Geography

Riveting!

Our current history unit is riveting – or more precisely, it’s about rivets. We are reading about the blue jeans empire of Levi Strauss & Company, (“Images of America – Levi Strauss & Co.” by historian Lynn Downey). We’ve learned that Levi Strauss, of San Francisco, teamed with tailor, Jacob Davis, in 1873 to manufacture an extra-hard-wearing work pant – the key to their immense success was their patented rivets-on-the-corners-of-the-pockets design. But this unit is giving us an opportunity to learn more than just about the jeans: we’ve talked about why Levi Strauss was said to have haled from Bavaria (not Germany) (actually we learned about this from our previous study on Otto von Bismarck), we’ve learned about the devastating San Francisco earthquake of 1906, we’ve learned what “dry goods” are, we’ve looked at print advertising of the early 1900’s AND we’ve learned about rivets. Another great study unit!

TRAVEL BARGAIN! 13,000 extra miles for $4.00! I often purchase our books via the “used book associate sellers” on Amazon. (It is amazing how many books I have purchased for 1 penny, plus shipping.) I usually look to see where the seller is located so I can gauge how long it might take to receive the book. Last week I ordered a series of “Tom Gates” books from what I thought was a seller in Indiana. What a surprise to find out that I ordered the series from a seller in INDIA!!! Crazily, the shipping cost for 7 books was a mere $4.00 and I received the order within a week. A+ on all levels! Before we cracked open the first book, we got out the globe, located both Indiana and India, had a small laugh over the 13,000 mile distance, then we traced the route the books may have taken from India to reach us in Texas.

A mintylicious story problem from Le Fictitious Local Diner – the diner has plans to serve up after-dinner mints with the check at the end of every meal. The question is, which mints? The busboys are voting for “Andes Mints” (primarily because one of the busboys is named “Andy”, and wouldn’t that be a riot?). The waitresses think “After Eight” mints are much classier. The diner’s accountant told the staff that it is the thought that counts and strongly suggested they purchase the most cost efficient (cheapest) (vocab) mint. So:
After Eight Mints – each box contains 25 mints. A package of 6 boxes sells for $22.
Andes Mints – 5 pounds of Andes Mints can be purchased for $34. There are 70 mints in each pound.

A. How much does a single mint of each type cost (we learned about “rounding up”)?
B. The diner is going with the least expensive mint. If 700 hundred dinners are served per week, and each will conclude with a mint, how much will the diner be spending on mints per month? (we are not including tax or shipping costs)(answers at bottom of post)

“The Lute Player” by Caravaggio, with sheet music by Jacques Arcadelt. Whoa.

Three Hymns from One – As I have mentioned previously, my son and I listen to music of an ecclesiastical nature on Sunday nights. This past Sunday night we followed the path of a hymn written in the mid-1500s by Jacques Arcadelt.

First, Arcadelt’s “Ave Maria“. We are not sure who is singing here, but the acoustics of the Joy Burns Plaza are insanely effective. A LOT of sound from 4 vocalists:

Next, the finale to Camille Saint-Saens’ “Symphony No. 3 in C minor” (the “Organ Symphony”), composed in 1886. Of this symphony, Saint-Saens wrote “I gave everything to it I was able to give. What I have here accomplished, I will never achieve again.” Doesn’t this make you desperate to have a listen? Of course, we sort of always like to hear any piece played on a gigantic pipe organ. We clearly hear Arcadelt’s hymn in this piece:

Finally, we listened to Jean Sibelius’ “Finlandia Hymn”, a small part of his 9-minute “Finlandia” composition. Again, we hear the influence of Arcadelt’s “Ave Maria”. “Finlandia” was written in 1899, and words to the hymn portion in 1941. My son and I are suckers for flashmobs – a train station in Finland is the setting for this wonderful event:

We also wanted to hear the entire “Finlandia” composition. This recording came from the opening performance of the new music hall in Helsinki, 2011. The hymn starts about 5 minutes 30 seconds into the piece (alert: the piece is rather menacing in the beginning – the message is clearly “Don’t Mess with Finland”). Stirring:

Welcome to the best part of my day.
– Jane BH
Story problem answers:
A. each Andes mint costs approximately 10 cents, each After Eight mint costs approximately 15 cents
B. $272

Tick, Tick, Tick

There has been a rather large time gap since my last post – I was doing the single-parenting thing last week (subsequently couldn’t summon up energy to write) while my husband visited his sweet mom in CA. But he is back, so I am back. Here is what my son and I have been learning about –

Bison! Our primary take-away from this mini-mini-study was acknowledging that what we have in the United States are bison NOT buffalo (such a bummer for the “Home on the Range” song). We would like to know more about bison – regrettably, our book, though chock full of excellent photographs, was not chock full of information. I will be on the lookout for a more fact filled resource.

– Bison to the left, Buffalo to the right –

Otto von Bismarck: very strong personality, probably responsible for unifying Germany during the latter half of 19th century (so that is good), but still, he was a diabolical strategist with a very difficult personality. Our von Bismarck book was from the “Wicked History” series, and it did not disappoint. Well researched, well written, well edited. Excellent reading.
Shoe Business! We are reading our first business book, “Start Something that Matters” by Blake Mycoskie, of the inspiring TOMS (“tomorrow’s shoes”) win-win movement. We think Mr. Mycoskie has it so right! To enhance this learning unit, I brought my TOMS shoes to the “Stories and Studies Center” (my son’s large bed) (who wouldn’t want a stack of well worn shoes on their bed?).

“The History of Music in Fifty Instruments“, by Philip Wilkinson: a good conversation starter book. We are picking and choosing what we are reading (some stuff is just too mind numbingly technical), but this book is well worth wading through because we have learned about THE UGLIEST MUSICAL INSTRUMENT EVER – the serpent. OH, IT IS SO CREEPY. Take a look and take a listen:

(note to daughter, HKH: I am just so hoping that we won’t be booking this type of music for your wedding reception.)

New topic –

Here’s what’s fun: the Tom Gates books, written by Liz Pichon; we are in the middle of book 2 (“Tom Gates – Excellent Excuses”). The series is sort of a British take on Jeff Kinney’s “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” (which we also really like) and has got us matching British words with their American counterpart: mate=friend, biscuit=cookie, crisps=potato chips, dodgy=not good, rubbish=the worst. Tom doodles all over the place, despises his sister, calls his grandparents “the Fossils”, and worships the rock band, “Dude3” (every time I read the band name I laugh). We like opening this book every night.

Beginning to think about the upcoming summer Olympics –

Story problem from Le Fictitious Local Diner – the local junior high school is seeking to bolster funds for their foreign language department so the diner has been coerced (vocab) into sponsoring a raffle (vocab), with the first prize being two first-class round-trip (concept) plane tickets to the summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro! If each plane ticket costs $1,500, and if the diner is hoping to contribute $2,000 to the foreign language department, how many $5 raffle tickets will need to be sold? (answer “A” at bottom of post).

– Oh my gosh, there’s more to this story problem: what if the airline can be persuaded to reduce the cost of the plane tickets by 20%, and what if the diner decides to try to up their contribution to $5,000. How many tickets need to be sold now? (answer”B” at bottom of post)

Classical music selections from last night – thinking about Brazil – we decided to cap off a discussion of the upcoming Olympics by listening to “The Little Train of Caipira”, written in 1930 by premiere Brazilian composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos. My son and I have listened to this delicious 5 minute gem about 75 times. Yeah, we like this piece.

First we listened to the recording we have on our iPod, from the Heidi Grant Murphy/Aureole “Sueño De Amor” (dreams of love) album. Soothing, flavorful, filled with yearning:

Then, an OUTSTANDING visual and auditory collage – music students in Brazil putting together “The Little Train of Caipira”. Did I say OUTSTANDING? I think I meant DOUBLE OUTSTANDING. Such a tribute to Villa-Lobos:

Then, what fun – from the fabulous Los Angeles Guitar Quartet , their version of “I Wanna Be Like You” (from “The Jungle Book”), orchestrated in the manner of Heitor Villa-Lobos:

Welcome to the best part of my day!
– Jane BH
(Story Problem A: 1,000)
(Story Problem B: 1,480)

Conversation Circle

Let’s Discuss – Hey! Look at the blog title block. It says right there that my son is non-verbal. So how can I keep writing that “my son and I are having a talk about….” or “we had a conversation about…”? Obviously I do all of the talking, but I try to set up every discussion with lots of statements for my son to respond to with short written answers.

Example – this past week we were looking at the very first Ferris Wheel, constructed in 1893 for the “World’s Columbian Exposition” in Chicago. After we read through the Wikipedia entry and I put forth a few of my own observations, the questions:
– does riding on this Ferris Wheel look fun or scary?
– would it be safe to jump around in the Ferris Wheel compartment?
– should a Ferris Wheel be made out of metal or plastic?
– what would be a fair price for a Ferris Wheel ride?
– how long should a Ferris Wheel ride last?
– would you rather take a ride on a Ferris Wheel or a train?
– what sort of person could design a Ferris Wheel? A scientist? An engineer? A musician?

Conversation Starter – Oh my gosh, “City Atlas” by Georgia Cherry and Martin Haake has provoked so many conversations. We focus upon one international city per evening. We slog through the uninteresting info (every single city has museums aplenty, and they all seem to have some sort of body of water nearby) and then on to the stuff of fun conversations:
Berlin – Gummy Bears! Moscow – Matryoshka dolls! Budapest – Paprika!
Chicago – the original Ferris Wheel AND if that wasn’t enough: “Sue”, the world’s largest and best preserved Tyrannosaurus rex!

The city that has sparked the most discussion so far has been Barcelona. We wanted to know more about the intriguing architecture of Barcelona’s Antoni Gaudi…We have now read through two books on Gaudi. Then we spent time comparing the work of the college-educated Gaudi with the work of uneducated, illiterate Sabato “Simon” Rodia and his audacious Watts Towers in Los Angeles. (Here’s an ultra-cool thing: Rodia is included among the many faces on the cover of the Beatles’ “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band” album cover!) Great conversations! Thank you “City Atlas”!

Reading for pleasure – We are still laughing through “The Brilliant World of Tom Gates” by Liz Pichon, and we are still loving “Ribblestrop”. Oh my, what endless imagination has gone into this book by Andy Mulligan. This story about a English lad who has been sent off to boarding school is a relentless hot-mess of hilarious entertainment.

Perfect for February, Perfect for Anytime – More to discuss! We are acknowledging Black History Month by learning about the world’s first black fighter pilot. A short blurb about this man, Eugene Bullard, appeared on my FaceBook wall; I was intrigued, so we found “Eugene Bullard, World’s First BLACK Fighter Pilot”, by Larry Greenly. Before we opened the book, we discussed the challenges of being a pilot, and then the double challenges of being a fighter pilot. This biography/adventure story is perfect reading for us.

A bit of music to celebrate Black History Month – we listened to some pieces we have liked for quite while that happen to be the work of black composers:

“Maple Leaf Rag” by Scott Joplin, composed in 1899; so popular that it provided a steady income for the rest of Mr. Joplin’s life (who passed away 18 years later).

“The American Scene – The Southwest: Song of the Riverman”, composed by William Grant Still (“the Dean of African-American composers”), in 1957. “The American Scene” is a monumental work comprised of 3 sections, with 3 movements in each section. We have been enjoying “The Song of the Riverman” for about 4 years now. This descriptive piece makes us imagine that we are taking a train ride through the old west.

“Don’t Get Around Much Anymore”, composed by Duke Ellington in 1940, lyrics by Bob Russel added in 1942 (#1 on the R+B charts in 1943). We listened to two versions – one instrumental version and one sung by Ella Fitzgerald (both, heaven). And then we found video footage from 1968 featuring Duke Ellington AND Ella Fitzgerald. Nice.

Welcome to the best part of my day! – Jane BH

A Ghost by any Other Name

A Christmas Carol – oh, how we would have liked to listen to Charles Dickens read aloud from his “A Christmas Carol”. To hear the delicious phrasing verbalized as he would have envisioned. The wording is difficult, so I am often repeating sentences to get the rhythm and meaning – but so worth the extra time; we are loving the book’s message. We are midway through, currently reading about Scrooge’s encounter with the “Ghost of Christmas Present” (a bit of a talk about the difference between “Christmas Present” and “Christmas presents”). And we are making a running list of the many ways Dickens can say the word, “ghost”. So far: spirit, specter, apparition, supernatural medium, shadow, and phantom.

A new academic unit – we are learning about Joan of Arc, via another outstanding book by Diane Stanley. To set the stage, Stanley has written a clear description of the Hundred Years’ War that took place between England and France (the war began in 1337, 75 years before Joan of Arc was born). We are learning that Joan was complex young lady – pious, brave, charismatic, single-minded (let’s just say it: pushy). As I am reading this to my son, I cannot help but wonder what today’s world would have thought about Joan of Arc (the voices? the visions?).

NTC Champion! We held the “Name the Continent” finals last night! Our globe is practically a permanent resident in the STORIES AND STUDIES CENTER (my son’s bed); whatever we are reading, if a country is mentioned, we find it on the globe. So, last night, I made up a long list of countries and had my son match each country with its continent. A+! What can I say? He knows where everything is. He’s the NTC Champ!

Farmer Brown’s Thanksgiving food prep story problem – Farmer Brown has grown all of the vegetables that he is bringing to the family Thanksgiving gathering. He is bringing his famous steamed Brussels sprouts sautéed in browned butter, his famous green beans with bacon and onion, and his famous sticky sweet potato casserole with candied lemon slices. It takes Farmer Brown 45 minutes to prepare the sprouts for steaming, 1 hour and 15 minutes to trim the green beans, 25 minutes to prepare the bacon and onion, and 15 minutes to prepare the sweet potatoes for each casserole (for which there are 4). The good news is that he has two assistants who work just as quickly as he does. How long will it take the three of them to get the vegetables prepped?

Listening to Music – after a brief and sober discussion about the recent unthinkable evilness in Paris, we paid tribute to French heritage by listening to three reflective pieces written by French composers:

“The Swan” from “Carnival of the Animals” by Camille Saint-Saens. This was composed in 1887 for piano and cello. It is a soulful, pensive piece. This video showcases Yo-Yo Ma, so we are listening to the best.

The “Carillon” from “L’Arlesienne”, by Georges Bizet, composed in 1872. About one minute into the piece, the flute section takes over, and this is the part that tugs at our hearts – the sorrow, the regret, the wistfulness. It is all there in the music.

“La Vie En Rose”, certainly the iconic Parisian melody, written and popularized by chanteuse (prettiest word of the month) Edith Piaf in 1945. Louis Armstrong made a well-loved recording of this, but we wanted to listen to the original voice (this is OLD film footage).

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH

This Week: One Sculptor, One Scoundrel

Yay! Icky

Interesting Coincidence – a few posts back (“Two Different Worlds”, July 12, 2015) we mused that the two people we were studying (Rasputin and Albert Einstein) lived at approximately the same time, within a thousand miles of each other, but followed such different paths. It has happened again! We just concluded surveys of Michelangelo (1474 – 1564) and Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596), again living at about the same time, within a thousand miles of each other, but following two such different paths. Michelangelo – devoted to the perfection of his sculpture, painting, architecture. Drake – devoted to the accumulation of wealth via the only means he was clearly proficient at: brutal thievery.

It is too revolting to speak of Drake; our energy is better spent waxing enthusiastically about Michelangelo. The book we read, “Michelangelo” by Diane Stanley is A++++. Among simply loads of other things, we learned a lot about the Sistine Chapel:

It was named for Pope Sixtus IV (get it? Sistine – Sixtus?), and the ceiling was commissioned by Pope Julius II, who just happened to be the nephew of Pope Sixtus IV. Hmmm.
In case you haven’t studied the ceiling, there are 9 major panels illustrating three themes: the creation of heaven and earth, Adam and Eve, and Noah and the flood. It took Michelangelo 4 years to paint this masterwork.
The 60 foot-high scaffolding (vocab!) upon which Michelangelo stood (yes, STOOD. He did not paint lying down) stretched under only one half of the ceiling area. Michelangelo painted the Noah’s Ark panels first. When he finished these panels, and the scaffolding was moved to the other end of the chapel, Michelangelo decided that it was difficult to decipher all the activity on the ceiling, so he painted much larger figures on the creation and Adam and Eve side! I swear, live and learn.

Other stuff we’ve worked on this past week:

Reading comprehension – I wrote up a few paragraphs about my daughter and her job, and had my son read through it – I did not read it out loud – then my son took a multiple choice quiz about what he had read. Did well. Important activity.
Roman Numeral review. A+
We continue to enjoy the novel, “Greetings from Nowhere” by Barbara O’Connor.

We were so impressed with Diane Stanley’s “Michelangelo”, that we selected another of her books, “Charles Dickens, The Man Who Had Great Expectations” to anchor our new study unit. So far, EXCELLENT! My son is quite taken with this book. We have learned what “shorthand” is and we are now motivated to give “The Pickwick Papers” a try.

Our Farmer Brown Story Problem – Farmer Brown supplies apples to Le Fictitious Local Diner for their famous apple pies. He sells the diner a box of 100 Granny Smith apples for $8.00. The diner uses 6 apples for each pie. How many boxes will the diner need each month if they make 10 pies every week? How much will the diner be billed for the apples every month?

Music to remind us of Michelangelo’s Rome –

“The Pines of Rome”, movement 1, composed in 1924 by Ottorino Respighi. Characteristic of Respighi’s work, this piece SPARKLES. (This movement has a quirky ending – beware!)

Allegretto from “Palladio for String Orchestra”, composed in 1995 by Karl Jenkins to honor the Roman architect Andrea Palladio, a contemporary of Michelangelo’s. (BTW, this music was used in a De Beers Diamond advertising campaign in the 1990s.) Gorgeous church used in this video.

Mendelssohn’s “Symphony No. 4 in A major” (“The Italian”), movement 4, composed in 1883. We LOVE this entire symphony, and we’ve probably listened to this movement 30 times. It moves right along. This video? OUTSTANDING performance.

Welcome to the best part of my day! And Happy Birthday HKH!

– Jane BH

If it’s August

Our Vatican Unit continues – we have been learning about Castel Gondolfo, the summer retreat for popes since 1628. So, if it is August, it is likely that the Pope Francis is in residence at the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gondolfo. We learned that the Pope travels the 15 miles (we had NO idea it was so close) between the Vatican and Castel Gondolfo by helicopter. The palace grounds overlook Lake Albano. Lake Albano immediately grabbed our attention because the lake is so round, with very little beach area. It made sense when we read that the overlapping union of two volcanic craters created the lake.

Counting on it – we continue to learn to count to ten in foreign languages – not because counting to ten is such an important skill, but because I want my son to have an awareness that languages change from country to country (in other words, there is more to the world than just us). We have mastered Spanish, French, German, Japanese, and Vietnamese. Now we are tackling Finnish – such a fun sounding language: 1, 2, 3: “ooksie, cawksi, colomay” (BTW, that’s the flag of Finland). Here is what we do every so often: I call out a number, and my son writes down the number and the language I am speaking.

Le Fictitious Local Diner starts “The Bus Driver Project” (from our story problems last week) – if it is August, the start of school is just around the corner, and the employees at the diner have been thinking about how difficult it would be to be a school bus driver. The responsibilities are substantial and sometimes the kids (we are looking at you, JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL PEOPLES) can be so rambunctious. So, the diner decided to honor all local school bus drivers with a free lunch and slice of pie, once a month, during the 9-month school year. There are 20 bus drivers in the district, lunch runs $8.00, and a slice of pie (pecan, apple crumble, or lemon meringue), $3.00. When the diner turns in its contributions list to the CPA at the end of the school year, what will be their total “bus driver project” donation?

If it is August, we need “Music for Going Back to School”– here is what we selected:

“Flight of the Bumblebee” – composed by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1899 for his opera, “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”. This is background music for moms anxiously hustling offspring out the door before the bus leaves. This video is spectacular – we have the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by the unsurpassable Zubin Mehta, AND watching the violin section is mesmerizing – they all sort of twitch in rhythm, and the fingering is SO fast.

“Entry of the Gladiators” – composed in 1897 by Julius Fucik (well, there’s an unfortunate name), who had quite an interest in the Roman Empire. He did NOT intend for this to be used as a SCREAMER (how can you not love this term?????) (we learned that a “screamer” is an invigorating circus march). Is this not THE music that should be blaring in elementary school halls on the first day of school? This video was filmed around 1950, featuring the over-the-top energetic Red Nichols and his Five Pennies. NOT TO BE MISSED.

“Song of the Volga Boatmen” – a traditional Russian folk song (first published in 1866), this is classic “we feel your pain” and “is there more to life than drudgery?” music. This is the comrade-in-arms music for woebegone students AND teachers dreading that first day back.

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH

Two Different Worlds

Two Different Worlds – we are reading about the extraordinarily weird Grigory Rasputin and the extraordinarily brilliant Albert Einstein. The two were born only 10 years apart (Rasputin 1869, Einstein 1879), but WHOA, what different worlds they lived in. After each night’s reading, my son and I have much to discuss – first the family background, the education, and the character of each man (we haven’t gotten to their contributions yet) and then the comparison between cultures. Grossest tidbit from last night’s reading – Rasputin’s teeth were brown. Yeecks. BTW, both sources of information are well researched, well written, and captivating.

Thinking about Letters – last night I brought out the old family dictionary, so my son could see that there is a non-electronic means of finding the definition of a word. Then, I asked my son to guess which letter of the alphabet is at the beginning of the greatest number of words (he guessed “E”), and which letter is the beginning of the fewest number of words (he guessed “Z”). Thus begins a 13 day miniature side-study. We are counting the number of pages for each letter; two letters per evening. So, in 13 days we will know!

Focus on Pluto – we are keeping abreast of the New Horizons spacecraft that was launched nine and a half years ago with the task of flying by Pluto, sending back images and information. So exciting! After traveling some three BILLION miles, the FASTEST spacecraft ever is due to pass Pluto NEXT WEEK. It is already sending images. We marvel once again at the brainpower that can successfully manage these far-reaching projects with such precision.

Story problem from Le Fictitious Local Diner – The diner is gearing up to make some big bucks at the county fair – their plan is to sell 3,000 Rice Krispies Treats at their booth during the weekend-long fair. The diner chefs are working from the recipe on the back of the Rice Krispies box, which uses 6 cups of the rice cereal to make 12 large square cookies. How many cups will the diner use to produce their goal of 3,000? If a regular sized box of Rice Krispies can make two batches of the treats, how many regular sized boxes will be needed? Delving into the arena of common sense: is it likely that any grocery store would have this many boxes of Rice Krispies?

Our music theme a few nights ago – “The Sad Song Scale”. We listened to, and ranked these tear-jerker compositions on a sadness scale of one (“bummer”) to ten (“unrecoverable heart-crushing despair”):

“Symphony No. 3 in F major” (third movement), composed by Brahms in 1883. We ranked this a most worthy 10 on our sadness scale. SO much desolation. This piece has been well positioned in several movies.

“What’ll I Do”, by Irving Berlin, composed in 1923. Earns an impressive 6 on our scale. Sad AND clever. That is sort of hard to pull off. Kudos Mr. Berlin!

“Serenade”, by Franz Schubert. A solid 9 on the scale. Written in 1828, during the final year of his life, despondent because he knew he was dying of Syphilis. Blog followers know that my son and I are enthusiastic Itzhak Perlman admirers and this performance is another reason why. Perfection.

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH

That’s Gotta Hurt

The Macedonian Pike – my son and I are now studying Alexander the Great, who spent his short life (for thousands upon thousands of people, a life not short enough) as a most capable warmonger. Home base was Macedonia (perched right atop Greece) (found it on the globe), where his Macedonian soldiers were totally whipped into shape and marched with 15-foot tall pikes. YIKES (there is a sharp metal knife at the end of each pole). LOADS of warmonger vocabulary words: phalanx, chariot, catapult, mercenary, infantry, cavalry.

Shakespeare this past week – we finished up the comedy, “Much Ado about Nothing” and we have just started the history, “Julius Caesar”.

Reading for fun – to balance the war and intrigue study, we need novels that make us laugh. We LOVED “A Long Way from Chicago” by Richard Peck. LOVED IT. Every single chapter had an hilarious twist that had us marveling. This book WILL be re-read. We are following “A Long Way from Chicago” with its sequel, “A Year Down Yonder”. So far, it is a lot of fun (and it is a Newbery Award Winner), but for us, probably isn’t in line for a re-read. But maybe it will be! Hope springs eternal.

We write – My daughter directed us toward “The Pencil Grip Writing Claw”, and I found a pack of six on Amazon – can’t remember the price, but very cheap. My son has been practicing writing with this for the past week, and is getting comfortable using this little rubbery appliance on his fingertips. It truly makes one grasp a writing utensil correctly.

Our Farmer Brown Story Problem of the week – Farmer Brown has 15 field hands who needed new summer hats to keep the blazing sun off their faces. He purchased a dozen straw cowboy hats for $360 and a dozen canvas “outback” style hats for $300. Ten of the field hands wanted cowboy hats and the others chose outback hats. Farmer Brown donated the remaining hats to a local farming extension office because they are always so short on funds. How much was his donation worth?

One of the music themes from last week: “Melodies from Exotic Lands” –

“Scheherazade” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, movement I, composed in 1888. Based upon “The Arabian Nights”, SO elegant.

Overture from “Abduction from the Seraglio” by Mozart, composed in 1782. Two words: Turkish harem! What’s not to like, and in this short overture we CANNOT get enough of the smashing symbols.

“Arrival of the Queen of Sheba” by Handel, composed in 1748, as part of his oratorio, “Solomon”. We sort of chuckle every time we hear it, because the music seems more evocative of an arrival at Kensington Palace in the 18th century than the Queen of Sheba’s arrival in Jerusalem during Old Testament times.

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH

Messenger Service

Best Messenger Ever – Oh! The brainpower that sent space probe Messenger on its successful-beyond-all-measures mission to planet Mercury! My son and I learned that Messenger was launched from earth in 2004 and started orbiting Mercury in 2011. The plan: Messenger was to orbit for a year and send back 2,500 images. But the space probe was so well built, that it circled the tiny planet for 4 years and sent back 270,000 images! WHOA. On April 30, dear Messenger ran out of propellant, was pulled out of orbit by Mercury’s gravity, and sent one final photo before it crashed into the planet.

Messenger’s final image of Mercury

We paid homage to the team that constructed Messenger by listening to Gustav Holst’s “Mercury” from his orchestral work, “The Planets”.

More academics from last week –

Napoleon – as we learn more about Napoleon we are struck by how his brilliant ideas were dwarfed by his all-around awfulness. This man belonged permanently in time-out, and of course, that is exactly where he ended up (we found the little island of St. Helena, where Napoleon was exiled for the final six years of his life, on the globe). Vocab from our Napoleon unit: artillery, boycott, emperor, strategy, and trench. BTW, our book, “A Wicked History – Napoleon, Emperor and Conqueror”, by Kimberley Heuston, is EXCELLENT.
Shakespeare – we finished “Romeo and Juliet”, and we have started “Twelfth Night”. Love it! We do prefer the mixed-up craziness of Shakespeare’s comedies to his gruesome tragedies.
Exponents – we gave the Mathtoon’s “Exponents and Radicals” iPad app another try. Much more fun this time. This app is splendid! Cool, in-your-face, badboy graphics. And the app is free!

Last week’s best Farmer Brown story problem – Farmer Brown has a muster (or ostentation, if you will) of peafowl on his property. Vocab time: we had to learn the difference between peafowl, peacocks, peahens, and peachicks. Seriously, what is cuter than the word, “peachick”?

OK, the story problem: Farmer Brown has a large muster of peafowl on his property. He collects the peacock’s discarded long tail feathers to sell to a local interior designer, for $3.50 each. If the designer paid Farmer Brown $140 last month, how many feathers were handed over? If the designer sells each feather for $15, and all feathers are sold, what is the profit, once Farmer Brown has been paid?

Ugh.

Last night’s music theme: “Music for a Dental Procedure” – my son and I take meticulous (vast overstatement) care of his teeth (so far no cavities, so that is something), but we thought soothing music could bring such relief if Novocain loomed. Here is what we selected:

Beethoven’s 6^th Symphony “The Pastoral” (1808), movement 1. Any of the movements would work, and may we suggest the entire 5-movement symphony (about 45 minutes) for lengthy oral surgery. Such life affirming music.

Jacques Offenbach’s “Barcarolle”, from his “Tales of Hoffman” (1881). All you have to do is lie back and imagine yourself floating in a gondola around the Venetian waterways. Soothing to the extreme.

“The Moldau” by Bedrich Smetana, (1875) from his larger orchestral work, “Ma Vlast”. Relax and let the dentist do the work as you follow the Moldau (a river in Smetana’s native Bohemia, now the Czech Republic) from its source past woods, meadows, a farmer’s wedding, and ending as the Moldau flows into the Elbe River. Piece lasts about 12 minutes. Fantastic ending. This is a superb video, filmed in Smetana Hall in Prague.

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH

Things that go bump in the night

Our Easter Evening Event: As our family gathered to reflect upon a lovely Easter day, tranquility was interrupted by sudden bumps and scraping sounds coming from the attic. A quick look revealed a mama raccoon tending sweet, sweet “kits” amid the attic insulation. This propelled my son and me to begin a mini-study on raccoons. We found out that they are native to North America, they are “omnivores”, and they are “nocturnal” (that is why we didn’t hear them moving around during the day). A happy ending to the day: new vocab words for my son, and mama and babies are now enjoying their new home in a safe wooded area of the local golf course.

We thought the phrase, “things that go bump in the night” perfectly described our Easter Evening Event. We learned that the words come from an old Scottish prayer –

“From ghoulies and ghosties

And long-legged beasties

And things that go bump in the night,

Good Lord, deliver us!”

Zigzag Learning (where we let one topic lead us to another at lightning speed): Julia Rothman’s excellent book, “Nature Anatomy” started the learning chain this time. We were looking at her illustrations of butterflies, and we took particular notice of a “swallowtail” butterfly. My son needed to know why swallowtail butterflies were called swallowtail butterflies.

So first, we looked at several photos of swallows. We saw how the birds’ pointy, forked feather tails could easily have inspired the animal naming committee to call butterflies with the tiny drip on the hindwings, “swallowtails”.
Then, we decided to read about the swallows of the San Juan Capistrano Mission (with a short-side trip to learn a bit about the California mission system). We found out that the swallows spend the winter in Argentina and the summer in southern California.
So now, we had to locate Argentina on the globe, and think about the iron-strong muscles in the birds’ wings, that allow them to fly the 6,000 miles.
Finally, we had to see how the swallows have had their way in fashion: we looked at men’s clothing from the Victorian era – the formal tailcoat, with “cutaway”, “swallowtail” or “morning coat” options.

That’s a lot of learning from one little butterfly.

Our music theme for last night – “Cuckoo for Music”. We considered the two-note cuckoo motif and then listened to three neat compositions:

“Organ Concerto No. 13 (The Cuckoo and the Nightingale)”, movement 2, by Handel (1740). About one minute twenty seconds into the movement you can definitely make out the cuckoo motif. This piece really moves right along. Classic Handel. Fabulous pipe organ in this video!

“Symphony 6 (The Pastoral)”, movement 2, by Beethoven (1808). This is a long movement (around 13 minutes of happy, relaxing gorgeousness) (and this video clip has Leonard Bernstein conducting and one should NEVER miss an opportunity to watch Bernstein conduct). The bird sounds aren’t evident until the final minute, but so worth the wait (or one could be the type of person that fast-forwards to the final minute) (your secret is safe with us, because maybe we have felt compelled to fast-forward upon occasion).

“The Birds”, movement 5 (The Cuckoo), by Respighi (1928). Here is what we like to do: count the number of times we hear the cuckoo motif. Try somewhere around 70 times, in the short span of 4 minutes. This is an absolute jewel of a piece.

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.

Geography

Riveting!

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Tick, Tick, Tick

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Conversation Circle

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A Ghost by any Other Name

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This Week: One Sculptor, One Scoundrel

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If it’s August

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Two Different Worlds

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That’s Gotta Hurt

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Messenger Service

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Things that go bump in the night

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