and a marmalade roll and tea for dessert. We'll likely round our meal out with a veggie side and some fresh baked bread.

The chapters with the Beavers take up a good portion of the middle of this story, so if you are right on schedule reading along with us, you probably have gotten to this part recently! The description of the food for this meal is rich and flavorful. As an adult it made me hungry reading it, and I know my daughter will love the chance to "act out" something from the book. I'm also looking forward to the discussion over dinner; we'll probably grab the book and look back at the pictures of this dinner and talk about the plot twists of Aslan's introduction, Edmund's betrayal, and the big question of 'what do you think will happen next?'.

I hope you'll join us for a warm and homey fish dinner this week. I'm planning to make a marmalade roll using this recipe from the Pioneer Woman. 

Book Club Activity: Turkish Delight

We are having a great time reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe for our Preschool Book Club. The first activity I want to do along with the book is to make Turkish Delight. Edmond's first encounter with the White Witch the Turkish Delight is early in the story, so hopefully you have already gotten to that part!

We enjoyed making our own Turkish Delight several times last year. I love this recipe because it can be done in the microwave! And while there are many steps in the process, it is full of opportunities for kids to help.

This post has the full instructions for microwave Turkish Delight. I hope you'll make some this week along with us!

We are just one week in to this first book for the Preschool Book Club, so there is still time to get started and join us if you have not had the chance yet. There are 17 chapters in the book and still 25 days until our book club discussion. We have been moving right along, some days even reading two chapters. I hope you are enjoying as much as we are!