I managed to get the form and check on the last day it was due and the National Mythology Exam folks sent me a study guide. I just wanted to share their book list. I took a class as an undergraduate at Harvard on Mythology, nicknamed “Heroes for Zeros,” which was actually a really great class though perhaps not the most stressful class I’ve ever taken and we read some of these same books; the Lattimore translation of The Iliad, The Odyssey and The Aeneid though I can not for the life of me remember who translated it. There was also a class for Norse mythology. I didn’t take it but some friends of mine did. Guess what that was nicknamed? “Frozen Heroes for Zeros.” Though given the New England weather, it could also be called “Sub Zero Heros for Zeros” just as easily!
Category: My Family Scrapbook
5th Grade Book Club: The Uglies
A Mom Friend hosted my daughter’s 5th Grade book club. The book was The Uglies by Scott Westerfield and the activity was discussing what is beauty exactly using magazines and tabloids. The coup de grace was in looking at before and after pictures of Heidi Montag. We Moms were gratified that our kids thought Heidi looked best in the “before” pictures. In the day and age of media bombardment of unrealistic female body images, we were grateful that our girls accept both themselves and a broad range of images that they consider to be beautiful!
Top 10: Pokémon Books for Kids
There are a LOT of pokemon books out there. My son is obsessed with pokemon (he’s 5) and these are our favorites. There are also pokemon chapter books that are great for encouraging boys to read — all books promote literacy! We don’t have any listed because they are too advanced for my son.
How To: Detect & Get Rid of Lice
How to detect and remove lice and nits. Two effective methods for killing lice: Robi Comb (an electronic zapper comb) and the Olive Oil Treatment. Pragmatic Mom does not recommend lice shampoo because it’s not 100% effective due to lice resistence, and has harmful chemicals.
Family Reunion Vacations: San Antonio, Texas!
We had the best time in San Antonio over February school break. It was freezing in Massachusetts and while San Antonio got a freakish dump of snow that was two weeks ago and we enjoyed a week of temps in the 50-70 degree Fahrenheit range! I think the key to this trip was The River Walk. Miles of meandering paths along the Venice-like canals chock full of small waterfalls and restaurants was a most pleasant way to get exercise and entertainment!
Top 10: Best Middle Grade Chapter Books by my 8yold Daughter (grades 3-7)
My middle daughter is so picky that she started her own blog on the things she likes. Getting her a book she likes for me is an education in getting reluctant readers to engage. Tonight at dinner she asked me to blog on her blog to drive traffic to it. Smart kid. I told her that she needs to put up 4 posts so that readers will know what her blog is about first. This is her second post but I changed the words to give you my opinion of why she likes the books since we have been reading partners all year.
Sharon Creech Author Study
My 5th grader is doing a Sharon Creech author study in class and she’s been reading and loving Ruby Holler, Heartbeat, and trying to get the group that gets to read Chasing Redbird. We tend to agree on books that we like but it’s strange that we haven’t when it comes to Sharon Creech. Don’t get me wrong; we both LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Sharon Creech, but we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE different books.