Geography

Down the Rabbit Hole

This post is a bit different from my usual efforts.  We got side-tracked.  We went down the rabbit hole and this is how it happened.

First – In early August, I flew to San Francisco to spend a few days with a favorite family member (a postdoc at UCSF/we are ridiculously proud/his apartment is chaos).  Anyway, as we trekked around the hilly city we kept passing loads of friendly people decked out in tie-dyed shirts, emanating Eau de Weed, drawn to San Francisco that very weekend for the “60th anniversary of the Grateful Dead” festival.  Deadheads!  Well!  Interesting!

So then I thought, maybe I should put together a study unit on the hippie/flower child era to share with my son.

So then, to get things going, I procured a book that captured the vibes of the three day art and music festival that rocked the summer of 1969:  Woodstock, edited by Mike Evans and Paul Kingsbury.  Well organized information paired with intriguing photographs. (It is going to take us a long time to work through this book cuz a lot of the printing is done in what appears to be font size: 1 point.)  If it has to do with Woodstock, it is in this book:  the lead up, the venue choice, the sound system, the musicians, the lack of food concessions, the parking nightmare, the rain, the mud, etc.  Bottom line:  my son is in rapt attention mode when this book is opened.  So far, our favorite entries:

  • the Woodstock poster, an iconic image of the counterculture.  Graphic artist Arnold Skolnick was given the project on a Thursday and his design was due the following Monday.  He delivered.  (This prompted a mini discussion with my son about trusting your instincts when time is short. Not really sure this sunk in.)
  • the personal reflections of the performers, most of whom remember being quite nervous about performing for such a large audience (400,000 people.  That is kind of a lot).  They delivered.

So then, to enhance our immersion into the counterculture, we re-read (maybe for our 5th time, but now on high alert for the hippie nuances) Gordon Korman’s Schooled, and my son listened to (for at least the 100th time) the broadway show, Hair (1968), during nightly trampoline time.

So then, back to Woodstock:  after we pinpointed the Woodstock location on our map (upstate New York), we crossed the country to learn about the San Francisco-hippie era relationship, reading through the stunning Above & Across San Francisco book, edited by Sam Landers and Michelle Fitzgerald.  We really didn’t learn anything about the hippie era, but we were captivated by the collection of photographs showing the many best sides of San Francisco.

So then I thought, might we desire to spend a bit of time musing over the CRAZY fog that teases San Francisco?  News to us:  the fog has been named Karl.  We read Karl the Fog, written by Karl himself!  Loads of fab fog fotos accompanied by Karl’s sly way with words.

So then I thought, let’s get back to the hippie era:  since this study unit was inspired by the Grateful Dead festival, didn’t my son need to know a bit about this American rock band?  We Wikipediad up and read bits  about the Dead (and their technical catastrophes at Woodstock)/San Francisco/Jerry Garcia.  We listened and swayed back and forth to the welcoming, warm harmonies of  “Uncle John’s Band” (1969).  This piece is included on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll”.

So then I thought, speaking of Jerry Garcia, maybe we should celebrate this unit with a scoop or two of “Cherry Garcia”, the Ben and Jerry ice cream flavor that  was developed in 1987.   Did my son love Cherry Garcia ice cream? YES.  Will Cherry Garcia be served on his upcoming birthday?  YES.

Lastly – I thought maybe we should learn something about the Ben and Jerry ice cream business, so we read The Sweetest Scoop, written by Lisa Robinson with the perfect accompanying watercolor illustrations by Stacy Innerst.  This book made us love Ben and Jerry’s even more.  Made us roll our eyes at a particular major corporation that blocked B and J ice cream from major grocery store chains for 4 years (FOR SHAME).

Yes, I would say we were officially down the rabbit hole:

San Francisco/Woodstock/Schooled/Hair
back to San Francisco/Karl the Fog/Grateful Dead
Cherry Garcia ice cream/the Ben and Jerry story

This was so much fun!
Welcome to the best part of my day,
– Jane BH

Indian Summer

Summertime studies for the likes of us – 

India, Incredible India, an A+ book by Jasbinder Bilan, content well matched with Nina Chakrabarti’s A+ graphics.  Clever premise:  a young lady, “Thara”, and Nanijee (nanijee – totally great word – translates to maternal grandmother), sort through grandmother’s treasure box, which is filled with souvenirs from every state and territory in India.  Page by page, we learned facts about each area and souvenir, then located the state/territory on the included map.  Every night, my son and I were drawn in by the exuberant illustrations positioned among splashes of vibrant colors.  We would read anything by this team.

While Mrs. Coverlet was Away, by Mary Nash.  I subject my son to this book every August because it is funny, imaginative, and champions the concept of self reliance.  Spoiler alert:  chapter 15 includes such a poetic passage, transporting us on a lazy summer’s day to the town swamp for turtle hunting.  The story gets us ready for our Mary Nash December read (Mrs. Coverlet’s Magicians). 

Nicolaus Copernicus, by Mariana Swift.  Oh, we do like this man (1473-1543) who had the nerve to propose the heliocentric theory.  Big shocker, Copernicus was not in the good graces of the church, but did he shy away from enthusiastically explaining his observations?  NO!  Role model!  Copernicus published his groundbreaking book, “On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres”, at age 70.  Role model!

The Travel Book (a Lonely Planet Kids book).  We started this quirky fact book January 1st (with Canada) and finished August 1st (with Kiribati). One page every night, one country every night. (and BTW, I just took an online geography quiz and correctly identified 26 countries out of 30…before this unit I probably could have pinpointed about 9 countries).  Study unit highlights:

Welcome to our “Travel Book” Quirky Awards Ceremony:

Quirky Fashion Accessory Award, Grand Prize Winner:  Lithuania develops a signature perfume “Scent of Lithuania” (2011)
Quirky Global Citizen Award, Grand Prize Winner:  Global Seed Vault – entirely funded by Norway (officially started in 2008)
Quirky Destination Award, Grand Prize Winner:  An underwater post office! (Vanuatu)
Quirky Flag Design Award, tied for Grand Prize Winner :  A completely awesome hat (the symbol of Lesotho’s main ethnic group) is emblazoned on the Lesotho flag


Quirky Flag Design Award, tied for Grand Prize Winner:  Nauru is located just south of the equator and their flag is a model of brilliant simplicity.  See what I mean? 


Quirky Sob Story Category, Grand Prize Winner:  Awww, Nauru.  In the 1980’s, this country experienced a huge economic boom when they were able to sell  phosphate (used in fertilizers) (from scrapings of BIRD POOP).  Alas, they did such a good job of scraping the rocks of the guano, that there was no more phosphate to sell. Economy collapse. Heart breaker.  At least they still have that well designed flag.

A summer school cooking class story problem from the local diner – Chef Hank’s theme this year:  “It is all about the POTATO”.   The agenda:

Monday – twice baked potatoes
Tuesday – the secret of hash browned taters
Wednesday – Vichyssoise, co-hosted by the high school French teacher, Miss Suzette
Thursday – home-made potato chips and dips
Friday – cottage fries and the diner’s famous bar-b-que sauce

Well, who doesn’t want to improve their potato skills?  The diner kitchen has room for 15 students (and there is already a waiting list with 10 names on it).  This is a most popular class.

1)  If the class runs from 10 am until noon, how many hours will the students be in the diner’s school during the week?
2)  If the chef needs an hour of preparation before each class, for how many hours will the chef be paid at the conclusion of the week?  
3)  If the chef earns $20 an hour, how much will the chef earn for his potato week efforts?
4)  If students pay $40 tuition for the week long cooking class, will that be enough to pay the chef?
5)  If the supplies for the week run $100, will that be covered with the tuition income?
6)  If Miss Suzette is to be paid $20 an hour for 3 hours of work on the Wednesday, will that be covered by tuition? (answers at bottom of post)

Music to conclude the evening:  Impression from India

Ravi Shankar’s “Concerto for Sitar and Orchestra”, movement 3 (composed in 1971), performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andre Previn.  The first minute and a half of this piece is calmly exotic, then we are abruptly treated to the energetic, frenetic sound of the sitar.  What a thrill ride!  What a way to introduce my son to the sound of this complicated looking instrument!

The Beatles, “Norwegian Wood” (1965), the first piece of western pop music to use the sitar. George Harrison studied with Ravi Shankar and the unique sound of the instrument was woven into this piece in a decidedly tame (but decidedly lovely) manner.

Léo Delibes, “The Flower Duet” from his opera of 1883, Lakmé, which takes place in 19th century India.  No sitar in this at all, but oh, the harmonies in this simply dazzling duet.  I can find no evidence that Delibes ever traveled to India, so this might be a case of “write what you don’t really know”.  It is still stunning.

Welcome to the best part of my day!
 – Jane BH
(story problem answers:  1)  10 hours     2)  15 hours     3)  $300     4), 5), and 6) yes)

But I digress…

When my sister and I were kidlets, Saturday nights would find us accompanying our parents to a neighboring home, where the adults would play bridge for hours.  Well, this family’s house was a salute to the bland tones of beige (yawn) and sort of a tannish color (double, NAY! TRIPLE YAWN).  And other than a rather large set of ornately carved wooden salad servers – hung on the wall as an art piece – there was NOTHING interesting going on in this house.  Anyway, courtesy of these long nights in Neutralville, here is what beige means for me:  NO CREATIVITY HERE.  NO INDEPENDENT THINKING HERE.  LET’S PLEASE MOVE ON.

But I digress.  Our current book basket is filled with the work of wildly independent, creative thinkers.  Not a beige tone in the lot.

No Beige Here:  “The Adventures of Miss Petitfour” (book 1), written by ridiculously gifted Anne Michaels, charming illustrations by Emma Block.  This is a collection of short stories concerning Miss Petitfour and her 16 cats, but for us, this book is about the glorification of words.  Words we know but forget to use. (Example:  Miss Petitfour and team enter a FESTOONING competition, not a mere “decorating” competition.)  And the cats names!  Our favorite is Purrsia.  PURRSIA.  This might be the first book we have ever read spurred on solely by the author’s mastery of fanciful vocabulary.  I was thinking feline adventures might hold little appeal for my son, but when I asked him if he thought we should order book number 2, he immediately scribbled “YES”.

No Beige Here:  “The Boy Whose Head was Filled with Stars (A Life of Edwin Hubble)”, written by Isabelle Marinov, illustrated by Deborah Marcero.  Lately, my son and I have been comparing photos sent from the Hubble Space Telescope (launched 1990) and the JWST (launched 2021).  So, a BIG YES to a book about Edwin Hubble (1889 – 1953).  INSIDER SCOOP:  Hubble’s father did not want him to study astronomy.  WHOA.  REALLY?  INTERESTING.  Was he concerned that astronomy would not provide a steady income?  Was it for religious reasons?  Hmmm.  Anyway, Hubble acquiesced and taught high school, coaching a basketball team until his father died, then Hubble scrambled back to astronomy. 

And we learned that he “only” managed this: TWO NOTEWORTHY DISCOVERIES:
1) the universe is so much bigger than we thought (even during his studies, the brightest scholars thought the universe was “limited” to the Milky Way).
2) The universe is getting bigger all the time. 

The book concludes with a focused reflection from the author:  
“It is this cosmic perspective that I’ve tried to convey through Edwin’s story, a perspective that is lost on so many of our world’s leaders.  Planet Earth is nothing more than an infinitesimal fraction of a mote of dust in the vast cosmic tapestry.  Maybe one day, this realization will help us overcome our narrowness of perspective, which lies at the root of so many of our earthly problems?”

No Beige Here:  “Old School”, by Gordon Korman.  Oh, we do love Korman’s books (I think we have read “Schooled” 5 times).  In this book, middle schoolers experience becoming united for a cause, find surprising connections with senior citizens, and among other things, they learn about WWII code breakers/shuffleboard/the pleasures of a restorative cup of tea.  This was a thought provoking story that we looked forward to reading every night.   And my son learned the double meaning of the term, “old school”.

No Beige Here:  Reporting in on our around the world tour – 

We are still LOVING this unit, brought to us by the Lonely Planet Kids, “The Travel Book”  .  Since last post, we have journeyed around the Arabian peninsula,  (took a Wikipedia detour to learn where vast supplies of oil actually come from – not dinosaurs as we were thinking, but ancient fossilized mini marine life)(as loads of people know, just not us), have studied the STANS:  Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan (we learned that “stan” means “land of”).  We are now heading toward Australia and Oceania.

Favorite new things we’ve learned:

Pakistan:  Jingle Trucks  (definitely NO BEIGE here!)

Jordan:   Royal Desert Forces (police) ride camels

Nepal:  We love this country’s flag (the 2 triangles symbolize the Himalayan mountains, and the 2 major religions – Hinduism and Buddhism)

Qatar:   Best in the good will category:  Qatar created the largest flag in 2013, then had it recycled into 200,000 book bags for school children distributed around 60 countries

Easy story problem from the Local Diner!  There’s a new Saturday night special at the Local Diner!  Date night calls for a bit of sophistication, so the diner is now serving table-side tossed salads!  Oh, the glamour!  What prompted this was that the diner’s chef’s cousin’s brother-in-law,  Mr. Hank, has gotten into whittling and has carved up a dozen pairs of wooden salad servers, which he is selling for $20 per set.  They are just gorgeous.  The diner bought them all,  6 to use for the table-side service and 6 to sell on a trial basis.  If they sell well, the diner will order more.

  • How much did the diner pay for 12 sets of salad servers?
    A)  $120     B)  $144     C)  $200     D)  $240
  • If the diner sells the sets of the remaining salad servers for $30 each, how many more sets of salad servers can they order from the profit?
    A)  3 sets     B)  9 sets     C)  12 sets     D)  1,000 sets
    (answers at bottom of post)

No Beige Here:  Orchestral Offerings – Three rambunctious, bold, imaginative pieces:

Bamboula, composed by New Orleans native, Louis Moreau Gottschalk in 1848.  First of all, the name:  a bamboula is a type of rum barrel drum as well as being a word one would want to say over and over.  This is a longish piano piece, but as we are getting used to it, we love it.  This is the exact recording we listen to – 

Cantina Band, composed by John Williams in 1977 for Star Wars IV.  Inventive, toe tapping, the ultimate quirky background music for the ultimate quirky bar scene –

The Wild Bears, composed in 1907  by Sir Edward Elgar as part of his “The Wand of Youth” suite.  This enchanting short piece transports us into the middle of a children’s raucous hide-and-seek activity.  The chaotic conclusion is perfection.  No beige here –

Welcome to the best part of my day!
– Jane BH
(story problem answers:  D)  $240 and A)  3 sets)

The Pre-Test

When I was earning a teaching credential at UCLA (this would be during the bronze age), esteemed professor of education, Dr. P., stressed the importance of THE PRE-TEST.  How could one possibly know what to teach without evidence of a student’s grasp of particular subject matter? 

Thus, from a recent “Around the World” unit PRE-TEST: 

1)  If given a blank map of Africa (with border outlines), how many countries can you identify?
– My son could color in Egypt and Algeria (we have studied both)
– Me?  Oh my gosh, this is so unacceptable:  I could correctly label Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, South Africa, and Madagascar.  The end.  There are 54 countries and 4 territories in Africa and I could identify 5.  Yikes.  

2)  List everything you know about Africa:
– Both my son and I:  the pyramids, the Sahara Desert, Victoria Falls, Nelson Mandela.  The end.  

Pre-test results are in –  the students pretty much need to know EVERYTHING:

So, Africa.  Only half way through this unit, we are alternately perplexed and fascinated, as we become more aware citizens of the world –

– Two different countries: Niger and Nigeria
– Two different countries: the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
– Like the Euro, several African countries use the same currency:
          West African CFA Franc: 8 countries
          Central African CFA Franc:  6 countries
– Newest country:  South Sudan (established 2011)
– Côte d’Ivoire’s Basilica of our Lady of Peace is the largest church in the world
– The territory of Western Sahara confuses us.  Why is this a territory?
– We found out where Timbuktu is (Mali).  We didn’t know Timbuktu was a real place
– There are 2,000 distinct languages spoken in Africa

(pre-test and African countries studied so far)

Our “Around the World” Unit – We are augmenting our Lonely Planet Kids book, “The Travel Book – a journey through every country in the world”, with two atlases and we love them both:  

–  “Maps”, by Alessandra Mizielinska and Daniel Mizielinski.  We refer to this most enchanting atlas nightly.
–  “The Hammond World Atlas – Super Edition”, printed in 1966.  We love comparing the new with the way out-of-date.  Always a discussion starter.

Even More Maps? –  my son is also learning the location of states in the USA.  We locate few states at a time, each night a new theme.  So far: 

– States we have lived in:  California, Georgia, Idaho, Maryland, and Texas
– Fun shaped states:  the “L”-shaped Louisiana, and the mitten-shaped Michigan, the square states Wyoming and Colorado
– The four “corners” of continental USA:  California (again), Washington, Maine, and Florida
– States of the “Four Corners” region:  Utah, Colorado (again), Arizona, and New Mexico
– “Compass” states:  North and South Dakota,  North and South Carolina, West Virginia
– “New” states:  New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, and New Mexico
– Dream destination states:  Hawaii and Alaska

Story Problem Time (YAY!):

Pickle Day at Farmer Brown’s Roadside Stand – There’s an excited buzz around Hankville:  it’s almost Pickle Day at Farmer Brown’s Roadside Stand!  Pickle Day is held every spring and features Farmer Brown’s favorite cousin, Miss Kate (state fair champion in both sweet pickle AND dill pickle divisions!) giving a pickling demonstration.  

– After the demonstration, Miss Kate autographs her pickling instruction booklet (which sells for $10).  
– Jars of her dill pickles sell for $5.  
– Jars of her sweet pickles sell for $6.  
– Also for sale:  a festive basket, suitable for gift giving, containing the booklet PLUS a jar of each pickle style, priced at $18.

If the roadside stand receives 10% of Miss Kate’s sales, how much money will the stand realize if 400 booklets, 100 jars of dill pickles, 120 jars of sweet pickles, and 20 gift-giving baskets are sold?
a)  $64     b)  $225     c)  $360     d)  $558 
(answer at bottom of post)

Finding the original A.A. Milne, “The Complete Tales of Winnie-the-Pooh” (“Winnie-the-Pooh” and “The House at Pooh Corner”) on our bookshelf, enrobed in a thin (it wasn’t really thin) layer of dust, was like finding buried treasure (literally, a treasure buried in dust).  Would it be just as good a read as it was 25 years ago?  YES!

– Milne’s refreshing manner with words –
– unpretentious poems (hums) that beg to be read out loud over and over –
– the capital letters strewn about –
– perceptively defined characters who assist each other in and out of situations –
–  the winsome illustrations of Ernest Shephard – 

What a most pleasant way to conclude each night’s studies.  (I just came across an A.A. Milne quote that has apparently been taped to my office wall since 2009:  “One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.”.  This speaks to me.  Maybe this is how we rediscovered our dust covered book.)

Classical Music, The Pre-Test –

The majority of my acquaintances seem to have limited knowledge regarding classical music:
–  I was jolted into reality when one of my more educated friends asked what a symphony “movement” was.  
– When another acquaintance asked me what type of music I would like to listen to, I responded, “how about anything recorded by the New York Philharmonic?”  Acquaintance squinted his eyes and said, “hmmmm, I’ve never heard of that band.”  

Whoa. OK, that is what I am here for.  Anyway, if my son and I were giving an introductory class in orchestral music, we might pre-test by asking –
– What distinguishes music from the classical and romantic eras?
– Traditionally, how many movements in a concerto?
– Can you put these composers in order, according to when they composed:  Bach, Beethoven, Brahms?
– Can you tell the difference between a viola and a clarinet? (Please, can you at least get this right?)

Here is a micro-sampler of what we think everyone should have a chance to listen to. My son and I have renamed these pieces to reflect what we can hear in the music.  There’s no law that says we can’t.

– The Goat Symphony – really, Alexander Glazunov’s, Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major, movement II, composed in 1893.  It is so easy to visualize a team of goats on meadow clearing detail, pouncing about in the fresh air.

– Popcorn Pizzicato – really, Leroy Anderson’s Jazz Pizzicato, composed in 1939.  Before we changed the name, we had listened to the piece about 3 times and thought it was sort of OK.  Then, we matched the music up with a popcorn cart story problem.  Game changer!  This piece has become one of my son’s favorite evening selections.  Every pluck of the violin strings tells us popcorn is popping.

– Elephants! – really, Ottorino Respighi’s Pines of Rome, movement I (Villa Borghese), composed in 1924.  We can hear elephants trumpeting throughout the piece.  We know Respighi was capturing children pretending to be soldiers in battle (and we do hear that), but darn it, we cannot ignore the elephants!

Welcome to the best part of my day!
– Jane BH
(story problem answers:  d).  $558)

Topics from the Tropics

My son and I are immersed in facts and flavors of Central America, the Caribbean, and South America.  (And yes, yes, yes, we recognize that much of South America cannot be classified as “the tropics”.  Let’s move on.)

The Travel Book – A Journey through Every Country in the World, a Lonely Planet Kids Book –  We are enthusiastic about opening this book every night, but alas, we do have a complaint:  every page is set up as a graphic collage by somebody who certainly has an eye for color and composition, BUT!!! on almost every page there is content printed in a teensy font (black ink), and positioned on a dark color background.  Really, really difficult to read.  I have to hold the book “just so” and hunch forward to read.  Couldn’t ya just weep?

But I digress. With this book, our globe and atlas, my son and I have trekked our way through the countries of Central America, the Caribbean, and South America.  Favorite takeaways:

Nicaragua:  the streets have no names.  One arrives at one’s destination by use of landmarks.
Costa Rica:  all radio stations broadcast the national anthem every morning at 7.
El Salvador:  the US Dollar is the national currency.
The East Caribbean Dollar:  this currency used by 6 countries (Saint Kitts & Nevis, Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada).
Saint Lucia:  only country in the world named after a woman.
Guyana:  English is the national language.
Paraguay:  no doorbells!  (clap your hands if you want in).
Uruguay:  the tradition is to eat gnocchi on the 29th of each month.
Trinidad & Tobago:  STEEL DRUMS!  The history of this instrument is compelling, we loved learning that steel drums of yore could be tuned and adjusted by use of a hammer, and we are in a smiley place while listening to steel drum (more correctly, the steelpan) music.

Marcus  Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish, by Pablo Cartaya.  We are following Marcus Vega’s family from Springfield, Pennsylvania to Puerto Rico to visit with extended family.  I am mortified to admit that before this book I was not exactly sure where PR was located. 

Before Music – Where Instruments Come From, Annette Bay Pimentel, illustrated by Madison Safer.  This sort of looks like a little kids book, but – HAPPY SURPRISE – it is filled with impressive scholarly research.  Great page on the history and development of the steel drums (steelpan).  A perfect enhancement to our listening.

Veering off the tropics topics:

  • 150 Mornings of Volunteer Work.  Once a week, my son does a bit of volunteering at a local nursery.  We hit day 150 last week!  

  • Brave Like That, by Lindsey Stoddard.  Not sure if my son got the message of the book (which was basically:  be confident about being yourself), but this was a sweet, sweet read.  Good kid, excellent father.
  • Four new poems for my son to memorize:  The Spider and the Fly, The Road Not Taken, The Land of Counterpane, and The Duel.
  • Funniest piece of classical music – I am not sure how we came upon Edvard Grieg’s “March of the Trolls” (1890), but I am sure we have never heard a more startling piece of classical music.  This recording demonstrates the conductor’s grasp of comedic timing.  We hear an aggressive troop of trolls wreaking havoc with some poor soul’s quiet moment of reflection.  The final jarring insult (percussion) takes us by surprise every single listen. 

 

Story Problem – Sampling Birthday Cakes at The Local Diner

The Local Diner has hired a new pastry chef, whose specialty is birthday cakes! The first day of every month the chef hosts cake sampling day, so everyone will know what to order when their birthday rolls around.  4 different flavors are offered and 20 mini-servings can be cut from each cake on sampling day.

cake flavors:
lemon zing  – confetti cake – gingerbread – dirt cake (kids favorite)

  • If 40 people show up for sampling day and everyone wants to try all four of the cake flavors, how many cakes of each type need to be baked?
    a)  2 cakes     b)  8 cakes     c)  16 cakes     d)  40 cakes
  • Customers who place orders on sampling day get 20% taken off the cake price.  If each cake costs $20, how much will the pastry chef collect if 10 people order cakes on sampling day?
    a)  $16     b)  $40    c)  $160     d)  $200
  • If among the 10 orders 60% are for the dirt cake, how many dirt cakes will the chef need to bake?
    a)  6 cakes     b)  8 cakes     c)  16 cakes     d)  60 cakes
  • Which of these days would be a cake sampling day?
    a)  February 14     b)  February 29     c)  March 1     d)  July 4

And back to the tropics:  Steelpan Music –  bouncy, optimistic, full-of-cheer –

  • Steeling the Show!  We viewed historic footage of the first steel drum band (the Trinidad All-Steel Pan Percussion Orchestra) to introduce itself to London in 1951 at the Festival of Britain.  In 2023, the United Nations General Assembly designated April 11 as World Steelpan Day.  Yay! ( I am sure the UN General Assembly had pressing items on the agenda, but seriously, 70-plus years to deliberate on whether to support a World Steelpan Day? Did certain delegates need to be strong armed?  Is there a story here????)

  • Steeling our Hearts!  We watched young learners on the steelpan.  This joyful performance made our hearts sing and we were doubly enchanted by the A+ audience response –  

  • Steeling Away!   A piece of steel drum magic that transports us to an idealized undersea world AND a piece my son is well familiar with – “Under the Sea”, from Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” movie of 1989, melody composed by Alan Mencken – 

Welcome to the best part of my day!
– Jane BH
(Story Problem answers:  a)  2 cakes,  c)  $160,  a)  6 cakes,  c)  March 1)

Fun with Feb

Prepare yourself for a bit of anthropomorphizing.

Poor February, so insecure in the company of those self-assured 31-day months.  Sure, February boasts Valentine’s Day, Washington’s Birthday, and Black History Month, but we think February’s confidence might be additionally bolstered by the knowledge that somewhere in the world there exists a month with far, far fewer than 28 days.  Read on:

“Britannica Kid’s Encyclopedia” (2020 edition) – My son and I are working our way through this jazzy reference volume and our favorite entry so far:  how 18 ancient cultures (2,600 BCE – 1582 CE) began marking the passing of time with calendars.  

First place trophy for most creative calendar goes to ETHIOPIA! (We located it on the globe, of course we did.) Beginning in 350 CE,  Ethiopian calendar masterminds placed the 5 extra days, that didn’t fit into their 12 30-day months template, into a 13th month (“Pagume”, wedged between August and September).  Pagume is a 5-day mini month!  Stand tall, February, stand tall!

Switching topics –
“Engineering the Space Needle”, by Kate Conley. Here is what we learned from this small but mighty book:

– the Space Needle, the centerpiece of the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle, is a triumph of engineering, design, and management
– constructed in very little time (just over a year), in very little space, wind safe/earthquake safe, built and maintained with private funds (due to local government naysayers of the time)  
– the design drew inspiration from a small sculpture entitled, “The Feminine One” (slender, narrow waist, reaching for the sky).  Now my son and I don’t just see a tall landmark, we see a surprisingly beautiful landmark  

We have family members who live within walking distance of the Space Needle, so I asked for a photo to share with my son.  Oh boy, this is some fine photography: 

One of our latest fiction reads – 
“Clementine”, by Sara Pennypacker – this is the story of high energy, super alert young lady who is bursting with original ideas.  “Pay attention!” her teachers say, and in her heart of hearts she knows she IS paying attention (to every-single-little-thing that comes into view).   We loved this book, thought Marla Frazee’s illustrations made the story even better, and I am thinking that anyone who deals with what appears to be attention-gone-haywire might find this book comforting and illuminating.

Reporting in:  current Clem and Clyde reading comprehension worksheets have dealt with New Year’s resolutions, the purchase of a snowman, and sampling sugar snap peas.  We both love our time with Clem and Clyde.

Story Problem:  Cupid’s Delight Pie at the Local Diner – On February 14, the local diner celebrated Valentine’s Day by offering a slice of their Cupid’s Delight Pie with each lunch and dinner order.  Cupid’s Delight Pie is a sumptuous raspberry pie topped with a dollop of PALE PINK WHIPPED CREAM. The diner can serve 8 slices from each pie.  The diner ended up serving 200 lunches and 150 dinners on the 14th.  The pastry chef baked 40 pies.  Was that enough to serve all the diners?  (answer at bottom of post)

Classical Music,  February Style – 

We have been listening to the works of black composers for Black History Month and we knew we wanted to hear the music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.  But when we did a computer search we kept getting entries for both Coleridge-Taylor and the the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.  So we wanted to figure out the connection –

  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), beloved British poet (“Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, “Kubla Khan”).  We got sidetracked and read through the dazzling “Kubla Khan”.

  • Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912), British composer, named in honor of the poet. OH! OK!  That makes sense.   Named without the hyphen….hyphen came later due to a printer’s error.  Obsessed by Longfellow’s gol-dern-lengthy poem of 1855, “The Song of Hiawatha” (Coleridge-Taylor even named his son Hiawatha!), and most well known for his cantata, “Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast” (1898).  We listened to “He Was Dressed in a Shirt of Doe-Skin ” from said cantata.  While it cannot possibly transport us to the shores of Gitche Gumee (Lake Superior) of the 1500’s, the frothy harmonies (very Gilbert and Sullivan) are a dreamy delight. 

AND FINALLY, taking inspiration from the Ethiopian calendar:  What if we had our own 5 day month?  How would my son and I celebrate via classical music?

Day 1:  Welcome teeny tiny month!  –  We would begin with Scott Joplin’s bouncy “Rosebud March” (1905) – just the thing to set the tone for a joy filled five-day month.  This music puts a spring in our step and says, “Let’s be thankful, let’s be friendly, let’s smile!  Welcome, welcome mini month!”-

Day 3:  How time flies!  The month is half over! –  Time to stop and smell the flowers.  May we suggest Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s fanciful “Romance of the Prairie Lilies” (1899) for mid-month listening –

Day 5:  Going out with a bang – Florence Price’s “Symphony No. 1 in E minor”, movement IV (1932).  This piece is full speed ahead, concluding with a full half minute of cymbal crashing (and that is a lot of cymbal crashing).  (BTW, this symphony was the first by an African-American woman to be performed by a major orchestra.  Kudos to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for recognizing and showcasing talent.) 

Welcome to the best part of my day!
– Jane BH
(story problem answer:  No, the pastry chef should have baked 44 pies.)

Study Break

Such an unfun set-up:  first the studies, then the study break.

The Greenland Focus – My son and I have proclaimed 2023 as the year we are going to learn about Greenland (the one large land mass we hadn’t “visited” during 2022).  We started with the Wikipedia entry (Greenland: largest island in the world, part of the Kingdom of Denmark, 70% of its energy comes from water power (renewable).  YAY!),  and then read, “Escape Greenland” by Ellen Prager.  This is not our usual type of fiction reading (it is a bit on the high tension/good guys vs. bad guys side)(we are more on the low tension-looking to be enchanted side).  Nonetheless, it successfully brought the location, terrain and climate of Greenland to our attention.

“Icebergs & Glaciers” by Seymour Simon.  A good accompaniment to “Escape Greenland”.  We needed to see photographs of glaciers and icebergs.  We needed grasp their definitions.  (This is hardly the end of our Greenland focus.)

Next Stop, Australia, via “The Great Barrier Reef” by Helen Scales and Lisk Feng.  You can now ask us about:

  • coral bleaching, John “Charlie” Vernon (Godfather of Coral), and the wicked, wicked Crown-of-Thorns Starfish  
  • the future of Green Sea Turtles (this is a species, not a description).  The facts: 
        • the temperature in the nest of baby sea turtle eggs determines the sex of the turtle.  WHAT???? My son and I took a few moments to puzzle over this.  
        • if the nest temperature is lower than 81 degrees, the turtles will be males.  If the temp is above 87 degrees, the turtles will be female.  In-between temps produce a mix.
        • at present, only 1% of green turtles hatching in the Great Barrier Reef are male.    My son and I discussed whether this is optimal.  

  • we read a bit about the world-famous whale, Migaloo (an albino humpback whale), who makes an annual appearance in the reef area (actually, scientists think Migaloo might have perished in the recent past)(RIP Migaloo).  We wanted to know more about Migaloo, so we read “Migaloo, The White Whale”, by Mark Wilson, which provoked us to take a listen to recorded humpback whale sounds. V soothing –

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Bugs leading the way – how did scientists come up with the idea for:

    

  • the changing color (green to gold) of the “10” on the 10 dollar bill?  The Blue Morpho Butterfly
  • efficient use of electricity in light bulbs?  Fireflies
  • better solar panels?  The Isabella Tiger Moth
  • more comfortable medical needles?  Mosquitos (whoa: something nice about mosquitoes)

How do we know all this stuff?  “FANDEX Kids “Bugs”.  Anyone following our strict regimen, focusing upon 2 bugs a night would also know:

  • that the queen of some species of termites can live up to 50 years.  Yeeks.
  • the oldest known spider in the world was a female trapdoor spider.  She lived for 43 years!  We can only assume she was studied in a science lab, because she was heartlessly named, “Number 16”.

Yes, we are still on the bird thing – we are half way through “What It’s Like to Be a Bird”, written/stunningly illustrated by David Allen Sibley.  We thank Ann P. (influential master teacher who mentored me through my student teaching days decades and decades ago) for suggesting this elegant book.  So far, our favorite 2-page spread:  Wild Turkeys –  

  • turkeys were domesticated in Mexico over 2,000 years ago
  • in the 1500’s, they were brought from Mexico to Spain with returning explorers (conquistadors most likely, who are on our permanent bad list)
  • within 20 years, turkeys were the rage throughout Europe (the Pilgrims even brought them back to the Americas onboard the Mayflower)  
  • and TA-DA!!!  Somehow, some Europeans did not get the memo that these birds were from Mexico; it was widely believed they originated from the middle east, specifically, TURKEY.  Thus the name!  File this away for a Thanksgiving Day conversation starter.  We loved this entire segment and read it aloud 3 times.  Thank you again, Ann P.!

And BTW, we now have Sibley’s “Birds of Texas” poster up on the wall.  Very cool.

FINALLY, the study break!  Snack Time Story Problem –  The local diner has purchased a popcorn cart with the intention of renting it out for birthday parties and local youth sporting events.  The festive cart was purchased for $300 and will be available for rental at $75 per day.  The diner can supply popcorn and popcorn bags (200 portions for $50).  For fancy affairs, clients may wish to hire Chef Iris to serve up the popcorn at an additional cost of $100 per day.

– How many times will the popcorn cart need to be rented to recover the $300? 
A.  4 rentals     B. 14 rentals     C.  24 rentals  D.  1,000 rentals 

– How much will a client spend if they require the cart for two days, 600 popcorn servings, and Chef Iris to tend cart?
A.  $300     B.  $400     C.  $500     D.  $1,000  (answers at bottom of post)

Classical Music Time – let us suppose that the popcorn cart client would love some carefree, cheerful background music.  Maybe Chef Iris would suggest –

  • Leroy Anderson’s very first work, “Jazz Pizzicato”, 1938.  We can almost hear the popcorn popping –

  • Beethoven’s “Five Pieces for a Mechanical Clock”, Number 3, composed around 1799.  Sweet carnival-type music that could provoke twirling around the closest popcorn cart.  (from what I’ve read, I’m thinking this may have appalled Beethoven)  –  

  • Shostakovich, “Ballet Suite No. 4”, movement 2  (“The Song of Great Rivers”), composed in 1953.  Fresh, lighthearted, an almost merry-go-round feel.  Signature popcorn cart music –

Welcome to the best part of my day!
– Jane BH
(story problem answers:  A. 4 rentals, and C. $500)

Bird Nerds

Us?  Bird nerds?  You must have us confused with real ornithological enthusiasts.  It is true that we have our bird-watching binoculars at the ready and since May, 2022 (when we read our first bird watching book – Mike O’Connor’s hilarious and informative “Why Don’t Woodpeckers Get Headaches”) we have served up pounds & pounds & pounds of sunflower seeds, but other than that we have only accumulated:

  • 5 bird reference books
  • 3 bird posters
  • 3 bird baths
  • 1 bird feeder
  • 1 nesting box

Us?  Bird nerds?  I am not sure we aspire to nerd status, but birdwatching has turned out to be a lot more fun than we could have imagined pre-May 2022.

We comment upon our bird feeder visitors – 
We probably know about 2% of what bird people know about birds, so our amateur observations may understandably provoke criticism:

– Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal:  our resident senior citizens (through the binoculars, they look pretty shabby, poor things, but they are a class act).  Very dignified, they perch for a moment, take a sunflower seed, fly off.  We give them an “A”.

– The Chickadees:  we think of these cuties as the “little sports cars” of our backyard birds.  Compact and swift, they perch for a moment, take a sunflower seed, fly off.  We give them an “A”.

– Our Tufted Titmouse:  this soft looking, dear bird seems to keep himself to himself.  He perches for a moment, takes a sunflower seed, flies off.  We give him an “A”.

– Our Mourning Dove:  we haven’t seen this handsome bird perch on the feeder –  he seems content to dine on seeds that have fallen to the ground.  This bird is quiet, sweet, appears thoughtful, and we have to give him an “A”.

– And finally, THE FINCHES:  house finches, purple finches, American goldfinches.  These birds hog the feeder and spit seeds all over the place.  They are like the non-productive workers that hang around the office water cooler.  They are like the relatives you wish you didn’t have to invite to the wedding reception.  We give these birds a “C-”, and that is a gift.

“Rome Antics”, by David Macaulay – how clever is this book? 

  • the pun-intended title and a homing pigeon tie page one to the final page  
  • the exquisite illustrations of the architecture of Rome, presented pigeon-style (upside down/sideways/twirly-whirly)  

My son and I enthusiastically read this book 3 times in a row to appreciate Macaulay’s efforts.  A+ all over the place.

Big Birds – Speaking of birds, we did get out the measuring tape to see for ourselves the wingspan of some REALLY LARGE birds.  Example:  the Laysan Albatross – 82”.  Whoa.

Current Re-Read – “The Penguin Lessons”, by Tom Michell – so much to learn from this captivating non-fiction book – lots about penguins, lots about Argentina in the 1970’s (hoo boy, talk about inflation).  Well worth the re-read.

We’re not just about birds:

Fandex Kids “Ocean” – this Fandex-Kids card deck is surprisingly good.  An enticing variety of sea life presented with skilled humorous writing.  Our favorite entries:  ocean depth zones (new vocabulary “pelagic”, rhymes with “magic”), the coelacanth, giant kelp, giant squid (measuring tape out again to envision this 40 foot wonder), the graceful decorator crab.  If we were employed as Fandex editors we would replace the cartoony illustrations with photographs.  Other than that, fun resource with a most helpful glossary.

Story Problem:  Farmer Brown upgrades the bunk house – It is time for Farmer Brown to replace all the bedding in the ranch hands’ bunk house.  For each bed, new sheets (at $75 per set), new blankets (at $100 each) and a new quilt (at $100 each) will be purchased.  If there are 8 ranch hands and Farmer Brown wants  2 sets of sheets, 2 blankets, and 2 quilts for each bed, will Farmer Brown spend more or less than $4,000 to replace the bedding? (answer at bottom of post)

’22  in Review – our academic goal for 2022 was to find the location on the globe of everything we studied.  In all, we “visited” 44 countries.  The only large landmass we missed was Greenland, so this is ASSIGNMENT ONE for 2023.

Classical Music is for the Birds – 

The Aviary, from “Carnival of the Animals” by Camille Saint-Saens.  The suite was composed in 1886, but not published until after Saint-Saens’ death (1921).  He thought his reputation as a serious composer would be tarnished by this “too frivolous” work (of course he was wrong).  A jewel of a performance by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andre Previn –

The Dove (La Colomba), Ottorino Respighi.  Perfect way to honor our mourning dove.  Respighi based this 1928 composition on the music of 17th century lute virtuoso Jacques de Gallot.  We can hear the dove cooing throughout and we love the magical flute and harp ending –

Bird Feeder Banquet Music –   How about “Tafelmusik” (literally “table music”, composed  specifically to provide light background music while people AND MAYBE BIRDS were banqueting)?  We chose an absolutely delightful piece by Georg Philipp Telemann (his Quartet in G major, movement 4, composed in 1733)(and BTW, Telemann wrote lots of tafelmusik).  We can hear the birds darting to and from the bird feeder throughout the movement –

Welcome to the best part of my day,
Jane BH
(Story problem answer:  Farmer Brown will spend more than $4,000.  He will, in fact, spend $4,400 plus tax)

Global Positioning

My son and I have chosen global positioning as a study theme for 2022.  For every topic we tackle this year we are going to to answer this question: where in the world is this or where did it come from?  (We are primarily limiting our focus to countries.)

Our world map and colored pens are at the ready.  Every time we find out where something originated we mark a color coded dot on the map (example:  goat breeds – a black dot, penguin breeds – a silver dot).  Our big map is becoming our big polka dotted map.  The idea is to find ourselves at the end of 2022 knowing where every country on the globe is located.  

To illustrate:  reading from Jack Byard’s “Know Your Goats”, we learned

  • the Girgentana goat (best in class for truly WOW horns) originated in Sicily:  mark a dot on the island of Sicily.  
  • the Boer goat (super sweet Basset Hound ears) is indigenous to South Africa:  mark a dot on South Africa.
  • the Kiko goat (off-the-charts hardy – resistant to disease, parasites, weather) initially from New Zealand:  mark at dot on New Zealand.
  • we have read about 6 breeds of goat from Switzerland.  When you keep going back to Switzerland to mark yet another dot, you finally learn where Switzerland is (this is for my son’s benefit, please don’t think I didn’t know where Switzerland was).

Our topic line-up so far:  goats, penguins (hey! 18 species of penguins and only 2 live their lives in Antarctica: so, 18 sparkling silver dots scattered about our map’s southern hemisphere), owls, bears, and here’s a change of pace:  breads of the world.  This dot marking is more satisfying than one would think.

But all other topics get a dot on the map, too.  Example:  we are reading Lori Alexander’s well researched, well written, “All in a Drop – How Antony van Leeuwenhoek Discovered an Invisible World” (BTW:  illustrations by Vivien Mildenberger are just so right for this book)(and another BTW:  the timeline at the back of the book is worth the price of the book) .  

  • I can finally pronounce his name without pausing to gather my wits:  “LAYVENHOOK” 
  • this man ground down a lentil shaped lens (hey!  we learned “lens” comes from the word “lentil”) and made a separate microscope for every single item he viewed 
  • kind of chilling: van Leeuwenhoek saw things under his microscopes that had NEVER EVER BEEN SEEN before.  My son and I reflected upon this crazy wonderfulness
  • after seven years of heel dragging, the Royal Society in London finally accepted van Leeuwenhoek as a Fellow (1677)

Yes, yes, yes, but where did he come from?  Delft, The Netherlands.  Bring forth the map and mark a gold dot on The Netherlands.

Current Fiction Reads (and global positioning dots) – 

“Room to Dream”, Kelly Yang.  The third in her very readable and very worthy series.  At the point we are in the story, protagonist Mia’s family is about to embark on a trip (from Anaheim, CA) to see family in China (2 dots marked on the map).

“Surviving the Applewhites”, by Stephanie S. Tolan.  I think this is our 4th time through this relentlessly entertaining book.  With each reading we discover new truths about human nature and the creative spirit.  Location?  North Carolina: another dot on the map.

Back to the Goats: Story Problem – 

Farmer Brown has 6 acres of overgrown weeds that need to be cleared out, so he is hiring a team of goats from neighbor, Farmer Fran (yes, THE Farmer Fran of “Farmer Fran’s Grazin’ Goats”), to get the job done.  Farmer Fran has a herd of 30 goats that can clear a half acre in 3 days. The cost runs $400 per acre.  

1)  How long will it take the goats to clear Farmer Brown’s 6 acres?
a-  3 days     b- 18 days     c- 30 days     d-  36 days

2)  How much will it cost to have the land cleared? 
a- $240     b-  $400     c- $2,400     d-  $4,000

3)  If Farmer Brown hires a local construction company to clear the brush, it will cost $4,000 per acre.  How much will he save if he hires the goat team instead?
a- $0 (they both cost the same)     b- $2,400     c-  $4,000     d-  $21,600
(answers at bottom of post)

Classical Music Time with the Goats – 

Farmer Fran says that her goats work more efficiently if they are munching to music, so my son and I looked for music with a happy, rambunctious melody and rhythm – 

  • “Hoe-Down”, from “Rodeo” by Aaron Copland (1942).  An A+ performance by the USA National Youth Orchestra of 2018.  Thanks to the outstanding percussion section we can imagine the goats’ little hoofbeats all over this exuberant composition –

  • “Maple Leaf Rag”, Scott Joplin (1916).  Oooooh, we found an actual pianola roll played by Scott Joplin.  The tempo is much faster than we’ve ever heard this piece played.  Just the right thing to keep those goats moving – 

  • Alexander Glazunov’s “Symphony No. 4”, movement 2 (1893).  This piece transports us smack into the middle of Farmer Brown’s acreage.  We can feel the fresh air, we can see the goats scampering from one clump of weeds to the next.  They are making short work of this 6 acre task!  This is not exactly rambunctious music, but there is a playfulness and joyfulness present –

Welcome to the best part of my day!
– Jane BH
(story problem answers:  1) d- 36 days     2) c- $2,400     3) d- $21,600 )

Smitten with Britain

UK quiz

What’s it all mean? 
(What we learned, and I do mean WE.  How did I not know most of this?)

  • UK, the United Kingdom – refers to England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland  
  • Great Britain – is a geographical term, referring to the land mass that includes England, Scotland, and Wales 
  • The British Isles – another geographical term, referring to Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and 6,000 teenier islands in the general area 
  • The British Commonwealth – (correctly referred to as “The Commonwealth”) a political association of 54  countries (including Canada, Australia, and New Zealand) for which Queen Elizabeth II serves as leader (finally, she is in charge of something!)

Our favorite takeaways from our “Smitten with Britain” unit:  

manx sheep

1)  The Isle of Man –  Located in the Irish Sea, midway between Ireland and Great Britain.  Home of:

  • Manx cats
  • Manx Loaghtan sheep (SHEEP WITH FOUR HORNS)(GET OUT OF TOWN) (immediate Google image search) (we couldn’t stop staring at the 4 horns)
  • the Bee Gees (Bee Gee tunes are favorites in my son’s trampoline-time music lineup)

2)  Trafalgar Square – London  

  • it is all about Admiral Horatio Nelson and an 1805 sea battle.  Discussion provokers:  1)  the lions at the base of Nelson’s Column (the centerpiece of the square) were cast from cannons (vocab) from battleships,  2)  we talked about the process of “casting”,  3)  we spent time lamenting Lord Nelson’s loss of an eye and an arm for the British cause
  • Trafalgar Square boasts London’s smallest police office (the observation post can only fit one person)
  • the square is the site for a ginormous Christmas tree that is sent every year from Norway

Our resources:  

UK books

  • Wikipedia 
  • “The Usborne Book of London”
  • “The Big Book of the UK” (Williams/Lockhart)

Smitten with these British authors:

dog books

James Herriot:  From the consummate British vet and master story-teller, his “Dog Stories” are calming and kind recollections.  Perfect night-time reading.  Our favorite stories so far:  “The Darrowby Show” and “Granville Bennett”.

Tom Gates:  Liz Pichon’s books activate our grin machines.  We are currently rereading the entire Tom Gates series (just finished “Super Good Skills”, now mid-way through “Dog Zombies Rule”).  We cannot get enough of Tom’s sullen sister Delia,  Tom’s bothersome classroom seat-mate, Marcus Meldrew, Tom’s grandparents (“The Fossils”).  We love Tom’s doodles.

scones

Story Problem from the local diner – The diner is caught up in a British frenzy, so for the next month, the diner will serve afternoon tea with scones and tea sandwiches.  The diner needs 5 quarts of raspberry jam per week.  Farmer Brown sells his jam for $8 a quart, but he is going to give the diner a 10% discount.  How much will the diner spend on raspberry jam during the next four weeks?

A.  $16     B.  $40     C.  $144     D.  $160  (answer at bottom of post)

shakespeare

Shakespeare Comedies – we were so taken with The Usborne “Complete Shakespeare” book that augmented our reading of Gary Schmidt’s “The Wednesday Wars” (see “Perfect Pairings”, the post of February 2, 2021), that we read through all of the Shakespeare comedies (we learned that in terms of Shakespeare, “comedy” means happy ending).  An excellent use of our time: 

  • A Midsummer Night’s Dream
  • Twelfth Night
  • Love’s Labour’s Lost
  • Much Ado about Nothing
  • As You Like It
  • Two Gentlemen of Verona
  • The Merry Wives of Windsor (maybe this is our favorite)
  • The Winter’s Tale
  • The Taming of the Shrew (on our fave list)
  • Pericles (on our fave list)
  • The Comedy of Errors
  • The Tempest
  • All’s Well that Ends Well

Classical Music Time:  The Siren Call of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” – this play seems to beckon composers:  we listened to three versions of the overture and discussed the very different points of view – 

From 1674, English baroque composer Matthew Locke:  this introduction is very fussy, very baroque, very short (only a minute long) – 

From 1861, English composer Arthur Sullivan (of Gilbert/Sullivan): this was Sullivan’s first published work (he was only 19!). My son and I hear themes of loneliness and disappointment, and as the piece gets underway we hear the storm approach, burst, and move on –

From 1925, Finish composer Jean Sibelius: sort of 7 minutes of heavy winds (enough already), but it does paint a picture of the terrible storm that sets everything in motion –

Welcome to the best part of my day!
– Jane BH
(story problem answer:  C).  $144)