Cosmos with Neil deGrasse Tyson

Just watched the first episode of Cosmos with the kids.   Neil deGrasse Tyson is amazing!  He makes me wish I loved science more as a kid and I hope he can inspire my kids too.   I have to say that I'm pretty proud when my kiddos actually want to watch a documentary like this.  It proves they haven't become too jaded yet and hopefully never will.


The episode we watched introduces the vastness of the universe or multi-verse as many now believe it to be.

There is something about the reminder of how small we really are that makes me feel good about the world.  I suppose it is the same feeling some get from the idea of God.  I've never quite got the hang of believing in God though I have tried a few times but the Cosmos I can fall in love with and have faith in.

Watching this short show has actually reignited my desire for homeschooling.  Watching Bel and Lu stare intently at this show gives me such a feeling of hope and pride.  I am reminded of all the great things out there in the world to learn about and how school discourages a true love of learning.  I just hope that I can encourage the love I so desire to inspire in my children.

Making the Holidays Meaningful

As the Holiday season is now in full swing, I have been thinking a lot about the meaning of Christmas (I know that sounds so cliche but it's true).  I have always loved the Christmas season.  Everything about it seems so magical - trees indoors, wreaths, the songs and caroling,  the concept of rebirth, the fresh beginning after the New Year, the food, the gifts, the magic of Santa.  I love that the origins of each element come from near and far in place and time and connect us to our past and to each other as a society.

I always seek to build on my holiday traditions for my family and work to create as much magic as possible throughout the season.

Today, I was thrilled to witness some of the Christmas magic as experienced by my five year old.  Over the years, I have gathered a collection of Christmas/Winter books that I put away in a box after the holiday season and take out again around the beginning of advent.  I took the box down today and watched as my daughter carefully removed each book, flipped the pages, and set it carefully in a pile.  It took her quite a while to go through them all and I felt so glad that I could give her that gift.  The simple act of putting the books out of reach for most of the year imbues them with a special power when they do come down.  The fact that many are beloved favorites about Christmas simply adds to their allure.   The magic of Christmas comes from these simple moments.

Yesterday we enjoyed another family tradition.  We went to get our Christmas tree.   We all pile in my husband's truck and drive to the Christmas Tree farm where we wander through a forest of lovely trees and discuss the merits of each. When one has finally been selected that is agreeable to all, my husband gets down on the ground and saws it down while I hold the trunk steady.  When it has been freed from its root, he hoists it on his shoulder and throws it in the truck.  I love him for this ( among many things).    Once home, we trim the bottom off to make sure it will suck up as much water as possible and put it in the stand in the living room.  In the evening, we light candles, turn the lights down, put on nice holiday music, and decorate the tree.   As a child, we always did it this way and it is one of my favorite things about the season.  I love looking at each ornament and remembering it.   Everyone has favorites that they select and put up on the tree.   Often I remember where the ornament came from or who gave it to us.   It is a sentimental affair.  

When the tree is fully trimmed we do our Christmas waltz.  We listen to the song "The Angels Cried" by Allison Krausse and Alan Jackson and we dance.   We play the song at least three times so that everyone gets a chance to dance with Daddy.   We play this song and dance throughout the season but it is always the most special the first time each year when we decorate the tree.    The magic thing about it is that we don't usually listen to music as a family and we certainly don't usually dance together.  Christmas breaks down the barriers of what is normally done or what is considered appropriate.  I wish we turned the lights down, played music, and danced more often but if the month of December is the only time it happens, then I guess it makes it all the more special.

I love to create these magic moments and am always looking for new ideas for traditions to build on.  I wonder what types of things other families do to make Christmas special.  I fear that many don't take the time for such simple pleasures.

Comparing History Programs for Medieval Times

Now that my 2012-2103 school year is winding down, I've had some time to think about my diy history curriculum.  There is a lot to cover in this time period.  There are a lot of important events as well as lots of things one could do for projects, art, music, science, etc to create a great history curriculum.   I love medieval things in general so I am super excited about studying about knights and castles, lutes, Gregorian Chants & Shakespeare with my kids.

I have spent hours looking over the Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia (UILE) as well as Story of the World v. 2 and the table of contents of History Odyssey level one middle ages ( available on the Pandia Press website). After studying all three, I have started my master spreadsheet.  I created a list comparing chapters from the three different resources:

UILE pgs	UILE chapters	SOTW Chapter	HO Chapter
202-203	byzantine empire	4	2
204	barbarian kingdoms	1, 11
205	return Christianity	2	4
206-207	rise of Islam	6, 12	5
208-209	Arab world	7	6
210	Vikings at home	14	7
212-213	Vikings abroad	14	7-8
214-215	Anglo-Saxon England	15	8
216	Charlemagne’s empire	13	3
217	holy roman empire		9
218	Norman conquests	16	10
219	hundred year's war	26	11
220-221	kings, nobles, peasants	16, 17, 19	12
222-223	knights soldiers war	17	13
224	living in a castle	16	14
226-227	living in a village		15
228-229	living in a town		15
230-231	traders and towns
232	power of popes	18
233	enemies of church	18
234	building a cathedral	18	16-17
235	going on a pilgrimage		18
236-237	monks and monasteries		4
238-239	art in middle ages
240	crusades	18	18
242	black death	25	11
243	criminals and outlaws	19	19
244	kingdoms of Celts		20
246	rise of burgundy		21
248	war of roses	27	22
250	Mongol invaders	21	23
252	triumphs of Turks	24
254	kingdoms eastern Europe	23	24
256	rise of Russians	23	25
258	struggle for Spain	18, 28	26
260	conquerors of North Africa	29	27
261	cities of east Africa	29
262	kingdoms of west Africa	29
264	conquerors of northern India	5	28
265	Southern India
266	southeast Asia		29
268	dynasties of china	8, 22,	30
270	land of the samurai	9, 17	31
272	explorers and sailors	22	32
274	people of pacific	10	33
276	native North Americans		34
278	Aztec empire	33	35
280	Maya and Toltec	32	35
282	Andes	32	35
284	artists of Italy	35	37
286	ideas and inventions	35	37
288-289	voyages of discovery	31	38
296-297	exploring the world	41	38
298-299	Ottoman Empire		36
300-301	mogul - India	30	39
302-303	Catholics and protestants	34, 36	40
304-305	Elizabethan England	38, 39, 40, 42	41 -42
314-315	age of ideas	37	37

I have color coded the chapter titles from UILE by region.  At a glance, you can see how Eurocentric all three of these resources are.  Ah well!  I would like to cover China and India, Africa and the Americas in more depth but I also don't want to miss out on major European events which have shaped modern times so much.  For now, I think I'll stick with these resources and satisfy myself with the small bits of non-western history they include.

It seems like History Odyssey (HO) mostly follows UILE.  I think I like this better than the more strictly chronological order of SOTW.  SOTW is still a great supplemental resource since my kid likes the presentation but I think I prefer to switch away from it as my primary spine.

Getting started on this process sure is daunting and I was wondering last night as I poured over UILE and SOTW whether or not it is worth it or if I should just get the SOTW Activity Guide or History Odyssey and be done.  I still may take that approach but I am excited about doing the research myself.  The more I look, the more I find.  It is the matter of staying organized and creating a coherent curriculum that will be easy to follow that is the trick.

I checked out a sample lesson from History Odyssey and I like the format of a checklist of things to read, research to do, words to define, maps to color, projects, and related books.  I think I could create something like this for each Unit/Week of study.

I still have to decide on how exactly to break down the chapters in fewer lessons. I'd like to have somewhere around 35 weeks planned rather than 40-50.  

My next step is to start making an outline that includes related reading and project ideas for each section.  As I go through, I will find the sections that I want to spend more or less time on and hopefully condense into 35 or so lessons after gathering a lot of stuff.  Another option would be to break it down into larger units and spend 2-6 weeks on each.  We shall see as the process continues and my resource list takes shape.