Are you guys ready for the second half of the story? Gather your kids around and let’s hear what happened when George woke up the next morning…

You know the George Washington coloring page that I told you about yesterday? Well, I colored one myself - and I had fun doing it! Coloring is good for the soul, I tell you! I think it turned out pretty nicely, too:

I colored it and then I cut out around the edges and put it on some pretty blue paper! I’m thinking of adding an American flag and a cherry tree to it, too! I’ll let you know if I do. If you and your kids want to color it and send it to me, via email, I’d be happy to showcase your picture here on the blog!

It’s finally time for Bookworm Storytime again! This time it’s a little different than we’re used to, because, I’m trying out my new webcam, and I’m also only reading half the story. It’s a longer story than the others I’ve read, so you will have to tune in tomorrow for the second half of the story.

The story I’m reading is ‘George Washington and the Cherry Tree’ and it comes from a book called, “Best Loved Children’s Stories”. I couldn’t find it on Amazon, so I can’t share the link with you this time. I’ve been talking about history around here lately, because, of some great movies that I’ve been watching. And one of the cool things I talked about recently was a secret basement and tunnel under George Washington’s home, Mount Vernon. So I thought a story about George Washington would be fun to read.

I found a pretty nice coloring page for you, also - and it comes right from the official White House website! Here you go: George Washington 1789-1797

Here’s a snapshot of it. You can click the picture to go to the White House site and print it out, also.

National Treasure 2 - Book of Secrets is a wonderful movie! I just knew I was going to love it, as I really, really loved the first one! And the best part of these movies, just like the Indiana Jones shows, is that they make history fun! I mean - really fun! It’s so funny to me that as an adult, I just completely love history! I had such a hard time with it in school. When I was in my early twenties, though, I took a couple history courses at the local community college and just loved it!

And the thing about it is that, while much of the information/story line/history in National Treasure 2 - Book of Secrets is either changed around, or just plain made up, to fit the movie better, it does serve to get us thinking. And it sends us to go digging deeper, to find out what actually did happen, and to learn more.

There were two things in the movie that keenly interested me and sent me digging. The first one was the Resolute desks. Is the story of the desks true? Do they really even exist? Are there really two of them? Yes, the Resolute desk is in the Oval Office, and it is quite beautiful and has quite a history. It does not, however, have a twin. It is said that the Queen did have a small writing table made for herself from the HMS Resolute, though. And the HMS Resolute was a British ship that had been abandoned, stuck in ice, and then was returned to the Queen by an American whaler a couple years later.

The other thing that I found so interesting in the movie that I had to looking for more answers about it - was the part about the secret basement and underground tunnels at Mount Vernon. I’ve always loved stuff like this. Trust me, you don’t want to be in an old house with my brother, Mic, and I, because, we WILL be doing some snooping! We went to a bed and breakfast for our other brother’s wedding and did some serious ‘old house investigating’ and found some pretty cool features! When I went looking to verify if the basement even existed, I learned that it did, and that it had never been open to the public. Get this, though - some of the staffers at Mount Vernon, upon seeing the National Treasure movie - decided that they had to open it up for tours. And you know what happened? The amount of visitors went up 300% that first weekend! Wow! It was first opened in January on a trial basis, but, was so popular, that it has been extended! I learned a lot about Mount Vernon last year from my son, who went on a trip to Washington, DC with his class. We talked about Mount Vernon a lot - he really enjoyed his visit there. I can’t believe, though, that he missed the secret basement - by only months! What a major bummer!

So I guess you can tell that I thoroughly enjoyed the movie! Now I just want to watch the first one again! I can’t tonight, because, we have our sons’ Spring Band Concert. Maybe I can watch it Friday night.

That was the name of the field trip my fifth grade daughter went on last Friday. They went to the local YMCA campgrounds out in the woods and learned all kinds of wonderful things about Mother Earth. Now that’s a field trip that our friend, Hippie Spelunker would love! Oh! That’s me! That’s right - silly me!

Seriously, though - the treehugger in me LOVES this field trip! I only wish they had let parents go! At any rate, I got a great rundown from Sammie and her friend when they got home from school! They had so much fun! The two of them yammered on and on to me for at least half an hour, interrupting each other right and left. Her girlfriend had come home with her on the bus and was spending the night with us, and all throughout the evening, little tidbits of ‘field trip stories’ would come up. There was one particular story that had the girls laughing and hollering at each other in the kitchen - it was so funny! Apparently, they went on a ‘hike’ - and I say ‘hike’, because, the girls say it was just basically climbing up this one little hill and they called it a ‘hike’! They thought that was hysterical! They also were quite amused at some of the silliness of the kids climbing up the hill with great difficulty, as though it were some huge mountain! And they said that people were running into each other, falling into each other, and teachers hollering for the kids not to hold onto each other and pull everybody down at once! It would have made a great home movie, I’m sure!

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My kids finally finished watching all of the 8gabillion DVD’s that came in the set, The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, Volume Three - The Years of Change! Well, ok, there are only ten DVD’s, but, there are so many hours involved in this program! It’s really incredible - it’s got the original TV shows/movies, documentaries interspersed throughout, and an historical lecture, entitled ‘New Gods for Gold’. It really is an amazing amount of information and a great way to present it to kids - definitely a lot more fun than sitting through a history class!

When I went to ask my thirteen-year old son his opinions of the DVD’s, his answer really surprised me!
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I was greeting friends on Twitter this morning, when a ‘tweet’ came through from another WAHM (work at home mom) about a post she’d made on her blog, Relaxed Homeschooling. She has all kinds of great information on her site for homeschoolers and for all of us parents, really! I like the way she has her book recommendations split up into age groups and I really appreciate all the resources that she provides.

And I’m so very glad I saw the blog post she tweeted, Virtual Fieldtrips! She’s telling us about a really great site! And it’s called, surprisingly enough, Virtual Field Trips. This site is so totally cool, you guys! You have to go check it out! And I’ve only gone on one ‘field trip’ so far, and I’m already this excited!
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Sammie and I were so excited to watch the newest release from Disney of one of our favorite movies - 101 Dalmatians (Two-Disc Platinum Edition)! We both just really love this movie! And with this edition, we get to not only enjoy one of our favorite movies, but, we get to learn all kinds of background and history of the movie in all its renditions! I love learning all that goes into movies and learning all that stuff from the 60’s gives me such nostalgic feelings! I wasn’t born until 1970, but, so many of the shows and movies we watched in the 70’s were made in the 50’s and 60’s. So it takes me right back to my childhood. It is so fascinating to me, though, to see what all goes into making a movie. And it is all that much more fascinating with animated films, because, of the unbelievable amount of work that goes into it, as well as the creative work-arounds that are come up with, such as how they animated the cars in the film, giving even them distinct personalities!

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What bonus, you ask? The bonus still-shot I took for you guys when I read the Paddington book! Hahaha! You see, my ‘mess’ was so funny, that I thought a good still-shot was definitely called for! You can even see the glop of soap stuck to the top rim of my glasses! Making messes is just fun - seriously, ask your kids!! They’ll tell you all about it! And so will this big, overgrown kid!

And now, here’s Mrs. Lisa’s mess:
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Oh boy, are you guys in for a treat today! Here’s what happened - my camera battery went dead and so I wasn’t able to read you a book today, myself. And I knew I had seen some good book-readers on YouTube before so, I went looking to see what I could find for you! And man, oh man! Did I find something good!

The book that will be read is one of the Little Critters™ books called Just a Secret by Mercer Mayer. My kids and I used to love Mercer Mayer books - we read them all the time! Well, guess who is reading that book for you today …..none other than …dun dun dun … *drumroll please*
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No, it’s lots of board games! I found the coolest book for Sammie on sale at the grocery store the other day! It’s called “Your World: 5 Games About You and Your World” - it is so much fun! It is a ‘board book’, but, it is really five board games - all in one! I love it! And Sammie does, too! We’ve been having tons of fun playing all the games - and she even took it to her Aunt Donna’s for a sleepover and they had fun playing it together!

Normally I would show you a picture, by way of an Amazon link, or at least a picture that I’ve taken - or a picture from some other website. I can’t seem to find the book online anywhere, though! (My camera batteries are dead…)

I did find the publisher’s website, though - and I absolutely adore their products and their very interactive site! The name of the company is Innovative Kids and they have sections on their site for kids, for grownups, and for teachers and librarians. They also have links to other helpful literacy/education resources, and they, of course, have their store pages.

I imagine the book I found is no longer in print, and that is why I found it so deeply discounted, as I can’t even find it on their site. I am glad, however, to have found this company! I will definitely keep them in mind when shopping for books and information!

If I remember when I get my camera batteries, I’ll take a picture of this book, it’s just so cool. It has a self-contained little compartment with the game pieces in it. And attached to that is the spinner. So the whole thing is perfectly portable - so you can easily take it on the go with you - to Grandma’s house or wherever! I just love it!

The funny thing was, though, that the games are sort of small, as far as board games go. And so I thought they would be fun, but, short, little games that didn’t take ages and ages to play. Boy - was I ever wrong! On one of the games, I got stuck in a loop of sorts, and the darned game was taking forever. Sammie was laughing her head off every time I landed on the space that was sending me back through the loop! Now when she asks to play her new game book, I cringe, “Not that one that tortures me!” And she busts up laughing! Ha!