A Must See. Truly.

Click here for a synopsis. Click here for the trailer (this will give you an idea of what you will see, but I think it misrepresents the message of the story). Loved the music! Subtitled.

The Cave of the Yellow Dog

This is the sweetest, most beautiful film I have seen in a long while. It's a look into the life of a Mongolian family(yes, it is sub-titled) . One of the best things about this movie is that the family is an actual family. The three children are adorable and I learned a lot while watching their loving parents. It does have a slow-moving story line, which is both simple, yet full of wisdom, but is similar to a documentary because we see into how this nomadic family really lives. Since I'm more used to the American style movie I kept waiting for something to "happen." It does have a dramatic conclusion. Well worth seeing!

Two Documentaries to Recommend

Lately Joseph and I have watched two several hour long documentaries. We have been so intrigued by these that it's been similar to watching a BBC mini-series where we can't wait to watch the next installment!

They were interesting to watch together as they tied into each other. The first is a PBS documentary with seven parts called "Evolution (2001)." The second was also a PBS series, this one with six parts called, "The Secret Life of the Brain (1999)." My library had the second, but I had to buy the first.





I've written before that I love the subject of evolution. This documentary reminded me of things I had learned while in college and also new discoveries not taught in my courses. The last segment is particularly intriguing after watching the first six. It is called, "What about God?" I loved it because it took on a subject that has long been an interest for me in a pretty unbiased way. I loved watching religious students of biology and geology battle through different ideas to figure out where they stood. Equally interesting was the first segment called, "Darwin's Dangerous Idea." It was pretty true to what I had heard and read of him. It portrays Charles Darwin's own personal struggles in a very real way. Great stuff!

When I was a freshman at BYU, I took my first honors class. While I can't remember the title of the class I know that it tied together classical literature, art and the sciences. At one point the professors of my class invited a biology professor to speak to us. He told us that he was a Stake President (leader of several congregations in my church) and that he believed in evolution. At that time, it was interesting to hear him talk, but I didn't fully appreciate the gift he had given to us. Coming from a Christian background, many of us were taught to shun even the word evolution. What a relief to find out that you could be a Christian AND believe in evolution. Even after watching all those hours of program, I still have many questions. Many of them haven't been answered by science or religion.

There is a whole hour within the Evolution series called, "The Mind's Big Bang." This is where the two documentaries overlapped. "The Secret Life of the Brain" was so interesting. By studying people whose brains don't fully function, science has answered a lot of questions concerning development of the brain, learning, and disability within the brain. Since I have struggled with depression, it was good to have some in depth explanation there. I loved learning about babies and children's brains and also the aging brain (I think my brain is already breaking down!).

If your local library carries one or both of these, try to get them! I highly recommend them!

Planet Earth

My friend, Kristen, told me that they had gotten the "Planet Earth: as you've never seen it before" DVD's produced by BBC video for Christmas and that they were wonderful. They just couldn't stop watching them.

I got right on the list at the library. It took until last Saturday for me to be able to check them out. The kids have been watching them a little bit this week, but I've been busy. How much I've missed!

I decided that the kids and I would watch an episode last night before they crawled into bed. I meant to watch "Deep Ocean," but one about forests came on while I was switching the laundry into the drier. I'm not sorry at all! Intriguing. Beautiful. Enlightening. These are all about nature at it's best. A peek into a world that is rarely seen. If you get the chance to see them, please do!! I have to return them today, but I'm going right back on the waiting list!

Learning letters

I don't worry too much about teaching my kids the alphabet. That is, I don't worry too much until the August before they enter Kindergarten (except Nathan, of course, being the first kid, knew them when he was two). They've all picked up on it pretty quickly. Sariah will go to Kindergarten next year and I'm way ahead of my game here already teaching her letters.

I can't really take credit though. My sister recommended a DVD called "Leapfrog Letter Factory" that her kids had been enjoying to learn their letters. I can't recommend it enough. In just 2-3 weeks Sariah knows every letter and all their sounds. She has graduated to "Leapfrog Talking Words Factory." This DVD teaches kids that vowels stick words together and helps kids put sounds together to make simple three letter words. Sariah enjoys music and these DVDs do use music to teach kids their letters. I've also been surprised at my other kids wanting to watch these shows. I personally didn't find them very entertaining, but the kids love them.

I'm having fun teaching Sariah. I had fun quizzing her on her letters and also I found these cute letter cookies at the dollar store and I would pick through them every day before she went down to watch her DVD so she'd have one cookie of each letter to eat as she watched the part about that letter.

She's also starting to read a little, just the kind where they memorize the book, then point at the words as they go through the book. May and Elijah both did this in their Kindergarten classroom. I don't know what that's called. It's not whole word recognition, because she doesn't really recognize most words.

On top of that, the other kids are teaching her addition, subtraction and even some multiplication. I'm wondering if she will have any use for Kindergarten once she gets there! I've been blessed with kids who love to learn!