Category: Reviews

Review: Internet Tool for Math “MathGames.com”

*The picture has nothing to do with MathGames.com, but it’s one of my favorites*

April 14, 2024

Review: Internet Tool for Math “MathGames.com”

My son is almost 9 years old. He is a new reader.  He loves math but it has to be practical to interest him: okay, practical to an 8-year-old boy.  

He runs around throwing footballs to himself, keeping an imaginary score.  We hear “21 Gators to 6 Bulldogs, oh, and they miss  the extra point!” and other such.  Basketball.  Baseball.  Scores.  Stats.  Boy stuff.  He also helps cook and loves to find fractions in the kitchen.  Money math is easy for him and he likes to make change.

However: getting the simplest of graphite scratches in the actual math textbook might as well be mission impossible 11!  The textbook and Lucas repel each other.  

Video games?  Ever hear of Star Ocean on PS1? I call it reading practice.  It’s like Zork with graphics… but you do have to read to know what the next move needs to be! That and the “secret” Minecraft books that look like user guides have encouraged him to read.

I had an “ah-ha” moment because he had run to the bathroom at gym and there’s my computer sitting there next to the poor copy of “Arithmetic 2” that someone may mistake for a cleaning rag. I remembered that the girls had a math game they loved called “Math King” on the long-ago tablet.  

I searched Math King – the results were not what I wanted; nope.  

I found “mathgames.com” and after our few weeks of use, I’ve decided to share this amazing find!  

Math Games is an online learning tool that has a free version.  There is a “subscribe” option that allows you access to the premium games and such, but what I want is included in the free version.

At the main screen, you see a bunch of actual games with math problems added in. I use those as rewards: Lucas can play one after getting so many stars (details below). For the actual work, you can choose “skills by standard, “skills by grade” or “skills by category” from the menu that reads “practice skills” (upper left corner).  Or scroll down until you see the “practice math by grade” and “practice math by category” option menus – they will show you PreK to Grade 8 & concepts from counting and number properties to equations and ratios. Select one.

Each section starts with a first lesson. Each set is broken up into 10 questions. Each question has videos with teachers explaining the concept.  (The video button is in the upper right corner on each screen with the green “sound” button and the “scratch pad” button.) There is also a green “sound” button reads the problem and the answers while highlighting each one.  Lucas is using this feature to help with reading practice.  (I LOVE this feature!) As the user answers, a green check mark pops up for a correct answer or a yellow exclamation point for an incorrect. An incorrect response also makes the corresponding video lecture pop up on the left of the screen. The user earns stars by completing the concept; more correct answers = more stars. After each concept set, the program will suggest moving on or repeating said concept set (depending on the percentage of incorrect answers).

Lucas started with “fractions.” Each time he finished one segment with a 9 or 10 score (out of 10 questions) it suggested the next concept.  This continued for almost four solid hours!  He moved through fractions, decimals, money, “dice” (what he called the concept of “stats”), and anything else that had “grade 2” or “grade 3” to start with.  We’ve been using this new tool for a few weeks whenever we are at gym and he chooses to consider the textbook an enemy.  

I realized over the course of Lucas’ discovery into this tool that Lucas has an innate understanding of variables in equations.  Everything math seems to make sense to him in strange ways.  He would reread the equation with “red bicycles” or “Georgia’s score” or “nickels” in the place of the variable.

Jillian (new algebra student currently using “Algebra 1” by A Beka Book) enjoyed working in the “equations” and “geometry” section.  The website breaks each concept down into easily digestible bits.  The accompanying videos are in the fashion of “teaching textbooks” explanations, actually solving various problems similar to those in the concept.  

Even Kimberly (dual-enrollment college student) sat down to try it. She liked the way it moved through the questions and concepts visually. She asked if there was one for biology (the class she’s taking her final in this week).

Just thought I’d pass along my rather “new” tool discovery.  

Thank you for reading!

Type at you later!

~Nancy Tart

Science Add-Ons To Curriculum

Science Add-Ons To Curriculum

October 22, 2022

One of the advantages to homeschooling is being able to pick curricula.  Most of us would agree that our children can recite movie lines – sometimes even if they’ve just seen the movie twice. 

We used BBC Nature with David Attenborough for science for as long as we had access to it.  It showed nature in its entire splendor.  Of course, as with Carl Sagan’s Cosmos Series, we had to reflect on their errors in timeline and regarding the theory of macro-evolution.  We would say things like, “look at how amazing God’s creation is!” and as they got older, invite them to ask and investigate the question, “why do these scientists believe in millions of years instead of thousands?”   

In depth studies of animal adaptations and human interference in our food (animal and plant husbandry) have led to the understanding that “kinds” of animals adapt by losing a recessive trait rather than by adding a completely new trait.  This led to my kids saying “oh yes, I believe evolution happens, do you understand the true meaning of the word evolution?” (Spoiler: it simply means change) But have you ever been able to add anything to a creature or plant?  We have bred plants, raised animals (Becky bred chickens to get specific traits or colors), watched and observed the genetic traits pass in Guinea Pigs, chickens, and parakeets.  

Imagine their surprise and excitement when we discovered a video series that discussed the same adaptation and genetic issues they had seen in life!

We discovered The Ark Encounter website along with Creation Museum and their affiliated YouTube channel called “Answers In Genesis!”  Wow!  They are not afraid to take on difficult subjects and ask and investigate so many fascinating things about our biology, animal adaptation, DNA structures, explanations of the how and why behind so many scientific theories.  It is a wealth of information. 

The first single episode we watched (it was almost an hour long) on dinosaurs in the Bible had my youngest five captivated the entire time.  Even Theadora, who interprets every video in terms of “Paw Patrol” at the moment, sat on the couch with her snuggly blanket the entire rainy Sunday afternoon as we watched the long dinosaur episode and three others!  The podcast episodes are more for those with longer attention spans.  The lectures and Ark Encounter and Ark Exploration videos are fascinating. 

Well-done science videos help my younglings to remember the subject matter better than simply reading it in a textbook.  Apologia science (our core science) textbooks are amazing because they are bright and have experiments that bring the science to life for the students.  Adding videos as supplements to our coursework aids in bringing the words off the page and into “real life;” we are a visual people.  We like to touch, taste, see, and feel the world around us.  If you can’t physically see the Grand Canyon with your own eyes, it certainly helps to be able to watch a video showing it.  The tools available to my children far exceed those I had access to 35 years ago.  I still default on books, but I am totally willing to include new tools to help them answer tough questions in any subject. 

Check out the Ark Encounter website or look up “Answers in Genesis” on YouTube.  You will be amazed at the wealth of scholastic information in their videos.  Second best to sitting in the actual lecture hall (actually, Louis thinks it’s better because we can pause it, pull out books, and do our own discussion and additional research as they talk). 

I’ll type later about our super history supplements (also free from YouTube!) we’ve discovered.

Thank you for reading and I hope this helps you explore some cool new teaching tools!

Type at you next time,

~Nancy Tart

Mama Bear Baby Wear

Mama Bear Baby Wear

Throwback Story from (October 30, 2021)

I rarely do shout-outs that are unrequested; but this one?  Oh my goodness! 

About thirteen years ago, I was looking for a handmade option to the discontinued Gerber squares I had been using for cloth diapers and found the story of the shop (discovered it online while researching PUL fabric) called “Mama Bear Baby Wear.”  The story made me cry.  The products were really neat.  I was researched PUL fabric because we had been using four washable chux from my work (a nursing home, at that time) for nighttime bedwetter pads – they worked amazing and though my work had thrown them out, we got years more life out of them!

The research on PUL fabric led to super expensive designer washable diapers made with PUL fabric, with lots of reviews about how looooong it took to dry them.  Mama Bear Baby Wear sold “washable training pants” with mixed reviews, mostly good for what I was looking for.  I wanted a washable “oh no mom!” because we don’t do disposable, she was super independent and waiting for us to get to her and remove diaper pins was just “too much,” and I didn’t like cleaning up the baby seat.  Washable training pants that held a small amount of “oops” yet were NOT “comfortable” (aka, whisked the pee away so the toddler never learns that wet is uncomfortable!) were exactly what I was looking for. 

I ordered a four pack of “odds” – bargain training pants in assorted colors that were a dollar and a half less each than the pick-a-color training pants.  See the yellow, red, and one green in that picture?  Yes, those are three of the four original pack!  I loved them and ordered the green and blues (three not pictured were washing) as part of a six pack four years later. 

 Just so you know, these weren’t “occasionally” used.  I literally used all four of them every other day for almost three months, washed with my cloth diapers (I had a toddler potty training and watched a toddler who used my cloth diapers) on hot water with regular detergent (NO softener) and line dried in the Florida sun. 

Skip to next potty-trainer.

Washed and line dried every other day again for about eight months.

Skip to next potty-trainer.  My husband started using them like diapers because we had a magician who escaped from pins but loved the training pants.  I purchased the additional six so we now had ten working pairs of Mama Bear Baby Wear washable training pants. 

Now we had a dryer!  They were washed and dried on high heat every other day or every third day with the diaper squares that we now used as spit rags.  This bout lasted almost a year and a half because we moved twice and toddler reset her potty training every time we moved.

Skip to next potty-trainer.  A friend gave me thirty washable cloth diapers with the snaps (or I would have purchased them from Mama Bear) when our son was born.  I used those until he was potty training and I switched him up to the same training pants his sisters had all used.  No dryer.  They were washed and line dried every other day for almost six months. 

Skip to current potty-trainer.  We again have a dryer!  She started potty training early and we used the same batch of washable diapers (minus a few retired ones, stash started for her with twenty-three) and nine of the ten Mama Bear Baby Wear training pants.  We wash on hot and dry on high with regular detergent (NO fabric softener or dryer sheets) every other to every third day for about eight months.  We are using them now only for gym school because I work at gym and don’t want any “mom, I forgot to quit playing and go potty” accidents to mess up the floor… she’s been potty trained for almost a year.

Still using the same nine of ten!!  Only seven of the ten are in “giveaway” condition (see the worn areas near the snaps?  Those three I consider unacceptable hand-me-down material as I only give away great condition stuff) but all of them are still fully intact and waterproof!  Five of the ten are in what I consider excellent condition! Thank you, Mama Bear Baby Wear for a dependable, perfect potty-training “pull-up” alternative that has served us for nine and thirteen years, respectively – and if we have another potty-trainer or another to hand them down to, will continue!

Thank you for reading! (Check out Mama Bear Baby Wear’s shop!)

~Type at you next time!

~Nancy Tart

Christmas with the Chosen: The Messengers – Movie Review

A Movie Review: Christmas with the Chosen, the Messengers.

Christmas With the Chosen: The Messengers – Movie Review

January 17, 2022

(Note: This was written December 7, 2021 when whomever decided my computer’s operating system can’t access wordpress anymore)

First thing you have to know – I love Christmas! 

Second thing… I’m usually the one who talks everyone else out of going to the movies.  I’d rather sit at home and wait until it’s free. 

I have gone to the local theater for movies like “WarRoom” and “Overcomer.”  We decided to go to the theater for the “Christmas with the Chosen: The Messengers” movie last Saturday evening. 

Wow!

I have only seen part of one episode of the Chosen.  I do not like watching screens alone and when I’m home, we tend to be doing something outside, playing board games, or Louis is watching a sports game.  After this, I really want to watch them all.  Hopefully, it won’t be like the Bones series.  Grandma Joanne introduced Christina and Becky seven years ago.  We watched them after the littles went to bed and I was dispatching late at night (cab company era) usually one or two episodes each week or two.  I got to season three, we had to start borrowing from the library and the girls got impatient!  They would breeze through them!  Christina and Becky saw them all, then rewatch it and Kimberly saw them all, now Jaquline is even farther in the series than I am! 

At least with The Chosen, we can watch them with everyone. 

At the theater, my Mom and one of Christina’s friends joined us.  “Tart, party of twelve!” – our nine, one sister-cousin, one friend, and one Grandma… we took up half of a row!  

In retrospect, I have to laugh at all the wiggling feet and trying to be considerate but busting with worship sing-along voices!  Becky said if Christina’s parents’ guide website had been better informed, they would have mentioned it was best to observe this film from the back rows if your party has the proclivity to get roused into song and dance by concert-style worship songs – Becky called it “Passion camp on film.”  My only dancer who got to her feet was Thea, but she is little so everyone behind us could still see over her.  I wanted to dance!  I would have blocked too many peoples’ views though… I literally had to stop myself a few times.

I still think The Nativity Story is the most realistic culturally accurate story highlighting Mary and Joseph’s journey.  However, this film was incredible!  It had a short portion that showed, in what I’m gathering is the style of the series The Chosen, the journey of Mary and Joseph with a bit of a twist (no spoiler, I promise). 

If you enjoy music or historical reenactments, this is a must-see movie event.  

Thank you for reading,

Type at you next time!

~Nancy Tart

Movie Review: Onward

April 12, 2020

Movie Review: Onward

As a family, we got to watch a new movie called “Onward” (Disney/Pixar) recently.  Curled up on our couch, eating tangerines instead of popcorn, we also got to discuss this movie during the end credits.

I was pleasantly surprised at this movie. 

(Spoiler Alert! If you haven’t seen the movie and want to watch it without knowing the end, don’t read any further!)

In this technologically advanced world that mirrors our own, mythical creatures have lost their magic and settled for the easier way of doing almost everything.  Fairies don’t fly. Centaurs don’t run fast. Elves don’t go on quests.  Wizards don’t exist. 

The only relics of magic are mirrored in a game that young adults play like our Dungeons and Dragons.

The protagonist is a 16-year-old elf named Ian whose older brother, Bailey, is lost to this “gaming” world and set a little in the past with his audio cassette tapes and 70s roadie van he built himself like a hot-rod.  Ian never knew his father.  His mother’s centaur policeman boyfriend is a far cry from the father figure he is looking for. 

After a bummer of a birthday, Ian and Bailey are given a special present from their late father – a staff and crystal and a spell that supposedly will let him come back for 24 hours to see who his boys grew up to be.

So the spell doesn’t work.  Mom leaves.  Bailey enters as Ian is actually making the spell work – and enters half-dad.  Yes, Ian brought back a walking pair of pants with purple socks and leather shoes.  Bailey knows it’s his dad because of a tap-tap on shoes game they used to play. 

The boys go on a quest (based on Bailey’s game knowledge) to find another crystal and bring their father all the way back.

They end up finding the crystal but releasing a curse (huge dragon made of weird stones pulled from their school and a construction site) as the sun is going down (when dad will disappear). 

Ian has realized that his real father figure is Bailey and that Bailey is the one who must speak with dad because he blames himself for being scared of the hospital and missed his chance to say goodbye to his dad in real life.  Ian starts the spell to bring dad back and leaves him with Bailey so he can fight the dragon.  Mom and a manticore bring in a magic sword to kill the dragon (she was on her own side quest).  Through teamwork, the curse is destroyed, Ian uses magic to repair all of the dragon damage, Bailey gets to say goodbye to his dad, and magic reenters the lives of some of the people; the biker fairies are now flying, policeman centaur boyfriend is now running, and Ian now is a wizard.

The theme is love: Mom’s love for her sons and the brother’s love for each other.  The lesson of enjoying what you have instead of wishing for what you don’t is also there.  Ian wishes for the father he’s never known and wants to be like him while ignoring or disregarding his elder brother until he realizes that all the love he was searching for in a father figure has been coming from his brother all of his life. 

We discussed how it is very easy to focus on what we want but don’t have yet miss what God has given us.  In every situation, our character shines with how we choose to handle said situation.  I choose to focus on what is with me now.  Right now, I’m thankful to still have a job when so many I know are suddenly unemployed.  I’m thankful to be able to play more board and outside games with Christina and Becky – all the girls, but they had started to get heavily involved in extracurricular activities and with Christina driving, I had seen less and less of her.  Forced online college courses and the closing of CAP and the gym mean I get to hang out with her more.  I’m enjoying what I have.

Live your life enjoying what you are given and love your family with a sacrificial love: that’s our take from “Onward,” a very entertaining, slightly funny, kid safe movie with real truths embedded in it.

Thank you for reading.

Type at you later,

~Nancy Tart

Overcomer: Movie Review

September 6, 2019

Overcomer

My family went to see the new Kendrick brothers’ movie, “Overcomer” on opening weekend.  Oh. My!  This film has great acting, believable serious characters, some realistic humor, and glaring, real-life truth.  It catches you into the storyline almost instantly.  Major disappointment we can all relate to begins the story.  The one glimmer of hope comes from the coach consoling his players with a very serious, “next year will be our year.”

Well, life happens.

(Isn’t that always what seems to be true? We plan what we see as perfection, but a monkey-wrench gets tossed in to muck up said plans.)

The primary employer in the area closes, relocating to another area and because it offered the workers transition into new jobs, of course, most workers relocate along with it – taking the team members with them in ones and twos until only one is left.  Imagine being 17 years old, hoping for a scholarship in your favorite sport and boom, because of something outside of your control, your team is decimated to where you don’t even have a poor team to be the star of.  This faces the coach’s eldest son. 

Meanwhile, the coach is facing an aggravation that blows up in slamming bricks into shattered bits of sand.  He can’t see the light of anything.  No team, 10% pay cut, no scholarship for his eldest son, and being “forced” to coach in a sport he pretty much hates, cross-country, with a team of one (okay, if you’ve seen the trailers, this isn’t a spoiler) – a girl with asthma. 

Enter Hannah.  A petty thief stealing to prove she can get away with is who happens to be granted what her grandmother believes is a “full scholarship,” really her private school tuition is paid for by her late mother’s friend.  This girl feels she has no friends, feels abandoned by everyone (parents are dead, Grandmother is always working), and good at only one thing – running. 

Coach’s wife feels they are teachers to answer a calling of caring for students and showing love.  She accepts Hannah 100% without reservation. 

Coach is still internally fuming over his losses. 

Providentially, he accidently steps into Thomas’ room.  A man whose not-so-old body is being torn apart by wasting diseases brought on by his drug-addicted and abusive past.  He was a champion runner.  Over time, Coach picks Thomas’ brain on how to coach Hannah. 

*Spoiler Alert!*

Don’t go any farther if you don’t want the whole “hidden” twist revealed.  As the blind Thomas asks Coach about himself, I whispered to Thea (she can’t tell anyone anyway, but I like to talk about movies as I watch them and she doesn’t care if I “ruin” the movie) “Thomas is Hannah’s father.”

Yep.  My storywriter brain is connecting the “coincidence dots” and morphing an awesome story of redemption – yes, that’s what the movie does.  Thomas abandoned his family (leaving Hannah with her Grandmother who holds a deep root of bitterness) to chase drugs and junk.  Once though, Thomas was a champion runner.  He believes God has given him a second chance. 

Doesn’t God always do that?  He always gives us a chance at redemption.  I love pointing out stories in real life and in movies where there are second chances or last minute redemptions.  Yes, we are nerds, so I’m usually at least twice a week discussing the redemption story of Star Wars – you know, how Anakin had good intentions, fell away from the good side, wrestled with himself, did so many bad things, yet redeemed himself with his last few hours and gets to be a “good part” of the force.  Redemption has always been offered but we have to accept it. 

Overcomer is one the girls can’t wait to add to our collection – if we didn’t have a limited budget, our clan of ten (my mom joined us) would have gone to see it the next day too, bringing friends along! That is the first time the girls wanted to go back to the theater and see the same movie again.  Usually, if we see a movie together (usually a Star Wars flick), they leave saying “I can’t wait til it’s on DVD!” This one was, “can we see this again tomorrow?”

One line got me as a mother: “For 6 weeks, I had the perfect Dad.”  (Hannah says this at Thomas’ funeral.)  I cried. God used what looked like simple choices to weave together a tapestry of forgiveness, freedom, and purpose for so many people.

What has God orchestrated you toward?  Are you open to love and forgive, or are you stubbornly clinging to bitterness as revenge?  Think about it; what one choice did you agree with God on and now see so much more than just one simple thought of “oh yeah, I did the right thing.”

I love it when movies make me reflect on my heart.

Type at you next time,

~Nancy Tart

Waffle Blocks

April 23, 2019

Waffle Blocks

Well, we have this thing in our house where we give away everything we aren’t using.  This goes for toys too.  We don’t keep more than we actually use.  We find toy drives, needy families, or other causes to give away the overage.  I have found that the kids enjoy giving away favorites that they’ve outgrown or donate to those in need.

When I “sift through” them after donations, I end up seeing the “sets” of toys like Legos, Duplos, mega blocks, fisher price trains, Lincoln logs, polly pockets, Playmobile builders, and small cars and animals.  These seem to stand the test of time – even Louis and I will build duplo bridges over Lucas’ train tracks.

When I started working playroom duty at the gym, I discovered another “set” of toys many ages enjoyed.  I came home and told Louis “if Heather gets rid of those toys, I’m buying them from her.”

Then my sister brought a bag of them from her neighbor who was moving!

WAFFLE BLOCKS!

The girls made minecraft arms and walked around like this: (Primrose is very impressed)

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Lucas loves them. (Jillian too!)

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And they even came with a pair of wheels and tracks!

20190330_2345125909246868139443947.jpg

So we squeezed them into the playroom collection – and many will have fun with these funny-looking brain teasers!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Movie Thoughts: Knowing

March 28, 2019

Movie Thoughts: Knowing

The other night we had a movie night.  This had to be something mostly family friendly because everyone was awake.  Yes, even Thea was awake, but I’m sure she wasn’t paying attention to the movie just yet.

See, maybe because I’m old, or a morning person, or was exhausted from the work week, or… I’ll figure out an excuse later… short of it is, I go to sleep early.  Okay, earlier than my teens… okay, even earlier than my almost-teen.  My husband works late.  He is a night-owl.  So they usually watch anything that has too much blood, bad words, or unsafe-for-little-people-stuff after I’m asleep.

SO… queue the air-popped popcorn with yummy butter and salt, some fresh-cut potato French Fries and Sweet Potato Fries, and lemonade… the movie was on.

We watched Nicholas Cage in “Knowing.”

Louis said it was a horror film.  (I asked if he had lost his marbles… I wanted the little ones to sleep in their beds!)   Honestly, I think this designation was to entice the teens to watch it with us.

Oh my goodness.  What a strange, twisting, amazing movie.

**SPOILER ALERT**

If you want to watch the movie without knowing all the twists, stop reading now and go borrow it from the library.  Seriously, this is worth the watch.  We will likely watch it again.

The story acts like a psychological thriller.  Strange dark-cloaked “apparitions” aka “ghosts” aka “spirits” appear and disappear through the 50 years of time reflected in the film.  “Whispers,” as the affected children call the voices in their heads, keep relaying numerical information and give visions to the children after the dark-cloaked strangers give them an otherworldly rock.

Dad (Nicholas Cage) is a grieving widower astrophysicist pastor’s son who has turned his on faith and believes, as he tells his students, that the universe is a collection of haphazard mistakes and there is nothing but chaos.  He drowns his hopeless unbelief in a variety of alcoholic beverages to self-medicate his depression.

The son is hard of hearing (wears a hearing aid) and deeply misses his mother and the happiness that lived in his home before her death.  He happens to be given a message from the first child (written 50 years ago and locked in a time capsule at her/his school) that is a sheet of apparently random numbers.

But the numbers aren’t random.  They are the date (in short form) of a catastrophe and the number of people who died from it… and the “unknown” digits following (which if you have been listening to a Civil Air Patrol Chief talking about orienteering and navigation by GPS, you see that these same length “unknown” numbers are latitude and longitude).

What clenches it for Dad is when he finds the date of his wife’s death (a fire that claimed many) as one of the catastrophes in this list.  He realizes this message is personally meant for his family.  Now he launches into investigation to find out who wrote the message, where she is, why she wrote it, and to find the connection to his family.

Symbolism begins to appear here as the audience starts figuring out the story.  The first hint for me was the fire vision with the animals fleeing but nowhere to go.  (Destroy the Earth by fire.)  The dark-cloaked strangers have shielded eyes but bright faces.  (How would you hide glory unless shielded by darkness yet there’s still light in their faces?)  This is revealed at the very end with the darkness falling away and now they are bright, amazing beings.  (And the viewer whispers, “every time a person sees an angel, they have to say “fear not,” no wonder!”)

When “EE” is revealed to be “Everyone Else” the title is explained.  Now, they know.

At the end sequence, notice the “Pearly Gates,” “streets of gold,” “white linen garments,” and other symbolism played out – how they make it come to life is pure amazement.  Everything is explained in such a unique way.

This movie is rated PG (likely for the alcohol and “disturbing images”).  It’s actually very well put together.  The storyline seems fractured but falls into place and you wonder how you missed it.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

Movie Thoughts: Happy Feet

When you look for the good… you will find it! One point of view (review) of a movie we discussed.

December 5, 2018

Movie Thoughts: “Happy Feet”

We were watching a movie the girls got from the library.  In this movie, the hero is searching for why his people are starving, the elders don’t like his “different ways” and command him to stop so that their “God” will restore the food supply, and the hero refuses so is “kicked out” by the elders.  On his quest, he discovers another predator is taking their food and appeals to them to bring back the food using his “different ways” and since this is so uncharacteristic of his people, the other predators try to fix the problem (and they end up fixing it).

I’d heard mixed review about this movie.  Some said it was a “cute little movie” and had some adult humor, yes (I will say; the use of older classic songs and caricatures of famous singers from the previous generations’ era is neat).

One of the most common negatives I heard was that it was sacrilegious and projects a negative view of authority.  Check and check from one point of view.

But there’s the other point of view.  The one my kids came up with.  (I’m a homeschool mom who loves to find teaching moments in everything… so we usually discuss movies after watching them.  I choose to use these discussions to teach literature basics – analyze, review, react.  Everyone is involved and gets to support or debate the others’ summary.  We “review” songs, movies, stories, and even cartoons.)

This is what they got from “Happy Feet:”

  • Mumble was born with the difference because God (represented in the movie by “the Great Guin”) knew that the humans were taking too much fish and that something different would be the only way for the humans to take notice of one animal.
  • The reason Mumble has the encounter with the birds is to cause his curiosity to spike and him to believe that the “aliens” have a “better nature” and want to fix things.
  • This is why he is not discouraged by discovering that the humans are taking all the fish and left a sea of trash (even though one of his buddies is almost strangled by said trash) – rather he is determined to ask them to stop. He believes they are good-natured.
  • Rather than Mumble’s “fancy feet” being something against the “Great Guin,” it was the plan of the “Great Guin” for Mumble to be different, catch the human’s eye, and cause them to fix the problem they caused.
  • My girls believe this movie shows how God prepares unexpected people to do great things in often unexpected ways. It champions determination, the beauty of our differences, honesty, and love.

That is what I like to see when I watch it too.  Overly simplistic?  Maybe, but then simplicity is often the outlook of most children and sometimes the simple is used to confound the wise.  I pray my children will always “look for the good” in people, movies, songs, stories, and life so that they will find it.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

 

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