To give an example, Daegan and I most recently watched episode 4: Faith in Numbers, the episode Burke alludes to in his intro to the series as being about “how improvements in 14th century sheep farming by monks in France led to the modern computer” (via a series of connections, of course). We start at a decaying Roman aqueduct in France, learn about the use of water wheels for all kinds of purposes (milling grain, pressing grapes for wine, etc.) and are introduced to different systems of gears used in these inventions. We make various jumps: Cistercian monasteries, the Black Death, how the abundance of linen for “frilly knickers” led to an abundance of linen rag (when the undies wore out), which—in mills powered by gears—was mashed with water and gum to make linen paper (which was pressed to squeeze water out via gears again). From there we head to the invention of the printing press (more gears) to make use of the abundant paper, then to the jacquard loom and complicated patterns in clothing (like Chinese silks or English paisleys)—which again were automated using punch cards and gears. Finally we visit automated toys and amusements, the managing of US census data, to—finally—the modern (1970s) computer and its punch card. A fascinating show, with so many jumping off points to pursue further study or investigation (there were more connections than I wrote above)—it strews concepts, names, and places constantly. And yes, the boys were absolutely fascinated with how underwear became books!

Details about the series can be found here. Burke made two further Connections series in the 1990s, which were similar, but not as good as the original in my view. But a few notes of caution. The series is most definitely created for adults, not kids—the first episode is quite dark in tone, post-apocalyptic, with the aim to have us look at the way technology is so entwined in the fabric of our lives. “Look around the room you are in watching this show, and note how little would work without technology or a source or energy or power” ask Burke of the viewer. He talks about how this did happen during the massive blackout in NYC and other parts of the Northeast in 1965—and with the historical re-enactments, it may well disturb some younger viewers. In episode 3, there is brief nudity when a medieval woman is shown taking a bath as part of a town celebration, and there are other sexual references and innuendo in the series as well (done in dry British tone though, so may well go over your kids’ heads). Again, just a head’s up for your own family; my 8-year-old son loves the series and wants to watch more, and it has led to great discussions between us.

For older kids, or for your own further education, and especially for those who love science or history (this series has been a great way to get my science-loving kid curious about history, and I imagine it would work in the other direction as well), give Connections a try. Over the years as our family watches and re-watches the series, if the boys  understand more about each reference and connection (which from a wide variety of cultures, time periods and places), and use these connections to build up a “web” of knowledge, they are well on their way to being an educated person, in my view.

Local Calgary folks, the DVDs are at the library. As they are older you could probably find them online or on Netflix as well. Happy viewing!

Gareth (age 5) took this pic of me in pjs and robe, zoning on the couch. I even got a bit of a nap. Such a disappointment too, as we had planned a playdate with friends after their school on Friday, with the dad joining us after work and having a pizza night. And it was again crazy warm, hitting 20C (68F). Bah.

But the boys and I did read a few books, and watch some DVDs. We watched several of the The Way Things Work DVDs, which I wrote about here. And a few of a new series called Are We There Yet?: World Adventure.

Each DVD features real life siblings—young, I’d say under 10—visiting different locations around the world. We watched Hawaii, Egypt, and Sweden today. In Hawaii, a brother and sister learn to surf, go snorkelling, ride in a submarine, learn to hula, etc. In Egypt, two sisters visit museums, the pyramids, a bazaar, and make a mummy. In Sweden, a brother and sister team take part in a sailboat race, visit a museum with Sweden’s largest Viking ship, learn to be troubadours (busking for candy), and—my favourite bit—learn about Pippi Longstocking by watching a play and visiting her house/museum. In each location the kids meet up with experts (hula dancers, archaeologists, sailors, etc.) that show them around. Each DVD features 3 segments, each about 5-10 minutes in length. More details about the show, including a list of episodes and topics, can be found here, and pictures from the show here.

While my boys were engaged with these shows, a couple caveats. The show’s segments are short and fairly jumpy, providing a good overview of a place, but little detail. The shows are also focussed on the country from a tourist’s perspective, unlike the Families of the World series, in which you follow ‘a day in the life’ of children actually living in each location. But for strewing ‘rabbit trails’ to follow up on (Can we read Pippi Longstocking, Mom? Can we make a mummy? Who were the Vikings?) it is superb. And my kids particularly enjoyed watching kids their own age exploring the world.

Not sure where you can buy the DVDs; amazon doesn’t have them. I borrowed from the library. You might also check netflix, youtube, or treehousetv.com for clips.

There are several other titles in the series, but unfortunately our library doesn’t carry them all. I’ve put Families of Japan (US)  (Daegan’s request) and Families of Canada (US) (Gareth’s request) on hold for our next viewings. If you’ve come across other good DVD series for “social studies” lessons, please pass them along in the comments.

BTW, you can find details about the entire Families of the World series here, including links to teacher’s guides and trailers for various videos on youtube. The teacher’s guide for Australia in particular is here. Happy viewing!

The town of Maple Creek, SK, which we went through, had major flooding, as did the city of Medicine Hat, AB, which is still under a state of emergency.

Anyways, shortly after our return, the boys and I made another long-distance trip (350kms / just over 200 miles) to Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, where we met up with another homeschooling family. Buffalo jumps were widely used by aboriginal peoples on the prairies / great plains / grasslands, and involved killing buffalo—which they depended on for food, shelter, clothing, and more—by driving them over cliffs.

Head-Smashed-In is a superb interpretive centre—another of Alberta’s sites designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO—and built right into the side of the cliff once used as a buffalo jump. The centre (and cliff) is 6 stories high. Curious how this area got its name? Here’s the sign that greets you in the parking lot:

The left-hand text of which reads: “In the 1800s, according to legend, a young brave wanted to witness the plunge of buffalo as his people drove them to their deaths over the cliffs. Standing under the shelter of a ledge, he watched the great beasts fall past him. The hunt was unusually good that day. As the bodies mounted, he became trapped between the animals and cliff. When his people came to do butchering, they found him with his skull crushed by the weight of buffalo carcasses. Thus, they named the place “Head-Smashed-In.”

Archaeological evidence indicates that this site was used by Aboriginal people for at least 5700 years [in other words, a site older than the pyramids in Egypt], making it among the oldest, largest, and best preserved of the many buffalo jump sites on the western plains.

In 1981, Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump was designated a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization [UNESCO].”

Upon entering the interpretive centre, you see this:

and are given instructions as to the suggested order in which to tour the site. They suggest you watch a film about how the buffalo jump was used—as I had read elsewhere that this film is disturbingly realistic, the boys opted to skip it—and then proceed to the top of the centre and work back down. This site and field trip in general was a challenge for my young vegetarians, but it helped them understanding other cultures, other choices, and led some great discussion about how animals were used then (hardly anything was wasted, and thanks was given to the buffalo for giving their lives so the people could live) vs. today (another factory-farmed Big Mac, please!), as well as the difference between choice and necessity.

The boys, with their palaeontological leanings, quite enjoyed the display with the buffalo skeleton, and the lift-the-flap quiz asking you to identify the bone fragments:

They also liked the infant and doll carriers, and learning what was used for diapers back then (moss stuffed into the baby carrier):

We then headed, as suggested, to the top of the centre, and outside along the cliff top where the buffalo were driven over (you can still see the cairns—rock piles—used as drive lanes). The view is incredible:

That’s the Oldman River valley in the distance, one of the few areas with trees in these grasslands, and where the Blackfoot would make their winter camps. In the very far distance, along the horizon, you can just make out some of the many wind turbines in this part of Alberta. Many folks know Alberta is blessed with oil and natural gas deposits, but we also have many wind farms in this SW corner of the province.

The cliffs. Note the school group on the pathway below to give you a sense of scale:

In contrast to the above photo, which looks NE, this is the view to the SW—the Rocky Mountains. Yeah, we’re kind of spoiled for stunning landscapes in this province.

We then headed back inside, where we bumped into a school group listening to a Blackfoot guide giving part of a tour. We tagged along, and learned some interesting tidbits, like that teepee poles were not transported from camp to camp; they were left for the next group. We also learned that First Nations peoples travelled far and wide, and traded with one another, as tools made from stone found in the Dakotas and Minnesota has been found on site here:

Before video games and television; these marked buffalo bones were used for games of chance and gambling.

The boys checking out some hands-on displays:

Then we came to their favourite display, which was mine too when I toured this site with some visiting relatives more than a decade ago:

It explains how various parts of the buffalo were used, including buffalo horns carved into drinking cups, or used to carry hot coals; small bone splinters used for awls for sewing; decorated buffalo skulls used in sundance ceremonies; sinew used for sewing and binding; bladder bags (number 13 in the pic) used to store fat in a tightly sealed containers, allowing this important food source to be preserved for long times (Aboriginal tupperware!); and buffalo chips (dried dung) burned as a fuel source—a vital element to surviving the cold winters on these northern grasslands where trees are few.

We also skipped the very end of the interpretive centre, where the destruction of the buffalo at the hands of the white man was accomplished in a few short years. Shocking, really, when the Blackfoot and other First Nations peoples killed them in huge numbers, but never to the point of (near) extinction.

After a quick lunch break, we met up with the other homeschooling family for a walk outside:

Here’s the cliffs as they appear from below:

You could see many cliff swallow nests, as well as poop stains:

Daegan found the archaeological information quite interesting. As close as it got to palaeontology for this site, I suppose. Note the teepees in the background:

Interpretive sign about the archaeological site, and how—among other things—dating can be done by examining the type and shape of arrowheads found:

Of course, other things caught the kids’ interests, like this caterpillar:

And here’s the boys looking for more bugs. Makes me wonder if Blackfoot brothers did the same thing in this very spot, hundreds of years ago.

The Centre itself is fair-sized building built into the side of a hill above the Frenchman River valley. It is clean, bright, very well laid out and professional. There are detailed displays on a wide variety of prehistoric life forms—it is not just about ‘Scotty’, the T rex found in the Frenchman river valley nearby. (In fact, its not even primarily about Scotty). Many of the displays are hands-on and kid-friendly, and they have other activities for kids you can add on for low cost. Our boys did a fossil dig (cost: $3).

When you arrive at the Centre, you first head to the theatre to see a short film about the discovery of Scotty the T rex. You are then given a guided tour of the museum displays, with a very knowledgeable guide who, in our case, was happy to customize the tour to the boys interests and questions. Even I Jim and I learned new things (more on this in a bit). We will be back! Anyways, let’s get on to some pics, shall we?

The T Rex centre has two parts: the tourism side, which we enjoyed, and the science / palaeontology side of things. I noticed this on a dusty truck in the parking lot:

There were scientists working in the lab that we were able to watch, and they had some of the prepared fossils on display (like Scotty’s actual bones):

The town of Eastend is in a very scenic spot, among an ‘oasis of trees’ in the river valley, surrounded by rolling grassland / scrubland hills and badlands. The drive off the Trans-Canada (from Maple Creek) goes through the eastern edge of the Cypress Hills as well—not your flat ‘boring’ prairie in the SE corner of Saskatchewan! (The Cypress Hills are a heavily treed geological oddity rising above the prairie—in fact they are the highest point of land between the Rocky Mountains and Labrador on the east coast of Canada. They also have unique flora and fauna as they were not covered by glaciers in the last ice age).

Heading into the Centre, which is built into the side of the hill in an aesthetically pleasing manner:

Part of the guided tour:

There are lots of hands-on displays—very kid-friendly:

We brought a picnic lunch, and enjoyed the scenery (reflected in the pic on the mirrored glass). There are bathrooms, a water fountain, and a superb gift shop, but no cafeteria on site. (There are several places to get food in town, a 2 minutes drive down the hill.)

Daegan and Gareth spent some time after lunch scouting for fossils and catching bugs. You get more of a sense of the scenery in these pics. A really lovely spot:

After lunch the boys did a fossil dig activity (Gareth got a bit of help from Jim at the end). I can so see the future here! Daegan found a parasaurolophus skull (model), and Gareth a brachiosaurus:

Before heading on our way, we went back through the displays one more time—the boys and their uber-excitement had settled by then, so Jim and I were able to read and learn rather than dash from one thing to the next with the boys. One of the most interesting things I learned was about how little we know about T rex. Given how popular this dinosaur is, I thought we knew lots and had founds tons of T rex fossils—but not so. Just over 2 dozen T rex fossils have ever been found (world-wide), and the vast majority of these have only small fragments of the skeleton (less than 10% complete). Sue, now at Chicago’s Field Museum, is the best-known among these.  But we know nothing of T rex eggs or young, nor their growth rate or family habits.

Here’s a bunch more pics from the display area. The one of Gareth pointing to the coprolite (fossilized poop) and Daegan wrinkling his nose in the background makes me laugh. Hope this gives you a good idea of what to expect  if you make the trip to Eastend.

Checking out small town playgrounds and restaurants, hotel swimming pools, tourist information centres and washrooms. Lots and lots of bathroom breaks when travelling with young kids!

We saw lots of wildlife, like these pronghorn antelopes resting in a field near the highway in SE Saskatchewan:

We checked out the T Rex Discovery Centre in Eastend, SK, where we watched a movie, got a guided tour, checked out displays on all kinds of prehistoric life, excavated fossil replicas, had a scenic picnic lunch, and spent generously in their superb gift shop. Highly recommended!

Outside the T Rex centre, and in many other places, Daegan caught bugs for us to examine more closely:

On our way between dino stops, we visited Medicine Hat, Alberta, taking in the world’s tallest teepee, a nature centre (where we got to see a black widow spider!), and two nature walks in Police Point Park: one through “the enchanted forest”, and one along the South Saskatchewan River:

I went for a quick birding outing to Kinbrook Island Provincial Park, just S of Brooks, where we were staying overnight before out big day at Dinosaur Provincial Park.

We saw the stunning badlands of Dinosaur Provincial Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so designated due to its abundance of fossils, it’s “aesthetic” badlands, and its rare, undisturbed riparian habitat. (The Red Deer River runs through the park). Literally thousands of dinosaur fossils have been found in the park, including more than 40 dinosaur species and more than 400 complete skeletons—and excavation continues today. This is the highest density of dinosaur finds in the world. It also has a superb interpretive station with a mix of dino info (including a replica of a palaeontologist’s camp) as well as displays about today’s wildlife found in the park (plants, birds, reptiles, bugs, etc.). We will be going back later this summer—it was absolutely incredible.

The boys also spent time making entries in their travel journals, drawing and writing about the highlights of the trip. Here’s one of Gareth’s entries (“a T Rex named Scotty found in Saskatchewan”):

and here’s one of Daegan’s, about a bug he caught in Medicine Hat:

Tomorrow, a more detailed look at the T rex Discovery Centre.

We then read the book Less Than Zero (Canada) (US) by Stuart J Murphy, one of the MathStart series. Gareth chose to join us.

We then moved to the hallway, where earlier Gareth and I had created a number line:

I made up a story about the temperature in Calgary one day—zero when we woke, then a bit warmer, then the sun really warmed it up, then clouds cooled it down, then there was a chill wind, then snow. At each part of the story I said how much warmer or colder it had gotten, and the boys moved up and down the number line accordingly. They walked forward when it got warmer, and walked backwards as it got colder. Soon, we had a problem: it had gotten colder than zero. What to do?–Add negative numbers to our number line:

I then made up other stories about riding an elevator (get on at ground level, dentist office on third floor, car is parked in the sub-sub basement, etc.), and spending money (getting and spending their allowance, wanting to borrow extra money to buy a toy dinosaur, etc.). Gareth then asked a really interesting question: What about even numbers? Are any of them negative? (This is an AWESOME question from a 5-year-old!)

I had the boys “double jump” in the positive numbers from one even number to the next. They then “double jumped” backwards, and saw both than zero is an even number, as is –2 (and –4, etc.):

Daegan then asked how many negative numbers you could have. I asked him about the positive number line.

Mom: Does it stop at 9 like in our hallway?
Daegan: (laughing): No!
Mom: How far does it go?
Daegan: To infinity!
Mom: So how far does the negative number line go? To negative 10? Negative 100? Negative thousand? Negative million? Negative billion?…
Daegan: Oh! So it goes to negative infinity!

I also positioned the boys at different spots on the number line and asked them who was at the greater / larger number. The boys saw that while 5 is greater than 2, –5 is NOT greater than –2.

We then went back to the problem of the day, which Daegan was able to solve by drawing a vertical number line (like a thermometer). There was some interesting learning there about how to draw on hash marks, label it, etc. As an adult I take for granted how to construct this sort of number line, but this was Daegan’s first time drawing one:

I then talked about how number lines came in (at least) two forms, horizontal and vertical. I showed him Cartesian graphing, and we found and labelled various points. I said that we’d see this in math again later, but notice that this “high school level graphing” is really just about number lines with positive and negative numbers:

I wanted to make this more concrete for him, as I could see he was a bit puzzled. The book Less Than Zero involved keeping a much simpler graph of the main character’s money, as he earns or borrows. But when would you ever use a Cartesian graph? Aha! I’ll talk about flying to various dinosaur sites, and needing to be able to track the location to send palaeontologists back to do digs. So with the help of an airplane eraser, from the Origin Airport (0, 0), our plane flew up (lots of finds, like the Burgess Shale, are in mountain slopes that used to be on sea bottoms) and down (into valleys and badlands—places below in altitude / sea level measurement from Origin Airport):

For the horizontal axis, I talked about the plane flying east and west. This caught Daegan’s imagination and I was THRILLED to see him extend this concept by running to our world map in the hallway:

Of course! Why didn’t I think of that a minute ago? Our world map has latitude and longitude lines on it, and hence a (0, 0) point where the equator and Prime Meridian connect:

But instead of labelling with negative numbers, maps use directions: north (positive y-axis, or vertical number line), south (negative y-axis), east (positive x-axis, or horizontal number line) and west (negative x-axis). But these labels allow us to do the exact same thing as with Cartesian graphing, like find and label precise spots on the globe. And the numbers for the degrees of latitude / longitude work the same was as the Cartesian graph, getting larger in absolute value as you move away from the origin, point (0, 0).

We then played a bit of the card game Zero—a variant of 21—but Daegan found it too challenging. He did like 21 a lot though, which I started with to introduce him to the idea, so we’ll come back to that as a way of practicing addition facts. We tried this game on the computer, which turned out to be pretty easy for him, even on the “hard” levels. We watched this song on youtube (and did the arm motions, making – and + signs with our arms, to the number line dance. My wiggly boys loved this!):

We then wrapped it all up by watching the Cyberchase episode “Less Than Zero”:

So today I gathered up some materials we had around the house and did a very spur of the moment “unit study” on Ancient Egypt. We had found a couple promising books at the library yesterday; the Ms. Frizzle title proved to be a very useful introduction for my science- and Magic-School-Bus-loving boys:

Daegan recalled that one of his magazines had a whole issue about Ancient Egypt. (I highly recommend this magazine for kids anywhere. It is ad-free, and covers a wide variety of science topics. The publisher is Canadian, but the content is not. I thank my aunt for getting Daegan a subscription years ago, as it has built upon his love of bugs and dinos to introduce a wide variety of subjects.)

We built a pyramid of sugar cubes, talking about kings and pharoahs, square numbers, and burial rituals along the way:

We wrote our names in hieroglyphics:

We began an experiment to mummify an apple, the details of which can be found here. We did a simplified version:

We cracked some funny (or should I say punny) Egyptian-themed codes:

We read about the Great Pyramid (the boys are very into large numbers and measurement right now):

We moved “heavy blocks” (really, heavy books stacked on top of one another) as they would have when building the pyramid, and discussed how the ancient Egyptians might have made their work easier:

We got out some pencil crayon “logs” and used them to create rollers under the blocks, making the work much easier:

Tomorrow we will continue the Egypt theme by using squares to demonstrate the Pythagorean theorem (which the ancient Egyptians used to reallocate farmland after the Nile flooded each year). And Gareth wants to make date squares, his favourite dessert / snack. After all, as he pointed out to me while we were reading, dates did grow in Ancient Egypt.

If you have other favourite Ancient Egypt activities or resources, please leave me a comment. Thanks!

Daegan found a patch of ice that reminded him of a map of Europe (France and Spain, UK up above across the ‘channel’):

He learned a bit of local history of the park (Edworthy park):

And we saw and heard an unusual woodpecker. We’re still not sure what it is, after consulting all our field guides. My best guess is either a black-backed or three-toed woodpecker. Any birders out there that can enlighten us?:

It was a nice way to start the day, and I believe it helped Daegan focus in his drama class. The teacher said he had an excellent class, and was helping other kids with the story of Alice in Wonderland, the bit of play they will be performing. Daegan is very excited about playing the Caterpillar!

And am I ever glad I did! Now, I knew that water, unlike just about every other substance on earth, expanded when frozen. But I wasn’t expecting how much carbonated water expanded:

We talked about water expanding, why ice floats, and how this was necessary for aquatic life to survive winters. So good on Daegan for creating this experiment and teaching us all a little bit more! The boys then wanted to take the ice out and watch it melt to see if there would be any bubbles. There’ weren’t. But they then found another way to play. Gareth said, very excitedly, “Let’s make an arctic animal habitat!” When I looked in the bowl with the ice this is what I found:

As Jim and I made dinner—curry, yum!—the boys continued to play arctic animals. It was determined in short order that the polar bear would need some food:

It was decided that the fish would not be enough food for the polar bear, and that furthermore, it was not its favourite meal; seal was. But a beluga whale would happily eat the fish.

When I looked over a while later, an arctic wolf and some other kind of whale had joined the habitat:

As the boys played, I heard them also talk about camouflage (the wolf, the polar bear), and Jim and I commented about climate change in the arctic when the ice had melted significantly, dumping the wolf into the water. I love ‘unscripted’ moments like there when you see how much your kids have learned and love to learn, pretty much all on their own.