Vox Publicatag:www.voxpublica.org,2010://332010-03-11T18:09:09ZMovable Type 3.34Only in America: 11-yo kid may get life in prison for murdertag:www.voxpublica.org,2010://33.99572010-03-11T17:56:11Z2010-03-11T18:09:09ZThe brutality and absurdity of the American justice system is well known around the world. The fact that until recently we were executing juveniles earned us the condemnation of the world (and several international human rights bodies). And now, prosecutors...margahttp://www.marga.org/The brutality and absurdity of the American justice system is well known around the world. The fact that until recently we were executing juveniles earned us the condemnation of the world (and several international human rights bodies). And now, prosecutors in Pennsylvania are to decide whether to try a kid for a murder he is accused of having committed when he was 11-years old. If convicted he may get life in prison.
A child. A stupid, immature child - one whose brain has not fully developed, whose concept of right and wrong is still fussy. A normal child.
We, of course, don't know if he was responsible of the crime he is accused of or not. But it doesn't matter. What a child of 11 does is no predictor of what he'll do when he's 22 or 32 or 70. The idea of robbing a child of his whole life because he made a stupid and very, very, very wrong decision as a little kid is beyond absurd, it's unconscionable. Which is not to say that kids like that shouldn't be punished - but it has to be appropriate punishment, psychological counseling and rehabilitation.
Jordan Website, where you can contribute to his legal defense. Please do.]]>
Great kids / family photographer in the SF Bay Areatag:www.voxpublica.org,2010://33.99462010-03-11T03:24:50Z2010-03-11T03:35:04ZI want to introduce my readers to my friend Alpana Aras-King who runs Storybox Art in the San Francisco Bay Area. Alpana is an amazing photographer, and has taken some of the most beautiful family/children pictures I've ever seen. Alpana...margahttp://www.marga.org/I want to introduce my readers to my friend Alpana Aras-King who runs Storybox Art in the San Francisco Bay Area. Alpana is an amazing photographer, and has taken some of the most beautiful family/children pictures I've ever seen. Alpana is a trained photographer, and her pictures do not just show her artistic vision but her sense of fun and soul. Check out her website.
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Sparkle Floam - Reviewtag:www.voxpublica.org,2010://33.99452010-03-10T23:47:43Z2010-03-11T02:21:09ZI just got a package of Sparkle Floam at Grocery Outlet for $2 (it sells in Amazon for $4.60) and Mika had a great time playing with it. She made a "cover" for her cell phone and loved how it...margahttp://www.marga.org/
I just got a package of Sparkle Floam at Grocery Outlet for $2 (it sells in Amazon for $4.60) and Mika had a great time playing with it. She made a "cover" for her cell phone and loved how it looked. Of course, this is a non-functioning cell-phone :-)
I'm not sure if the floam is supposed to dry and permanently stick to whatever surface you put it on, I really don't care either way, but it would have been nice if it came with instructions on how to use it.
Mika and her floam phone
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Am I worth $6K?tag:www.voxpublica.org,2010://33.98972010-03-07T23:10:32Z2010-03-07T23:47:40ZGoogling my name, which I do once in a while when I'm fidgety, I came across website outlook, a site which purports to tell you how much your website is worth. And, according to them, marga.org, my main personal website,...margahttp://www.marga.org/
website outlook, a site which purports to tell you how much your website is worth. And, according to them, marga.org, my main personal website, is worth $6,000. Meanwhile, voxpublica.org, where this blog is kept, is worth a little over $2K. Aha.
It's not clear what they base these values on. The only data they give about the websites are the daily pageviews, which I have no idea how they think they can figure out. Their number for marga.org, a little under 2K, is about 60% less than what I actually get, about 3300 for February 2010. Voxpublica.org, of course, gets many fewer hits, but still more than they give it credit for.
I imagine their valuing of the website is based on its potential ad revenue - but that's a very silly valuation. For one, it forgets the value of the domain name alone. marga.org doesn't have much going for it as a domain name, beyond being my name and it being short and somewhat easy to spell (though not to pronounce in English). voxpublica.org may have a higher value just because there is an online magazine in norway that might want the name and because it's a domain name that could work for many sorts of endeavors in any part of the western world. I got it originally to provide hosting for other human rights organizations - though I never used it for that purpose. I do like the domain name, though, so I'm keeping it.
But also, how much traffic you get depends on what you put on the website. I have to admit that some of my highest traffic pages are old pages. For example, my most visited content page in marga.org is the one for my recipe for yassa, which has been in my website for as long as I've had it. But my blog post on safeway birthday cakes, which I wrote in 2008, gets lots and lots of hits as well. And, personally, I have no idea what things that I post will generate a lot of traffic (or make it to the top of the search engines).
In any case, it's nice to know that I'm worth something ;-)]]>
Magnificent Manicure Kit - Reviewtag:www.voxpublica.org,2010://33.98862010-03-06T23:59:44Z2010-03-10T06:15:23ZToday I found the Elmer/Scientific Explorers' Magnificent Manicure Kit at Thriftown for $2. New it retails for $17 at Amazon. I had been curious about the kit before, mostly because all in all I've enjoyed other Scientific Explorer kits (Spa...margahttp://www.marga.org/Today I found the Elmer/Scientific Explorers' Magnificent Manicure Kit at Thriftown for $2. New it retails for $17 at Amazon. I had been curious about the kit before, mostly because all in all I've enjoyed other Scientific Explorer kits (Spa Science, Perfumery and its chemistry kits). But I didn't buy it because in my experience these kits are waaaaay overpriced. They usually contain mostly the type of ingredients you have at home, plus a couple of small samples of stuff that would be a bit harder to come by. But for that you spend close to $20!
This is definitely the case with the Manicure kit. The kit comes with a 3.4oz bottle of lotion base, 4oz bottle of bath salts (aka sodium chloride or table salt), 1.2 oz bottle of crystal mud (aka sodium polyacrylate), 1ml of sodium melon fragrance, 1 ml green dye, 2 foam toe separators, a small plastic soaking tray, a measuring spoon, a mixing spoon, a small pipette, a toy nail buffer (I can't imagine it'll be good for anything) and a foot-shaped pumice stone. There is also an activity guide, which is really what you buy the kit for. My $2 kit did not have the lotion, fragrance, dye or mixing spoon - not a big deal as I have all those things at home. But indeed, I have everything the kit comes with save for the "crystal mud" (and the guide) at home.
My kids enjoyed playing with the "crystal mud" so much, that for me it was a good purchase. But the kit is definitely not worth $20, IMHO.
There isn't very much science to the kit, though the crystal mud section is used to help kids learn about saturation, which was a concept Mika didn't know before. There is also a few "fun facts" in the booklet with helpful information, though Mika was less than interested in this :-(
--
Here are the activities included in the activity guide.
- Making gel with the "crystal mud". The crystal mud is a polymer which starts as granules which can absorb 300 times their weigh in liquid. They basically become a gel when saturated, and you can use them to soak your hands for relaxation purposes. It doesn't do anything for your skin/nails, though. But Mika LOVED making and playing with the stuff and holding it in her hands.
-Adding salt to the gel, supposedly to help rub off death skin from your hands. However, this part irritated Mika's skin.
-Mixing the lotion base with color and fragrance and rubbing it in her skin. We skipped this part, though we've done it before with a previous kit and the lotion we make ourselves, and just used regular lotion.
-Buffing and shining your nails with the included nail buffer.
-Painting your nails with the non-included nail polish.
Then you do a pedicure
-Soak your feet in the gel
-Rubbing your feet with the included pumice stone
-Applying lotion to your feet
-Painting your toe nails using the included toe separators and your own nail polish.]]>
Stories from Ancient Egypt book review (sort of)tag:www.voxpublica.org,2010://33.98792010-03-05T01:08:14Z2010-03-06T06:49:26ZI got this Stories from Ancient Egypt book at the British Museum a number of years ago, and while we read a couple of the stories a year or two ago, Mika is only now (at almost 8 yo) getting...margahttp://www.marga.org/
I got this Stories from Ancient Egypt book at the British Museum a number of years ago, and while we read a couple of the stories a year or two ago, Mika is only now (at almost 8 yo) getting really into it. She's enjoying the stories, though not immensely. Even though they are not very long, she sort of grows bored with them by the middle.
I think the problem is twofold. The main one is that they are not told in the most interesting manner. The author, Joyce A. Tyldesley, is an Egyptologist - and while she has penned many pop-books on Ancient Egyptian subjects, writing for children requires different skills. The language, in particular, is sort of dry. The other problem is that, IMHO, Ancient Egyptian literature is not particularly compelling. As a student, I particularly enjoyed the Tale of the Two Brothers, in particular for its similarities with the much later story of Joseph from the Bible. I also liked the intriguing harem conspiracy, but looking through my Lichtheim books, I can't find it - so I'm not sure where I read it. But really, most stories are not that great.
That said, I'm glad I have one book of Ancient Egyptian stories to tell my daughter (I'm sure she would not enjoy my reading directly from Lichtheim). One word of warning, while the stories are dumb down for the kids, and sexual contents are cleaned up, there is a still a fair amount of violence to this book. The book includes its version of the book of the heavenly cow (or the "holy cow", as my friend Lola and I liked to call it), in which the goddess Hathor grows bloodthirsty and kills a large part of mankind. That may be a bit too scary for younger kids.
As an aside, I'm planning to get the book Tales of Ancient Egypt by Roger Lancelyn Green (who's written a bunch of children version of ancient stories/myths). The book is just $5 on Amazon and it gets pretty good reviews - plus it has some stories not present in the book I have.]]>
Exploring Ancient Egypt Fun Kit - Reviewtag:www.voxpublica.org,2010://33.98702010-03-05T00:24:48Z2010-03-05T00:46:24Z I got the Exploring Ancient Egypt Fun Kit for Mika's birthday party, and while I haven't used it yet, I'm pretty happy with the purchase. The kit is a very good value. It comes with two coloring books (King...margahttp://www.marga.org/
I got the Exploring Ancient Egypt Fun Kit for Mika's birthday party, and while I haven't used it yet, I'm pretty happy with the purchase. The kit is a very good value. It comes with two coloring books (King Tut Coloring Book, 32 pages and Life in Ancient Egypt Coloring Book, 48 pages). The books have very complex drawings, with a lot of detail, which may be too challenging for kids aged like mine (5 and 8) - but I think would be great for older kids and adults who like to color. Each scene has an explanation underneath it. Each book retails for $4 - so it'd be $8 for both of them.
The kit also comes with 3 sticker booklets (Shiny King Tut Treasure Stickers, about 10 stickers, King Tut: With 44 Stickers, which is actually a "dress King Tut" set and Egyptian Life Stickers, which I think also has 10 stickers), one booklet of stencils
(about 10) and one of tattoos
(id). Each of these booklets is a little bit smaller than 4" x 6". They cost $1.50 each - so just the coloring books and the booklets would be $14 together - the kit is $11.50 by itself.
The kit also comes with three colorful Egyptian masks: Nefertiti, Tutankhamon and some animal, a small poster of Tuthankamon and 4 stained glass coloring sheets.
So in all, if you want all this stuff, it's a good deal. The jury is still out on how good the stickers, tattoos and stencils are.]]>
Mika's Ancient Egyptian Party Invitationstag:www.voxpublica.org,2010://33.98522010-03-04T01:07:37Z2010-03-11T17:30:50Z I got the idea to make these invitations from somewhere on the internet, and I thought the kids would love it. Basically, I printed the invitations on papyrus-printed paper (not my first choice), using hieroglyphs for the top and...margahttp://www.marga.org/
I got the idea to make these invitations from somewhere on the internet, and I thought the kids would love it. Basically, I printed the invitations on papyrus-printed paper (not my first choice), using hieroglyphs for the top and bottom, roll them up and tied them with a string going through an scarab amulet. Mika LOVED the presentation - though Mike complained that it was all my doing and Mika didn't get to participate on making them. What can I say? My major in college was Ancient Egyptian Archaeology, so I'm very much into this party.
Now as to the parts of the invitation:
Papyrus Paper: I'd meant to buy real papyrus for the invitations, but it was surprisingly difficult and expensive to find it online. It's available at Amazon but for the ridiculous price of $4.50 a sheet + super-high shipping. I thought I'd gotten a real good deal on e-bay, where abcislam2000, an Egypt based seller, had listed 10 sheets, about 11 1/2" x 17" each, of plain papyrus with a "buy it now" price of $10 and a "best offer" option. I offered $5 and it was immediately accepted. It's an additional $8 for shipping - so each papyrus sheet ends up costing $1.30. They do combine shipping, so I went ahead and got myself a print of an Ancient Egyptian scene on papyrus (same size) for $3.50, that I can use as decoration.
But the "real papyrus" turned out to be heavy paper printed with a papyrus motif. I e-mailed the seller about it, but he really seems convinced that it's papyrus - that's what his suppliers tell him and he doesn't seem to know better. If it wasn't for the fact that Mika realized it wasn't papyrus right away, it wouldn't be a big deal, the paper looks nice enough and each sheet was large enough for 4 invitations. But she figured it out and was disappointed. Oh well. At least the paper is very good quality, thick and easy to print on.
I'm pretty sure that they sell papyrus printed paper in the US, though I wasn't able to find it through google, so if you go this route you don't have to order it from Egypt.
Lettering / Hieroglyphs
I wanted to use real hieroglyphic writing for Mika's invitation. In particular, I wanted to write "Mika's Birthday" or "Happy Birthday Mika" on the top and "ankh - wdja - snb" (life, prosperty, health) on the bottom. The latter was a very common phrase/wish in Ancient Egypt.
That proved more difficult than expected. While there are several free (and not-free) hieroglyph fonts online, none of the ones I found had all the hieroglyphs I needed. The most complete (and elegant) was Jim Loy's font, available for free, but it did not have the hieroglyph for wdja (the one in the middle, following the ankh, in the picture below). It does have the whole alphabet, plus some other common hieroglyphs including several determinatives (specially for professions/activities) so if you are just looking to spell out a name, this is a very good font to download.
But I was determined to have ankh-wdja-snb so I looked and looked for a another font. Finally I stumbled upon the GlyphBasic fonts, GlyphBasic 4 has the hieroglyph for wdja, but none of the four fonts included in the download had the ankh or the snb. *sigh*. Unfortunately, it was difficult to combine the fonts as the wdja hieroglyph sat taller than the two - so I finally decided to use photoshop to put the hieroglyphs together and just made the whole phrase into a graphic:
I think it ended up looking pretty good.
Given the difficulties with the wdja, and the fact that Jim's font did not have the hieroglyph for nfr (happy), I decided writing "Mika's Birthday" at the top would be enough:
This transliterates to "ra - mswt - Mika". Ra, the sun, means "day" (first hieroglyph + vertical line). "mswt" means "birth" (following three hieroglyphs) and "Mika" (starting with the owl hieroglyph) was spelled out with the female determinative at the end. Note that in Ancient Egyptian you do not leave spaces between words.
There are several ways to spell this phrase and I went with the one that was easiest and most "artistically" pleasant. The font I used did not permit me (or at least I couldn't figure out how) to place the different hieroglyphs one on top of the other, as you would in Ancient Egyptian, so I decided to skip "n" - the wavy line which means "of" and the three little short vertical lines that could have worked as a determinative for "mswt" (no way I was going to search for the "woman giving birth" determinative). That said, after consulting Faulkner, I'm confident that this phrase is perfectly written as such. So feel free to use it (substituting your kids name, of course).
The next header of the invitation uses the Novascript font, which looks sort of ancient despite the name.
I used arial for the rest.
Rolling / Scarab
I rolled the invitations as you would a scroll more for "effect" than authenticity. Ancient Egyptians often folded rather than rolled their papyrus - though the latter was also done. I tied it with some ribbon I had left over (I'll probably use gold for the rest of the invitations), which I passed through a homemade scarab amulet. Camila and I made the amulets using the Fun with Egyptian amulets kit that she got for Xmas. The kit has a mold with different Egyptian amulet forms and you use polymer clay to make them. We made a hole going through them with a toothpick.
And that is that, our party invitations. I hope the kids like them :-)]]>
Consorting with terroriststag:www.voxpublica.org,2010://33.98512010-03-02T16:09:27Z2010-03-03T20:01:29ZA big deal was made during the last presidential campaign about Obama's tenuous connection to a former member of the terrorist organization "Weather Undergound". William Ayers, the man in question, is now a professor of education at the University of...margahttp://www.marga.org/
Tupamaro leader during the early 70's, spent 14 years in prison, and then pursued a less violent political career. The Tupamaros were the main "revolutionary" group in Uruguay, responsible for a number of kidnappings and killings.
As if that was not enough, Hillary continued on to Buenos Aires, where she met with Argentine president Cristina Fernández, herself a former Montonera. The Montoneros were Argentina's main subversive organization during the 1970's. And if that wasn't enough, Hillary went on to Chile, where she met with former Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez member and current Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.
Hmmm. Perhaps being associated with a former "terrorist" is not a big deal outside of a campaign.]]>
Books for Mikatag:www.voxpublica.org,2010://33.98172010-03-02T03:49:06Z2010-03-04T23:29:20ZMika's birthday is a month away and if someone is looking for a present for her, I have a few book suggestions. I haven't looked at these books, but they do look good at Amazon. They are all by the...margahttp://www.marga.org/
Tear Up This Book!: The Sticker, Stencil, Stationery, Games, Crafts, Doodle, And Journal Book For Girls!Psst: Secret Instructions Every Girl Should KnowA Smart Girl's Guide to Staying Home AloneA Smart Girl's Guide to Friendship TroublesStand Up for Yourself and Your Friends: Dealing with Bullies and Bossiness and Finding a Better WayMini Mysteries: 20 Tricky Tales to UntangleWhat's So Funny?: Silly Stickers, Wacky Jokes, Funny Posters, Crazy Photos, and More!
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Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief - Reviewtag:www.voxpublica.org,2010://33.98022010-03-01T03:13:42Z2010-03-01T03:27:01ZMika (my 8 yo) wanted to go see Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and she wanted me to go with her. After reading some reviews I was reluctant - it was mostly portrayed as a pour cousin...margahttp://www.marga.org/
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and she wanted me to go with her. After reading some reviews I was reluctant - it was mostly portrayed as a pour cousin to Harry Potter with similar, but less developed, characters and plot. And indeed, that's what it was - but it was a well crafted adventure movie, with great special effects, approachable characters and it held our interest. And, to top it all, it also taught us a little bit about Greek mythology (though you have to be careful not to take anything they say too literally). Hopefully it can be enough to spark a kids' interest in the subject (Mika is already into ancient mythology).
Camila, my 5 yo, found some parts scary and many boring, but she was a trooper and behaved through all of it.
In all, I'd recommend the movie for kids 7yo and older and even for adults who just want some mindless fluff. ]]>
Books on Ancient Egyptian Crafts for Kidstag:www.voxpublica.org,2010://33.97952010-02-27T23:06:43Z2010-03-04T23:33:34ZI'm throwing Mika an Ancient Egypt theme 8th birthday party, and I've been having some difficulty finding Ancient Egyptian crafts online or books on Ancient Egyptian crafts on Amazon. However, I was easily able to find four such books at...margahttp://www.marga.org/
Amazon. However, I was easily able to find four such books at the library, and I figured I'd blog about them for anyone in the same boat.
Egyptian Crafts from the Past by Gillian Chapman is an older book (1997) that concentrates mostly on cardboard based crafts. The crafts include: boxes (rectangular, tubal and pyramid shaped) with Ancient Egyptian motifs, clay/papier mache sarcophagus, clay/plaster scarabs, plaster relief, board game, cat mummy, reed boat, pasta jewelry, cardboard amulets, papier mache canopic jars, mirrors and make up boxes. The crafts are in the challenging side and several require materials that we don't have at home (reeds, plaster, tubes with plastic stopper), but several look very cool and there are things I'd actually like to make. I'm just not sure we have the skills to make them. The book is beautifully illustrated with color photographs of the crafts and step-by-step drawings.
History and Activities of Ancient Egypt by Alexandra Fix includes an easy to read introduction about Egyptian life and fun as well as a few crafts: a recipe for date sweets, a fake papyrus recipe (made from a paper bag), a papier mache ushabti, and a senet game with instructions on how to play it. I think I'll try the papyrus recipe and perhaps the ushabti. The book is illustrated with color photographs of the crafts and step-by-step drawings.
Ancient Egyptians and Their Neighbors: An Activity Guide has crafts from Ancient Egypt, as well as from Mesopotamia, Nubia and the Hittites. After an introduction to Ancient Egypt, it goes into several projects like a sugar-cube step pyramid, a tissue box garden, pillowcase costumes, a toilet roll bracelet and a clay necklace. There are short chapters on Ancient Egyptian writing, work, food and religion each with a craft or too. The crafts are illustrated with simple black & white drawings, but in general they seem simpler than those from the previous books.
The Ancient Egyptians: Dress, Eat, Write, and Play Just Like the Egyptians is full of simple, somewhat tackier crafts. These include making a paper crown, a plastic straw boat, checkedboard papyrus from regular paper, a cardboard senet game, a recipe for ful medames, a felt and plastic bead colar (which actually looks cool, but it'd probably be a pain to get the necessary beads), a yogurt cup water clock (seems cool too), a clay winged scarab and a cardboard sistrum (which I'd like to make if I can find small bells).
There are two more books, Great Ancient Egypt Projects You Can Build Yourself and Spend the Day in Ancient Egypt: Projects and Activities That Bring the Past to Life that you can buy at Amazon that were not available at our library, but that get good reviews at Amazon.
I think I have enough with what I have and I look forward to go through the books with Mika and find some crafts we can make before and during the party. I'll blog about the ones we do and how successful we are.
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Man steals beer to celebrate getting out of jail - goes back to jail tag:www.voxpublica.org,2010://33.97932010-02-27T17:16:01Z2010-02-27T17:23:35Zhttp://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2010/02/23/12999986-qmi.html QUEBEC CITY - A young man will spend the next 60 days in jail after stealing a beer from a convenience store in Quebec. He stole the $3.37 beer to celebrate having just gotten out of jail. Denis Danny...margahttp://www.marga.org/
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2010/02/23/12999986-qmi.html
QUEBEC CITY - A young man will spend the next 60 days in jail after stealing a beer from a convenience store in Quebec. He stole the $3.37 beer to celebrate having just gotten out of jail.
Denis Danny Roberge, a 19-year-old repeat offender, had been convicted several time for petty theft, with his last crime landing him in jail for eight months, his lawyer said.
Last Friday, Roberge was released from prison and, looking to celebrate, visited the Laval store. He was caught by the store's owner as he was about to steal the beer.
The suspect then fled the scene, with the store owner chasing him. Along the way, they came across police officers and Roberge was arrested.
On Monday, lawyers for both sides agreed 60 days in jail was the shortest possible sentence for Roberge. The sentence is longer than usual because of the teen's prior convictions. For first-time offenders, such a small theft would likely not make it to court. ]]>
Style Six Color Effects Airbrush - Product Review tag:www.voxpublica.org,2010://33.97662010-02-26T02:13:40Z2010-02-26T02:29:49ZI bought the Style Six Color Effects Airbrush for Mika (my 8yo) for Xmas. I wanted to branch out a little from silk screening and I thought she would enjoy this different way of decorating t-shirts. Well, she did, but...margahttp://www.marga.org/I bought the Style Six Color Effects Airbrush for Mika (my 8yo) for Xmas. I wanted to branch out a little from silk screening and I thought she would enjoy this different way of decorating t-shirts. Well, she did, but the product itself was a total failure.
This kit consists of four airbrush markers, a few stencils and a machine which blows air - you put the markers on it and supposedly use it to spray the paint onto whatever fabric surface you want. Alas, the machine doesn't work at all. It's pretty much impossible to make any paint come out of the markers by using it - it just doesn't blow enough air. Now, the markers work quite well if you put them in your mouth and blow through them - and that Mika enjoyed during very much - but it's ridiculous to pay $24 for 4 miserly markers and a few cheapy stencils. The markers don't last very long either - they were enough to make about 3 (well covered) shirts.
To add insult to injury the refill is super expensive (about $19 after shipping for 3 markers) and not easy to find.
So, heed my advise and do not buy this product. ]]>
Reading mythstag:www.voxpublica.org,2010://33.96952010-02-21T20:34:00Z2010-02-21T21:08:37ZFor long, I've thought that one way of reinforcing on my children the idea that the Christian god is not real, was to expose them to other religions, and in particular, polytheistic religions. A fun way of doing this is...margahttp://www.marga.org/
Mini Greek Myths for Young Children) and today Mika and I started reading them together. I wouldn't say the story telling in this book is the best, but it held Mika's attention quite well (but she's 8, Camila, 5, wasn't even interested in hearing them).
We read the myth of Prometheus and the fire, and then the one of Pandora and her box. I had told that story to Mika before, but I guess she was too young for it and she didn't remember it. This time, though, we talked about it and she definitely understood it.
As we talked, I realized how remiss I'd been on telling Mika Judeo-Christian myths, so I told her the story of Adam and Eve, and their expulsion from paradise. She was quick to realize the parallels between the two stories - which led to conversation on why people develop myths in the first place. But this also gave me an opening to another subject I haven't explored enough with her - sexism. Mika was actually quite surprised to learn that for many people women are not equal to men (she thinks we're better :-) and that throughout history men tried their best to oppress women. One of their ways to do so, I told her, was through stories which placed the blame for whatever evil had occurred on women (Pandora and Eve, who, with their curiosity, brought pain to the world). Alas, we didn't have more time to explore the issues with these myths in particular, and the larger issue of how religion works as a principal form of social (and sexual) control, but I'm not sure if Mika is ready for such concepts yet. In any case, I think it won't take much for her to figure out these things by herself.
We continued our foray into Greek mythology with the story of Persephone and the Seasons. Once again, I was quite pleased with Mika - who figured out the meaning of the story way before we got to it. Apparently she had read a story called (The Great Ball Game: A Muskogee Story), based on a Native American myth. In the story, animals and birds play a ball game to see who is better. Nobody wants the bat (who has "teeth" as animals and "wings" like birds) on their team - but finally one of the animals takes pity on him, lets him play with them, and he ends up winning the game for them. As the winner, the bat tells the birds their penalty is that they will have to fly south for half of each year (which coincides with winter in the Northern hemisphere). Well, the parallels she saw between the Persephone myth and this story were enough to make Mika predict that the half year Persephone would spend on the earth with her mother Demeter would be summer, while the time she spends in the underworld with Pluto would be winter. WTF? There is no question that my older girl has an amazing brain in her head.
We finished our foray into Greek mythology by reading the story of Arachne - a myth I had never heard before, but which told us why spiders are called "arachnids" (Arachne was a weaver who incurred the wrath of goddess Athene, who in turn turned her into a tiny eight-legged creature and cursed her to weave forever with no one wanting what she weaved).
I'm hoping we'll be reading more of these myths tonight before bed :-)
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The brutality and absurdity of the American justice system is well known around the world. The fact that until recently we were executing juveniles earned us the condemnation of the world (and several international human rights bodies). And now, prosecutors in Pennsylvania are to decide whether to try a kid for a murder he is accused of having committed when he was 11-years old. If convicted he may get life in prison.
A child. A stupid, immature child - one whose brain has not fully developed, whose concept of right and wrong is still fussy. A normal child.
We, of course, don't know if he was responsible of the crime he is accused of or not. But it doesn't matter. What a child of 11 does is no predictor of what he'll do when he's 22 or 32 or 70. The idea of robbing a child of his whole life because he made a stupid and very, very, very wrong decision as a little kid is beyond absurd, it's unconscionable. Which is not to say that kids like that shouldn't be punished - but it has to be appropriate punishment, psychological counseling and rehabilitation.
Jordan Website, where you can contribute to his legal defense. Please do.]]>
at Grocery Outlet for $2 (it sells in Amazon for $4.60) and Mika had a great time playing with it. She made a "cover" for her cell phone and loved how it looked. Of course, this is a non-functioning cell-phone :-)
I'm not sure if the floam is supposed to dry and permanently stick to whatever surface you put it on, I really don't care either way, but it would have been nice if it came with instructions on how to use it.
Mika and her floam phone
at Thriftown for $2. New it retails for $17 at Amazon. I had been curious about the kit before, mostly because all in all I've enjoyed other Scientific Explorer kits (Spa Science, Perfumery and its chemistry kits). But I didn't buy it because in my experience these kits are waaaaay overpriced. They usually contain mostly the type of ingredients you have at home, plus a couple of small samples of stuff that would be a bit harder to come by. But for that you spend close to $20!
This is definitely the case with the Manicure kit. The kit comes with a 3.4oz bottle of lotion base, 4oz bottle of bath salts (aka sodium chloride or table salt), 1.2 oz bottle of crystal mud (aka sodium polyacrylate), 1ml of sodium melon fragrance, 1 ml green dye, 2 foam toe separators, a small plastic soaking tray, a measuring spoon, a mixing spoon, a small pipette, a toy nail buffer (I can't imagine it'll be good for anything) and a foot-shaped pumice stone. There is also an activity guide, which is really what you buy the kit for. My $2 kit did not have the lotion, fragrance, dye or mixing spoon - not a big deal as I have all those things at home. But indeed, I have everything the kit comes with save for the "crystal mud" (and the guide) at home.
My kids enjoyed playing with the "crystal mud" so much, that for me it was a good purchase. But the kit is definitely not worth $20, IMHO.
There isn't very much science to the kit, though the crystal mud section is used to help kids learn about saturation, which was a concept Mika didn't know before. There is also a few "fun facts" in the booklet with helpful information, though Mika was less than interested in this :-(
--
Here are the activities included in the activity guide.
- Making gel with the "crystal mud". The crystal mud is a polymer which starts as granules which can absorb 300 times their weigh in liquid. They basically become a gel when saturated, and you can use them to soak your hands for relaxation purposes. It doesn't do anything for your skin/nails, though. But Mika LOVED making and playing with the stuff and holding it in her hands.
-Adding salt to the gel, supposedly to help rub off death skin from your hands. However, this part irritated Mika's skin.
-Mixing the lotion base with color and fragrance and rubbing it in her skin. We skipped this part, though we've done it before with a previous kit and the lotion we make ourselves, and just used regular lotion.
-Buffing and shining your nails with the included nail buffer.
-Painting your nails with the non-included nail polish.
Then you do a pedicure
-Soak your feet in the gel
-Rubbing your feet with the included pumice stone
-Applying lotion to your feet
-Painting your toe nails using the included toe separators and your own nail polish.]]>
book at the British Museum a number of years ago, and while we read a couple of the stories a year or two ago, Mika is only now (at almost 8 yo) getting really into it. She's enjoying the stories, though not immensely. Even though they are not very long, she sort of grows bored with them by the middle.
I think the problem is twofold. The main one is that they are not told in the most interesting manner. The author, Joyce A. Tyldesley, is an Egyptologist - and while she has penned many pop-books on Ancient Egyptian subjects, writing for children requires different skills. The language, in particular, is sort of dry. The other problem is that, IMHO, Ancient Egyptian literature is not particularly compelling. As a student, I particularly enjoyed the Tale of the Two Brothers, in particular for its similarities with the much later story of Joseph from the Bible. I also liked the intriguing harem conspiracy, but looking through my Lichtheim
books, I can't find it - so I'm not sure where I read it. But really, most stories are not that great.
That said, I'm glad I have one book of Ancient Egyptian stories to tell my daughter (I'm sure she would not enjoy my reading directly from Lichtheim). One word of warning, while the stories are dumb down for the kids, and sexual contents are cleaned up, there is a still a fair amount of violence to this book. The book includes its version of the book of the heavenly cow (or the "holy cow", as my friend Lola and I liked to call it), in which the goddess Hathor grows bloodthirsty and kills a large part of mankind. That may be a bit too scary for younger kids.
As an aside, I'm planning to get the book Tales of Ancient Egypt
by Roger Lancelyn Green (who's written a bunch of children version of ancient stories/myths). The book is just $5 on Amazon and it gets pretty good reviews - plus it has some stories not present in the book I have.]]>
for Mika's birthday party, and while I haven't used it yet, I'm pretty happy with the purchase. The kit is a very good value. It comes with two coloring books (King Tut Coloring Book
, 32 pages and Life in Ancient Egypt Coloring Book
, 48 pages). The books have very complex drawings, with a lot of detail, which may be too challenging for kids aged like mine (5 and 8) - but I think would be great for older kids and adults who like to color. Each scene has an explanation underneath it. Each book retails for $4 - so it'd be $8 for both of them.
The kit also comes with 3 sticker booklets (Shiny King Tut Treasure Stickers
, about 10 stickers, King Tut: With 44 Stickers
, which is actually a "dress King Tut" set and Egyptian Life Stickers
, which I think also has 10 stickers), one booklet of stencils
(about 10) and one of tattoos
(id). Each of these booklets is a little bit smaller than 4" x 6". They cost $1.50 each - so just the coloring books and the booklets would be $14 together - the kit is $11.50 by itself.
The kit also comes with three colorful Egyptian masks: Nefertiti, Tutankhamon and some animal, a small poster of Tuthankamon and 4 stained glass coloring sheets.
So in all, if you want all this stuff, it's a good deal. The jury is still out on how good the stickers, tattoos and stencils are.]]>
but for the ridiculous price of $4.50 a sheet + super-high shipping. I thought I'd gotten a real good deal on e-bay, where abcislam2000, an Egypt based seller, had listed 10 sheets, about 11 1/2" x 17" each, of plain papyrus with a "buy it now" price of $10 and a "best offer" option. I offered $5 and it was immediately accepted. It's an additional $8 for shipping - so each papyrus sheet ends up costing $1.30. They do combine shipping, so I went ahead and got myself a print of an Ancient Egyptian scene on papyrus (same size) for $3.50, that I can use as decoration.
But the "real papyrus" turned out to be heavy paper printed with a papyrus motif. I e-mailed the seller about it, but he really seems convinced that it's papyrus - that's what his suppliers tell him and he doesn't seem to know better. If it wasn't for the fact that Mika realized it wasn't papyrus right away, it wouldn't be a big deal, the paper looks nice enough and each sheet was large enough for 4 invitations. But she figured it out and was disappointed. Oh well. At least the paper is very good quality, thick and easy to print on.
I'm pretty sure that they sell papyrus printed paper in the US, though I wasn't able to find it through google, so if you go this route you don't have to order it from Egypt.
Lettering / Hieroglyphs
I wanted to use real hieroglyphic writing for Mika's invitation. In particular, I wanted to write "Mika's Birthday" or "Happy Birthday Mika" on the top and "ankh - wdja - snb" (life, prosperty, health) on the bottom. The latter was a very common phrase/wish in Ancient Egypt.
That proved more difficult than expected. While there are several free (and not-free) hieroglyph fonts online, none of the ones I found had all the hieroglyphs I needed. The most complete (and elegant) was Jim Loy's font, available for free, but it did not have the hieroglyph for wdja (the one in the middle, following the ankh, in the picture below). It does have the whole alphabet, plus some other common hieroglyphs including several determinatives (specially for professions/activities) so if you are just looking to spell out a name, this is a very good font to download.
But I was determined to have ankh-wdja-snb so I looked and looked for a another font. Finally I stumbled upon the GlyphBasic fonts, GlyphBasic 4 has the hieroglyph for wdja, but none of the four fonts included in the download had the ankh or the snb. *sigh*. Unfortunately, it was difficult to combine the fonts as the wdja hieroglyph sat taller than the two - so I finally decided to use photoshop to put the hieroglyphs together and just made the whole phrase into a graphic:
This transliterates to "ra - mswt - Mika". Ra, the sun, means "day" (first hieroglyph + vertical line). "mswt" means "birth" (following three hieroglyphs) and "Mika" (starting with the owl hieroglyph) was spelled out with the female determinative at the end. Note that in Ancient Egyptian you do not leave spaces between words.
There are several ways to spell this phrase and I went with the one that was easiest and most "artistically" pleasant. The font I used did not permit me (or at least I couldn't figure out how) to place the different hieroglyphs one on top of the other, as you would in Ancient Egyptian, so I decided to skip "n" - the wavy line which means "of" and the three little short vertical lines that could have worked as a determinative for "mswt" (no way I was going to search for the "woman giving birth" determinative). That said, after consulting Faulkner
, I'm confident that this phrase is perfectly written as such. So feel free to use it (substituting your kids name, of course).
The next header of the invitation uses the Novascript font, which looks sort of ancient despite the name.
I used arial for the rest.
Rolling / Scarab
I rolled the invitations as you would a scroll more for "effect" than authenticity. Ancient Egyptians often folded rather than rolled their papyrus - though the latter was also done. I tied it with some ribbon I had left over (I'll probably use gold for the rest of the invitations), which I passed through a homemade scarab amulet. Camila and I made the amulets using the Fun with Egyptian amulets kit that she got for Xmas. The kit has a mold with different Egyptian amulet forms and you use polymer clay to make them. We made a hole going through them with a toothpick.
And that is that, our party invitations. I hope the kids like them :-)]]>
Psst: Secret Instructions Every Girl Should Know
A Smart Girl's Guide to Staying Home Alone
A Smart Girl's Guide to Friendship Troubles
Stand Up for Yourself and Your Friends: Dealing with Bullies and Bossiness and Finding a Better Way
Mini Mysteries: 20 Tricky Tales to Untangle
What's So Funny?: Silly Stickers, Wacky Jokes, Funny Posters, Crazy Photos, and More!
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by Gillian Chapman is an older book (1997) that concentrates mostly on cardboard based crafts. The crafts include: boxes (rectangular, tubal and pyramid shaped) with Ancient Egyptian motifs, clay/papier mache sarcophagus, clay/plaster scarabs, plaster relief, board game, cat mummy, reed boat, pasta jewelry, cardboard amulets, papier mache canopic jars, mirrors and make up boxes. The crafts are in the challenging side and several require materials that we don't have at home (reeds, plaster, tubes with plastic stopper), but several look very cool and there are things I'd actually like to make. I'm just not sure we have the skills to make them. The book is beautifully illustrated with color photographs of the crafts and step-by-step drawings.
History and Activities of Ancient Egypt
by Alexandra Fix includes an easy to read introduction about Egyptian life and fun as well as a few crafts: a recipe for date sweets, a fake papyrus recipe (made from a paper bag), a papier mache ushabti, and a senet game with instructions on how to play it. I think I'll try the papyrus recipe and perhaps the ushabti. The book is illustrated with color photographs of the crafts and step-by-step drawings.
Ancient Egyptians and Their Neighbors: An Activity Guide
has crafts from Ancient Egypt, as well as from Mesopotamia, Nubia and the Hittites. After an introduction to Ancient Egypt, it goes into several projects like a sugar-cube step pyramid, a tissue box garden, pillowcase costumes, a toilet roll bracelet and a clay necklace. There are short chapters on Ancient Egyptian writing, work, food and religion each with a craft or too. The crafts are illustrated with simple black & white drawings, but in general they seem simpler than those from the previous books.
The Ancient Egyptians: Dress, Eat, Write, and Play Just Like the Egyptians
is full of simple, somewhat tackier crafts. These include making a paper crown, a plastic straw boat, checkedboard papyrus from regular paper, a cardboard senet game, a recipe for ful medames, a felt and plastic bead colar (which actually looks cool, but it'd probably be a pain to get the necessary beads), a yogurt cup water clock (seems cool too), a clay winged scarab and a cardboard sistrum (which I'd like to make if I can find small bells).
There are two more books, Great Ancient Egypt Projects You Can Build Yourself
and Spend the Day in Ancient Egypt: Projects and Activities That Bring the Past to Life
that you can buy at Amazon that were not available at our library, but that get good reviews at Amazon.
I think I have enough with what I have and I look forward to go through the books with Mika and find some crafts we can make before and during the party. I'll blog about the ones we do and how successful we are.
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for Mika (my 8yo) for Xmas. I wanted to branch out a little from silk screening and I thought she would enjoy this different way of decorating t-shirts. Well, she did, but the product itself was a total failure.
This kit consists of four airbrush markers, a few stencils and a machine which blows air - you put the markers on it and supposedly use it to spray the paint onto whatever fabric surface you want. Alas, the machine doesn't work at all. It's pretty much impossible to make any paint come out of the markers by using it - it just doesn't blow enough air. Now, the markers work quite well if you put them in your mouth and blow through them - and that Mika enjoyed during very much - but it's ridiculous to pay $24 for 4 miserly markers and a few cheapy stencils. The markers don't last very long either - they were enough to make about 3 (well covered) shirts.
To add insult to injury the refill
is super expensive (about $19 after shipping for 3 markers) and not easy to find.
So, heed my advise and do not buy this product. ]]>
) and today Mika and I started reading them together. I wouldn't say the story telling in this book is the best, but it held Mika's attention quite well (but she's 8, Camila, 5, wasn't even interested in hearing them).
We read the myth of Prometheus and the fire, and then the one of Pandora and her box. I had told that story to Mika before, but I guess she was too young for it and she didn't remember it. This time, though, we talked about it and she definitely understood it.
As we talked, I realized how remiss I'd been on telling Mika Judeo-Christian myths, so I told her the story of Adam and Eve, and their expulsion from paradise. She was quick to realize the parallels between the two stories - which led to conversation on why people develop myths in the first place. But this also gave me an opening to another subject I haven't explored enough with her - sexism. Mika was actually quite surprised to learn that for many people women are not equal to men (she thinks we're better :-) and that throughout history men tried their best to oppress women. One of their ways to do so, I told her, was through stories which placed the blame for whatever evil had occurred on women (Pandora and Eve, who, with their curiosity, brought pain to the world). Alas, we didn't have more time to explore the issues with these myths in particular, and the larger issue of how religion works as a principal form of social (and sexual) control, but I'm not sure if Mika is ready for such concepts yet. In any case, I think it won't take much for her to figure out these things by herself.
We continued our foray into Greek mythology with the story of Persephone and the Seasons. Once again, I was quite pleased with Mika - who figured out the meaning of the story way before we got to it. Apparently she had read a story called (The Great Ball Game: A Muskogee Story
), based on a Native American myth. In the story, animals and birds play a ball game to see who is better. Nobody wants the bat (who has "teeth" as animals and "wings" like birds) on their team - but finally one of the animals takes pity on him, lets him play with them, and he ends up winning the game for them. As the winner, the bat tells the birds their penalty is that they will have to fly south for half of each year (which coincides with winter in the Northern hemisphere). Well, the parallels she saw between the Persephone myth and this story were enough to make Mika predict that the half year Persephone would spend on the earth with her mother Demeter would be summer, while the time she spends in the underworld with Pluto would be winter. WTF? There is no question that my older girl has an amazing brain in her head.
We finished our foray into Greek mythology by reading the story of Arachne - a myth I had never heard before, but which told us why spiders are called "arachnids" (Arachne was a weaver who incurred the wrath of goddess Athene, who in turn turned her into a tiny eight-legged creature and cursed her to weave forever with no one wanting what she weaved).
I'm hoping we'll be reading more of these myths tonight before bed :-)
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