A T Rex Named Sue at Liberty Science Center

Dino Boy *needed* to see Sue the T Rex at Liberty Science Center, so Kev took a vacation day and off we went to New Jersey. When we arrived, there was a live science demo just starting, so Mikro participated in Sub Zero and learned about liquid nitrogen. We had to leave in the middle, because we had tickets to the 3D movie Dinosaurs: Giants of Patagonia.



Next, it was off to see the big bones. Along with a life sized cast of Sue, there were lots of stations about her anatomy and physiology. Mikro got to play with how her jaws worked, see how much range of motion she had in her funky little forearms, and check out the differences in vision between predator (T Rex) and prey (Triceratops):









Next, it was off to our Hudson Home, and a live science demo on buoyancy.



Then we stopped at Infection Connection, where Mikro got to play doctor and diagnose a patient, and design viruses and bacteria on a computer station (one of his favorite activities!)



Then it was on to the Skyscraper! exhibit, where we saw steel from the World Trade Center, built a skyscraper with blocks, and checked out other kids walking the high steel. Mikro said he will do this next time. (He's the kind of kid who has to watch first, absorb, and then try something new himself.)



Then off to Energy Quest and some fun with wind power:



One last look at Sue, and it was time to hop back on the light rail to go home. I think the light rail was almost as much a hit as Sue! Boys and trains...



We stopped in Hoboken for pizza at Rome Pizza (well, Mikro had hummus and bread sticks...) which was as good as pizza from my old neighborhood in Brooklyn, a high compliment in my book! Mikro liked the Roman soldier in pizza apron.

Fraunces Tavern and the American Revolution

We returned to Fraunces Tavern Museum with our homeschool group, and saw the anastatic facsimile of the Declaration of Independence (made by direct contact impression from the original, using an acidic solution which damaged the original and caused it to fade. Only 2 anastatic facsimiles were made.)

We also saw many paintings depicting events of the American Revolution and learned about the Molly Pitchers, drummer boys, the Minutemen, Israel Putnam and the Battle of Bunker Hill, the Quartering Act and how Lydia Darrow, who had soldiers quartered in her home, was able to eavesdrop and pass along valuable intelligence to George Washington.

We also learned about the history of Fraunces Tavern and its owner, Samuel Fraunces, and visited The Long Room, where the Sons of Liberty held meetings and where George Washington said farewell to his officers.

The kids got to handle various colonial artifacts like pewter plates, a tin lantern, a toddy stick, powder horn, sugar snips, and feather quills and learn about how they were used. It was a really fun trip!

Tuesday Science Times Two and More

I am so far behind in blogging, I may never catch up. We have had a lot of field trips lately, and I've taken a few seminars for educators, so we are never home long enough for me to sit down, edit photos and blog. I really overdid it in scheduling ourselves into insanity this month, despite my vow not to go nuts on the calendar until spring... And my back is telling me so, even more loudly than my husband! Anyway, this is my longwinded way of saying, expect catch-up posts...

To move things along, here are the last two weeks of Mad Science...
The first class was about materials analysis. There was a demo of flame testing, in which we learned that natural materials tend to burn, and synthetics tend to melt. We compared how smokey various substances were, how quickly they burned, whether they stretched, etc. Then the kids got to do absorbency and strength testing on different types of fabrics.



This week, which was the last of the series, was about codes. The kids tried ASL, learned SOS in Morse Code, played with flag signals, and got a cool code wheel to take home. And Mikro told everyone how code sticks worked in ancient Greece... Soon classes on NASA Science will be starting up. We are looking forward to them!



After class, we read at the library. Oe week we focused on history, and the next, it was time for some math:



Did you know that the ancient Egyptians sewed their boats together?



We looked at math concepts such as area, angles, symmetry, rounding by 10s, making predictions and probabilty. Mikro loves Math Start books, and I heartily endorse anything that makes math fun. We also really enjoyed doing the "homework" in It's Probably Penny.

No Child Gets Ahead, rev.2.0

Have you seen A Blueprint for Reform
The Reauthorization of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act?

The next rev of No Child Left Behind calls itself a blueprint. That's like saying, "we're gonna build a house, we'll make some plans and throw some money at it" constitutes a blueprint. Um, no. A mission statement maybe, but a blueprint? No. Developing the new buzz words "world class education" and "college- and career-ready" doesn't make them a reality, or shed any light whatsoever on how you get from here to there.

At least it acknowledges how badly broken the current system is:

At page 7:

"Four of every 10 new college students, including half of those at 2-year institutions, take remedial courses, and many employers comment on the inadequate preparation of high school graduates."

That's simply shameful. How dare the pointy headed bureaucrats who administer this woeful failure of a system presume to regulate homeschooling?!? Clean your own house first, before you try to dictate what goes on in mine!

Of course, this new policy completely fails to address gifted education. And while closing achievement gaps is certainly a worthy goal, if the stated aim of this scheme is to allow America to compete on the world stage, why are we not supporting the best and brightest, the geeks and prodigies, the kids most likely to innovate and discover? For too long, the focus has been on the center of the bell curve, and tough luck to the outliers at either end. Now we're told that focus will broaden to encompass those struggling at the bottom, but as usual, no provision is made for the gifted and talented kids being held back by the system's failure to adequately challenge them. And no, making them tutor the struggling kids is not advancing their educations. It's making indentured servants of them. We are a culture of mediocrity. We want everyone lumped together and made average. We claim to value diversity, but our system breeds conformity and lowest common denominator thinking.

Instead of supporting new and improved tests and throwing more money at a problem that decades of throwing money at has not fixed, how about government getting out of the way of the actual educators and letting teachers use their creativity and talent to actually teach meaningful curricula instead of spending oh, 70 percent of the school year forced to focus on test prep to secure the precious federal funding that has come to mean far more than graduating kids with actual high school level skills?

Yet another reason to homeschool...

Supervised recess. Stamping out renegade games of hopscotch at a school near you!

Our society's goal seems to be turning out mindless sheep who have been controlled from birth (and before, but that's a whole 'nother rant) to the grave, with nary a second for a stray independent thought, or, heaven help our corporate masters, developing the idea that there *is* a choice, if we don't abdicate it.

By all means, have monitors to keep the bullies from running rampant. Provide the coach to teach games and sportsmanship to the kids who are interested. But tell her to lay off the renegade hopscotch crowd, the bookworms, the cloud watchers, and the like, unless they are brawling, for goodness' sake. (But then, those introverts and rebels are dangerous to the central guiding principle of the disaster that is our public education sector today-- producing identical numbed out cogs with zero self esteem and creativity, who won't question the robber barons' right to control our destinies. They must be assimilated into the mind dead collective.)

Don't kids deserve any time when they are not under someone's dominance and control to relax and just be themselves?

"There is no choice" sounds a little too "Ordnung muss sei" for me. The Nanny State has jumped the shark and started goosestepping. Maybe they should change the name from "No Child Left Behind" to "We are the Borg. Resistance is futile." You will be made into a servile groupthink sheep who fits in the prescribed box, or we'll pathologize and medicate you into submission, or hire a drill sergeant to whip you into unquestioning obedience...

No thanks! This is why we're educational DIY'ers.*** My kid will not be taught *not to think for himself.*

***(DIY'er = Do It Yourself-er.)

Silly: The Avatar Family

Chele:

Mikro:

Kev:


Make your own Avatar here...

You Know You're A Homeschooling Mom When...

Your anniversary gift from your husband is registration for a seminar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art about teaching Greek myths, featuring Rick Riordan.

It's tomorrow, and I am so excited! (Yes, I know, I'm a geek!)

While I'm at the seminar, Kev is taking Mikro to see Alice in Wonderland, and then they'll head to the museum. I know there are some Percy Jackson themed family activities going on tomorrow as well, so hopefully the boys can get in on some of that fun, too.

Ancient History Resources Online: A little Linky Love

ANCIENT EGYPT:



For Senet, including the rules of the game:

The Game of Senet Article with two possible ways to play described.

Terry's Egyptian Page: Rules of Senet

Play Senet online against King Tut

Senet PDF



More cool links:

Ancient Cultures from Humanities Interactive
Senet Teachers Guide from Humanities Interactive
Terry's Egyptian Word of the Day
Terry's Online Egyptian Games, including Senet Terry's whole site is well worth a look!
PBS on Hieroglyphs
Ancient Egyptian Fun



Nat Geo Egypt Quiz



Ancient Egyptian Children



ANCIENT GREECE:

The Encyclopedia Mythica
Mythweb
Wall paintings of Thera

http://www.ancientgreece.com/s/Main_Page/

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/ancient_greeks/ 

 

Ancient Greece for Kids:  http://greece.mrdonn.org/

 

http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0210200/ancient_greece/online_activities.htm

 

http://hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu/exhibitions/coa/re_high_games.html

The Olympians graphic novels


Rick Riordan's Explore Ancient Greece


Odyssey Greece Main Page


Theoi Greek Mythology


Winged Sandals


Unit 14: Who were the ancient Greeks?
Unit 15: How do we use ancient Greek ideas today?

Teacher Lesson Plans:

MEET HERACLES
FIND GREEK STORIES IN THE NIGHT SKY

DECORATE AN ANCIENT GREEK AMPHORA






GENERALLY:


Nat Geo Ancient World News

Art of Ancient Egypt: New Kingdom

Mikro's favorite thing in the Egyptian galleries? "All the Sphinxes!"



He likes asking people the Riddle of the Sphinx:

"What walks on four legs at dawn, two legs at midday and three legs in the evening?"

Do you know?

(Answer at the bottom of the post.)

















This is the game of Senet. I am going to learn how to play it, and teach Mikro.



The answer to the Riddle of the Sphinx is: Mankind. We crawl on all fours as babies, walk on two legs most of our lives, and use a staff or cane in our old age.