Curse of the Mummy!

The Discovery Times Square Exposition is showing a King Tut exhibit from now until January 2011. Even though it is relatively close, we haven't been to NYC yet. This seems to me to be a really good excuse to go.

I've read several books about King Tut and ancient Egypt to the kids the last few days. We're learning about the Egyptian gods, kings and mummies. I want to print out some pictures of various Egyptian gods that they will be able to look for while we are at the exhibit. There is also a website with science, art and writing curricula to go with the exhibit.

It's kind of gross, but the kids have also enjoyed Discovery Kids mummy making game. The kids have already put their own potato "kings" in salt to mummify them. I'll post pictures and instructions if they turn out.

This seems to me to be a great way to start our study of history this summer. Any suggestions of other things we can do?

Best Science Songs Ever

My family has been listening to these since my oldest was a wee one and they are so much fun.

Singing Science Records

Someone who grew up listening to these LP's found them in his parents basement and posted them online as MP3's. They are sputnik era songs that have great lyrics. If you have ever heard the They Might Be Giants version you might recognize, Why Does the Sun Shine?.

I think hearing a toddler talking about gravity and the sun being a mass of incandescent gas is just about the best thing ever. They've learned how far away the sun is, 93 million miles; and how big the earth is, 25,000 miles around. As my kids have gotten older they've asked questions about things that are mentioned in the songs initiating science discussions.

Ballad of Sir Isaac Newton (I promise, I'm not making these up!)

E-lec-tri-city

Kinetic and Potential Energy

What's Inside Our Earth

These are a few of my personal favorites. I could list about a dozen more, but I won't.

Well worth a listen.

The Soccer Mom Dilemma

Last night I went to a local homeschooling group meeting. Oh, how to describe it. I was expecting it to be an open house type get together: a chance to chat with various people. Nope. In a small windowless meetingroom in the basement of a library were about 12 people, looking very serious, sitting around a table. I walk in to hear one woman loudly proclaiming that she thought her local public school was ridiculous for not wanting people to bring their children to the parent's information night and that she would bring her kids with her where ever she darn well pleased. I noticed that she only had one baby with her and found out later that her poor husband was stuck at the library late at night during this two hour meeting with three other very tired looking kids.

I will admit I felt rather out of place at the meeting. I know that groups tend to be generalized by the loudest and usually most extreme voices. I am definitely not one of those voices.

I'm not a "rage against the machine" kind of girl. I'm a suburban soccer mom. I don't think that schools are built, (I'm not kidding someone at the meeting said this) "to just train kids how to follow orders." I will admit I skew toward granola; I have a big veggie garden, I planted fruit trees and what we don't eat will be canned and stored. Unlike most of my neighbors, I don't hire people to do things around the house or yard. We do just about everything ourselves. So, I guess it's natural that when school done by others wasn't working, we just decided to do it ourselves.

I know there are others out there like me. I've seen your blogs! I'm not just whining, I'm planning to start a co-op in my area so I can find more of the quiet middle people like me with a few louder voices to keep things interesting. Anyone upstate (yes, I know it's a big place) that's interested?

You're doing WHAT?!

Should I just wear a sign around my neck and save myself the trouble?

I don't know how or when to tell people we are going to homeschool. My two oldest are going to finish out this school year, so it's kind of weird to say that we are homeschooling.

I have spoken to a few friends about it and the ones who know us best aren't very surprised. I did tell one old school friend via Facebook that I haven't had much contact with otherwise and she was pretty shocked and little horrified. I will admit I was a little irritated by that, but at the same time I found it funny. I should just start randomly telling people at inappropriate times and see what happens.

"Hi, nice to meet you. I homeschool my four kids. You wanna make somethin' of it?"

How and when did you tell people you were close to and how did they take it? Leave a comment by clicking the number at the upper right hand corner of this post.

Free "America: The Story of Us" DVD from the History Channel

The History Channel is mailing free copies of their new 12hr program, America: The Story of Us, to all educators. That also includes homeschoolers! I love free stuff!!!!!

HISTORY is offering America The Story of Us on DVD to every school in the

United States. School must be an accredited public, private or home school,
grades K-12 and college. DVD requests must be made prior to July 1, 2010.
DVDs will be mailed around August 2010, and free shipping is included in
this offer.

Sign up here

Latin for Dummies AKA Me

We've been on vacation visiting family, which isn't really a vacation. We live in a tiny town in NY and so it was nice to do some shopping in a big city. After checking out the language section of a huge Barnes and Noble, I found some Latin flash cards. Even though I hadn't yet done any research on how I wanted to teach Latin, I impulse bought them. I really shouldn't have done it since I don't qualify for their educator's discount yet.

Hubby and I spent some time looking at the cards and realized that we don't know jack about Latin. I started looking up Latin grammar and trying to figure out all the information on the cards. I am bilingual (I'm a white girl in upstate NY and I speak Japanese. How random is that?!) and thought that picking up Latin grammar wouldn't be hard. I was tremendously wrong.

Inspired by my ignorance and knowing that I want my kids to learn Latin, I started looking up language programs. It seems to me that the biggest ones used by homeschoolers are: The Big Book of Lively Latin!, Latin for Children and Latina Christiana.

I liked that Lively Latin had online helps, but their website looked abandoned by users. It is also pretty pricey (understand, I am cheap) and can only be purchased from their website. Latina Christiana had mixed reviews and minimal online support, but you can buy it from major retailers and it's very reasonably priced. I think Latin for Children is my big winner. They have a great website, Headventure Land, that has games that you can customized by what chapter you are studying. The books are well priced. The DVD is a little much, but you don't have to buy it.

I'll write a review of Latin for Children when I get a chance to use it this summer.

Glad My Kids Aren't "School-Homed"

This was pretty funny. Thank you The Onion.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/increasing-number-of-parents-opting-to-have-childr,17159/