Lord of the Rings

My kids can hardly be described has children anymore, I mean the older four of course. In the next 6 months they will turn 15,13 and 11. In our homeschooling path we hardly ever followed a standardized curriculum and basically never used school books but when they were younger I could organize activities, mini lessons about subject of their interest or create with them booklets ( we had a ant booklet and a pirate booklet that were great ! ). In the last couple of years they showed lesser and lesser interest in whatever activity I had\have in mind and since I strongly believe in letting them free to build their own path to adulhood ( with my constant presence and help ) I let them decline and do whatever they thought it was better for them. But still I missed A LOT the time spent together sitting at the table working along. Then few months ago, thanks to an old Lord of the Ring video-game we found in the local second-hand store, the three middle kids, Leo,Seba and Milla started to ask me informations about Tolkien and the book ( I love LOTR ) and finally they asked me to read it aloud for them. JOY ! BLISS ! and few weeks ago we decided to make a big map of the Middle Earth to understand better the journey of the fellowship AND they agreed to collect all the poems AND to focus on the most interesting descriptions and make drawing out of it. I MUST BE DREAMING. I mean we're not only working together, but on somthing I love and they love, drawing and reading ( two of my all time favourite ways to spend time.
Here few pictures of our mornings...

 Here we are working on the map.

To make it a little more durable we covered it with transparent adhesive paper

Almost ready to focus on the description of the day...

 James works with us, he asked a 'workbook' for himself and he wanted his pencils and a sharpener :)

 And here we are all busy. Gaia is working on a project of her own since she doesn't like LOTR.

As you can see we all have a black cover workbook, I found them in a departement store at very cheap price ( 2 E and 99c) and they are especially for watercolour drawings.

Here the description and my watercolour

Here Milla working on her drawing, she still has not finished it, very detailed one .

Seba's

Leo's

And once we're finished ...

...everything goes back in the art basket.

I LOVE IT.

And now it's time for some outdoor fun ;)

See you soon !