Oh My Gods!

Most of my posting for our adventures has moved to facebook.
Journey With Us If You Will

Today I was thinking, as we prepare to go see Percy Jackson (for a third time in the theatre) at the local theatre that is running it this week for $1 per ticket as a "Kids Summer Movies" promotion...

Sometime back a few years ago, I was on a local homeschool list and I had posted about the free movies that one of our local theaters offers every spring and fall. Someone replied to me that it did not pertain to homeschooling. Being unschoolers, I didn't agree, of course. 

I did end up leaving that group because a few weeks later one of the members posted about an anti-gay gathering (I think they were talking pickets signs and such, it's been awhile) at the public library when a gay author was coming to speak, or do a book signing or something. When I mentioned the fact that that had as little to do with homeschooling as my posting about the movies I was flamed off the group.Oy! But whatever.

Back to the topic at hand though. I was thinking this morning that the Percy Jackson "Empire" has been nothing BUT a learning experience for our family. We went to see it the first time with much excitement. It looked really good, and it was. Marti and Lilly both loved it, especially Lilly. A few weeks later my grandma gave me some money for cleaning her house. After refusing the money she told me "oh, just take the kids to a movie or something" so we took them to see Percy Jackson again.

Not too long after that we decided to pick up a copy of the book because Rog and I wanted to read it. My brother in law actually picked it up first and then he had to get the rest of the series as well. After he read it my oldest, Marti picked it up and devoured it. She proceeded to read the next book, and the next one and the next one and the next one. She had the entire series read within a week or two. After she finished it, she read it again and then again.

Percy Jackson has inspired so many conversations. She has even passed some of her knowledge on to me and her dad, her sister and even her friends. We have watched Hercules quite a few times as well and as we watch it she pipes up with flaws in the movie or little trivia facts here and there. Things like;

"Hera was actually jealous of Hercules so she sent snakes from, what my book says, Snakes-R-Us"

and

"Pegasus wasn't actually born from the clouds. He actually sprouted fully grown from Medusa's head after Perseus sliced it off"

and

"Phil doesn't know that Achilles mom dipped him in the river Styx so he would become invincible, except his heel, which is where she was holding on to him"

Rog actually asked her about this one. He asked why Achilles' mom didn't just dip him in completely and Marti told him that if your whole body goes into the river then you die.

And in true unschooling spirit, after she seemed to get a little bored with the Percy Jackson series (or at least needing a break from it) I picked up some other Greek Mythology books at the library. She is reading a book called Oh. My. Gods. and we also got three of the four books in the Mythlopedia series called What A Beast, She's All That and Oh My Gods! And, of course, it has shaped her religious beliefs some as well. She now believes in the Gods. We've tried teaching our girls about all religions, not just one so it's amazing to see her make her own decisions about things.

So, needless to say, in our little world, yes, movies and learning completely go together.