Life and Kid Stuff and Reviews
Apr. 9th, 2012 08:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moominmuppetMuch life goodness and some medical frustration this weekend. I've really been struggling with the fatigue side of things recently, even with the other major improvements. So I've been very psyched about getting started back on the Provigil. Chad and I ran by the pharmacy so I could pick that up, but they didn't have the generic in stock, and the difference in price (with insurance) was $224 vs $50. So I still don't have that quite yet. Unfortunately, that resulted in bailing on the party Saturday night all-together, then having exhausted and slightly manic insomnia all night Saturday ('til 9am) and then having to call off Sunday. Blarg. Back today though, and feeling a good bit better.
Kidlet weekend this time 'round was the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. They have a Mythic Creatures exhibit going on until July 1st, and we thought it'd coincide well with his current dragon obsession. We also discovered that the Natural History Museum has an outdoor wildlife exhibit that I never knew about; the door is off the main dinosaur hall, and when surrounded by giant bones it's rather easy to look past the mid-size sign pointing out the back door. The otters were the biggest hit, especially since they attracted all the other small children, and Kidlet is a friendly sort. He spent quite a while chasing back and forth with the kids of a four-child family as they tried to get the best otter view at the underwater window and the fence alternately. He and Chad also spent about an hour exploring the rest of the museum while I got immersed in the museum bookstore. Kidlet got a copy of The Egg, about a boy who hatches and raises a dragon. It's cute (more for the illustrations than the plot), and Kidlet loved it; insisted I read it to him three times in a row after dinner. I also got him a kaleidoscope, some rubber bugs, and two little rubber dragons, and picked myself up some books to read and evaluate as well (have reviews coming on those; several excellent ones!). We also listened to some more of the Kids Audible books in the car; I wasn't sure at first that he was paying much attention to them, but then he started chattering about princesses when a princess was mentioned, so apparently he was. We listened to The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Tales, and to A Matter-of-Fact Fairy Tale, iirc. I've also just started into Merlin and the Dragons. It's written by Jane Yolen and narrated by Kevin Kline, so I have high expectations. I'm enjoying it so far, but I'm only a chapter or so in, so can't really say much (except that I love listening to Kevin Kline as much as ever).
Other than the museum, we spent a while hanging out at the house; all three of us were totally wiped out by the time we got back from two or three hours of museum-wandering. I'd picked up construction paper, crayons, window markers, and sidewalk chalk while I was at Target on my abortive med run, so I brought out the sidewalk chalk. It was definitely a hit, and we spent a while out back drawing on our walkways. I'm looking forward to playing with the window markers next time he visits; one of the two packs I picked up is "crystal effects", and we have several windows that I'd like to make a bit more opaque anyway. I think it'll be a fun Household-and-Kidlet sort of project.
The books I picked up to evaluate/review:
The Egg -- As mentioned above, this is the one I picked out as "definitely for Kidlet today" (several of the others will likely head his direction after I've read them or he's aged a bit more, depending). I'm a sucker for engaging illustrations, and this is lovely in that regard; I didn't find the story entirely up to them, but it didn't seem to bother Kidlet in the least, so I'll accept his kidly expertise on that one. FYI, no particular diversity in this one, George and his dragon are the only real characters, and we only see one girl once when he's teaching the dragon to "distress damsels". Also, it appears there are at least two sequels, for those interested. I won't be running out to buy them, but I might pick them up at some point after a flip-through.
Stories of Dragons (Stories for Young Children) by Gillian Doherty -- I'm about two stories from the end of this collection. There are twelve stories in the collection from a good mix of cultural sources. There are a few strong female characters in a couple of the stories, but that's definitely not the collection's strength. Its strength is that it's a beautiful book, colorful and highly illustrated, without being a picture book. The stories are good to read to younger children, and there's plenty to look at while one does, so it strikes me as a good transition to more textual fare.
Berry Finder: A Guide to Native Plants with Fleshy Fruits by Dorcas S. Miller -- Because field guides are nifty and I'm always especially curious about berried plants, since they're easy to notice on a casual stroll.
Audiobook: A Matter-of-Fact Fairy Tale -- I'd already reviewed Stinky Cheese Man the other day, but I don't think I did this one yet. The entire text is free online, since it's old enough to be out of copyright. It's by A.A. Milne, the author of the Winnie-the-Pooh stories. I found it amusing, but not indispensable; it's no great shakes genderwise, and I (being the softy that I am) don't really dig on the giant actually dying of laughter when he did seem a mostly decent sort, all 'round. On the other hand, I think it was worth the whole $1.36 I paid for it for the '10 mile trip, 7-league boots, isosceles triangle' joke.
I picked both of these up for Kidlet's Exploring Kit as he gets a bit older; I was looking for a basic guide that wouldn't require buying each animal and plant family separately:
Peterson First Guide to Urban Wildlife by Sarah B. Landry -- I really like this one; it seems like a good basic guide for anyone who lives in a city or spends time in them. It starts at Viruses and Bacteria, and moves through all the kingdoms, including a brief mention at the end of some of the most common plant species in urban areas.
Peterson First Guide to Forests by John C. Kricher -- This seemed like a good companion, since it focuses more on plant life, and identifying different types of environments. It also seems like a good way to emphasize a shifting focus from individual species to entire ecosystems.
DNA is Here to Stay (Cells and Things) by Fran Balkwill -- The first book I grabbed when I walked into the museum bookstore. It's colorful, it's funny, it's got good character diversity, and it's accurate. It covers the chromosomes, the double helix, base pairs, unzipping and copying, ribosomes, transcription, and what proteins do. Frankly, I know plenty of adults who'd find it a good refresher. I'm really pleased with it, although I'm also curious to see the "competition" off-handedly mentioned in one of the reviews on Amazon. I haven't figured out yet which those are, but I did find two other interesting looking books while I was searching:
Instructions for Me
Much more than a simple listing of facts about DNA, this informative book combines playful rhymes, high-quality illustrations, and a humorous story with relatable, well-developed characters to guide children through a personal discovery of DNA and provide them with a motivation and process for scientific reasoning and questioning. Two young children search everywhere for the instructions used for making them—in the chest under the bed and a dark forest nook, on a mountain ledge high overhead and a shelf holding books—only to be led to the unbelievable discovery that the instructions are right there inside them in a jillion places all at once. Written to be accessible to young children, this book details key information on where DNA is housed and how it is used in our daily functions, all while laying a foundation for scientific inquiry and pursuit. -- From Amazon.
Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas
The only picture book available about the father of genetics and his pea plants!
How do mothers and fathers—whether they are apple trees, sheep, or humans—pass down traits to their children? This question fascinated Gregor Mendel throughout his life. Regarded as the world’s first geneticist, Mendel overcame poverty and obscurity to discover one of the fundamental aspects of genetic science: animals, plants, and people all inherit and pass down traits through the same process, following the same rules.
Living the slow-paced, contemplative life of a friar, Gregor Mendel was able to conceive and put into practice his great experiment: growing multiple generations of peas. From observing yellow peas, green peas, smooth peas, and wrinkled peas, Mendel crafted his theory of heredity—years before scientists had any notion of genes.
Children will be inspired by Gregor’s neverending search for knowledge, and his famous experiments are easy to understand as an introduction to genetics. -- from Amazon.
Frogs & Toads (2009) (Kikkerdril) -- This was the movie we watched last week that I wanted to review in more detail.
Six year old Max has an important mission: find some frogspawn for his older brother. Together with his neighbour girlfriend Jesse he makes an adventurous and touching journey along fields, farms, animals and a forest which eventually leads to his grandma's home. There he's welcomed by his grandma, her pancakes and the desired frogspawn . On his overwhelming journey through nature he's accompanied by cheerful childrens songs. -- The Amazon description.
My notes: the songs are cute, but don't translate to English all that well (the original is Dutch). Or maybe the dubbing actors just can't sing. Not a major flaw, honestly. They're still fun, especially the Animal Imitation song. I mostly love this movie for its gentleness and exploratory tone. I totally adore the grandmother, who does animal rehab (we get some cute close-ups) and encourages appreciation of frogs and other critters. She's also all kinds of chill about her grandson flouring her entire kitchen when he helps her with the pancakes. Slightly oddly she's also the source of several moments of fart-related humor *shrug*. The friendship between Max and Jesse is fun to see develop, and it's inclusive on a number of levels, including gender and race. I especially love the moment when Jesse says something about girls being beautiful and Max responds that "Boys are beautiful too". And I love that both of them are shown at various points peeing outdoors like it's no big thing (rare to see in regards to girls). Overall, the entire adventure is an adorably childs-eye view of logic and consequences, and all the interactions feel remarkably natural and real. Oh, and the end credits are cute too.
It's Not the Stork!: A Book About Girls, Boys, Babies, Bodies, Families and Friends by Robie H. Harris -- Meant for ages 4-up, this is approximately 99% AWESOME. Full review will be separate, since I think it'll get long. Once I've finished the review it's going home with Chad so he can talk it over with Kidlet's Mom and decide how they feel about adding it to his library.
Also, something else we watched this weekend, although not specifically kid-oriented:
There are now a lot of TED talks on Netflix streaming, and Grafton and I caught this one this weekend (it's in the Sex and Love collection). There are a few minor points toward the end where I disagreed with her, iirc, but overall I was pretty well impressed with this, and her ability to explain intersexuality coherently and clearly.
Alice Dreger: Is anatomy destiny?
Alice Dreger works with people at the edge of anatomy, such as conjoined twins and intersexed people. In her observation, it's often a fuzzy line between male and female, among other anatomical distinctions. Which brings up a huge question: Why do we let our anatomy determine our fate?
Kidlet weekend this time 'round was the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. They have a Mythic Creatures exhibit going on until July 1st, and we thought it'd coincide well with his current dragon obsession. We also discovered that the Natural History Museum has an outdoor wildlife exhibit that I never knew about; the door is off the main dinosaur hall, and when surrounded by giant bones it's rather easy to look past the mid-size sign pointing out the back door. The otters were the biggest hit, especially since they attracted all the other small children, and Kidlet is a friendly sort. He spent quite a while chasing back and forth with the kids of a four-child family as they tried to get the best otter view at the underwater window and the fence alternately. He and Chad also spent about an hour exploring the rest of the museum while I got immersed in the museum bookstore. Kidlet got a copy of The Egg, about a boy who hatches and raises a dragon. It's cute (more for the illustrations than the plot), and Kidlet loved it; insisted I read it to him three times in a row after dinner. I also got him a kaleidoscope, some rubber bugs, and two little rubber dragons, and picked myself up some books to read and evaluate as well (have reviews coming on those; several excellent ones!). We also listened to some more of the Kids Audible books in the car; I wasn't sure at first that he was paying much attention to them, but then he started chattering about princesses when a princess was mentioned, so apparently he was. We listened to The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Tales, and to A Matter-of-Fact Fairy Tale, iirc. I've also just started into Merlin and the Dragons. It's written by Jane Yolen and narrated by Kevin Kline, so I have high expectations. I'm enjoying it so far, but I'm only a chapter or so in, so can't really say much (except that I love listening to Kevin Kline as much as ever).
Other than the museum, we spent a while hanging out at the house; all three of us were totally wiped out by the time we got back from two or three hours of museum-wandering. I'd picked up construction paper, crayons, window markers, and sidewalk chalk while I was at Target on my abortive med run, so I brought out the sidewalk chalk. It was definitely a hit, and we spent a while out back drawing on our walkways. I'm looking forward to playing with the window markers next time he visits; one of the two packs I picked up is "crystal effects", and we have several windows that I'd like to make a bit more opaque anyway. I think it'll be a fun Household-and-Kidlet sort of project.
The books I picked up to evaluate/review:
The Egg -- As mentioned above, this is the one I picked out as "definitely for Kidlet today" (several of the others will likely head his direction after I've read them or he's aged a bit more, depending). I'm a sucker for engaging illustrations, and this is lovely in that regard; I didn't find the story entirely up to them, but it didn't seem to bother Kidlet in the least, so I'll accept his kidly expertise on that one. FYI, no particular diversity in this one, George and his dragon are the only real characters, and we only see one girl once when he's teaching the dragon to "distress damsels". Also, it appears there are at least two sequels, for those interested. I won't be running out to buy them, but I might pick them up at some point after a flip-through.
Stories of Dragons (Stories for Young Children) by Gillian Doherty -- I'm about two stories from the end of this collection. There are twelve stories in the collection from a good mix of cultural sources. There are a few strong female characters in a couple of the stories, but that's definitely not the collection's strength. Its strength is that it's a beautiful book, colorful and highly illustrated, without being a picture book. The stories are good to read to younger children, and there's plenty to look at while one does, so it strikes me as a good transition to more textual fare.
Berry Finder: A Guide to Native Plants with Fleshy Fruits by Dorcas S. Miller -- Because field guides are nifty and I'm always especially curious about berried plants, since they're easy to notice on a casual stroll.
Audiobook: A Matter-of-Fact Fairy Tale -- I'd already reviewed Stinky Cheese Man the other day, but I don't think I did this one yet. The entire text is free online, since it's old enough to be out of copyright. It's by A.A. Milne, the author of the Winnie-the-Pooh stories. I found it amusing, but not indispensable; it's no great shakes genderwise, and I (being the softy that I am) don't really dig on the giant actually dying of laughter when he did seem a mostly decent sort, all 'round. On the other hand, I think it was worth the whole $1.36 I paid for it for the '10 mile trip, 7-league boots, isosceles triangle' joke.
I picked both of these up for Kidlet's Exploring Kit as he gets a bit older; I was looking for a basic guide that wouldn't require buying each animal and plant family separately:
Peterson First Guide to Urban Wildlife by Sarah B. Landry -- I really like this one; it seems like a good basic guide for anyone who lives in a city or spends time in them. It starts at Viruses and Bacteria, and moves through all the kingdoms, including a brief mention at the end of some of the most common plant species in urban areas.
Peterson First Guide to Forests by John C. Kricher -- This seemed like a good companion, since it focuses more on plant life, and identifying different types of environments. It also seems like a good way to emphasize a shifting focus from individual species to entire ecosystems.
DNA is Here to Stay (Cells and Things) by Fran Balkwill -- The first book I grabbed when I walked into the museum bookstore. It's colorful, it's funny, it's got good character diversity, and it's accurate. It covers the chromosomes, the double helix, base pairs, unzipping and copying, ribosomes, transcription, and what proteins do. Frankly, I know plenty of adults who'd find it a good refresher. I'm really pleased with it, although I'm also curious to see the "competition" off-handedly mentioned in one of the reviews on Amazon. I haven't figured out yet which those are, but I did find two other interesting looking books while I was searching:
Instructions for Me
Much more than a simple listing of facts about DNA, this informative book combines playful rhymes, high-quality illustrations, and a humorous story with relatable, well-developed characters to guide children through a personal discovery of DNA and provide them with a motivation and process for scientific reasoning and questioning. Two young children search everywhere for the instructions used for making them—in the chest under the bed and a dark forest nook, on a mountain ledge high overhead and a shelf holding books—only to be led to the unbelievable discovery that the instructions are right there inside them in a jillion places all at once. Written to be accessible to young children, this book details key information on where DNA is housed and how it is used in our daily functions, all while laying a foundation for scientific inquiry and pursuit. -- From Amazon.
Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas
The only picture book available about the father of genetics and his pea plants!
How do mothers and fathers—whether they are apple trees, sheep, or humans—pass down traits to their children? This question fascinated Gregor Mendel throughout his life. Regarded as the world’s first geneticist, Mendel overcame poverty and obscurity to discover one of the fundamental aspects of genetic science: animals, plants, and people all inherit and pass down traits through the same process, following the same rules.
Living the slow-paced, contemplative life of a friar, Gregor Mendel was able to conceive and put into practice his great experiment: growing multiple generations of peas. From observing yellow peas, green peas, smooth peas, and wrinkled peas, Mendel crafted his theory of heredity—years before scientists had any notion of genes.
Children will be inspired by Gregor’s neverending search for knowledge, and his famous experiments are easy to understand as an introduction to genetics. -- from Amazon.
Frogs & Toads (2009) (Kikkerdril) -- This was the movie we watched last week that I wanted to review in more detail.
Six year old Max has an important mission: find some frogspawn for his older brother. Together with his neighbour girlfriend Jesse he makes an adventurous and touching journey along fields, farms, animals and a forest which eventually leads to his grandma's home. There he's welcomed by his grandma, her pancakes and the desired frogspawn . On his overwhelming journey through nature he's accompanied by cheerful childrens songs. -- The Amazon description.
My notes: the songs are cute, but don't translate to English all that well (the original is Dutch). Or maybe the dubbing actors just can't sing. Not a major flaw, honestly. They're still fun, especially the Animal Imitation song. I mostly love this movie for its gentleness and exploratory tone. I totally adore the grandmother, who does animal rehab (we get some cute close-ups) and encourages appreciation of frogs and other critters. She's also all kinds of chill about her grandson flouring her entire kitchen when he helps her with the pancakes. Slightly oddly she's also the source of several moments of fart-related humor *shrug*. The friendship between Max and Jesse is fun to see develop, and it's inclusive on a number of levels, including gender and race. I especially love the moment when Jesse says something about girls being beautiful and Max responds that "Boys are beautiful too". And I love that both of them are shown at various points peeing outdoors like it's no big thing (rare to see in regards to girls). Overall, the entire adventure is an adorably childs-eye view of logic and consequences, and all the interactions feel remarkably natural and real. Oh, and the end credits are cute too.
It's Not the Stork!: A Book About Girls, Boys, Babies, Bodies, Families and Friends by Robie H. Harris -- Meant for ages 4-up, this is approximately 99% AWESOME. Full review will be separate, since I think it'll get long. Once I've finished the review it's going home with Chad so he can talk it over with Kidlet's Mom and decide how they feel about adding it to his library.
Also, something else we watched this weekend, although not specifically kid-oriented:
There are now a lot of TED talks on Netflix streaming, and Grafton and I caught this one this weekend (it's in the Sex and Love collection). There are a few minor points toward the end where I disagreed with her, iirc, but overall I was pretty well impressed with this, and her ability to explain intersexuality coherently and clearly.
Alice Dreger: Is anatomy destiny?
Alice Dreger works with people at the edge of anatomy, such as conjoined twins and intersexed people. In her observation, it's often a fuzzy line between male and female, among other anatomical distinctions. Which brings up a huge question: Why do we let our anatomy determine our fate?
