USAF Museum Homeschool Days (Dayton, Ohio)

The National Museum of the USAF (Dayton, Ohio) offers two special Home School Days every year -- once in the spring and once in the fall. Programming changes each year, with the fall program being a repeat of the previous spring program.

Upcoming Home School Days:*
April 7, 2008
Sept. 29, 2008

HHMI Holiday lectures 2008

Howard Hughes Medical Institute Holiday lectures on Science continue.

Making Your Mind: Molecules, Motion & Memory. Two leading neuroscientists will help us puzzle out how the brain is organized, how it develops, how it controls behavior, and how it stores memory. Click here to view lecture summaries of the 2008 Holiday Lectures.

Watch the lectures via Live Webcast December 4 and 5th at 10:00 a.m. ET & PT.

1. Mapping Memory to the Brain Eric R. Kandel, M.D., 12/4, 10 - 11 am
2. Building Brains: The Molecular Logic of Neural Circuits, Thomas M. Jessell , Ph.D., Webcast 12/4, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. ET & PT
3. Making Your Mind: Molecules, Movement, and Memory, Thomas M. Jessell , Ph.D., Webcast 12/5 10:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m. ET & PT
4. Memories are Made of This, Eric R. Kandel , M.D. Webcast 12/5, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. ET & PT

On-Demand Webcast: Available starting December 9, 2008
www.biointeractive.org/lectures

Free on DVD - Spring 2009

Past Lecture Topics include:
In 2007, the 15th show was on AIDS: Evolution of an Epidemic. Click here to view lecture summaries of the 2007 Holiday Lectures.
2006 Holiday Lectures: Potent Biology: Stem Cells, Cloning, and Regeneration
In 2005, the theme was Evolution, see more at The Panda's Thumb.
2004: Science of Fat

Nutcracker Study Guides

I don't have the stamina to track down and list every Nutcracker show around, but there are many study guides online that would be relevant no matter which production you see.

Besides the story summary every guide has, I especially like the photos of the basic hand and foot positions for ballet on page 29 of the San Francisco Ballet'sNutcraker Study Guide and page 7, page 8 of Balletbc's Dance CompanyB study guide .

Most people seem to enjoy theatre more when they know a bit about the show before they walk in. Sometimes I give my children special things to watch for, a mental scavenger hunt, to keep them interested. Having a study guide sure makes that job easier!. (For Chinese dance, I asked them to see how many ways the dancers make circles, for Shakespeare I asked them to listen for a couple of quotes, and if we go to see "The Nutcracker" this season, I might check out one or two of these for questions or ideas.) Some of these study guides have "after the show" activities and work sheets too - Mad Libs, word searches, and even some coloring pages.

Nutcracker Study Guides available online include:

• SF Ballet Nutcracker Study Guide (40 pages) - while you might not be interested in the page about their set designer and their opera house, the word search, number match and fun facts all work for any nutcracker, "what is dance", and the pictures of the basic hand and feet "positions" for hands and feet are useful to any one attending any Nutcracker. My suggestion is to look before you print it out & perhaps only print what you need/want. I would not print the answers, I'd just peek if I needed it so I would only print 1 - 14, 18 - 25, 29 - 32, and only print 26-28 if someone wants more information on the ballet of the show.
• Pages 4 - 9 of GBPAC Nutcracker Study Guide
• NYC Ballet Nutcracker Study Guide (1 page)
• National Ballet of Canada Nutcracker Study Guide(22 pages)
• LPAC Arts Nutcracker Study Guide (4 pages)
• Popejoy Schooltime Nutcracker Study Guide (8 pages)

or watch videos of some of the greatest ballerinas dancing the Nutcracker at We Show videos online.

Links current as of 2 December 2007.

Artist to Artist Contest - postmark by December 28, 2007

To enter Penguin's Artist to Artist Contest ("Contest"), submit a self portrait on an 8-1/2in. x 11in. sheet of paper, using any medium you choose. Winners may be displayed at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art! in Amherst, MA.

Not sure if they really mean to exclude homeschoolers - as they say "Entries may only be submitted through a school, library or bookstore that is located in the continental United States." To be eligible, all entries must be postmarked by December 28, 2007 and received by January 4, 2008. The art will not be returned.

Entries must be mailed to School & Library Marketing / Penguin Young Readers Group., 345 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014, ATTN: Artist to Artist. Limit one entry per person.

Click for all the details.