Yesterday, Disney released Schoolhouse Rock: The Election Collection, a special limited edition DVD collection of the ABC three-minute animated shorts we used to watch on Saturday mornings back in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
Schoolhouse Rock: The Election Collection features classic election-themed tunes including “I’m Just a Bill,” “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” and “I’m Gonna Send Your Vote to College.” The DVD also features a new-to-DVD song called “Presidential Minute” with two surprise endings and an Election Tracking Kit with stickers to help you keep track of the actual voting results in all 50 states with your children on election night.
Not only will this collection bring back memories for all you Gen X and Gen Y parents out there, this is a great way to share the political process with your children.
I recently watched the History Channel’s Life After People on DVD*, which combines visual effects and interviews with leading experts to show what happens to the planet if humans vanished. It’s basically the story of how civilization would decay, and how Mother Nature would reclaim and renew the Earth. The thought provoking documentary made me wonder what kind of children’s science activities could you do – besides watching the Life After People DVD of course – to explore the concept of decay. And what kind of children’s cooking activities could show you how you preserve food?
Walk outside in the woods, the beach, or a park and look for evidence of natural materials like leaves, dead trees, and cut grass which are decaying. Even rocks break down into pebbles and sand. Contrast with man-made waste like glass and plastics that do not decay. Find some man-made materials that do decay like metal (rust) or paper.
If you can stomach it, visit a local taxidermist to find out how the flesh is removed from animals. You can see the defleshing process online, but you may not want to share the pictures with the kids. Pretty graphic, but some kids love the gross out factor.
Put a few food items on the counter and watch them decay – bread gets moldy, fruit turns into rotten mush, and if you’ve watched Super Size Me, you know that McDonald’s french fries don’t decay. (Don’t let this experiment go too long or you’ll have a smelly room full of fruit flies.)
And how can we prevent decay?
Take a piece of untreated wood. Cover half with a some sort of deck sealant and the other half without. Leave outside for a few weeks in the sun and rain. Observe how to the two halves look compared to each other after being exposed to the elements. Theorize how the sealant prevents the wood from weathering and decaying. What do you think is more harmful to the wood – the sun, freezing and thawing, or getting wet and drying? (Probably all three.)
Talk about the different ways we preserve food – salting, smoking, cooking, drying, freezing, canning, pickling, and refrigerating. Even cheese, ice cream and yogurt making are just ways to preserve milk. To explore this further, here’s a children’s food preservation science activity link. For cooking activities you could:
The My Home 2.0 website is full of techno-helpful tips and DIY projects. Many are eco-friendly like How 2.0: Make a Solar Cell Phone Charger. The project takes one hour and uses an Altoids Tin case, 2 mini solar panels, soldering equipment, a wire stripper and a cell phone charger (either for the wall outlet or car).
I reviewed this project online with it’s step by step pictures and helpful directions, and it seems doable as long as you’re fairly handy and know how to use a soldering iron. They also caution to use an extra cell phone charger or to get a cheap one at Best Buy. This would be a great project for a teenager or maybe for an adult with a child assisting. Having a solar cellphone charger is a must for anyone who hikes or camps, too, and this would make a cute present for the “greenie” in your life.
There are also several projects that are much more challenging but are fun to watch, like “Hack a Bat.”
Did you know that kids’ TV viewing spikes by 150% in the summer? Goodness knows my children’s has even though they are also busy with summer camps, karate, baseball, camping trips, sleep overs, and summer reading programs.
To combat the spike in TV viewing, the Smart Television Alliance has just announced the OutSmart the Summer Spike! campaign to raise awareness about the need for busy parents and caregivers to make smart viewing choices and to use technology to control what their children watch.
The Smart Television Alliance believes that if you’re in control of what’s on the screen, you can actually bring educational time to a long summer outside of the classroom. How do you go about doing this? First, start is by signing a petition to TV producers demanding more educational and age-appropriate programming for kids.
Also, look for Smart Television Alliance’s Summer TV Tips blog posts to find out how you can use your kids’ favorite shows as inspiration for learning, while the show is on, and after it’s over. (And while you’re over there, check out the post I wrote for them – Remote Control: It’s O.K., Mom Said We Can Watch TV.)
If you don’t feel like going to the Smart Television Alliance’s blog ever day, you can sign up for Smart News to get tips and other great information sent right to you.
Some experts say that television controls children’s behavior. As the parent, you can take control of the remote and use television as a positive influence on your family. For example, we use television to inspire our children’s potential career choices. As a regular viewer of MythBusters, Nathan has decided he wants to be a stunt man when he grows up. Unfortunately, Paul had to break the news to our son that very few people make careers out of blowing stuff up – even on TV.
The information on this website is presented for entertainment and informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute medical advice or treatment in any form. We link out to other sites and are not responsible and cannot be held liable for anything on those sites. When we review or recommend any products or services, we are not responsible and cannot be held liable for any dissatisfaction you may have with the product, service or sponsor or any injuries that may be caused by use of that product or service.
Yesterday, Disney released Schoolhouse Rock: The Election Collection, 
, which combines visual effects and interviews with leading experts to show what happens to the planet if humans vanished. It’s basically the story of how civilization would decay, and how Mother Nature would reclaim and renew the Earth. The thought provoking documentary made me wonder what kind of children’s science activities could you do – besides watching the 
, you know that McDonald’s french fries don’t decay. (Don’t let this experiment go too long or you’ll have a smelly room full of fruit flies.)
