The Dragons of Deltora

So we finished the second installment in the saga that is Emily Rodda’s Deltora.  The books have grown, quite a bit,  in vocabulary and scope.  The third step of the series starts off with Lief Barda and Jasmine destroying the last connection the banished Shadowlord has to the palace in Del.  Then they set off to destroy the four sisters who are slowly killing the land itself.  They must rouse the dragons that are part of the land and older than Deltora itself.

The books have grown to nearly 200 pages each and the plots are twisting so much so, Fish can just barely follow them.  If he wasn’t so enraptured with the characters his intrest would have tapered off in the last book.  But the new complexity has drawn me further in.  I’m glad we started this series.  It is getting scarier as we go on and the detail is intensifying.  For how much I like the series, I am glad it’s drawing to a close.  I cringe when I read the detailed accounts of death at the hands of the Shadowlords monsters.  I don’t think I could keep reading it to the kids, if it were any more graphic.  Of course the kids are eating it up!  They hide under the covers as the tension builds, jump when the monster finally shows itself, tear up when a brave companion has fallen then laugh out loud when Ms. Rodda presents well timed comic relief. The kids have also started speculating the next step in the story.  They have both absorbed the story so completely.  It’s been a great journey!

Deltora: Lief, Jasmine and Barda, OH MY!

So we finished the quest and scared off the nasty old Shadowlord!  Yay!  But danger still lurkes in the Shadowloand where the Shadowlord has retreated.  “Beaten but not destroyed.”  So here we go again into the Shadowlands to rescue the Pirrian Pipe and rescue the enslaved people of Del, weakening the evil Shadowlord even more.  We’ve read book one and will start book two on Monday.  Fun fun!

Deltora mania!

Books 1, 2 and 3 finished but where is book four!!  The sky will fall if we can’t find it… already the locals are gathering to revolt with drumsticks and xylophone hammers… I don’t know what we’ll do! AGHHHHHH!!!

Fishs’ display board is like totally complete Scoob, old buddy.  Now let’s get outta here!

As soon as we get the words dictated, typed, printed, cut and pasted on Keek’s burial board we’ll click some pics and post again… I’m hoping for tomorrow but I bet it’ll be Friday.  She picked 4 pictures for each region/time she studied so she’s been busy with her twenty pictures.  With that out of the way she can read, ” just one more day, mom!”  But somehow one day turns into two quite easily so perhaps we’ll be posting on Friday.  

Changes in the air

Well we’ve had it with boring worksheets and are rebelling!  We went out and got two display boards to display our unit studies.  Keek decided to study burial practices throughout history.  Fish decided to study Scooby Doo.  Go figure!

Fish has read to me daily and is starting to use intonation.  In other words he’s learning to read sentences and not words.  He’s read, “The Cat in The Hat” by Seuss, “Grandfather Twilight” by Barbara Berger and together we’ve read “The Queen Of Sheba” by Doris Orgel.  He got his Spider magazine in the mail this week, too.  He’s been reading bits and pieces daily.

Keek has re-read her Muse magazines this month.  She glanced up while reading and said, “I wish I got two every month!”  She has been reading The Teen Manners book from the library and requested a four part series of early readers books for next week.

Together we read, “Tales of Deltora” and are now reading, “The Deltora Book of Monsters” by Emily Rodda.  It’s a scary beautiful book full of nightmarish creatures “written” by a lowly librarian from the town of Del.  This book has been written many generations after, “Tales of Deltora” so we are learning of the wicked Shadowlord’s attempt to infiltrate and corrupt the noble family of our hero and first King, Adin of Del.  The kids are enthralled and I am entertained too. 

Tomorrow we have a full day including a stop at the library.  Hopefully they’ll have all our requested books in.

The kids have found been watching Hilarious History at http://www.factualtv.com and we’ve made it to episode four.  It’s dry British humor peppered with historical facts.  The kids just love it.

We’ve completed our first craft project of the new year; sun-catchers… Ta Daaa!  Chinese New Year Hexagon by Keek and Snowman by Fish.  The flip side of Keek’s is yellow and Fish’s is Navy Blue.  They look great hanging in the window with the mid day sun cascading through the pretty beads.