Throwing Marshmallows

I have been meaning to post a link to this podcast of a discussion with Philip Pullman for awhile now:

In this month’s Christmas book club, John Mullan turns his attention to Philip Pullman’s expansive, magnificent His Dark Materials trilogy.Listen to the podcast of last night’s book club event, in which Pullman talked about Milton, morality and heading for the Arctic, and answered some searching textual questions from younger audience members.

At over 45 minutes, there is a lot of meat to this discussion…lots of background including how he came up with the idea of daemons (animal representations of a person’s soul) which was one of my favorite concepts (turns out he needed someone for Lyra to talk to in the opening chapter when she is in the closet!)

His Dark Materials is such a wonderful trilogy and one of those gems that I am so glad to have discovered as part of our homeschooling. Philip Pullman is not only a masterful storyteller, but an incredible writer (these two do not always go hand in hand!) The way that he can build the rich world in which Lyra lives (and the other parallel worlds) and the way that he has with words just amazes me. There were times when I would re-read passages just to hear the words again. The audio book is very well done as well (read by the author with a full cast) and I highly recommend it.

I just got an email from my favorite place to buy audio books, Audible, and it looks like they are opening an separate site just for kids audio books, called…wait for it…Audible Kids.

It actually looks pretty fun…I can’t tell if the selection is any bigger than on the regular Audible site (where you can still get kids books). It does seem as if you have more ways to search for books…by categories, age, grade, series, popular characters and award winners.

And yes, you do use the same account for making purchases for both Audible and Audible Kids, so there is no new fee or anything new to join. If you have credits on Audible, they are available on Audible Kids as well.

I have only poked around a little bit, but it looks like lots of fun stuff. Although I can’t say that I could ever bring myself to buy an audio version of a good picture book (like Where the Wild Things Are)…even though it is not expensive (many are only $1) it still seems a bit of a waste for a 5 minute audio book! Not to mention not getting the wonderful artwork.

But there are tons of other books that I would definitely consider owning. Much of my audio book purchases are kid lit…for both the boys and myself.

I have been a member of Audible for over 2 years now and I have to say that I have gotten some awesome deals. They frequently run promotions and sales (in fact I have $10 waiting to be spent that I got for using 4 credits in March…I had a couple of items on my wishlist that I had been waiting to purchase, including John Adams by David McCullough which was on sale for only 1 credit (regularly $48.96/ 2 credits))

The Discovery Channel is having their semi-annual DVD sale. Hundreds of educational DVDs on sale for up to 75% off and lots of titles for $4.99. Also, if you use code EMAIL07 you get an additional $5 off of a $25 purchase.

Enjoy!

Just discovered this wonderful storytelling resource - Storynory (have I ever said how much I love my homeschool email lists? You find out about the neatest things).

You can listen online or subscribe to their podcast and download lots of different types of stories…fairy tales (including ones from Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm), mythology, animal stories, Aesop’s Fables, Arabian Nights, Bible Stories, Poetry, you name it. They are also doing chapter installments of Alice in Wonderland. I had a lot of fun poking around and discovering the wealth of stories they have available (75 and counting).

We always have an audio book going in the car and I am always looking to find new resources that we can use. Podcasts are great because I can download them to my iPod and play them in the car. Plus they are free!

We currently enjoy Act!vated Storytellers (a podcast by a homeschool storytelling family) and I am excited to find another similar podcast. The nice thing about Storynory is that they have longer stories in addition to shorter ones. I am really looking forward to listening to these with the boys.

Check them out!

I admit it. I love the BBC version of Robin Hood. I had seen the previews about this new (to America…also check out the BBC website) series and thought that the boys would find it fun (what boy does not enjoy Robin Hood with sword fighting and archery?) but I am enjoying it just as much as they are (if not more!) Season 1 just ended (we were lucky to catch it at the beginning and tivo’d it…although looking at the episode list it looks like we missed one!) but it is being released on DVD on June 5th and is available through Netflix.

The show is incredibly fun and updated and remarkably well done. There is a lot of humor, great sword fighting and Robin (played by Jonas Armstrong) is extremely easy on the eyes (not to mention the accent!) I especially love the chemistry between Robin and Marian (who is a spirited, take care of herself kind of gal) and the relationship between all the characters (from Robin Hood’s Gang to the Sheriff and Sir Guy). The Sheriff is a real character…mean and diabolical, yet also extremely deadpan and funny…with a very dry, evil sense of humor.

Both boys really enjoy it…they especially love the fight scenes which are impressively choreographed and really enjoyable to watch. There is obviously some killing and violence so if your kids are sensitive, you should be aware of that.

The show has led to some good conversations about the time period and Robin Hood in general (Jason had listend to it on tape, but the story is new to Kyle). I found what looks to be an interesting DVD (also available at Netfilx) by the History Channel called History’s Mysteries: The True Story of Robin Hood. Can’t wait to check it out.

I highly recommend this show…it is one of those very enjoyable, watchable shows and it is fun to be able to watch something with the boys that I enjoy as much as they do!

~Stephanie

Nope, not the “deadly sin” greed. The dice game Greed! Julie on the Living Math email list (which is an awesome resource for teaching math) forwarded this link to Greed and the boys and I have been having fun playing.

In a nutshell, you have 10 dice. You roll the dice and see what you score. You then have the option to roll again and try to score additional points…the risk however is that if you do not score, then you loose all your points for that turn. So you need to decide if you are going to keep the points you gained on that round or risk them all.

The boys have decided that it is basically “Deal or No Deal” with dice. Funny how much they got a kick out of that aspect of it.

Just thought that I would pass on a fun way to get familiar with how probability works. And just an all around fun game too. Oh and I have to gloat as well that I won the game today! So there!
~Stephanie

What are the Cybils?

Like all revolutions, this one started small, with a single post on a blog devoted to children’s literature. The Newbery Medals seemed too elitist and the Quills, well, not enough so.

Was there a middle ground, an annual award that would recognize both a book’s merits and popularity?

The answer: invent one! Within hours, this meme had circulated among some of the biggest bloggers in the burgeoning kidlitosphere, the cozy corner of the Web where children’s books are given the same regard as their grown-up counterparts.

Within days, the new awards had a name and a website: The Cybils, a loose acronym for Children’s and YA Bloggers’ Literary Awards. Nominations quickly opened in eight categories, from picture books up to Young Adult fiction and even graphic novels.

Well after many, many months of waiting, they have published the list. Check out the best in the following categories:

• Fantasy and Science Fiction
• Fiction Picture Books
• Graphic Novels
• Middle Grade Fiction
• Non-fiction (Middle Grade and YA)
• Non-fiction Picture Books
• Poetry
• Young Adult Fiction

Great way to find great recommendations for your kids (and your own!) reading enjoyment.

Have fun!

~Stephanie

Making Books for Children has a really cute Valentine Heart book as well as some other neat ideas for Valentine’s Day.  And fun links including the History of Candy Hearts.
Of course that means that I really should do something about Valentine’s day. Am I the only homeschool mom out there who is not really very crafty? It seems like these kind of holidays sneak up on me all the time…

~Stephanie

Christine wrote in the comments from my last post I love surprises:

Just out of curiosity, how do you find all of these author blogs/websites, etc? Do you just google authors you like? Is there a website that lists stuff like this? My kids would be very interested, I think, along with their “book geek” of a mom.

Thanks to the wonder that is the internet, there are tons of great email lists/blogs/websites out there to indulge our “book geekiness” if we so desire. I have found that “child’s lit” makes up the core of our homeschooling…we do a lot of reading together and always have an audio book going. And to be honest with you, I think that I enjoy this part of our homeschooling as much as the boys!

I have discovered a wealth of great authors and books by hanging out around Child Lit lovers. There are tons of folks discussing and writing about it on the web. Some of my favorites are:

Child Lit email list: By far the best resource. Ongoing discussions about anything and everything to do with Child’s Lit. This is not a homeschool specific list, but is made up of lovers of Children’s Literature…list members include authors (Jane Yolan, Philip Pullman, Bruce Hale and many others), teachers (all levels, elementary through college), librarians, English/Children’s literature majors, parents and homeschoolers. I have learned about so many great authors that I never would have known about and I love the conversations…especially interesting to hear the teachers and librarians. You can tell that these folks just love children’s books!

Mother Reader: My favorite child’s lit blog written by a mom (who doubles as a librarian’s assistant). We share similar tastes in books and I love her sense of humor. She is the one who turned me onto Mo Williams blog and the National Book Festival. And many, many great books.

Educating Alice: A great blog written by an awesome 4th grade english teacher that I “met” on the Child’s Lit email list. She has some great ideas for teaching kids and is the type of creative teacher that everyone would love for their kids (if they are not homeschooling that is!)

Other Child’s Lit blogs that I check out:

• Fuse #8
• Chicken Spaghetti
• Big A little a
• Book Moot
• Scholar’s Blog

It also seems that most authors have a website or even a blog nowadays. If you have a favorite author, google and see what you find out. You never know where it might lead. I am hoping to have time soon to update my blogroll to include favorite author sites…

Hope that these get you started…but I warn you, there are tons of great Child’s Lit blogs out there…it is easy to get totally hooked! And now I find out about great new books when they first come out which drives me crazy…because I have to make the decision of whether or not to wait to get it in paperback! And what is it with this need that I have where if I find a book that I (or the boys) really love that I have to own it…even if we have gotten it from the library and already read it?? I think it is a sickness…
Happy Reading!

~Stephanie

Those of you whose kids like the Horrible books such as Horrible Histories, Horrible Science, Horrible Geography, Dead Famous, and Murderous Maths know that they can be hard to find over here in the U.S.

Well, that is no longer the case. Ray from Del Sol Books places orders with Scholastic UK periodically throughout the year and can get pretty much any Horrible Book you want. Cheaper and with a better selection then Amazon. Can’t beat that!

I just got my box of books a few weeks ago. Ray is great to deal with (keeps you updated on what is going on and is very responsive) and the price is right (on average $7 per book and only $7 for shipping no matter how many books you order).

Deadline for the next order is January 28th.

Enjoy!

~Stephanie

Well, I can blame it all on Lissa. She wrote this great post about comics and happened to mention Mouse Guard. I have been looking for books that might grab Jason’s attention and comic/graphic novels are definitely up his alley (very visual obviously and not as intimidating to read).

So I tracked down the nearest comic book store (which happened to only be about 10 minutes away - great find!). Turns out that they had Issues 1, 3, 4, and 5. Issue 1 and 2 are difficult to find (I got the last Issue 1 and am still on the hunt for Issue 2). These comics are gorgeous and about sword fighting mice, so what is not to love! It is going to be hard to wait until Christmas to give these to him.

While at the comic book store, I happened to find this wonderful graphic novel…the 2nd volume in the Owly series called Owly: Just a Little Blue. What is unique about this novel is that there are no words. The entire story (all 128 pages) is completely told in pictures! It is a sweet story about an Owl and his friend Wormy. They decide to build a birdhouse, but the birds do not want to come. I really think that Kyle will like it (although it is supposedly for slightly older kids), especially that he can read it himself. And I am sure that Jason will like it too.

So of course, I had to come home and jump online to see what I could find. No luck in finding Issue 2 of Mouse Guard, but I did find Volume 1 and 3 in the Owly series on half.com (actually found more then those but needed to exercise some self-control!)

In reading up on the Owly series on amazon, I found a link to the graphic novel Bone which I had heard about on the Children’s Literature email list I am on. I checked it out (amazon had an excerpt) and it is awesome! Funny, well written, interesting with a dragon to boot. So back over to half.com and I found the first 3 volumes. I contemplated getting the complete one book set (13 years worth and over 1,000 pages!) but decided that it was a bit too hefty and could not imagine Jason lugging that much of a brick with him. Again I exercised some restraint.

Now I can’t wait to get the books…I may need to give them a read through before they go under the Christmas tree…what fun!

Anyone else out there have any favorite comics or graphic novels? Jason loves Calvin and Hobbes and Far Side, but it is kind of fun to discover lesser known comics too.

~Stephanie

If you are looking for a great Christmas gift, be sure to check out the Moo Cow Fan Club magazine. I have written about this wonderfully created kids magazine that has no advertising and no commercial/pop culture tie ins many times before. Figured it was about time to mention it again!

It is the favorite of with both boys. They love the characters (especially Kweenie and FW) and look forward to getting it. The topics are really interesting and I like how they devote an entire issue to a history, science or geography topic. This format works well and the kids like being able to learn about a topic in depth. There is a lot of humor which is what I think mostly appeals to the boys.

They recently had a tv interview which I thought was wonderful…really gave you a feel for where Moo Cow came from and what Becky and Ryan are attempting to do and why. Definitely check it out and definitely get a subscription. You won’t be disappointed!

~Stephanie

PS Sorry for the blank post last night…HSJ was not letting me post the body of the post for some reason and it was too late for me to figure it out. Luckily everything is working fine this morning.

This came through one of my email lists today and I have been having a lot of fun exploring. It is a virtual tour of Monticello. Ok, yes, I admit that I have been having more fun then the boys with it (I have yet to get them really interested in early American History) but I love it!

You really get a wonderful picture of how beautiful Virginia is…I do love that area down there. I absolutely love the Virginia countryside as well as the wonderful, rich history that we have all around us.

I have yet to make it out to Monticello but hope too one of these days. In the meantime, this is the next best thing.

~Stephanie

I found LivingMath.net at the beginning of this year and have found it to be an absolutely wonderful math resource. From the website:

I want to build a bridge. I’d like to close the gap between math and history, science, literature and humanity created by the isolated way we traditionally approach math education.

In teaching my own children, tutoring and furthering my own self education, I’ve found that math history and literature humanizes math, makes it come alive, and provides the context needed to enjoy and retain learning. Early exposure to real mathematics in real settings without requiring mastery of arithmetic on a set timetable has been a key to the incredible ease my kids have attained mastery when the time is right for them.

The website is chock full of ideas for different ways to approach math and the related email list is a wonderful place to ask questions and get lots of feedback about all sorts of ways to approach math. You will find lots of ways to approach math from a hands-on, holistic pov in addition to lots of discussions about all sorts of different math curricula. I love the mix and it works great with our approach this year of focusing on different math concepts and pulling in a variety of resources.

I especially like her ideas on approaching math from a history and literature perspective. This approach has worked really well with Jason so far…he really likes the Penrose, the Mathematical Cat books and The Number Devil which have been great at exposing him to a variety of math concepts. Reading about them and getting familiar with the concepts will help as we get more and more into them. He seems really drawn to certain concepts like Fibonacci numbers. We have also been reading a bit about the mathematicians themselves and that has given an added dimension to our learning (I personally have been enjoying this aspect as well as I love history!)
I have found that a lot of the folks on the LivingMath.net email list have right-brained/visual-learners. Which makes sense, I think, as we tend to have very non-traditional learners and are always on the look out for new and creative ways to approach math!

Definitely check it out. The website could take you a little while to work through as there are tons of great ideas and especially book recommendations and reviews.

Enjoy!

~Stephanie

Thought that I would take a minute to re-post about a few of my favorite online shopping places…these sites offer items that have that great combination of being both really fun as well as being “educational”. Definitely not your mainstream toy sites.

These sites help me feel better about the onslaught of “stuff” that will be entering our house this holiday season.

Happy Shopping!

~Stephanie

HEM has a great interview with the Act!vated Storytellers in this month’s Guide to Resources. They are a family of storytellers who travel all over the country performing. They also do weekly podcasts.

I was just going to post something about them because we have been listening to their podcasts in the car lately and the boys have been really enjoying them. You can subscribe to their weekly podcasts through iTunes and download them to listen on your computer or on your iPod.

Their stories include tall tales like Hansel and Gretel, tall tales like Johnny Appleseed, real tales like Suduko and the 1,000 Cranes and tons of other great stories. Really well done.

Definitely check them out!

~Stephanie

My mom just sent me this link to a really cool Halloween Hangman Game. Jason has recently been wanting to play hangman so I think that he really will enjoy this.

I was playing it for awhile and started to get a bit addicted. Lots of fun and it will give him practice with his spelling…what more could you ask for!

Edited: To add the clickable link above and to say that Jason had a lot of fun with this today.
~Stephanie

In a comment on Finding Our Rhythm, JoVE asked:

Do you have more details about that science program? I’d be interested. Thanks.

The science program that we have started to use is called Real Science 4 Kids put out by Gravitas Publishing. We are doing Chemistry Pre-Level 1 (the Level 1 programs are supposed to be for 4th-7th grades, so I decided to start with the Pre-Level and do it with both Jason and Kyle. I think that it will give Jason a sound base before going on to Level 1. Kyle is probably still a bit on the young side, but he seems to be enjoying and it and following it). I am not a big curriculum person, but these materials looked really neat. I had heard about them on several email lists and my interest was peaked. Gravitas Publishing was at a homeschool conference that I happened to be at, so I checked them out and wound up buying the whole kit and kaboodle.

What I like about them is that the “textbook” is really well done and fun. The way that Chemistry is presented is easy for kids to understand…the text is big and easy to read. The graphics are great. The explanations are clear and connect things to my kids lives. And the science (from what I can tell and what I have researched) is good and not watered down or simplified. I was very impressed with how good the explanations were. I looked through the textbook and I could really see just reading this to the boys and them enjoying it. Basically I decided to get it because I really thought the boys would like it and find it interesting. And so far they have. One day Jason actually kept reading on his own after I stopped and kept saying “Mommy, did you know that…”.

We are doing the experiements on Thursdays with my friend Kathi and her kids Zak and Kaiya. So far they have been having fun.

It is not without controversy though. In doing some research, I found out that the author advocates for the teaching of Intelligent Design in schools. However, the materials are secular and the biology book does not get into either ID or evolution. You can read more about this here and here.

What it came down to for me is that the materials are good and I could not see not using them just because I disagree with the politics of the author. We also tend to use curriculum more as a resource then a “one stop shopping” type of thing so I plan on pulling more materials and including things on evolution when we get around to biology (whenever that will be). But I know that everyone has their own opinion on this subject, so I figured that I would throw this info out in the interest of full disclosure.

Hope that this answers your questions!

~Stephanie

I love card games. And we discovered a new one this week: Begger Your Neighbor. I had picked up The Book of Cards for Kids card game book at Fun Books while at the VaHomeschoolers Conference and we have been learning lots of new card games out of it. I think that I enjoy it because it is easy to pick up and explain and there is a good element of surprise to it. I also came back from about 1 card left to actually beat Kyle once!

I have several card game books (including one that was my Mom’s when she was a girl). I don’t know what it is about cards but I have always enjoyed playing them. The boys have learned that this is my weakness.

Jason has asked about learning Texas Hold-Em…so I guess that is my next one to learn. And we need to get some poker chips…

~Stephanie

Tags: card games

I thought that I would pass on some of my favorite online homeschool resources…they are now linked under Homeschool Resources (original, huh?).

Fun Books - An online independent bookstore run by a wonderful homeschool family in Maryland. Has a wonderful assortment of books and interesting items. Also hosts the John Holt Bookstore. (Coming to the VaHomeschoolers Conference in 1 week!)

PhysLink - Not specifically homeschool related, but you can find so many neat things including science supplies, kits, toys and gifts. I do a lot of my birthday and Christmas shopping here…and not just for the kids. I have found great stuff for Jeff too!Discover This - A great place to do birthday and Christmas shopping as well. Lots of fun educational toys…including Capsela building sets which my boys love.

Educational Innovations - Don’t let the website address of teachersource scare you away. This site is chock full of fun interesting items. Divided into different categories such as “Electicity! Magnatism! Engines!”, “Color, Light & Sound, and “Forensic Science”, you can find some really unique stuff there.

Rainbow Resource - Absolutely huge homeschool catalog with great prices. You can request their free print catalog as well…this is one time I actually prefer browsing through the print catalog rather then the online. Each item has a small write-up or review. Great place to see what is out there…and to get overwhelmed with!

if I find anything else fun, I will let you know!

~Stephanie