This weekend we’re excited to visit the Wexner Center during the Zoom Family Film Festival.  The sixth annual festival features films from the U.S., Belgium, India, France, and Germany. We’re kicking off the weekend with What’s on Your Plate? and we’re also excited to see Tahaan, but there are so many other great films to see, too. Visit their site for a complete list of films, including trailers.

Here is some info about What’s on Your Plate? from the Wexner Center’s site:

“What’s a Funyon!!?,” a young girl asks. Come along as two 11-year-old girls explore food from a kid’s-eye point of view. Inspired by an Ohio summer vacation from their home in Manhattan, the girls follow a trail of information seeking facts and exploding myths about food by interviewing a variety of people from doctors to farmers to chefs. Farming, school lunches, distribution, ingredients, diet, health, and global politics are among the topics they address with fresh questions and sassy humor. The girls’ unfiltered honesty and curiosity bring a welcome sense of authentic inquiry to this engaging documentary about a topic of clear relevance to all of us.

And Tahaan:

Tahaan is an 8-year-old boy who lives in the conflict-torn Kashmir valley of Pakistan. When his family’s donkey is sold by his mother to repay debts, Tahaan sets off on a quest to recover his beloved animal friend. He must decide whether to trust strangers or keep secrets from his mother, and after he is recruited by militants to throw a grenade into an army compound, he faces a crucial choice about how far he’s willing to go to achieve his goal. More than a war story, this is a film about yearning, finding your purpose in life, understanding right and wrong and, ultimately, about choosing peace. Fable-like and beautifully shot, Tahaan captures the scintillating colors, textures, sounds, and smells of a beautiful and ancient land now characterized by border checkpoints, sniper fire, corrupt money lenders, and “disappeared” fathers.

While we’re there, we’re going to check out The Box, where we can see animations, dramatic narratives, and experimental projects by young (age 8-18) Ohio filmmakers and video artists which were chosen to be included in the youth division of the 2009 Ohio Short Film and Video Showcase.

The Zoom Family Film Festival also includes some free family activities:

• Art Projects and Tours
• Video Game Land
• Saturday Morning Cereal and Pajama Party
• Ice Cream Social

P.S. A family membership to the Wexner Center makes a great Christmas gift.

SpellQuizzer gave us a shot at trying out their spelling program for free, and they’re giving you a chance to win the easy-to-use software, too! Take a look at their step-by-step demo videos and tell me that’s not the easiest thing ever.

I know I’m not a kid and this review site is supposed to be “reviews by kids for kids,” but when it’s something blatantly educational, I have to step in. Lena and Liberty would say, “It’s good, I guess. I mean, if you feel like you have to learn to spell or whatever.”

Actually, I just asked them and Liberty said, “It’s super easy and even if you had really little kids, they could do it. It’s good to practice on, too.”

Lena said, “It was easy and I wasn’t mad or anything when I did it.”

You can create your own list for your child or you can use one of SpellQuizzer’s lists. For Lena and Liberty, I just went to the “Download Spelling Lists” page and clicked on Frequently Misspelled Words by grade (there, their, they’re, anyone?) I clicked on 5th grade and then just kept clicking on “ok” or whatever. The list was exported and imported (SO much easier than it sounds because as soon as the list is done exporting, a little window pops up that says something like, “you exported a spelling list, do you want to import it to your lists?” and you just click “Duh!” or maybe “Yes.”) And, what do you know? There it was! Then I edited it so it was my voice giving the words and sample sentences, but you don’t even have to do that. If you choose a pre-made SpellQuizzer list, it has a nice voice with good example sentences already doing that part. I  have to tell you, though, Lena and Liberty seemed to like hearing my voice on the computer saying, “You’re. You’re totally addicted to Fullmetal Alchemist,” which made it more relevant to them and made them giggle a little bit. Easy to do when the sentences are already recorded. If we had just argued about it and I had to see them whining about it, I might be tempted to say, “You’re. You’re really being annoying right now with the way you’re huffing and puffing as if I were killing you when I am simply trying to help you with spelling.” See how it’s better to do it the SpellQuizzer way?

And now for a disclaimer: If you know us in real life, you know we’re homeschoolers who don’t do spelling tests or anything like that because the kids just randomly write a lot and, well, there’s spell check. BUT! When Lena and Liberty were younger and I thought that spelling lists were what we had to do, I did them. For about a month. It was so annoying for all of us and then I realized if I would just lay off and let them write and spell check and read, they’d be fine. And I was right. BUT! I think most of our readers have kids in school and the whole spelling list thing is a daily struggle so I wanted to test this out just to see, and I really believe this would take the strain out of that daily grind. We were lucky to just get a glimpse of that grind, but if you and your kids are struggling because, well, you have to deal with it all the time, I think SpellQuizzer is an excellent solution for you. I might even make a list with just homophones. Just for fun.

Do you want to win the software? Leave a comment by 8:00 am Tuesday, October 13th and we’ll randomly choose a winner!

Abby