Cooper's Thanksgiving Program 2007

Cooper is not normally real hip on the idea of doing anything in front of a crowd. He is so expressive that he's a natural showman but, like some great performers, he gets really shy when too much attention is focused on him.

We went to his Thanksgiving program at school tonight and we were so proud of him -- he did a great job, was so animated, and looked like he was having a blast. His teacher asked him to be the turkey (they have special parts and dances and there's only one per class) but he understandably said no and elected to just be in the chorus. He did all of the moves with a smile on his face. He's come a long way from his preschool program where he cried the whole time until his teacher brought him to sit in my lap. Way to go Cooper-bear!

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Discussion Questions

Well, I'm finally finished with the discussion questions for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I started working on some discussion points with my 8-year-old but it turned into specific questions. After letting several people review it, I decided to put it into a more formal list of questions and discussion topics for parents to have an easier way to discuss the book and it's great lessons and theme's with their children.

I did some research online and couldn't find anything really good already put together, so here is the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Reading Guide . . . enjoy! If you have any trouble downloading the Guide, then please e-mail me.

I did review one book on the topic called Looking for God in Harry Potter by John Granger. It was an excellent book and he has written others on the subject but I haven't picked them up yet. Mr. Granger also has a blog (HogwartsProfessor.com) that I browsed briefly and am looking forward to reading more of later. The only other piece online that was interesting was from Scholastic but it didn't go far enough in the discussion for me.