I wrote this for a homeschool list

So, the kids watched TV for a while, as I exercised and showered. I got distracted by an episode of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood and I ended up watching a chunk of it. Mr. Rogers was talking to Lynn Swann, a famous NFL football player back in the day. Lynn Swann not only played professional football, but he also took ballet classes. His dance education pre-dated his football career. I really enjoyed seeing a big macho sort of guy performing ballet. I was glad my boys could watch that.

They also watched a Reading Rainbow episode about Ancient Egypt. They've seen it once before; B was very taken with the creation of mummies. The episode featured a book by Aliki called, "Mummies, Made in Egypt". I need to check that out at the library. It explained all the gory details of how the organs are removed, how fluids are removed, etc. It also talked very briefly about the ancient Egyptians' religious beliefs, which provided a tangent on how our religious beliefs differ and how they are similar. The book also showed the general geography of ancient Egypt.

In the episode, Levar goes to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where they apparently have several really nice mummies. B said at one point, "That's beautiful!" I mentioned how I was from Boston but how I have never been inside that particular museum. A short film was shown which showed actual footage from inside a Pyramid, presumably provided by the museum. B loves the part where the mummy is scanned and its head is recreated with clay.

B was looking at his DK Visual Encyclopedia of Skeletons so I offered to read it to him. It can be very difficult to read his books to him, because T wants to be intimately involved in everything B does and he doesn't have the patience for all B's stuff. So, we put on the "Charlie and Lola" show for T and I read to B in the other room.

For the 20-30 minutes while the show played, I read the pages he chose for me: ribcage, pelvis and skeletal varieties 1. He had lots of remarks to make and I had to give some synonyms for some of the words in the book, so we were both tired and completely done at the end! In the ribcage chapter, we identified the sternum/breastbone on our bodies, we read about the function of the ribs, and we learned about the types of ribs. Ribs 8-12 are called "false ribs" for example, something that cracked B up. We also saw some non-human ribs like snake ribs.

On the pelvis page, he showed me which bones the pelvis is comprised of and how they attach. He does not know the names of these bones, so I read those. We both learned that the two major sides of the pelvis are called "coxae". Each coxa is made of smaller bones; I don't remember the names but one was the ischium. We looked at a picture of human pelvis, in addition to that of a chimpanzee, cow and dog. It was interesting to see that the cow, dog and chimpanzee pelvises were very narrow in comparison to the human one. We talked about the coccyx and the sacrum, but we both got confused by which one was as he called it, "the sharp pointy part at the end".

On the skeletal varieties 1 page, we read about the basic types of skeletons. In addition to endo and exoskeletons, the book cites some sort of fluid filled structure in earthworms and trees. I took issue with the usage of the word "skeleton" as it relates to the last two, but I'm not really a science person. B got a little confused about endo and exo, thinking that one meant the front of the vertebrate skeleton and one meant the back. We cleared that up and once he understood it, he contributed some examples of his own, like the hermit crab (exoskeleton). He showed me how the tortoise has both types; that was very interesting to me. Then, he brought up jellyfish, because they are invertebrates but yet they are not crunchy on the outside; that led to a completely different tangent about an aquarium trip we took last year.

Some of the general words that I provided easier synonyms for (i.e. I read the original word and then gave a common synonym) were: respiration, inhale, organism, limbless, and tubular.

B started chatting about earthworms after I took issue with the usage of the word "skeleton" as it relates to them and we debated the color of the worm's 5 hearts. To placate him, I found some worm dissection pictures online. He was very satisfied to see the dorsal blood vessel but a little disappointed that it was not red like he imagined. We also talked about how worms are hermaphrodites ("No way!") and how they make "babies". With the mention of the worms' ovaries and testes, he felt compelled to demonstrate where his own testes were. (We read a book about human reproduction recently so the word "testicles" seems to come up at supper a lot.) I made some mention of worm poop, which led him to excitedly describe how worms speed up decomposition in the soil (he pronounced "decompose" in a cute way but I can't remember how) and how they basically make compost.

At this point, my brain was kind of tired so I decided to write this while they ate a late lunch. B burst in while I was typing, saying that he wanted to learn some "science facts". When I asked him what he specifically wanted to learn, he said he wanted to see the insides of the intestines and how they go through the body and eventually "make poop". Then, T discovered some washable markers and that lured them both to the kitchen, where they are currently drawing. B pointed to the package when I was recently in their room and told me, "This says 'washable'." That led to a weird discussion about how washable markers are not fully washable at all, which led to me explaining what the word "semi" means; they are semi-washable, really.

And now, I hope to take a bit of a break while they draw. We're listening to the African music channel on xmradio, which is my new favorite channel, I think. Later, I'll probably take the kids out to the play area later, before dh gets home.