Welp, they're definitely messier than they were a week ago! I'm currently spending all my teaching money on puppy pee pads, wet kitten food, and wood pellet litter, but if a hobby doesn't take up all your time and even more of your money, then what kind of hobby even is it?
selfie with Sage
Dill and the teenager
The babies really woke up this week. I miss their wobbly little uncertain steps, but watching them play fight and chase each other is also incredibly cute. They're still nursing regularly, but they've all gotten the hang of their wet kitten food by now, and they and Ginger are easily going through three cans a day on top of Ginger's dry food (that I've also seen a kitten or two snack on). It's so different from every other litter we've ever had, that we've always had to bribe with pureed baked chicken to start putting on weight!
doing our best to make Sage an ipad baby
picture of two mamas!
Even Sage, who I suspect isn't quite the same age as his siblings, FINALLY started chowing down by the end of the week--little dude put on over two ounces in two days!
Sage FINALLY eating his nice wet food!
We're done with quarantine, and although I'm still not giving the kittens any freedom (and Ginger keeps getting herself put back in kitten jail for essentially beelining straight to my dwarf pomegranate, mouth already open for munching, as soon as we let her out), it's nice to be able to bring them out of their room to hang out with us, rather than having to chill out on the floor of the cramped kids' bathroom whenever we want to visit them.
Sage not enjoying his field trip into the outside world
family portrait on my lap
We're probably not technically done with ringworm quarantine, but we're done with changing clothes every time we touch the kittens, so I guess that's us done with ringworm quarantine! If I have to admit in a few weeks that we all have ringworm, feel free to shame me. I'll deserve it.
Clove, Dill, and Fennel
My favorite kitten is still a kitten who's sleeping and purring on my lap, so I like most to snatch one up just as they're all settling down for a nap so it can come and snooze on me instead. I also really like Zooming with my college student from the kitten room; essentially we just spend an hour with me holding kitten after kitten up to the camera, and her squealing at them in such a high pitch that her computer's microphone can't even pick it up. She's coming home for a visit in a few days to watch her sister perform in our town's Trashion/Refashion Show, and I think she'll be hard-pressed to divide her days between the kittens and her dog!
Clove is my snooze buddy
Now that everyone's over the hump of possible illnesses and all the babies are gaining weight, all we really have to do with them is love them, feed them, socialize them, and clean up after them. This is the part where they work their way into my heart and I get so attached to them that I cry for days when we finally have to bring them back to the shelter so their forever families can come adopt them.
Dill is my other best snoozer
I should probably take more pictures of what their bathroom looks like every single morning and just look at that when I miss them...
I often say jokingly (but also not) that my teenager knows more about Greek mythology than anyone else that I've ever met.
To be fair, I haven't met Rick Riordan, Helene Guerber (if only!), or Madeline Miller, but I have met my fair share of academics, well-read individuals, and other homeschoolers with their Special Interests, and none of them compare to my own resident mythologist.
Fortunately, mythology makes an excellent spine for any level of reading/rhetoric/language arts study, but it's especially suitable for the high school student. Themes that deal with explaining the world and our place in it, plots that have these elevated gods and goddesses acting petty and mean and just as flawed as the rest of us, and language that even in translation is meaty and rich are perfect for the growing emotional and academic maturity of a high schooler.
This works even better if you homeschool, because you can incorporate cross-curricular elements so easily, depending on the interests and academic needs of your high schooler. I like to incorporate geography and art history into our mythology studies, but you can also add in Ancient history, architecture, the history of science (with enough hands-on demonstrations and experiments to count it as a lab credit), comparative literature, world religion study... and I'm sure numerous other topics that haven't even occurred to me!
Every year, my homeschoolers have used the National Mythology Exam, administered by Excellence Through Classics, as a spine for part of their grade-level ELA credit. Studying the curriculum easily accounts for a semester's credit, and the exam, itself, makes a nice culminating project.
The exam curriculum varies each year, and I also love that it incorporates some obscure sources as well as some more well-known sources, allowing kids to become proficient with the canonical works while studying more deeply and building context with lesser-known works. There's also variety between prose, poetry, and plays, so it feels like a well-rounded unit.
Now that the kids have sat the exam for multiple years, I also appreciate the way that the curriculum continues to incorporate past resources, but in new ways. Last year, for instance, we studied The Odyssey and The Argonautica in their entirety; this year, kids are asked to read just a couple of short selections from each, with the focus on gaining different information from them than last year. So if you study for the exam over multiple years, you learn to see the same sources from different viewpoints and make deeper, more sophisticated connections between them and other source material.
The one "flaw" to the National Mythology Exam is that it only covers Greek mythology. This is a narrow focus when you consider all the mythologies of the world, but it's still a vast amount of content to work with. And if Greek mythology is your kid's Special Interest, then it's definitely the gateway to getting them to get some solid academic work done!
This year's theme for the Medusa Mythology Exam for high school students was "The Ichor of Zeus." I had no idea what this phrase meant, but the first time I read it to my teenager she explained that it referred to Zeus' fully immortal children. When you study for the exam, you can focus your efforts on that theme, but the exam DOES ask questions outside of it, so you can't *only* read those selected passages that deal with that selected topic. Here's part of what we studied for this year's exam:
Alcestis, by Euripedes: we watched a Zoom production of this play on YouTube:
The Odyssey, by Homer: this is the third time in three years that my teenager has studied The Odyssey! This year, though, she wasn't looking at Odysseus and his adventures, but specifically the actions of the gods/goddesses.
It's a LOT, but the only long text that we read in its entirety before the exam was The Iliad. If you're going to study only one long text in its entirety, The Iliad is a good one! You can talk about the Homeric hero, hero archetypes (including the fatal flaw), the oral tradition, issues in translation, and all kinds of tropes and literary devices. And because of the way Homer wrote, you get a look at most of the Pantheon (I think Hades must have been off playing tennis or something during the Trojan War...) as well as see references to numerous characters connected to other works, such as Aeneas, Agamemnon, and Odysseus. Afterwards, you could transition immediately into The Aeneid and go off on your Roman way, or The Odyssey and hang out with giants and my favorite character, Calypso!
The shorter texts include stories from Metamorphoses, entries in Library of History, the poems that are the Homeric Hymns, etc. It is MORE than enough content for a semester's high school ELA credit!
Content-Rich Resources and Activities
If you're a homeschooler, you're probably used to living and breathing your main unit of study. Fortunately, mythology is easy to live and breathe!
There are 41 videos that are all less than 15 minutes long, so it's pretty easy to pace them. I don't even worry about matching the videos with whatever mythological text we're currently studying; I see them as building a knowledge base and context, so we watch them as they come up and discuss whatever Entopics or connections they bring to mind.
Crash Course Mythology is part of our school day, but because my teenager just simply loves mythology, she's really open to incorporating mythology-centric books, films, audiobooks, and podcasts into her personal time and our family free time. I think she'd proudly tell you that Percy Jackson was her gateway into Greek mythology, and she still rereads all the Percy Jackson books constantly. I love them all, too, and I love having this fandom connection with her. And with all the books plus the non-fiction companions, a younger kid really does have everything they need to build quite a substantial base of mythology knowledge to support advanced study.
My teenager really loves audio input, and she's always got music, a podcast, or an audiobook in her ears. Even before we read The Iliad together, she listened to this podcast in its entirety:
I mean, it's not like you're going to get a lot of spoilers for the Trojan War these days (I hope you already know who wins!), and I think that having such a thorough synopsis, including the parts that aren't actually included in The Iliad (did you know that the Apple, Helen's abduction, and even the freaking TROJAN HORSE aren't actually IN The Iliad?!?), makes understanding the text so much easier.
Other podcasts that we listen to more selectively, depending on the episode, include the following:
We use these during the unit for synopses and analysis of the texts we're reading, background historical information, and context-building discussion of the characters we're studying.
Flash cards and Quizlets are terrific for content checks; they're not always the most fun, but they DO help students memorize what they need to memorize. Here's the Quizlet that my teenager used to study for her exam; it's built from the Study Guide doc where she took notes from all her readings.
One year, to make things more fun, my homeschoolers created trading cards for the Greek Pantheon. They looked a little like the ones in this activity, but on the back of each card they wrote the character's stats and main accomplishments, trading-card style. I only have one kid who super loves art, so we didn't do a ton, but I think it would be so awesome to make a bunch of these, color copy them onto bristol board, and then use them for a whole other range of activities.
Creating memes and AITA entries is also really fun, and sneakily solidifies characters and events and sometimes pretty minor plot points.
Interactive Notebook
If you plan to do a multi-year study, or at least to take the National Mythology Exam multiple years, an interactive notebook would be a great resource for your student to create. If you put it in a three-ring binder, you can easily review and then build on your knowledge every time you revisit a particular text or myth, creating your own homemade reference book/study guide as you go. For getting started, I like some of the components in this Odyssey interactive notebook--the character list and comic strip summaries are fun and useful!
When my homeschoolers were in the upper middle school and early high school years, I gave them a lot of projects that asked them to create digital infographics, because I think that kind of visual/textual informative communication is an important part of literacy. These kinds of infographics on the subject of Greek mythology could include family trees, detailed character profiles, info about specific texts, etc., and all could then be placed in an interactive notebook.
Maps are also really important to include. Every year we review the geography of the Mediterranean by drawing and labeling maps with modern and ancient places and features--here's a good basic map of the Mediterranean. I usually rely on maps created by others for understanding specific texts, like this map of The Odyssey that I printed for our study last year but which still lives on the magnet board in the family room because it's so great.
You can also include in the interactive notebook all the other student-created products of a high school unit, the essays and comprehension quizzes, even the old National Mythology Exam test papers.
Cross-Curricular Art Enrichment
There are so many artistic outlets that an art-inclined student can incorporate into a mythology study, both to add a cross-curricular component and to help build mastery of the information covered. Check out, for instance, this Tiktok:
Imagine the graphic design skills built, the screenprinting skills in practice, AND the correct ordering of the places Odysseus visited and who he encountered there!
To see awesome Greek artifacts close to home, of course, just hit up your nearest and best art museum. Even our local university has some artifacts from Greece, the museum in the nearby state capital has more, and whenever we travel somewhere amazing (this summer to England!), I make sure we visit a museum where we can see things from all our family Special Interests, including Greek mythology, the Maya, and prehistory.
The British Museum stole SO MANY great Greek artifacts that I'm looking forward to seeing!
I also use Google Image to find high-res images of the artworks that my teenager is studying, print them four-to-a-page on cardstock, then cut them out and label them with their info on the back. The teenager can study them, sort and organize them, and display them around our study space.
This year, my teenager and I are studying art history right along with ancient world history, and I love how crucial architecture is to this study. Architecture IS art! She's not my kid who loves model-building, so we don't do nearly as much of that as we did when my college student was still at home, but modeling something like the Parthenon really does allow you to study its features in more detail.
For more art enrichment, you could model Greek vases to learn more about the embellishment style, or create a shoebox diorama of an important scene from a specific text.
Enrichment Resources
In some ways, the best Greek mythology enrichment that we ever provided to our kids was the trip that we took to Greece! We saw such wonders as--
Mycnae, where Agamemnon was king when he said to the siege of Troy, then came back to be murdered, along with his enslaved consort, Cassandra, by his wife Clytemnestra, Helen's sister. She in turn would later be murdered by their son, Orestes.
Ever since that trip, we have a running joke that everytime we hear crickets chirping, we start to talk loudly as a family about how much we love poetry and music, because crickets are Apollo's ears and he uses them to check up on you and see if you're properly respecting his gifts.
In other ways, though, the trip was really just an excuse for the younger homeschooler to explore the one Special Interest that is dearer to her heart than Greek mythology:
Here's a Tiktok that really encapsulates what it's like to visit Greece, home to untold numbers of feral cats, with a cat lover:
Exploring the Greek language is also an excellent enrichment--you don't have to learn to speak it to benefit from stretching your mind to explore a new language system. Memorizing the Greek alphabet and their letter names is fun and easy, especially if you display an anchor chart and just spend a few seconds going over it daily. Take another small step forward and memorize the phonemes, and you'll suddenly discover that there are so many cognates between Greek and English that you can actually read a surprising number of words! I bought this Greek alphabet block printable way back in 2017, and it was a great purchase because I can build new blocks as needed.
By the way--if you haven't studied Greek roots yet, now is the time!
I think our favorite enrichments, though, are the more contemporary books and films made on mythological subjects. I love fanart of all kinds, and these are no exception! Last year when we studied the Argonautica in depth, I showed the kids the old Jason and the Argonauts movie, especially my favorite all-time movie scene:
It is so good! I love how all the actors are absolutely pouring sweat because it's probably at least 110 degrees on that bare dirt and rock, and how the Argonauts just stand there for, like, ten minutes while the skeletons get sown and grown and form up to march. Just kill the humans really quick and run, Jason!
We also love, of course, Clash of the Titans and Troy, although y'all, Patroclus is NOT Achilles' baby cousin.
Along with all of Percy Jackson, (of course!), here are some other good Greek mythology fanfics for high schoolers:
Fun that they're all written by women! I've also been wanting to read this newer Emily Wilson translation of The Odyssey, but I haven't gotten around to it. Perhaps that will be a good Jurassic Coast beach read this summer!
We usually also read at least one book a year that can be usefully compared to some mythological tale. We haven't decided what our book will be for this year, but last year we read The Hunger Games and compared it to the life of Theseus. Theseus and Katniss are so much alike!
Let me know if you can think of any good modern works that one could fruitfully compare with The Iliad...
My teenager sat this year's National Mythology Exam a couple of weeks ago, so we'll probably move Greek mythology to the back burner for a while, maybe just popping in once a week or so to read a little more in one of the texts that we didn't need to read in its entirety for the exam. It became apparent during the text that my teenager had forgotten a couple of important things about The Odyssey (oops!), so maybe we'll do that Emily Wilson translation together over the summer.
I mean, you have to listen to SOMETHING while you put together jigsaw puzzles and solve Sudoku!
Welcome back to my very weird series in which I am listing, week by week, topic by topic, every single Council's Own Girl Scout fun patch program that your Girl Scouts can earn from everywhere!
My Girl Scout troop enjoys earning Council's Own fun patches, as well as official badges and retired badges. I usually look for a fun patch that they can earn in addition to a badge whenever we're planning a big project or a trip, etc. This list is essentially just my own research written down for easy reference.
This week's category: Games and Sports! This category includes trying out--or just learning about--a new game or sport. I was surprised (and a little disappointed!) to see so few Council's Own fun patches in this category, because there are very few Physical Activity badges for Girl Scouts to earn, and SO MANY fun games and sports to expose kids to! Every city that hosts a professional sports team ought to have plenty of fun patches for those teams--where are my NHL and National Women's Soccer League fun patches? The same for every city that hosts a special sporting event--we've got a marathon fun patch, but no car racing, bicycle racing, or equestrian fun patches.
Ah, well. Always room for improvement!
For this list, I only included fun patch programs that fit the following criteria:
Girl Scouts can earn this fun patch wherever they are. I did not include any fun patch programs that have site-specific criteria, unless I felt that those criteria would be easy to substitute and still maintain the point of the fun patch program. I also didn't include fun patch programs that require time-specific criteria that have already passed, such as patches programs designed for the 2020 COVID lockdowns. I noted in the description of each patch when substitutions would be required.
Girl Scouts can obtain the council's requirements to earn this fun patch. I found several instances in which the council still sells a specific fun patch, but has deleted all the requirements from its website. If I couldn't find an easy link to those requirements from another site, I did not include the patch.
Girl Scouts can obtain the physical fun patch. There were also several instances in which councils still host the requirements for a fun patch program, but no longer sell the patch (or, as in the case of a few GSAK patches, they have fewer than ten remaining). If it is unlikely for a Girl Scout to be able to obtain the fun patch, I did not include it. The link to purchase each fun patch is in the caption for its graphic.
Bowling, Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois. Lean the basics of bowling and have fun playing the game. This would be a great fun patch to earn during a troop trip to a bowling alley, especially if you can get a behind-the-scenes tour.
Gymnastics, Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois. Visit a gymnastics studio to learn about the sport and practice some simple skills. This would make a good fun patch for a younger Girl Scout troop to earn during a troop trip to a gymnastics studio.
Marathon: Go the Distance, Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts. Learn about the history and culture of marathons while preparing to run in a race of your own. This fun patch program pairs well with the Senior Cross Training badge and Ambassador Coaching badge.
Roller Skating, Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois. Learn about the sport of roller skating and try roller skating skills. This is a good fun patch to earn with a troop trip to a roller skating rink, especially accompanied by a behind-the-scenes tour.
The Easter care package is candy-forward, because I know what my kid likes best about Easter!
I have a whole system in place to distract myself from how much I miss my college kid. One night a week, we play Stardew Valley together and call each other on speakerphone so we can talk while we play. One night a week, we use the Hulu Watch Party to watch a couple of episodes of Schitt's Creek together while we gossip in the chat box. One night a week, the whole family Zooms. Once a month, I send her a letter. And once a month, I send her a care package!
I don't do the cute themey care packages that I've seen some parents do, because my kid and I would both think they were corny, but I've been surprised at how much fun it is just to assemble lots of little bits and bobs that I think my kid would like, then write her a little note and send it off!
It is a constant struggle, though, to remind myself that my kid is a minimalist, and doesn't want any crap that will have to just sit around. If my kid's preferences aren't enough, I also can remind myself of how miserable it was to load the car with all her stuff for college, drive it all there, drag it all into her dorm, and help her unpack it. We'll be doing the same thing in reverse when she moves out (or at least Matt will, because love my college kid as I do, I am going to do EVERYTHING in my power to get out of being the one who goes to pick her up and bring her home at the end of the year!), so I'm very wary of sending her stuff that I'm just going to have to drive back home in a few months. I've been keeping my care packages small on purpose, and sending a lot of snacks, small items that won't take up a lot of room in her luggage, and travel-sized stuff that she can easily use up.
I've been keeping an eye on sales and Clearance racks, and squirreling away care package items as I come upon them. I also sometimes break up multi-packs, and put, say, just a couple of protein bars or pudding cups or hair ties in each care package instead of giving her twelve at once.
SNACKS, CONDIMENTS, AND INSTANT MEALS
I thought the food at my kid's college was going to be AWESOME, because they fed us two meals when we were there for her Admitted Students Day visit, including one meal in the student cafeteria with the current students, and everything was absolutely delicious! But apparently the food they serve when guests are present is a lie, the poor kid, and mostly the meals are bland and repetitive.
And this is a kid who is certainly not accustomed to eating lovely prepared gourmet meals at home, so it MUST be bad!
Her cafeteria is also a short walk from her dorm, and it doesn't sell snacks, so there's plenty of room for care package treats that are quick and easy meals that she can make in the comfort of her own dorm, or make good study snacks, or add a bit of welcome flavor to the typical cafeteria fare. Here are some ideas:
candy
dried fruit
fruit cups
Goldfish crackers
granola bars
homemade treats. I bought some small disposable aluminum loaf pans that are perfect for baking mini loaves of banana and pumpkin bread in, or Matt or I will bake her a batch of one of her favorite kinds of cookie.
Her favorite Russian Tea Cookies are a Matt specialty, fortunately, so I didn't have to do any work!
hot sauce
instant hot chocolate
instant noodle cups. She's got a tea kettle, and everyone loves instant noodles!
instant oatmeal packets
juice boxes/pouches. My kid and I have butted heads her entire life over my reluctance to buy her juice (I maintain that it's literally just nutrient-free sugar water, and she maintains that it's delicious), so putting a couple of juices in a care package is how I let her know I'm spoiling her!
lemon juice. She specifically requested this for flavoring the school water. She keeps it in her roommate's mini fridge.
lunchbox-sized foods. You can get most snack foods in single-serving multi-packs. If you buy a few when they're on sale, you can put a small assortment in every care package.
microwave popcorn.
nuts
peanut butter squeeze pouches and crackers
protein bars
Actual footage of me texting my kid at the grocery store to ask her again what her favorite flavors of Luna bars are.
It's these!!!
pudding cups
tea bags.
trail mix.
vitamins
CLEANING SUPPLIES AND TOILETRIES
There's a drugstore in walking distance from campus, but if my kid mentions that she's out of something and I'm about to mail her a care package, I'll toss in whatever she needs. I mean, I'm watching the sales on our regular products, anyway, so I might as well just buy it when it's cheap and squirrel it away for when she wants it! If I'm giving her something different, I'll make it a travel size so she won't be bummed to give it away if she doesn't like it... and so we won't have to lug it home in a few months!
Lysol. I really like this tiny spray bottle. It's stupid expensive per ounce compared to the full-sized can, but you probably don't want to carry a full-sized can around in your backpack!
menstruation supplies
mouthwash
Plan B. The expiration date on these is very good, so it's okay to just have it on hand.
shampoo/conditioner
spray cleaner
sunscreen
tissues
toothpaste
wet wipes
CLOTHING AND ACCESSORIES
My kid HATES clothes. She hates shopping for them, she hates trying them on, she hates wearing most of them, and she hates owning more than she thinks she "needs," which is never, by the way, as many items as she actually needs. Also considering the fact that if you don't own many clothes, the clothes you do own get worn out a LOT faster than if you have a larger wardrobe, and I feel like most of my time as my kid's parent has been spent secretly throwing away raggedy articles of clothing when she's not looking, wheedling her into trying on something that absolutely has to be tried on but she doesn't want to, or begging her to accept some item that she desperately needs but refuses to replace.
She went through winter in the Midwest with a coat with a broken zipper. Was I allowed to buy her a new coat? No. Instead, she asked if I would send her a pair of pliers to work the zipper with. SIGH!
So I haven't sent my own kid most of the items on this list. I can occasionally get away with sending her something I scored at Goodwill that relates to a fandom she likes, or something warm and cozy (not new-coat cozy, but, like, wool socks cozy):
hat/gloves/mittens. Warm hats are super easy to sew, and an especially cute one would be a fun addition to a winter care package.
holiday accessories
hoodie/sweatshirt/sweater
jammy pants
slippers
socks
T-shirts
underwear and bras
workout clothes
STUDY, RECREATION, AND DORM LIFE SUPPLIES
My college kid is pretty independent by choice, but all the kids there seem so affable that it's not uncommon to get pulled into a group activity or casual hang-out. She also really likes her solo zen time, though, with a quiet activity and a podcast.
adult coloring books
Amazon gift card
books. When I'm thrifting, I keep an eye out for something my kid will like. Because it's dirt cheap, she can read it and then leave it in her dorm lobby for someone else to take.
deck of cards
decorations/photos. My kid has a digital photo frame that I keep stocked with cute photos mostly of the pets, but if I'm getting photos printed for whatever reason, I'll include a couple of cute shots of Luna and then send them in the next care package.
DVD player. I ended up buying a CD/DVD player that hooks up to her computer and having it shipped to her. She never plays DVDs for fun, but it turned out that her French textbook had an interactive DVD with it and she needed a player ASAP.
earbuds
fidgets
gel pens
handmade something-or-other. So far, I've made and sent a mini notebook, a pencil case, some scrunchies, and a mini Valentine garland in her school colors.
highlighters
journal/sketchbook
notecards and stamps
pencils/pens
post-it notes
puzzle books
small craft/DIY kits. My kid really likes latch hook, and I've been trying to get her into embroidery.
small games. My kid LOVES Timeline, which is fortunately quite compact. Cards Against Humanity is also pretty low-profile. Both games have lots of expansion packs in case she and her dorm mates get super into them.
STEAM gift card
stuff to share with roommate and dorm residents. I sometimes send my kid double of a treat so she can share with her roommate. Or you can send a bulk bag of candy to leave out for everyone in the dorm kitchen or lobby.
stuffed animal. My college kid makes an exception in her minimalist lifestyle for stuffies. She wouldn't want a lot of stuff on her bed, but something super tiny would still be perfectly snuggable.
One thing that I have NOT figured out is how to make mailing these care packages less expensive!!! Her Easter care package contained her bunny onesie from home, a bunch of candy, some homemade cookies, a letter, and an enamel pin, and it cost over thirteen dollars to mail. Add anything heavier, like a book or a game or, god forbid, a full-size bottle of shampoo, and I'm looking at closer to twenty dollars. If I start with a box small enough that I'm confident I can mail it for less than ten bucks, it won't fit enough items for it to feel like a proper care package to me. To be honest, it would probably be cheaper just to buy her stuff off of Amazon and have it shipped directly to her, but that doesn't feel like a proper care package, either!
So if you've got tips for mailing care packages more cheaply. let. Me. KNOW!!!
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)