Art Posters

It’s All Fun!

roy-whaam

Giant Cartoon Art – We are currently reading through “Whaam! The Art & Life of Roy Lichtenstein” by Susan Goldman Rubin. This book is filled with examples of his pop art of the 1960’s that both shocked (“this is art?????”) and rocked a generation. Each of Lichtenstein’s paintings was inspired by published comic book drawings of others, and I like that the author addressed the issue of copyright. My son likes looking at photographs of Lichtenstein’s art on display, with people standing near the paintings, so he can get an idea of exactly how large the paintings are.

bill-polka-dots

Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show – Hot off the press! Candace Fleming’s “Presenting Buffalo Bill – The Man who Invented the Wild West” was just published in 2016. We are only a few nights into this book and we are loving every minute. Oh my! Buffalo Bill – what a man with BIG vision and what a risk (vocab) taker! This book is part of our Native North American unit – we are impressed with the author’s excellent research and sensitivity regarding Lakota tribe members who were part of the Wild West Show (and this has provoked a short side study of the Lakota tribe).

Game ON – the other night, my son grabbed a pen, and I knew he wanted to communicate something – so I supported his wrist and here is what he wrote, “I want to play hangman.”!!!! Really? Well, OK! We have been playing hangman about 2 times a week for a month or two, but I had no idea he was liking this spelling game. I am relieved that his handwriting has improved to the point that I can read it. Huge communication progress!

50 Days of Fun! I am stretching the definition of “fun”, but this is sort of diverting: we have started playing, “WHERE IS THAT?”. I place a blank map of the USA on the desk and I ask my son to ink a dot in the middle of a particular state. After he finds the correct state, we (hand-over-hand) color it in. Could this be a gateway activity – first the USA, then maybe the countries of South America? Then WHO KNOWS???

And if that weren’t enough – I have added a new resource tab (look on title block) – “The Bookshelf”. This is where I will keep a running list of the books that have worked particularly well for my son and me.

Box Lunches at Le Fictitious Local Diner – Everyone knows that box lunches (vocab concept) are by definition FUN! And here is a twist: the Local Diner’s box lunches are vegetarian, and include a bottle of kombucha that comes with it’s own teeny paper parasol. FUN! The lunches are apparently delicious, and the response has been enthusiastic: during the first week 30 boxes were sold on Monday, 20 on Tuesday, 40 on Wednesday, 10 on Thursday, 40 on Friday, and 20 on Saturday! Each box sells for $9. If it costs the diner $4 to put the box together (including the box and the napkins, etc), what was the diner’s profit for the first week?
A. $800 B. $160 C. $1,440 D. $60 (answer at bottom of post)

Music – It was time to learn more about the SNARE DRUM – Yay percussion instruments!

snare-drum

First, we needed to see how the snare drum was constructed. We learned that a band of narrow wires stretched across the bottom of the drum gives it that muffled rattly sound. We listened for the snare drum in:

– Blue Tango, composed by LeRoy Anderson in 1951, and was ranked by Billboard as the number one song of 1952! Sassy.

– Scotland the Brave – this pipe and drum corps classic is considered to be one of three unofficial national anthems of Scotland. BTW, in Scotland, the snare drum is called a side drum. BTW, we are the sort of people that really like the music of bagpipes. This footage is just so great:

– Bolero, composed by Maurice Ravel, as a one-movement orchestral piece for ballet, in 1929. From everything we have read – and can readily believe – playing the snare drum in this piece is a musician’s nightmare. Seventeen-plus minutes of the same rhythm over and over and over and over. But what a fine, fine performance by the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted so carefully by Gustavo Dudamel:

Welcome to the best part of my day!
– Jane BH
(Story problem answer: A. $800)

Good Books, Bad Books

Sorry to be on a rant in mid-December, but REALLY! How do poorly edited books manage to get published? Case in point: my son and I were reading a coffee table-style book about birds of North America. The introduction was rather good: we learned that birds with long legs have long necks; we learned that a grouping of bird eggs in a nest is called a clutch. And then the book fell apart. A chapter entitled, “Swifts and Hummingbirds” contained NOT ONE MENTION, NOT ONE PHOTOGRAPH of a swift. And you would think that an author making an effort to explain the simple word, “clutch”, would make sure the reader understood more difficult terms, such as “arboreal” and “terrestrial”. But no. In an angry huff, we have bid adieu to that sham of a book.

Happier reading: we are now reading “Animal Kingdom” by Nicholas Blechman and Simon Rogers…same outstanding graphic format as “Human Body”, which we read a few weeks ago. Currently, we are mid-chapter, learning about senses; last night reading about animal eyes (largest eye: giant squid…eyes covered by skin, rendering them blind: mole rats (GROSS)), tonight reading about animal ears, and the variety of listening abilities. So interestingly presented, we are back to being happy learners.

Even happier reading:

we have finished “Rules of the Road” by Joan Bauer. EXCELLENT story: well written, complex plot, skilled characterizations, and topped off with all sorts of life lessons.
and if it is December, we return once again to a super favorite, “Mrs. Coverlet’s Magicians” by Mary Nash. This book was a Children’s Book Club offering in 1962. I LOVED it then, and I LOVE it every year for a re-read. We are reading the very same copy that my dad read to my sister and me, but the book is still available on Amazon and the plot is a DELIGHT.

Our music project last night – selecting music to enhance another poster in my son’s room, “Checkered House” by Grandma Moses, painted in 1943. (The poster was purchased after we completed a unit on Grandma Moses a few years ago.)

“Over the River and through the Wood”, a poem by Lydia Maria Child originally entitled, “The New-England Boy’s Song about Thanksgiving Day” (but it still works for all of the December holidays), published in 1844. Alas, the composer is unknown. Darling video footage taken from an elementary school winter concert.

“Sleigh Ride”, composed by Leroy Anderson during the heat wave of 1946! Mr. Anderson was VERY smart (a Harvard man!) and VERY funny. A perfect performance by the President’s Marine Corps Chamber Orchestra.

“The Friendly Beasts”, also known as “Carol of the Animals”, words by Robert Davis, penned in the 1920’s, set to French music from the 12^th century. Not too much to look at in this video, but the song is sung by Peter, Paul, and Mary, and it is wonderful!

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH

Answers for Everything

Are we having fun yet? Signs point to yes. My son received a Magic 8-Ball for his birthday and he seems fascinated by the idea of receiving answers (to goofy questions) from the black ball. Well, CHEERS! I am always looking for opportunities to expand my son’s game/toy experiences. The first hurdle (and it is a HUGE hurdle) is to find a toy that intrigues him. Did we hit the jackpot with the Magic 8-Ball? You may rely on it! GREAT GIFT!

Non-Fiction – we are continuing to learn from the books “Maps” (yay), “Human Body”(yay), and “Genghis Kahn” (battle/skirmish/double-cross/repeat) (will this book never end?).

Fiction – we are enjoying “Rules of the Road” (winner of the L.A. Times Book Prize) by Joan Bauer. This appealing book skillfully balances difficult concepts (alcoholism, Alzheimer’s) with the inherent hilarity of the shoe business and a new drivers license. I knew we were going to like this book, because years ago I read and loved “Hope was Here” (HKH are you reading this????), also by Joan Bauer.

Le Fictitious Local Diner’s story problem! The diner is sponsoring a community “pie bake” and has set aside one afternoon in November for anyone (meaning high school students who need more volunteer hours for their graduation requirement) to come assemble pumpkin, apple, and pecan pies. The diner will bake the pies and deliver them to the senior citizen center for their Thanksgiving dinner. The diner’s plan is to make 20 pies of each type. Here are the cost breakdowns:

pie tins: $0.50 each, pie crusts: $0.25 each, apple filling: $3.00 each, pumpkin filling: $3.00 each, pecan filling: $6.00 each. The diner’s tax lady needs the total costs for the 60 pies.

Last night’s music program took its inspiration from a poster on my son’s wall: Frederic Remington’s gorgeous, touching, lonely, “The Fall of the Cowboy”, painted in 1895. This painting is on display at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, so we are lucky to have seen it “in person” several times.

First, to set the mood, we listened to George Winston’s gorgeous, touching, lonely piano solo, “Thanksgiving”, from his “December” album, released in 1982.

My son and I decided that after a long, cold day, the cowboys would want to head off to the local barn dance. We like this video of two fiddle players expertly playing Aaron Copland’s “Hoe-Down” from his ballet, Rodeo (which premiered in 1942).

And finally, a little comfort music for the weary cowboys: John Denver’s “Back Home Again”, released in 1974.

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH

Garden Par-tay

Cicadas Party – Every summer, it gets really loud in our backyard garden. It sounds like a golf course sprinkler system going full blast, but it isn’t that, it is the CICADAS! Last night my son and I did a mini-study of Cicadas. We learned that cicadas sing their song during the hottest part of the day; we learned that the males make all the noise; we learned that people actually eat these insects (deep fried or stir fried) (gag). We watched this well filmed video of a male cicada making his rattling noise (7 out of 10 on the repulsive scale). In truth, my son wasn’t terribly interested; I sort of had to force him to watch this…good thing the video only lasts a minute:

Vocabulary update – two items:

First, I went through the list of vocabulary words we have accumulated over the past year (see “The Wordery” in menu area) and selected 15 words. I presented the list as a quiz with multiple-choice options. Happy report: 100% correct! So pleased with my son’s vocabulary retention.

Second, our Rasputin and Einstein books and our current novel (“Surviving the Applewhites”) have presented us with more unfamiliar words and concepts: crude, dynasty, fasting, heir, hemophilia, icons, monarchy, stage mothers, Swiss neutrality, recluse, and thesis.

The Farmer Brown story problem – Farmer Brown is going to be on local TV, showing everyone how to make his grandmother’s prize-winning Damson plum jam! After the demonstration, he is going to give everyone in the audience (3 girl scout troops), a pint sized jar of the jam. There are 16 girls in each troop. If Farmer Brown’s recipe makes 2 quarts of jam, how many times will he need to multiply the recipe? Farmer Brown does NOT want to disappoint the girl scouts.

Our music theme from last night was inspired by “The Clipper Ship, Flying Cloud”, printed by Currier & Ives in 1852. A few years back, my son and I did a study on American illustrators, and we both loved learning about the firm of Currier & Ives (Currier, the accomplished lithographer and Ives, the finance brains…the selling pitch was, “the Grand Central Depot for Cheap and Popular Prints”). When we finished our study, my son picked out “The Clipper Ship, Flying Cloud” as a poster to put up on his wall.

Music to accompany “The Clipper Ship, Flying Cloud”:

“Sea Songs” by Ralph Vaughan Williams, composed in 1923. This is a 4 minute march bringing together 3 British sea songs. This video clip shows the Houston Youth Orchestra from two years ago. Exceptionally well done for a youth orchestra.

“Overture to HMS Pinafore” by Gilbert and Sullivan, from their very popular comic opera, which premiered in 1871. Jaunty!

“Over the Waves” by Juventino Rosas. We often get this piece confused with “The Skater’s Waltz”, and guess what? The Skater’s Waltz (by Emile Waldeufel) was written in 1882 and “Over the Waves” was written in 1888. (Perhaps another story for another time.) ANYWAY, take a look at this video! The composition is played with surprising delicacy by the intimidating looking Central Military Band of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH

It’s a date!

Were we learning about date palms, date shakes, perfect dates, or perfectly awful dates? Uh, no.

B.C./B.C.E. – A.D./C.E. – My son and I keep running into the acronyms (new vocab word) “BCE” and “CE” during our academic studies. Last night we decided to find out what the letters mean. We learned that BCE (“before common era”) and CE (“common era”) refer to time periods that match up exactly with the traditional BC (“Before Christ”) and AD (“Anno Domini”). In other words, the date 335 BC is the same as the date 335 BCE. Likewise, the date 1990 AD means the same thing as 1990 CE. The terms BCE and CE have been in widespread use for the past 20 years, but we learned they have actually been around for over 300 years. We like to know stuff like this.

More Shakespeare – We have enjoyed reading adaptations of “MacBeth”, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, and “Hamlet”, so we are now reading a retelling of “Romeo and Juliet”, by Adam McKeown. McKeown does an excellent job of introducing characters and storylines at a pace we can process, and he makes us eager to read the real plays. I think you can imagine why we aren’t starting off with the plays themselves – we want to be familiar with the basic plots, characters, and motivations before Shakespeare’s spellbinding words mesmerize us.

The Thespian Masks – How can we read about Shakespeare without understanding the basics of “comedy” and “tragedy”? I gave my son a list of ridiculous situations and had him decide if each circumstance fell into a comic or tragic category, then I showed him thespian (new vocab word) comedy and tragedy masks, the concept of which originated from the dramas of ancient Greece around 335 BC (or shall we say, 335 BCE).

Novels – We continue to read, “The Way to Stay in Destiny” by Augusta Scattergood – still really like picking up this book every night. And this past week, we began a re-read of one of our old favorites, “Schooled” by Gordon Korman (important read, heartwarmer read).

Our Farmer Brown Story Problem – Offspring in the spring! Farmer Brown’s ranch is home to 20 ewes. This spring, half gave birth to twins, a fifth gave birth to quadruplets, and the rest had a single lamb each. How many sweet lambs does Farmer Brown have now?

Last night’s music theme was “Benjamin Franklin in France” – We used the N.C. Wyeth poster on my son’s wall, of a young Benjamin Franklin, as inspiration. We decided to focus upon the years Ben Franklin served as US Ambassador to France (1776 – 1785). We know he was well-entertained in France, and this must certainly have included symphonic concerts and opera productions. It is so likely that he heard these:

Mozart – Overture to the Abduction from the Seraglio (1782). This is the composition that provoked Austrian Emperor Joseph II (maybe a bit short on the musical smarts) to remark that there were “too many notes” in the piece. My son and I think the brilliant and far more musically inclined Ben Franklin would have loved this overture!

Bach – The Coffee Cantata (1735), a way-fun work that pits a father against his strong-willed daughter, fighting over her excessive consumption of coffee. We think Ben Franklin, a known coffee enthusiast, would have been amused by this mini comic opera.

Haydn – Symphony No. 45, “The Farewell Symphony” (1772). This is a symphony we want to see in person, because a most interesting thing happens in movement 4…entire sections of the orchestra sneak away, a bit at a time. By the conclusion, only the conductor and the concertmaster are left. We hope Mr. Franklin didn’t miss this!

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH

Fly By

Well, look who came visiting. This gorgeous hawk swooped down yesterday and perched on our fence for some 20 minutes. So, of course we had to read about hawks last night. Most interesting fact: the people of ancient Egypt believed the hawk (Horus) to be a guardian of the pharaoh, and therefore was considered sacred.

Check out the cool hawk headwear!

We continue to read: “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”. As of last night, Dorothy and crew had just entered the territory of the Wicked Witch of the West. So entertaining, and like all books that become movies, so different from the movie.

We continue our study of cats: we are reading from another DK Eyewitness book, “CATS”, and it is another well done effort. Maybe too well done? If there is one thing our book stresses (seriously, page after page), it is how much cats are interested in spreading their scent around. (Like I want to keep reading about THAT) (but I act like it is no big deal/part of nature’s plan/circle of life, etc.) (even though it is gross).

Because it is January: we talked about New Year’s Resolutions, so our Farmer Brown Story Problem revolved around such resolutions. Here comes a semi-troublesome division problem – there are 15 adults in Farmer Brown’s extended family and they have each made a New Year’s Resolution for the past 10 years. If only one person kept one resolution one year, what percentage of the total efforts were successful?

(from our STORIES AND STUDIES CENTER wall)

Our Music Theme: Putting an illustration to music – “Pirate Chief”. This is the first time we’ve tried this: I had my son select one of the posters on his wall, then we put together a music program that would bring the artwork to life. He chose the kicking-butt-and-taking-names “Pirate Chief” by Howard Pyle (Howard Pyle was not only a most important American illustrator, he was also an influential teacher/mentor of the likes of N.C. Wyeth). Hey! This was fun! I think we will set another poster to music in a few weeks.

“The Maid of Amsterdam” (sometimes known as “A-Roving”), a lusty sea chantey, just the type of thing that pirates, or anyone with access to a bottle of rum, would want to sing.
Overture to “The Flying Dutchman”, by Richard Wagner. This is a fave for children’s orchestras. The story of the opera (cursed man on a ghost ship) is intriguing, the music is motivating, and every instrument gets a crucial part to play
“Pirates of the Caribbean Suite”, by Klaus Badelt. This is consummate sea storms-and-skullduggery pirate music. The video footage of a performance in Vienna has an added bonus – composer Klaus Badelt is seated in the audience.

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH

Posting about Posters

My son’s room has turned into an art gallery of sorts. Every time we finish a unit on an artist or illustrator, we select a representative work (in poster form) and find a place for it on the wall (see sidebar). This room surprises everyone who visits.

It is pretty easy to figure out how to select a poster, purchase it, and install it, but on the off chance somebody is freaked out about the procedure, here is what we do:

I look for posters at museum websites that are dedicated to the particular artist – the selection is wider and prices are significantly lower than art & poster websites. I have also been satisfied with Amazon’s poster selection.
I select six potential posters. I do a cut and paste from the museum website, presenting all six paintings on one page, and let my son pick the piece he likes best. I place the order.
When poster arrives, we let it unfurl for a week or so, then I adhere it to the wall with removable poster tape squares.
If we decide that we really like a particular poster, a local framer mounts it on foam core board, attaches wood stretcher bars in the back, and affixes a hanging wire. Very inexpensive compared to traditional framing and the look is cool.

An abrupt switch of topics – last night’s music theme was “trains”:

Heitor Villa-Lobos’ “The Little Train”. Controlled, soothing, endearing.
Patrick Doyle’s “The Steam Engine”, from Emma Thompson’s movie, “Sense and Sensibility”. A very short piece that brims with sweet optimism.
Duke Ellington’s, “Take the A Train”. Awesome every single listening.

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH

Jane’s Cool School

My adult son has autism. He is non-verbal. This blog is about our learning-at-home program.

Art Posters

It’s All Fun!

Good Books, Bad Books

Answers for Everything

Garden Par-tay

It’s a date!

Fly By

Posting about Posters

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