The GJAA Book Worms

On Wednesday afternoons at 1:30 Abbie and I pick up Avery and meet up with Jenny and Grace at the library for our book group. In January Abbie was inspired by an American Girls book club packet to start her own book club. She came to me and told me she wanted to do this and so we talked about what would work and when we could do this and who would be good to invite. We made arrangements with the library to come each week, Abbie decided on a book, sent out invitations and the GJAA Book Worms was started. Grace-Jenny-Avery-Abbie, pronounced "Gee-Jaw". At our first meeting the girls brainstormed and came up with this name.

The GJAA's actually in order: Grace, Jenny, Avery and Abbie

Each week we discuss what we've read for that week and do different activities that help explain the book. I am the mother moderator, I help guide the discussion and help the girls think about different aspects of the story. I bought each girl a journal and they write narrations about their readings and draw pictures of a favorite part in the story and write quotes or do writing exercises. The girls take turns deciding which book they want to read next.

Right now we're reading The Witch of Blackbird Pond, a story set in Connecticut in the 1680's. We've talked about the Puritans, the "Quakers", the sugar plantations of Barbados, the witch hunts of the time, suspicion of people who are different than ourselves, what it means to treat others kindly. We've even been learning about English history, something Americans don't spend much time with (I taught the girls a bit of trivia, and if you ask them who was the King of England in the 1680's they will be able to tell you: "King James II"!)

Of course, they always make time to be a little goofy, and they love to have a little time to play when we're done.

So far this year we've read: Sees Behind Trees, The Wizard of Oz, The Hundred Dresses, and we're almost finished with The Witch of Blackbird Pond. We also read a story version of Shakespeare's The Tempest and acted out a scene from the play, which was quite entertaining!

These girls are so sweet and so much fun. I feel lucky to be the mom who gets to be doing this with the girls. It's fun to be part of helping them think about life. This is a great experience for them to have at this age and hopefully they'll always have a love for good books and good literature.