Favorite Films: Winged Migration

After talking with Lucy the other day, I decided we need to start a new section on this blog, for favorite movies.

This is a documentary that was released in 2001, and so many of you probably have not heard of it.  It is one of our family's favorite movies, and the kids are completely mesmerized by it.  It's all just gorgeous filming of birds migrating.  That sounds really boring, but it is the opposite.  It would be a great movie to watch with the kids if you were learning about birds, seasons, or geography.

I found this official site that gives a trailer, and other potentially interesting and informative links.

I am sure you can get the movie through Netflix if you have their DVD plan, but I saw it is also available for download through Amazon Prime.  Hold on--EVEN BETTER: the library has it! 


If any of you Vintage Homeschool Moms want to make your own film reviews here on the blog, please feel free!  Some of you are "authors" so you can just make a post.  If you are not an "author" then please email me with your text and I'll post it for you. : )

Book project on the human body--from the archives

Hello Moms!

I was looking through old TWIOC posts, and it looks like I never shared with you all something Becky and I did for the preschool kids one time when she and I were in charge of childcare for the morning SoulFood Bible study.  Since we were going to have our kids with us, we decided to make the most of those hours every week by doing a unit on the human body.  I just wrote about it on my blog, so if you are interested, please feel free to hop over and take a look. : )

lisa c.

And a book recommendation on Tsunamis in Japan

From a homeschool email:

Here is a book, 'The Big Wave' that might be helpful for children who are worried about Japan and the families there. It is a sad story about a boy who loses his family in a Tsunami in Japan but a wonderful story about healing (and how long it can take) written by Pearl S. Buck in 1948. Parents should preview first to see if they feel it is appropriate for their child.


Here is an NPR link about the story and a recorded excerpt from it (which I have not listened to)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4254285

Here is the link for the book on Amazon for your reference but you might want to check to see if it is available locally.

http://www.amazon.com/Big-Wave-Pearl-S-Buck/dp/0064401715/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300293700&sr=8-1


- Nancy  (a local homeschool  mom)

How Earthquakes make Tsunamis

Here is a good link if any of you want to follow up recent current events with scientific facts:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12739417

Spooky Brew

Something we did for fun this past weekend. : )  It is very fun and easy--let me know next year if you want to try it and I'll give you the scoop.

FREE passes to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Nov. 15!

Hello everyone!

We signed up for the Homeschool Day at the Aquarium on Nov. 15, and now we can't go, because our girls have a play performance that night!  (This is what happens when you are asked to sign up before the Fall semester even begins)  ALSO, we got tickets for the McNabbs, but then they realized they would not be back in CA quite that soon.  Bummer!  The good news for you is that we now have two families worth of tickets available for anyone who had not signed up previously!  PLEASE let me know if you are interested ASAP.  Otherwise I will post this on another homeschool forum that is county wide, or worst case will just let the aquarium know we can't come. 

The program sounds GREAT too. : (  Hope someone out there can take our place!

Lisa C.

FREE Science Fun!

**My out of town readers--there are other locations for these science events all over the US, so please click on the last link to get to the national site, and look at the "satellite" section to see if there is anything taking place near you.

Cal Science & Engineering Festival


A community celebration of Science@Cal!

Explore the wonders of science with activities for the whole family at the first-ever Cal Science & Engineering Festival.

This free event will take place at UC Berkeley, on Spieker Plaza (located next to Haas Pavilion) http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/DE23.html on *Saturday, October 23 *from 10am to 2pm.

It's all about science in action! You'll put solar power to the test, get hands-on with ancient fossils, discover the "science" of unicycling and basketball, make your own earthquake, journey to the stars—and more!

The Cal festival is hosted by Science@Cal, an initiative of the UC BerkeleyOffice of the Vice Chancellor for Research, and is presented in conjunction with the inaugural USA Science & Engineering Festival http://usasciencefestival.org/

It sounds GREAT--hope we can go. : )

cool space science websites

here is the link to an article that references several good sites for space studies:

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/09/eight-good-resources-for-space-science.html

FREE teacher membership at the San Jse Tech Museum!

Lisa C. here!  I am still trying to figure out what this means, exacly--what the concrete benefits would be for our family and our homeschool studies--but look what I just came across on the Tech Museum of San Jose website:

Free Teacher Membership Program for California Educators!



Use us as your year-round 2nd Classroom!

Teacher memberships are available to all K-12 public, private, home school teachers, principals, district and county certificated employees, currently working in a California school district.


We invite you to become a member of our learning community and find a professional "home" here at The Tech Museum. Ultimately, we hope you join us in promoting learning through design and innovation as part of your professional practice.


Here is the page that gives the details.  Does anyone else already know about this?  Please comment if you have any insight or experience with this program!

New local science vendors!

My Ocan Grove E.S. just sent out a list of new approved vendors, and on it are two I have been hoping for:

1) The Mad Molecule science store here in Aptos, in the Rio Del Mar shopping center (where Safeway is).

2) Science classes at Quail Hollow Ranch!  Whoo-hoo!

And speaking of Quail Hollow, I just now realized that they offer FREE field trips, if we schedule them in advance!  Check out this brochure for the possibilities--I think this year we are going to have to schedule a few for Vintage Homeschool Adventures. : )

CA Academy of Sciences Homeschool Day!

Join us for the next Homeschool Day!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010
9:30 am - 5:00 pm

Join us on this special day of presentations, demonstrations, and hands-on programs, when we invite homeschooling families to explore the Academy at reduced admission prices.

Download and print the FAQ and Registration Guide, which includes everything you need for planning your experience and reserving a spot for your family.

The information in this packet is also published in the Teachers' Lounge, where you can post comments or questions helpful to anyone in the homeschool community.

Registration by phone begins Tuesday, August 10, 2010.

Don't hesitate to forward this message along to others!

Admission for homeschool families within San Francisco:
Two adults and their children aged 4-17 may attend for free.

Admission for homeschool families outside San Francisco:
Two adults and their children aged 4-17 may attend for only $4.95 per person.

Note: Children aged 0-3 always receive free admission to the museum. Tickets for additional adult chaperones may be reserved at general admission prices ($24.95 for adults; $19.95 for college students and seniors).

As always, the price of admission includes access to all of our exhibits!
*Rainforest Dome
*Living Roof
*Kimball Natural History Museum
*Steinhart Aquarium


Program Schedule

Planetarium Shows:
Every hour on the half-hour, visitors will leave our planet to take a Journey to the Stars. Just pick up free passes from the Planetarium kiosk for the show time of your choosing.

Public Presentations:
Watch a penguin feeding, meet our albino alligator, get up close with live raptors, dive into the coral reef, and explore extreme life. Question and answer sessions follow many presentations.

Docent-led Discovery:
Depart on an impromptu tour, touch real specimens, watch as comets and volcanoes are constructed, touch a tidepool creature, and be on the lookout for live animal ambassadors.

Hands-on Programs:
Dissect an owl pellet, build a dollhouse using sustainable design principles, learn about the process of natural selection with real specimens, or challenge yourself with waste and water relays.

At the Naturalist Center:
Receive one-on-one help from Academy naturalists, visit with other families, or attend a Specimen Spotlight talk. Also, come here to collect a prize for completing a scavenger hunt!

Scavenger Hunts:
Print a museum worksheet at home and complete it with your family within the exhibits. See the FAQ for a helpful list, or browse the activity database.

.................................................................

Meet your relatives in Extreme Mammals

Exhibition ends September 12, 2010, so we scheduled Homeschool Day accordingly!

Featuring spectacular fossils and other specimens from the Museum’s collections, vivid reconstructions, and live animals, this exhibition examines the ancestry and evolution of numerous species, ranging from huge to tiny, from speedy to sloth-like, and displays animals with oversized claws, fangs, snouts, and horns.

Through the use of dynamic media displays, hands-on activities, touchable fossils, taxidermy specimens, and live tree shrews, the exhibition will highlight distinctive mammalian qualities and illuminate the shared ancestry that unites these diverse creatures.

Extreme Mammals is organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York, in collaboration with the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco; Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, Canada; and Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Photo: © AMNH/D. Finnin

Visit the exhibit website here.

another science video

At least this one is explained by the experts. But very cool, and an oddity from right here in our backyard! (Well, globally speaking, that is.)

Science!!! I think.

Just found a cache of fascinating videos, including this one.

Go see it! And if you have any clue what is actually taking place (you know, the whole science part) please do enlighten me with a comment.

Simeon and Caleb, are you up to the challenge? ; )

2010 Monterey Bay Aquarium Home School Days Sign Up OPEN NOW

Hello Moms! As of yesterday, you can sign up for the FREE Monterey Bay Aquarium Home School Days program.

We signed up our family and the McNabbs for the Nov 15th slot, just in case any of you want to try for the same day. : )

some neat sites for homeschool

hey friends! I am SO enjoying the internet once again! Here are a bunch of neat sites that would be wonderful if you were to be studying weather, geography, and more!

Weather! awesome lesson plans, print outs, links to more info, songs, even lots about clouds, forecasting or meteorology!

This lady (from The Education Cafe) has a long list of links for free lesson plans, print outs and unit studies, if you are into that kind of stuff. I haven't personally checked these out, but they came with great recommendation!

I especially like the National Geographic Xpeditions site!! Everything is geography based, with some science, health and history mixed in there. I also LOVE the link for maps!!

Especially this one :)

If any of you like these links - we can add them to the sidebar, for easier access. If you have other links too = please share! Hope you are enjoying the summer weather!
Love Ali Mc

Plastic in Our World: Day 8

Welcome to our second and final week of our Plastics Unit. This week we will learn about what happens to our plastic when we are done with it. And we will spend a few minutes talking about hands on, practical and positive things we can do to improve our cultural relationship with plastic.

With your kids
1. Watch the short video, The Story of Bottled Water.

2. Talk about the idea of marketing: how companies try to persuade us to buy their products. Then watch these bottled water commercials (here and here) and discuss them as marketing strategies. (If your kids are like mine, they will think the commercials are fantastic. Which makes the discussion all the more interesting!)

If you like, compare those with this commercial, that shows a very different kind of bottled water. Excellent fodder for discussion about luxury versus necessity; wise, just, and compassionate ways to use money; and human rights.

3. Find a couple of magazines and have your kids look through them to see if they can find any bottled water ads. If you can, talk about the imagery, words, implied fears, desires, etc. in the ad. If you don't find any bottled water ads, speculate about why you didn't--what does that tell you about how the bottled water industry sees the audience of that particular magazine?

(My kids looked through Parenting magazine, and did not see any bottled water ads, which suggests moms are wise to those scare tactics by now. ; ) But we did find an ad for a new product--tablets of sugar, artificial color, and artificial flavor that your kid can drop into his/her glass of tap water so that he/she will then want to drink it. We talked about the subtle implications in the ads--that plain old tap water tastes bad, that your kids won't drink water without incentive, that artificial flavored and colored sugar water is just as good for you as plain water--that tried to create a need for their product.

Studying advertizing is always fascinating, and I don't think we can start educating our kids soon enough on the lies culture often tells us--esp. when someone wants something from us.)

Your kids might get really into this whole reading the messages in advertizing game--a fun thing to do when out and about!

Week 1 "Growing Greener Challenge": Eliminating Microbeads

For those of you who might like to hear one practical, easy, but important idea for re-thinking plastic use in your home:

Take a look at this article and consider eliminating any products you use that might contain plastic microbeads. These microbeads are so tiny they are even worse for our world than those durn nurdles--the microbeads are ingested by creatures so small that they work their way up the whole food chain. And to make matters more directly harmful to humans, the microbeads even manage to get through municipal water treatment systems--ending up in tap water.

Scary, no?

The good news is that there are plenty of more natural products that can be used instead--this article lists some, and gives resources for further investigation. And if you choose to up the Greenness and try an alternative that comes without a plastic container, you still have options! For example, baking soda is awesome for scouring when cleaning. And you can buy all kinds of beautiful, natural exfoliating facial soap bars online if you can't find them locally.

Anyone up for the challenge? Please post a comment to let us know what products you are using or plan to use instead of microbeads, to encourage others. : )

Plastic in Our World: Week 1 Reflection and Action

Here at the end of our first week, let's take a few minutes to reflect upon what we have learned about plastic.

The key ideas for our family were that there are positive and negative things about plastic--plastic itself is not necessarily bad, but it is good for some applications, and not good for others. Also, some characteristics of plastic, like its long life, can be both good and bad. Similarily, all the ways we use plastic are not necessarily bad--but can be wise or unwise.

With your kids
1. Summarize some of the negative qualities and/or applications you have learned about plastic. Older kids can do this in their Plastic Research Journal (see Day 4).

Then summarize some of the positive.

To help brainstorm, use the list at the bottom of this article as a starting point. Or go back to Day 1's observations about how you use plastic in your own home. A couple of the things my family talked about were the ways doctors use plastics to help repair people's bodies--like hearts and joints. And in places in the world where the local water is not safe to drink, plastic bottles or bags of purified water can be a necessity of life (albeit not a permanent solution!).

2. When your one week of plastic collection is up, take the box/bag to the driveway or someplace where you can dump it all out and take a good look at what you have accumulated (don't dump in on grass, as you might lose small pieces). Observe the kinds of plastic your family seems to be using up and throwing out. Consider if these reflect wise or unwise use of plastic. If you determine together that some of your plastic waste is unnecessary, brainstorm alternative solutions.

3. Discuss as a family how you can together make one positive change in how you use plastic, and then start doing it. (See our family's list below, or check out Fake Plastic Fish for LOTS of ideas.)

Be sure to re-bag your Week 1 plastic trash collection--you will want to save it for one more week. But this is the time to start a second collection for Week 2, in a separate bag/box.


The guy who made the documentary "Addicted to Plastic" said it well; let's not demonize plastic, but instead treat it as the amazingly versatile, valuable product that it is. It comes down to being wise in our understanding and use of it. Wise is not making it just to throw away (as in all single-use applications, like disposable dinnerware). And some plastics are not as safe as we would like to think, and should not be used in some of the ways we routinely use them. And if everybody just made one small change in how we use plastic unwisely, it would add up big time.

Thanks for being a part of our first week's study! Please keep coming back for the second week, and lots more info and ideas. : )

Website of the day
Watch this free PBS documentary to see how scientists can use all that trash floating in the ocean (bad) to learn more about the ocean's currents (good)!*


Five ways our family is changing our plastic lifestyle, for the better:

--Choosing not to use plastic for storing food, whenever possible.
--Now that it is summer, using fresh tomatoes in all recipes, instead of plastic-lined cans of tomatoes.
--Buying produce at places where we can take our own bags for it, like the farmer's market or places that have bulk food.
--Being very careful when shopping at places that overpackage produce, like Trader Joe's.
--Choosing to go without personal items that come in plastic packaging (like shampoo and facial scrub) whenever possible.

*Thanks for the timely link, Suki! : )

Plastic in Our World: Day 5

Parents, this one is geared for you. With what is going on in the news recently, it seemed like a good opportunity to point out the connection between plastics in our lives and oil in the Gulf. Read the information and links, and share the ideas with your kids as you see fit.

There is one more way in which plastic affects our world and the creatures that live in it:

Okay, so that is not plastic. But it is natural oil, from which much of the world's plastic is made. It can be found deep under the ground, in enormous deposits. Oil has been an amazing resource for humankind for a long time, and is used for everything from fueling our cars and airplanes to making plastic. But when people dig to get the oil out, sometimes they make mistakes, and oil gets out into the natural world.








This article is one journalist's perspective of what it is like to be in the water with the oil, and helps the reader imagine what it would be like for the animals who live in the water.

This article gives an excellent overview of the details of an oil spill--and is clearly enough written that older (high school) kids will be able to follow it.

This article talks about all the kinds of things we use oil to make--a fascinating list!--and a few of the ways we can be wise about our dependence upon petroleum products.

Plastics in Our World: Day 4

So, we have learned what happens to plastic trash that finds its way to the ocean. But what happens to the plastic trash that stays on land?

With your kids
1. Start a journal or research folder to record some of the things you are learning about plastics. On one page start a vocabulary list of words you are learning. (For example, the words our family has come up with so far: marine debris, nurdles, gyre, food chain)

2. Add a couple of new words to the list, look them up, and discuss:
biodegrade
outgas
leach
phalates (I suggest you visit this wikipedia link, and jump to the section called "Health Effects--Exposure")

3. Start a science experiment to observe how plastics biodegrade in comparison with organic materials:
--Make a space outside where you can set up some containers. Use whatever you have on hand--yogurt tubs, flower pots, etc. A great way to repurpose some of your unwanted plastic! ; )

--With your kids, select a variety of things natural and plastic to bury in dirt, one item in each pot. You can also bury the items directly into the ground, if you prefer, but be sure to mark what is buried where. Our family buried one plastic candy wrapper, eggshell, a pine cone, a stick, a watermelon rind, a piece of old towel, a piece of paperboard, a fresh tree leaf. (It would be ideal to include a supposedly biodegradable plastic, which I am going to add to our collection when I can.)

--Water your "garden" and then sit back and see what happens! Ideally this project you would keep going all summer--or as long as your kids are still interested. You can dig up the items whenever you and the kids think a reasonable time has passed to see what is going on. Consider with your kids how conditions like dry or wet soil, heat or cold might contribute to the biodegrading.

(If you are composting, an alternate project could be throwing one or two plastic items into the mix for easy comparison.)

For further investigation
Watch Pt. 5 of "Addicted to Plastic" on youtube--let it buffer and then jump ahead to 1:56--and Pt 6.

And then read this article, and be sure to check out the related photo gallery.


Website of the day
Gumdrop Bin (Be sure to have your sound turned on! : )