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I think by now everyone has heard of the popular Baby Einstein series of DVDs for young children. Some swear that it helps to “smarten” of their babies and some groups say they do the opposite.
Well, I had a chance to review one recently and I have to say that I kind of like them. I am big on movies and DVDs in general because they can be reviewed first by parents and kids like to watch the same stuff over and over I find. These particular videos are supposed to help babies develop playful movement and motor skills.
I thought they would be cartoons like you see on the covers but I was very surprised to see lots of real babies and children in the video. They were crawling, dancing, jumping, clapping, and playing. My youngest was extremely interested in what they were doing and had a big smile plastered on his face the whole time. I could tell he was trying to figure out how he could do the stuff they were doing.
The soundtrack was also really good with classics from Beethoven, Bach, Vivaldi, and Mozart so even I enjoyed it. It was a really cute video and I think young would benefit from watching…just not too much. After we watched I took my son to the indoor play park and we worked on some of those motor skills.
My resolution to support my local community is working out well. Two times this month my son (7 years) and I have visited a local, historic theatre and playhouse. Two weeks ago we saw “Enchanted” a wonderful movie. It is a classic Disney fairytale that collides with modern-day New York City in a story about a fairytale princess who is sent to our world by an evil queen. Soon after her arrival, Princess Giselle begins to change her views on life and love after meeting a handsome lawyer. It was so cute you couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. I would highly recommend it!
Today I took him to a stage performance of The Emperor’s New Clothes. We had a great time yet again and spending some one on one time with my oldest is awesome too. Next week we are planning to see The Sound of Music and several weeks from now we are looking forward to seeing Rumpelstiltskin.
And I am REALLY looking forward to seeing some Operas in the spring with hubby.
In Phoenix we had so many opportunities to do things like this but we never did. I am happy to see that changing.
The picture below is from the marvelous Palace Theatre. It is gorgeous inside and less than 5 minutes from my house.
I love the fact that there is a picture of the earth on one side and a yin-yang (balance) on the other. How fitting!
You are The High Priestess
Science, Wisdom, Knowledge, Education.
The High Priestess is the card of knowledge, instinctual, supernatural, secret knowledge. She holds scrolls of arcane information that she might, or might not reveal to you. The moon crown on her head as well as the crescent by her foot indicates her willingness to illuminate what you otherwise might not see, reveal the secrets you need to know. The High Priestess is also associated with the moon however and can also indicate change or fluxuation, particularily when it comes to your moods.
I think many people would be surprised how many homeschooling and unschooling blogs I read…especially since I don’t homeschool. But I do think about schooling and education quite a bit and I like to read about how other families are handling it.
One of the major reasons that I don’t homeschool is because my kids want to attend an outside school. My 7 year old son LOVES school at the moment and despite the fact that I have discussed homeschooling with him he wants to go to public school. My daughter, who will turn 4 next month, has been begging for many months to be able to go to a school. Today I started researching preschools for her for next term or maybe even this one if allowed.
Public preschool is not an option because we live outside the district limits. My son attends a county school which is no problem at all because it is the #1 rated school and it has bus service. BUT there is no preschool program there so my daughter will have to attend a private preschool.
This presented two issues for consideration. I had to make sure that the private schools would allow a non vaccinated child…so far so good. The other issue is that BOTH preschools have a faith based curriculum and are in fact inside churches. One is a Methodist church and the other is a Nazarene Christian church. This is an issue for me because my kids have been raised up until this point with minimal religious education or exposure, despite the fact that my husband and I both have a very religious background and upbringing. I also have no idea what each of these churches believes as far as doctrine is concerned.
They wouldn’t be learning about religion necessarily but they would be exposed to things like prayer and faith based morality. So I am not sure if I should even care. I have much to think about I guess but first I need to tour both of these schools. One of them has a constant access webcam so that is a big plus but they are pretty similar in price and proximity.
One of the public preschool programs within the city hinted that I might be able to fudge my way into their program if I bring them a piece of mail with a city address on it (even though it wouldn’t be mine). That doesn’t feel right to me though. Because it would be lying and also because the spots are limited and I would hate for my child to get accepted into a state funded program while another child whose parents can’t afford a private school gets passed over.
Oh well ….much too think about.
My oldest will also likely be attending some art classes on the weekend held at a historical playhouse. He is REALLY looking forward to that. I just hope we have nice weather because I HATE driving on icy roads!
I had a blast from the past today. I was posting to my newly re-vamped (pun intended) fan site for Alex O’Loughlin the vampire P.I from Moonlight. I was posting a video that shows the original cast of Moonlight which at first glance, I thought included Patrick Bauchau….he is Archon Raine from Kindred the Embraced…a vampire TV show I LOVED in the late nineties. Thinking about that show got me thinking about the shows lead, Mark Frankel, who died before a second season could be filmed. I was devastated when he died. I remember crying my eyeballs out over how such a young, talented light was just snuffed out. He left behind two little boys…one of whom he never got to meet.
Anyway after a search for any sites dedicated to the show I ran across a Wikipedia explanation of the show, which brought me to the Mark Frankel fan club that was set up after his death to honor his life. Just for kicks I clicked on Membership and there glaring at me, right smack in the middle of the page is my name (maiden) on the membership roster. I don’t even remember signing up for it so I guess I have been a terrible member.
So let me take a second to remember Mark…I will never forget….
I just love Jane Austen’s books and many of the movies made from them. My favorite is Sense and Sensibility followed by Pride and Prejudice. Which Jane Austen Heroine are you? I am :: E L I N O R ::
You are Elinor Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are practical, circumspect, and discreet. Though you are tremendously sensible and allow your head to rule, you have a deep, emotional side that few people often see.
I recently got to test out the JumpStart World First Grade software with my first grader. I was really looking forward to it because this would be his first foray into video gaming (his epilepsy was a concern) and it would be an educational experience. When the package came in the mail with its vibrant colors and pictures it was hard not see how FUN this game was going to be and since we have had a few snow days lately when regular school was called off…it gave us the perfect opportunity to play the games.
My first thoughts: the animation is amazing and so it the ability for kids to really interact and not just sit by and be entertained. I was concerned that the music might be annoying or it would just look to cartoonish for me but I was pleasantly surprised. There are 12 Adventure Packs or learning units that actually progress in response to your child’s own learning pace and it is quite personalized as well. You can keep things going by downloading more adventure packs from the site too. It uses clever games to get kids involved in the learning process in a variety of ways. My son gets stressed about having to do homework so much for school but he finds this game very enjoyable and stress free and yet he still learns. I can see why homeschoolers love this system so much.
My son had a blast with it and my 3 year old daughter learned a lot just from watching.
At the JumpStart World web site you can download some trial games to see how you like it before you order. that is a great feature that parents should take advantage of. I am glad my son has something to look forward to on snow days now! And I think we may have to keep buying.
I recently developed a little celebrity crush…I tend to do that…always have. Although this time I am not taking it so well as ALL of my celebrity crushes since I was 5 have been older than me. Imagine how old I felt when I realized the newest actor I am craving is two weeks younger than I. I am getting old and my tastes are not…LOL.
Anyway…recently I am loving Alex O’Loughlin (pronounced O’Locklin) an Australian actor. I first saw him in the new series Moonlight so of course I had to try and get my hands on everything he ever acted in and to start off that was 3 movies I bought off Amazon. Two were wonderful and one sucked.
The first was the sucky one and as I told my husband it was just wrong…on sooo many levels…and I am fairly “open minded” The movie, Feed, was about sexual fetish. Specifically it was about feeders and gainers. This was not a new concept for me as I have heard of it before on a kinky podcast I used to listen to. Basically a feeder is just what they sound like…they feed their mate and the gainer…gains weight. Most couples consist of a fit male and a grossly obese woman and the movie was the same. My fave new actor was a young, fit, married man who had a 600 pound woman on the side. He and his gainer have a web site…where they share their gaining adventure with other feeds and gainers AND unbeknownst to the woman…people were taking bets on when she will die. An Aussie cop travels to Ohio to bring the feeder down and finds something even more horrifying…I won’t even go into all that happened but it was pretty awful. The ONLY interesting thing about the movie was that you got to see Alex’s tattoos. AND they were awesome. I was wondering continually if they were real or just for the movie but the third movie of his that I watched confirmed that they are real. I am such a sucker for tats on a man. My hubby refused to watch the movie but he did watch a bit with Alex’s tattoos and agreed that they were “way cool”.
The second movie was called The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant and it is the true story of Mary Bryant a Brit who was sentenced to 7 years in an Australian penal colony for stealing a bonnet and some food. On the journey she meets Will Bryant and they align to make conditions more bearable but they are still very bad. There is very little food for them, they almost drown when the ship is under storm as they are locked in the bowel of the ship and Mary has to give birth to her first baby during the trip….the child of one of her jailors in Britain.
When they get to Australia things look to be bit brighter initially, despite a VERY graphic mass rape scene as men and women prisoners, who were separated during the journey, are now allowed to co-mingle. Mary and Will are allowed to marry and have a ramshackle home to raise Mary’s daughter and their son that soon follows. Since Will is a fisherman he makes an arrangement with the colony admin to catch fish for the whole colony and keep 1/12 of the bounty as payment. Everything is going fairly well until this arrangement collapses as food becomes scarce for everyone and hundreds begin to starve and die or get sick and die. Mary vows to never let that happen to her children so she and Will and a handful of other prisoners plan to make a getaway. Their plan centers upon stealing supplies for the trip that are obtained when Mary takes up with an officer and moves into his quarters to steal away his key as needed. Although heart broken, Will understands that Mary will do whatever she has to do to be free and he supports her.
They pull off their escape and travel 4000 miles on a one heck of a journey to land in Dutch occupied territory. All is well for awhile and they live very comfortably among some great new people until the officer that Mary wronged comes after her AND the man she really loves. Everything goes down hill from there and it is a very tragic story but still very touching. After all she goes through and everything and everyone she loses she is pardoned by the British government. Oh…I am getting teary thinking of it.
Okay I am on to the third movie…which was light hearted and fun. Called The Oyster Farmer, Alex plays a man that robs a fish market and sends the stolen money to a remote osyter farming community where he is working for the summer. He starts to panic when his package gets dumped in the river when the mailman has a stroke. He then tries to figure out which of these community members has found his money and he makes great some friends along the way…until money or no…he can’t resist making a life for himself there. This movie was REALLY cute and it confirmed that those awesome tats are REAL. I would love to show you a pic I found of them but it is a naked pic from Feed so I won’t post it. But you are missing out.
Here is a YouTube video of the Mary Bryant love story:
I think by now everyone has heard of the popular Baby Einstein series of DVDs for young children. Some swear that it helps to “smarten” of their babies and some groups say they do the opposite.
I am happy to see that changing.
I think many people would be surprised how many homeschooling and unschooling blogs I read…especially since I don’t homeschool. 
But I do think about schooling and education quite a bit and I like to read about how other families are handling it.
Take the Quiz here!
I recently got to test out the 
