It is amazing that this ten minute little film is over 70 years old!

From 1938, the HMHS Podcast Network presents: Three Little Kittens - the story of three little kittens from shortly after the time they are born until they are old enough to “work”.

This video fits in nicely with the recent events at our house: a few weeks ago an obviously recent mother-cat decided that our back deck was her new home! It was plain that she was  a momma, but no kittens were in tow. Perhaps she had just weened them. A few days later a white kitten showed up, followed by two more… and their mother. Our children (being the animal lovers that they are) lavished them with love and convinced their own momma that the beautiful cats were in desperate need of food. Of course everyone knows what happens when you feed a cat! In fact, this is a repeat of what happened last Autumn with our cat “Frodo”. Long story short: the 1st momma cat is walking about the house as I type – sporting stitches on a freshly shorn belly – and one of the kittens (from the other mother-cat) is sleeping on my chair. His name is Steve. The two other kittens have a new home with some friends, and momma cat #2 is earning a living as a barn cat on a nearby farm.

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From 1954, HMHS Vintage Video Presents Professor Merrell Gage describing the life and career of Abraham Lincoln as he sculpts a lifelike bust of the 16th President, making physical changes in the subject’s hair, beard and expression to correspond to events in Lincoln’s life.

Professor Merrell Gage was at time of filming, the retired head of the Department of Sculpture at the University of Southern California.

What an amazing video! Our kids were fascinated by Professor Merrell’s skill in both sculpting and story telling.  They also have a love for President Lincoln as well as Art in general, so we found a few resources that may be of interest your family too. Christianbooks.com has two highly rated books about President Lincoln, his faith and character:  The Inspired Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln, and Abraham Lincoln: A Man of Faith, Courage, and Integrity. For your aspiring sculptor – who is eager to create his or her own bust of President Lincoln – there is a very interesting book available on Amazon called Modeling the Head in Clay.

Please use the “Share” option at the bottom of the post to share this wonderful video with others. We think you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t enjoy this one!

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For this installment of Vintage Video we present Writing A Better Social Letter (1950).

Wally helps his sister Nora with her struggle to write a thank-you note to their aunt and uncle after visiting on vacation. In the process we learn the five parts of a friendly letter and more about why and how to write one.

This video reminds us of an age gone by when acceptable social behavior and etiquette were strongly encouraged. My in-laws (being from that particular generation) are to-this-day very punctual with thank-you notes, and they receive great pleasure from sending them out… even to us! These letters (email does not suffice!) are a joy to read. We feel very strongly about the message contained within this video and encourage you to view it with your children and discuss the points made by Wally and Nora.

Also, this video goes well with our post titled Thankfulness and our PDF lesson Writing A Proper Thank-You Letter.

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Homemade Homeschoolers is pleased to bring you the debut episode of the HMHS Podcast Network: Finding His Voice, from 1929. This fun cartoon is also educational as its shows how sound motion pictures work; or had worked up until just recently. Kids and Adults alike will surely enjoy this; and parents could use this as part of a unit study of electronics and media.

Story by W.E. Erpi (a pseudonym for Western Electric, Electrical Research Products Inc.) and directed by F. Lyle Goldman and the legendary Max Fleischer.

For further reading see this Wikipedia article on sound in films which highlights the history and early steps involved in synchronizing sound and film.

How Movie Sound Works is a great article explaining movie sound from it’s humble beginnings right up to modern Sony Dynamic Digital  Sound.

For a more thorough look into the history of sound in film for your aspiring film maker or historian, there is a very interesting, vintage look at motion picture making, illustrated with numerous black & white photos 1st published in 1937, called Talking pictures,: How they are made, how to appreciate them.

To subscribe to the HMHS Podcast Network and have them delivered to you automatically by way of your favorite podcatcher CLICK HERE to be directed to the RSS Feed.

Quicktime Version

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