What a LIFE EXPERIENCE we've had! Again, education (whether home education or public) is not at all about the paperwork, it's about experiences like we were blessed with today.
Today at our local state university, Jan Brett stopped on her tour to promote her new book,
.
I took both children, and although they are young, they both soaked up snippets of her talk to bring home with them.
Our first stop was to take pictures with her tour bus and check out the 4H chickens someone had brought. Then we went to the book store (of course!) and picked out new books. Each child got a paperback and I purchased the hardback of Cinders.
Hedgie the Hedgehog
Mrs. Brett mostly talked about her love for illustrating, which tickled me, because my artsy niece and artsy daughter were both in attendance. While at times I saw Natalee get wiggly, overall she paid attention and enjoyed watching Mrs. Brett illustrate a chicken right before her eyes.
I'm anxious to see if Natalee uses pieces of what she learned to try out at home!
Mrs. Brett also brought three chickens from her flock of 50+ at home to tour with her...they were very special and very fun looking! Her husband, Joe, was along (he plays for the Boston Symphony Orchestra), and she mentioned that they don't travel without one another.
A couple of favorite tidbits that I picked up:
- when she's illustrating a book she does an inch per hour...just chew on that math for a minute!
- she recommended to the children that when drawing something if they aren't sure whether they love it, that they hold it up to a mirror...the reversal image will help them see areas that need improved or show them that they love it just the way it is!
Xavier was a little scoundrel-ish during the presentation. He went through bouts of wiggling on his chair and kneeling on my lap to watch her draw & see the chickens. He liked her drawing, it just got a little lengthy for him at times! {boys!}
After the lesson, we got to participate in the book signing. Luckily, we had gotten there early, and as we arrived were given a paper with a number on it. We were #23, meaning we got to be in the first bunch of folks to have their books signed! Blessed!!
She signed one book per person, including the children, and gave us pre-autographed book plate stickers for the remaining books in our collection. I had brought my Jan Brett Christmas Treasury
and was nerdily excited to have it autographed!! Natalee chose to have Cinders autographed instead of the book she chose, which was fine by me, and Xavier had his new paperback signed, Berlioz the Bear. The organizers were kind but efficient and gave us all our 'moment' with the famous author. They even encouraged and welcomed pictures!
The children weren't quite this grumpy, simply a matter of the kind lady not saying, "smile!" before she snapped. But when the line is 2 miles deep you don't suggest a retake...you be happy and move on!!
Natalee was going to stay and visit with Mrs. Brett about drawing, asking "so, what else do you like to draw?" and I had to gently usher her out. (chuckle) 'Famous' isn't a word we are quite familiar with at our house...we just like kind people who take time to talk to little ones, which Mrs. Brett did. I see where Natalee could have just pulled up a share and continued chatting!
After all the morning excitement we went to eat (Nannie and Emma were along with us),
an octopus
a man & H (those are his arms coming out).
then the children go to go to Tractor Supply and choose Schleich animals for their birthdays (Xavier's 3rd birthday & Natalee's upcoming 5th) from Nannie. They are so boring and chose a family of giraffes (Xabe) and a family of polar bears (Natalee), while I would have chosen 3-4 different animals! I shan't complain though because they've been playing for the last 30 minutes with them! (thanks Nannie!!)
We finished up by grocery shopping quickly and came home for naps.
What a fun, fun day!!! I'm so grateful we had this experience and that the children got some culture even in our small rural area.
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