How animals move: invertebrates (BFSU B7 I, plus the major phyla)

We talked two weeks ago about the skeletons in our bodies and our similarities to other vertebrates, then over the last two weeks we moved on to the appropriate next subject: invertebrates. Plus, having already spent some time learning about Linnaean taxonomy, we also spent some time learning about the major animal phyla and how to identify members of each. We had fun drawing, coloring, reading, discussing, and even memorizing.

There are tons of books that would be good for this kind of study, and we used more than I'm listing here, but the following were some of our favorites.

Classifying Invertebrates is just one book in the Classifying Living Things series, and we used all of those that pertain to the animal kingdom. These books make a lot of information feel very accessible with high quality pictures to help make the point. Unfortunately, no books published so recently can escape the bright colors, disruptive text variations, and poor page design that plague youth non-fiction these days, but this series is better than some (DK) and does follow a natural flow. I liked them and can recommend them.

The National Audoban Society Field Guide series is another set that we used for this exploration. In particular we used their Insects and Spiders, Reptiles and Amphibians, Birds, and Mammals books. We own all of these copies because I've picked them up at used book sales over the years, and for our purpose this week they were wonderful because they have beautiful, high quality photos presented in a natural order that shows similarities between sub-species. That being said, we own a completely different set of guides for our own field work (The Michigan field guides by Stan Tekiela, and books from the Peterson Field Guides series).

The Handbook to the Orders and Families of Living Mammals, by Timothy Lawler, is actually a college textbook that I was unable to part with. Lots of information, presented mostly on a college level, and only a few sketches of animals and their bones to assist with skeletal identification. It is leftover form my very favorite college course (from oh so many years ago) and remains one of my favorite possessions. Either for this reason, or because I trust him with it, or simply because it is truly a college book, Calvin is obsessed with this volume and spent more than a handful of hours during the week pouring over it.

Fireflies in the Night is from the annoyingly titled but very well written Let's-Read-And-Find-Out Science series. From what I can tell, the series was originally compiled back in the sixties, and even the revised versions are still wonderfully written. No dumbing down here, and no "eye-catching" gimmicks thrown in. The Stage 1 books, like this one, are pretty young for Calvin, but we still enjoy them. This is a go-to series for me.

Earl The Earthworm Digs for His Life, by Tim Magner. This is a really cute book that tells the life story of an earthworm searching for the meaning of his life. Along the way he recognizes, and of course tell the readers all about, the importance of each insect he passes by, worrying all the while that he has no important reason to be there. In the end, of course, we all discover that he is particularly important, and by that time we have also learned how he is born and how he functions. Sweet.

Comparing myths (and SOTW ch. 14, The Israelites)

Last week we were having so much fun with Egypt that we spent an extra week there. Part of that time was spent getting a better feel for the pharaohs who ruled throughout the dynastic period, and linking the dates and eras to things going on in other parts of the world at the time, like the Hyksos, the Nubians, the tribes of people to the northeast, and the mysterious Sea Peoples.

We also spent some time looking at chapter 14 of The Story of the World, which, titled The Israelites, deals with the purported slavery of those people in, and their exodus led by Moses out of the Kingdom of Egypt. We read a few versions of this story and found it hauntingly familiar. The story of Moses as a baby, after all, is the exact same story told in Uruk, 1,000 years earlier, about Sargon. This started us on a journey of myth comparison. The parallels between the stories of Abraham (once Abram) and Akhenaten (once Amenhotep IV) are also eerily similar. And of course we compared the creation myths of a variety of cultures as well.

We did not really read the chapter in SOTW on the exodus from Egypt. Instead we read myths from a variety of cultures, including a children's Bible, the Enuma Elish, excerpts from The Epic of Gilgamesh, excerpts from the Iliad, and a variety of other myth stories.

These are some of the resources we used:

The Big Myth is a paid subscription website that offers animated renderings of creation myths from around the world. The art and sound are rich, contrasty, and pretty Art Deco, which would not be my first choice, but it allows for all traditions to be given the same treatment and credence. We've watched them all together, and Calvin will also sit by himself and click through the links, watching the videos over and over. He finds them fascinating. We paid for the subscription, and I'm pleased, but a few of their works are available for free.

The Enuma Elish (the Babylonian creation myth), available for reading online.

Egyptian Myths, by Jacqueline Morley, combines beautiful illustrations with short tellings of the major Egyptian myths of creation. A lovely book, easy to enjoy.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest and most intriguing epics of all time, but much of the original is questionable reading material for young children. In Gilgamesh the Hero, McCaughrean retains enough of the original's clipped style to make it sound like what it is, but adds enough vibrant tone to make it friendly reading for an older child, and the illustrations enliven without detracting. We both loved this book.

In Puffin's version of the epic story, The Mahabharata is broken down into managably sized tales with readable text and interesting illustrations.

Book reviews

For the sake of keeping this blog dedicated to our homeschooling journey, and this section of the blog dedicated to resources used on that quest, I have removed all of my personal book reviews to my Blogger site Finding Time for Proust. Calvin's reviews will remain here, as well as any reviews I have written for resources we've used or books we've read together or for the purpose of homeschooling. If you are looking for my personal book reviews, or the reviews that I write for Book List, I hope you will join me at Finding Time for Proust.

The Yellow House Mystery (Calvin's review)

Weekly book shelf 10/15, Halloween

I've been falling behind in book reviews, so this weekend I caught back up with some back posting, in case anyone was interested in books about dinosaurs or yet more books on evolution. But with Halloween coming up I thought I'd share some of our favorite All Hallow's Eve stories around here.

Want to know about the origins of this spooky holiday? Halloween by Alice K. Flanagan will answer that and many questions about this favored children's holiday. This is just one in a series of holiday books by the same author, but I think it's the best of the bunch. It's not a chapter book, but information is broken down in to sections, one or two spreads per time period or location and belief. Some traditions are religious in nature while others are more secular, but the book (the whole series, actually) has a notably Christian leaning. It's because of this book that we always eat an Irish meal when we carve pumpkins at our house!

Like all the early books in the Franklin series, Franklin's Halloween by Paulette Bourgeios is an endearing story with enjoyable illustrations. Franklin and his friends are getting ready for the big Halloween party, and after hemming and hawing a bit Franklin finally comes up with a great costume idea. They are all really excited. But when the party comes around Bear is stuck at home with a cold. The other friends have a great time at the party, especially getting spooked in the haunted house, and at the end of the evening they pool their candy and take a share to Bear. Sweet and entirely lacking inauthentic, forced conflict.

A little old lady is on her way home when she gets spooked by a pair of shoes chasing after her! Next it's shoes and pants, then a shirt, too, and so on. She is very brave, and when she finally gets safely home she announces that she was not scared! so what does the apparition do? It sulks, and she feels sorry enough for it to make it her scarecrow. We have the book and audio version The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything, by Megan Lloyd, and while the book is cute all on its own, the real trick is in the reading out loud.

A Visit to the Haunted House by Dean Walley is an out of print pop-up book that I swear melds the Wizard of Oz movie with the Electric Company TV show. A pair of kids goes into a house that is known to be haunted and are scared out of their wits by strange happenings. Turns out it's just the man behind the curtain. When they figure that out, and he is appropriates remorseful, they invite their friends to make a Halloween happening out of it. Calvin loves it because it's a pop-up book.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving with the 1928 illustrations of Arthur Rackham is a classic of classics. The eight full page color plates and several smaller pencil sketches are fun to enjoy, and the story in its entire and original form is quite possibly the best ghost story of all time. For anyone who doesn't know it, Ichabod is the new school teacher in Sleepy Hollow. Not dashing or brave he's rather unremarkable, but he falls in love with a beautiful girl who is sought after by another more dashing bachelor in town, Brom Bones. Unwilling to be daunted Ichabod pursues the girl, even while being harassed by Bones. One night he disappears, and the legendary headless horseman is believed to be the culprit. Or was it Brom Bones after all? No one will ever know. Aside from the mysterious ending, there are plenty of other spooky references, such as goblins, haunts, and witches, all throughout the book, and the sketches especially due justice to these.

Gris Grimly's illustrated version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving is another fun way to read this old tale. In graphic novel version the emphasis is on the sketches while the text is broken up and abridged, but the story is still fun, and the images add their own special touch. This one is visually spooky while Rackham's obviously leaves the emphasis on the original text.

Both Grimly and Rackham also published illustrations for Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Mystery and Imagination, but while Sleepy Hollow is already pushing the envelope on age appropriateness (though Calvin really loved both of these versions and can't get enough of them), I think the Poe works are right off the scale for us yet. Maybe next year, though, because I really do love Poe.