Geography For Dog Lovers

Little Lions, Bull Baiters & Hunting Hounds: A History of Dog Breeds by Jeff Crosby and Shelley Ann Jackson.

I can't remember if I've seen this on a fellow homeschooler's blog because I seem to remember that I may have (was it yours Christina?).

The book literally jumped out at me today from the library shelf. Thought it would make a good distraction for DS who's still not back to his usual self from his recent tummy troubles and bout of fever. Actually I didn't even thumb through the book at the library. I just judged it by its cover and picked it up with some sort of second sight that it was going to be good. My mind was more on getting home quickly to relieve the hubby (who is also feeling under the weather) from son-sitting.

So I get back home and we open the covers and I am enthralled. I mean it's probably not the best book out there on dog breeds but it's pretty charming as a picture book with a good level of text that's just enough to attract DS attention away as a break from one of his Murderous Maths titles.

I think one of the best things about the book, apart from the lively illustrations, are the little map insets describing where the breeds originated from. No intentional geography lesson here but I think it will make a wonderful, informal supplement to any geography curriculum. I'm still thumbing through the book but I'm sure almost every continent (Kerrie, Australia has her cattle dog featured here!) has been touched upon however briefly.

My one complaint: no Siberian huskies! Huskies happen to be one of my favorit-est breeds too. I was a little mollified by the one page on the Alaskan malamute though.

All things considered, this is a lovely companion for a dog-loving family.

Two Words & Tummy Troubles

Guess I'll get to the tummy troubles first.

It feels odd blogging at 11.40 in the morning on a Wednesday since I do most of that in the night or on weekends. But the kiddo has come down with a sort of a tummy bug possibly tied to his slightly sore throat yesterday. After a morning spent mostly with his head over the sink, he's snoozing peacefully after a spoonful of crushed Dramamine in honey (he still won't swallow pills and I can't say I blame him). No one is a pretty sight throwing up but the kiddo seems to have fully inherited my wallowing-in-misery-when-sick genes as well so maybe you know how draining that can be on the receiving end.

So now, it's so quiet. His forehead isn't as warm. The hummingbirds are chirping away, fighting for a drink from our feeder. And the chicken soup is bubbling happily on the stove and after watching him sleep so peacefully after being so fitful all morning long, I thought I may as well write something here.

I think I can blame it all on the events that are related to the two words I wanted to tell you about.

The first is "mangkuk" which translates literally in Malay to "bowl" but actually means being illogical or just plain not there if you know what I mean. And the second is "kiasu" which any Singaporean worth his/ her salt will tell you means "always win". So I've been both a mangkuk and kiasu these past few days. The rather unnaturally cool early summer weather we had in the last 2 weeks blinded me to the fact that driving the kiddo to a science summer camp in a rather hot area of San Jose and (please notice the italics) sticking to all the other classes he enjoys and doing a quick dash of 30 miles to the east bay once a week was going to lead to some sort of a break down either for me or him or the both of us.

I don't take to hot weather very well (I guess my 30+ years in Southeast Asia should have prepared me for it but it didn't) and I don't know what I was thinking signing him up for the camps on top of classes. Yeah, well, he wanted it too but I guess I should have put my foot down. Instead, I was just so glad to know he was going to get some science exposure and socialization time while I had my head wrapped around our impending move. Oh yeah, we're moving too. So can you see how much of a mangkuk I am right now?

If you don't hear from me for a while it's only cos I'm trying to figure out how not to be so mangkuk in the next few weeks. I'm giving up on the kiasu for now.

See you soon dear reader. Hope you're having a cooler summer!

Geometry & Trigonometry Books

The DH has had some requests recently from DS to explore trig in more detail. Up to now, dad and son have been playing with triangles and the ratios/figuring out of tangents, sines, cosines of various angles. But to provide more consistent help, he needed some books which up to now we haven't started collecting.

As usual, I was very fortunate to receive wonderful suggestions from the various groups, such as Living Math, and the superb regional homeschooling lists I belong to. Here are some of the titles that the great folk here have recommended. Having lists like these on this blog are of great use to me because I know I won't be lost when DS displays one of his sudden "I want more math to play with" moods. I hope they are of use to you too.

As a note, most of these books are of the livelier sort...not your dry mathy textbook because there's no way DS would even look at one if he could help it.

Murderous Maths titles:

Vicious Circles and Savage Shapes
The Fiendish Angletron

Instructional guides and living books:

Mathematics Made Simple: Sixth Edition by Thomas Cusick -- more of a "what to discover next" sort of guide than an engaging reader or activity book.
Geometry (Teach Yourself) by Paul Abbott
Teach Yourself Trigonometry by P. Abbott and Hugh Neill
Who Is Fourier?: A Mathematical Adventure by Transnational College of LEX
Flatland (Illustrated Edition) by Edwin A. Abbot
The Annotated Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Ian Stewart
Flatterland: Like Flatland, Only More So by Ian Stewart
Sphereland: A Fantasy About Curved Spaces and an Expanding Universe by Dionys Burger, Isaac Asimov, and Cornelie J. Rheinboldt
Snowflake Bentley (Caldecott Medal Book) by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and Mary Azarian
Howard Eves' Mathematical Circles books
A History of Pi by Petr Beckmann
Trigonometry (Math Success) by Rebecca Wingard-Nelson
Trigonometry by I.M. Gelfand and Mark Saul (also, check out the Algebra title by Gelfand)
Trigonometry, The Easy Way by Douglas Downing (also, check out Algebra, The Easy Way) -- a fantasy story-based trigonometry

Curriculum/ videos/ more help:

Geometer's Sketchpad or from Key Curriculum Press here. And activities for young learners.
AIMS Geometry books
GEMS Build It! Festival
Teaching Company's High School Geometry
Teaching Textbooks
Thinkwell (professors on video)
Life of Fred
The excellent Geometry (K-7) Booklists at Subadra's Library of Books, Links & More blog.
Norman Shapiro's Geometry Through Art

My very grateful thanks to all who suggested titles/ tools.

Year 2 FunReading List

Whenever I remember, I like to list DS's Literature/Science/History Read Alouds [RA], Bedtime Read Alouds [B] and Free Reads [F]. This is our list for FunSchooling Year 2 (June 2009 to May 2010).

1. Re-reading of the entire 13-book Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket (second time) - [F]
2. The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 1) by Rick Riordan - [F]
3. The Sea of Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 2) by Rick Riordan - [F]
4. The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 3) by Rick Riordan
5. The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Book 4) by Rick Riordan - [F]
6. Inventors and Creators - Lemony Snicket (Inventors and Creators) by Hayley Mitchell Haugen - [F]
7. Introducing Jeeves: Six Classic Stories by P. G. Wodehouse - [F]
8. The Sandwalk Adventures: An Adventure in Evolution Told in Five Chapters by Jay Hosler - [F]
9. Many books from the Horrible Histories series - [F]
10. Many books from the Horrible Science series - [F]
11. Many books from the Horrible Geography series - [F]
12. The Prometheus Project: Captured by Douglas E. Richards - [RA]
13. The Door in the Wall by Marguerite De Angeli - [F]
14. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell - [B]
15. Adam’s Atomic Adventures by Alice L Baxter - [RA]
16. Painful Poisons (Horrible Science) by Nick Arnold and Tony De Saulles - [F]
17. Nasty Nature (Horrible Science) by Nick Arnold and Tony De Saulles - [F]
18. Deadly Diseases: AND Microscopic Monsters (Horrible Science) by Nick Arnold and Tony De Saulles - [F]
19. Blood, Bones and Body Bits (Arnold, Nick. Horrible Science.) by Nick Arnold - [F]
20. Shakespeare's Quill (Stories of Great People) by Gerry Bailey, Karen Foster, Leighton Noyes, and Karen Radford - [F]
21. Columbus's Chart (Stories of Great People) by Gerry Bailey, Karen Foster, Leighton Noyes, and Karen Radford - [F]
22. Early Civilizations (Crafty Inventions) by Gerry Bailey, Steve Boulter, Jan Smith, and Andrew Keylock - [F]
23. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling - [B + F]
24. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Unabridged Classics) by Mr. Mark J. Twain and Scott McKowen - [RA]
25. Rocks & Minerals: A Gem of a Read by Dan Green and Simon Basher - [F]
26. Astronomy: Out of this World! by Dan Green and Simon Basher - [F]
27. Physics: Why Matter Matters! by Dan Green and Simon Basher - [F]
28. Biology: Life as We Know It! by Dan Green and Simon Basher - [F]
29. The Periodic Table: Elements with Style! by Adrian Dingle and Simon Basher - [F]
30. The Not-So-Jolly Roger (Time Warp Trio, 2) by Jon Scieszka - [F]
31. The Good, the Bad, and the Goofy (Time Warp Trio, 3) by Jon Scieszka - [F]
32. Your Mother Was a Neanderthal (Time Warp Trio, 4) by Jon Scieszka - [F]
33. Tut, Tut (Time Warp Trio, 6) by Jon Scieszka - [F]
34. Summer Reading Is Killing Me (Time Warp Trio, 7) by Jon Scieszka - [F]
35. The Time Warp Trio Me Oh Maya (The Time Warp Trio, #13) by Jon Scieszka - [F]
36. 2095 (Time Warp Trio) by Jon Scieszka - [F]
37. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (Everyman's Library Children's Classics) by Lewis Carroll - [RA + F] - we read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 2008 and Through the Looking Glass in Dec 2009.
38. Many mysteries from Hercule Poirot's Casebook by Agatha Christie (at least half of the 800+-page book) - [F]

Question Time

I'm going to attempt to start a new blog habit: blogging about the questions DS asks. Perhaps by doing this, I will be more diligent about helping him answer them:

Q#1: If a car moves at the same speed that the Earth rotates, what will happen to it?
Q#2: If a car moves at the same speed that the Earth rotates, but in the opposite direction to the rotation, what will happen to it?

Questions inspired by this movie. The kiddo is hoping to get Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson to answer his questions and I'm trying to explore that possibility.

Wish me luck...I'm going to need a lot of it obviously to lead him to the answers. Will update this post once we have them.

Links to discussion points:
Ask An Astrophysicist

Mythical Creatures Crafts

The DH returned from a month-long business trip today and to surprise the DS, bought him something only a very perceptive Dad could have thought of: Origami Fantastic Creatures by Michael G. LaFosse.

DS of course shrieked in absolute delight. He peppered his Dad with kisses on both cheeks (this wasn't merely out of gratitude--DS has this thing going on where he *needs* to give his Dad the exact number of kisses he gives me or he feels he is being unfair to the other parent, so he had faithfully kept a tally of kisses he owed his Dad while Dad was away). Then, he promptly folded out a Cyclops head. This gift was not only perfect for DS, it was perfect timing too since the kiddo only recently completed Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson Book #2: The Sea of Monsters.

Since he's having so much fun with Greek myth-themed stories and origami, I was curious to see what else could be found on Amazon for Ancient Greek-themed crafts.

The Classical Kids Activity Book is of course a favorite among homeschoolers. As you can see from the carousel above, there's a nice number of other interesting looking craft and paperfolding guides too:

Classical Kids: An Activity Guide to Life in Ancient Greece and Rome by Laurie Carlson

Sculpting Mythical Creatures out of Polymer Clay: Making a Gnome, Pixie, Halfling, Fairy, Mermaid, Gorgon Vampire, Griffin, Sphinx, Unicorn, Centaur, Leviathan, and Dragon! by Dinko Tilov and Boris Tilov

The Origami Sourcebook: Beautiful Projects and Mythical Characters - Step-by-Step by Jay Ansill

Dragons, Witches, and Other Fantasy Creatures in Origami (Dover Craft Books) by Mario Adrados Netto and J. Anibal Voyer Iniesta

From Start Exploring, Bulfinch's Mythology: A Fact-Filled Coloring Book by Steven Zorn

and if you or your child has a thing for cross-stitch, check out Julie Hasler's Fantasy Cross Stitch: Zodiac Signs, Mythical Beasts and Mystical Characters.

If you know a chess-crazy kid or grown-up (anyone feeling generous towards me?), put this or this on your wishlist!

For a Greek Myths book/ link list, see this recent post.

Greek Mythology Booklist

DS was just a few months shy of turning 5 when he was first introduced to Greek Myths. He was so caught up by the stories that he wrote, actually wrote, out a scrapbook and with lots of maternal help, added illustrations.



With enthusiasm like this, all thoughts of leaving the study of Greek mythology to coincide with our study of Ancient Greek for History were joyfully abandoned.

The following are the books and audiobooks we've enjoyed on Greek Myths and mean to enjoy in the future. Most of these titles, unless otherwise noted, are for young readers/ listeners aged 4 onwards.

Enjoyed/ enjoying now:

The Gods and Goddesses of Olympus by Aliki. DS' first favorite and a wonderful introduction to the topic. This was the book that provided him the inspiration for his scrapbook.

Classic Myths to Read Aloud: The Great Stories of Greek and Roman Mythology, Specially Arranged for Children Five and Up by an Educational Expert by William F. Russell. Our current bedtime read-aloud. Wonderfully written for reading aloud. DS always looks forward to the finale of each chapter where Mr Russell offers explanatory notes on words used and their Greek or Roman roots.

Greek Myths by Jim Weiss. Audiobook narration delivered in this master storyteller's ever-engaging style. We've listened to this over and over and over again.

Mythology (Ologies) by Lady Hestia Evans and Dugald A. Steer(File Mile Press). A veritable cavern of Greek Myth info, pretty illustrations and lots of little pockets of discoveries!

Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan: The Lightning Thief (Book 1), The Sea of Monsters (Book 2), The Titan's Curse (Book 3), The Battle of the Labyrinth (Book 4) and The Last Olympian (Book 5). The extremely popular (among homeschoolers anyway) adventure series has a slightly simpler reading level than Harry Potter and I must say, is almost as enjoyable.

Books we plan to check out:

D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths by Ingri d'Aulaire and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire. Hands down one of the most popular Greek Myth for kids books out there. Gorgeous illustrations. Quite text heavy for the younger set but immensely enjoyable as a read aloud. It's always been on my to-read list with DS but we're constantly being side-tracked by other books.

The McElderry Book of Greek Myths by Eric A. Kimmel and Pep Montserrat. Recommended by my pal, the Fiddler. Read her review here. Her recommendations have always been a hit for us so we can't wait to read this!

Favorite Greek Myths by Mary Pope Osborne and Troy Howell

Greek Myths for Young Children (Stories for Young Children) by Heather Amery and Linda Edwards

The Classic Treasury of Bulfinch's Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch and Giles Greenfield

Favorite Greek Myths (Dover Children's Thrift Classics) by Bob Blaisdell

Mythological Creatures: A Classical Bestiary by Lynn Curlee

Heroes, Gods and Monsters of the Greek Myths by Bernard Evslin

Atticus the Storyteller's 100 Greek Myths by Lucy Coats

Greek Myths and Legends by Anna Claybourne

Graphic Greek Myths

These seem to be aimed at 9-12 yo:

Websites that may be of interest (please preview):

Theoi Project
Myth Web
Myth Net
History for Kids
Mr Donn's Ancient Greece
Online Course on Greek Myths
Carol Hurst's Greek Mythology Page

For Greek Myth-themed craft ideas, see this post.

See this post for info on the National Mythology Exam (NME). And this one on an NME prep course.

Herbal Wisdom Through Herbal Roots

One of the things I've been most looking forward to do after our impending move to a home with a backyard, is the opportunity to plant and study herbs with the kiddo.

Found this wonderful-looking herb study guide, Herbal Roots, through Lorilee's LivenLearn blog.

Priced at $6.00 an issue, it looks like a perfect accompaniment to the weekly gardening time the kiddo wanted to pursue.

Another Homeschooling Funny

By Bruce Tinsley
Source for the strip

Kuala Lumpur is the city of my birth and the capital of Malaysia.

The strip refers to the 2002 National Geography Bee.

My thanks to Sarah! who posted this on that
same list where I've been getting all this cool, funny info on
homeschool/ public school bashing recently.

Positive Data on Homeschooling

The Fraser Institute report isn't exactly new (dated Oct 2007). It was shared today on the same list where I first encountered that The Case Against Homeschooling article. See this post.

I had a good laugh (today was a good day for laughs for me) when I saw this paragraph:

"This paper has established that home schooling is a
thriving educational movement both in Canada and
the United States. It has also empirically demonstrated
that the academic and socialization outcomes for the
average home schooled child are superior (italics mine)
to those experienced by the average public school student."

Personally, I no longer feel like I need to have our decision to homeschool validated. But it's nice to know some data all the same isn't it?

Here's the link for the full report. Home Schooling: From the Extreme to the Mainstream. Scroll to page 19 of the pdf file if like me you have little patience.

Here's an older FunSchooling post on Homeschooling Statistics, if you're interested.

Please Tell Me He's Kidding?

This article I've linked to below was mentioned on one of the lists I frequent.

Wait! Before you click the link below, make sure you have your Fruit Loops, meatloaf and popcorn ready too :) And don't forget to eat them all at the same time while also playing Wii. We unfortunately don't have any of the above goodies and game players at home so had to make do with strawberry ice cream and a Murderous Maths book instead.

Ready? Click away! The Case Against Homeschooling

There, do you feel selfish now? And arrogant? LOL. Sigh...do we need to even defend ourselves?

Latest update:

Interested in reading a direct rebuttal? See The Case Against Public Schooling (thanks for the link Subadra!).

It's a vicious cycle, these discussions. You know, thanks to DS' experience, I could write a whole volume on The Case Against Private Schooling for that matter. But where will it take us?

Homeschooling Bashers: please don't try to belittle something you have no idea about.

Public Schooling Bashers: c'mon you guys, don't tar all schools and teachers with the same brush!

Private Schooling Bashers: ummm...wanna meet for coffee some place and well, ummm, talk?