Thrift shopping

I went to the thrift shop this afternoon--the one that's mostly good for books. I brought home a pretty good stack for a quarter and fifty cents apiece: a few picture books of the kind a seven-year-old would like; a Paddington book we didn't have (amazingly, since we already have half a dozen and I couldn't remember if we already had Paddington at Large); an Anatomy Colouring Book for The Apprentice, a Mad Libs for Ponytails, and Rumer Godden's A Breath of Air for me. Also a book of Psalms for singing

But the best thing was Scientific Explorer's Ancient Rome water-clock kit, which seems to be still new in the box (from the amount of shredded paper around the terra-cotta water-clock frame).

From Home-Education Magazine's Jan-Feb 2000 review (did you know you could find those online?):

The "Ancient Rome" Scientific Explorer Kit is a nice resource for students of historical time: this hands-on "History of Science" kit includes materials for assembling and calibrating an elegant terracotta water clock and for designing an early-Roman-style lunar calendar. The kit includes a booklet of background information, plus suggestions for further experiments. Available from Scientific Explorer, Inc., 2802 E. Madison, Suite 114, Seattle, WA 98112; (800) 900-1182; www.scientificexplorer.com.

Well, actually, it's not, they don't make these anymore.

But it still looks like fun!