History

We’re in A+ Book Territory

We are in A+ Book territory! Sometimes we’re lucky and every book on the nightly agenda is so first-rate that we can’t wait to get started. Do we think every book is dandy? Ha. Frankly, about half of the books we start do NOT get finished. If they are dull or poorly edited we give them a quiet farewell, and sort of feel bad about tossing them in the give-away box for the next charity drive. But this week, we are in A+ Book Territory!

A+ for “Grammar-Land” – what an entertaining book we have found in “Grammar-Land” written by M.L. Nesbitt in – GET THIS – 1877! (never fear, reprinted/available from Amazon). M.L. Nesbitt must have had so much fun writing this, and as we get caught up in the grammar court room cleverness, we are being drilled over and over with grammar rules. We are getting smarter! Oh my gosh, I was so nervous about last night’s topic – we were tackling “the nominative case” – which ended up being ridiculously easy. I have reviewed many supposedly “fun” grammar books, which are decidedly NOT. This one: A+.

A+ for the “DK Eyewitness Book: North American Indian” – we continue our Native North American unit and this book is providing a decent introduction for our survey. We have admired the sleek design of birch bark canoes, we have learned a bit about the Iroquois League (5 tribes that worked together, under the guidance of a council made up of men – who were chosen by elder tribe WOMEN!!!), and last night, we read through a most interesting mini sketch of Tecumseh. Two thumbs up for this reference (A+)!

A+ for “The Memory of an Elephant” – We are enjoying this quirky book about elephants by Sophie Strady, gloriously illustrated by Jean-Francois Martin, so the news of the week – the announcement by Ringling Brothers of the imminent close of their circus – caught our attention. So much to talk about – the skilled performers, the death-defying acts, circus snacks, circus parades, circus music, and then a thoughtful discussion about the realities of “freak exhibits” and circus animals (including a mention about PETA and their role in forcing the circus to retire their elephants). This book: conversation provoker! A+!

Story Problem – Too many books in Farmer Brown’s library – Farmer Brown has run out of storage room, so he has decided clean out his book shelves. He has found 40 hardcover books and 50 paperback books to donate to a charity. He has determined that the worth of each hardcover book is $7, and the worth of each paperback is $3. How much will Farmer Brown be able to tell his CPA that he has donated in books? My son did the computation in his head:
A) $90 B) $430 C) $730 D) $900 (answer at bottom of post)

Circus Music Classics – Even though the Ringling Brothers Circus is about to be a thing of the past, we will always love these attention grabbing compositions:

Entry of the Gladiators – composed in 1897 by Julius Fucik. As I wrote in August 2015, Fucik had quite an interest in the Roman Empire. He did NOT intend for this composition to be used as a circus SCREAMER (how can you not love this term?????) (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?

Sabre Dance – Aram Khachaturian’s Sabre Dance, composed in 1942, is the definitive go-to music for any and all knife throwing attractions. We found a simply outstanding performance of this edge-of-your-seat music (and we would do anything to be part of this percussion section):

The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze – composed by Lyle and Lee in 1867 to glorify Jules Leotard, a French acrobat who developed the art of the trapeze AND AS IF THAT WEREN’T ENOUGH, he invented the 1-piece form-fitting knitted gym suit: the leotard. An extremely popular song for decades! (But I guess not in this decade – last weekend, I was at a leadership workshop, singing with a group of 80 bright collegians, and I was stunned to discover that NOT A ONE OF THEM was familiar with the circus music classics. REALLY? NOT ON MY WATCH – I made them listen over and over to “The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze”)

Welcome to the best part of my day!
Jane BH
(story problem answer: B) $430)

So Cool

A three-chapters-a-night book! Ordinarily, I read one chapter a night from our academic resource du jour, but my son is having none of that for “Jim Thorpe – Original All-American” by Joseph Bruchac. This biography of the Native American/Olympic medalist has captured his attention and he will accept nothing less than multiple chapters at each reading. We are currently reading about Jim’s high school years; certainly my son did not know about the US government-imposed boarding-school system for Native Americans one hundred years ago, and neither did I. (Some ideas were good, some were so misguided…a LOT to think about. How would we have managed this differently?) The book was written as if an autobiography (vocab), so my son has now learned to distinguish between a story told in the 1st person, 2nd person, and 3rd person “voice”. As per usual, zig-zag learning.

App Happy – About once a week, we spend time with the FIRST RATE “Professor Astro Cat’s Solar System” app on our iPad. Graphics: elegant and hip. Material covered: EXTENSIVE. (This is a GREAT app for anybody looking for quirky conversation starters.) For my son, the information presented and even the quizzes: ENGROSSING. The merest sampling of what we’ve learned:
– what an AU is (astronomical until – the approximate length between the sun and earth)
– how old my son would be on Mercury
– about the largest mountain in the solar system (on Mars)
– about the planet with diamonds (!!!)

Bringing out the Christmas lights: story problem from Le Fictitious Local Diner – The diner is hauling out their old Christmas decorations and the plan is to edge the roof with their retro strings of larger bulbs. It takes 12 strands of lights to do the job. Each strand has 25 bulbs. 4 strands have no malfunctioning bulbs, 4 strands have 5 malfunctioning bulbs, and 4 strands have 10 malfunctioning bulbs.

1) What is the average number of malfunctioning bulbs on each strand? 2) How many bulbs need to be replaced? 3) If a new colorful bulb costs 50 cents, how much will it cost to replace all the burnt out bulbs? 4) To be prepared for future bulb burn out emergencies, how many extras bulbs should be purchased if the diner wants to have 10% extra bulbs in storage? 5) How will the diner look when all the lights are put up?

Bringing out the sleigh bells: our music theme last night – Hey! It is getting cool here – in the past week, we plummeted from 70 degrees to the high 30’s. Time to bring out the sleigh ride music (with jingling bells a must):

We started with Mozart’s “German Dance No. 3 in C” (referred to as “Sleigh Ride”), K. 605, composed in 1791. For some reason, it is difficult to find outstanding orchestral performance video footage of this piece…but it is the melody that we are after:

Next, “Troika” (vocab: troika – a three-horse open sleigh), from Prokofiev’s “Lieutenant Kije Suite”, movement 4 (BTW, I really slow down every time I have to write LIEUTENANT…such an unreasonably difficult word to spell). This was composed in 1933 and was part of Prokofiev’s first film score. Such a delightful piece, but we especially listen for the iconic Prokofiev discordant “edge”. You can tell this was filmed in the ’70’s – check the conductor’s (Andre Previn) hair-style and glasses:

Finally, the obvious choice, Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride”, written during a heat wave in July, 1946. Adorable performance:

Welcome to the best part of my day!
– Jane BH
(story problem answers: 1) 5 bulbs 2) 60 bulbs 3) $30 4) 30 bulbs 5) So cool!)

Old Business

An old name is a new name – How did this bit of news pass us by? My son and I just learned that the citizens of Barrow, Alaska voted this past October to change the city’s name back to its ancient traditional name, Utqiagvik! (Doesn’t everybody know that we love knowing stuff like this?) The town has been called Utqiagvik – meaning “place for gathering wild roots” – for the past 1,500 years but has been officially “Barrow” since 1825. Apparently, the governor of Alaska has until mid-December to rule on the name change. Will the governor want to mess with the decision of the people in America’s northern-most city? We are standing by!

Animals of yesteryear – our current course of study: “Lost Animals – Extinction and the Photographic Record”, by Errol Fuller. Fuller’s research is thorough and each chapter follows a particular species from it’s heyday to its regrettable demise (mostly there are a LOT of bird species that are no longer with us) (and we really wish color photography had been around before the pink headed duck of the Ganges River became extinct). Last night we read about the thylacine – a species that was in existence when my son’s grandparents were children. The stories captivate, stay with us, and I think make us more aware and maybe worried for the distant future of every healthy animal we see.

Well, here is an OLDIE – we are enjoying “Understood Betsy” written by Dorothy Canfield Fisher 1917. This classic shows up on many recommended reading lists, and I was finally persuaded to give it a try after reading a mini-bio of Ms. Fisher on the always informative “Focus on Fraternity” blog (franbecque.com). Happy surprise! This book presents a wealth of information about how things were 100 years ago, there is a dash of adventure, and a pervasive advocacy of self sufficiency which should put this book on a required reading list for parents and teachers.

Story problem from Le Fictitious Local Diner – The diner is bringing back an old tradition for the month of December: cloth napkins. They are going to see if it is more economical to rent cloth napkins or to purchase napkins and have them laundered by a service. The diner goes through 200 napkins daily. Cloth napkins rental price: 200 napkins for $25. The laundry service charges $10 to wash and press 200 napkins, but the diner would have to purchase two days worth of napkins first (at a cost of $3 per unit). If the diner decides to use cloth napkins for December, should they rent or own/pay for a laundry service? What is the least they can spend for this festive endeavor? (answers at bottom of post)

The music theme this past week: PARODIES (vocab) – When I was in 5th grade, my friend Pam received the best-record-album-ever at her birthday party: Allan Sherman’s “My Son the Nut”. I absolutely collapsed in laughter just looking at the album cover (Mr. Sherman, up to his neck in assorted nuts); I did not believe that anything could be more screamingly hilarious (hey folks, this was the early 1960’s – simpler expectations). On top of a great album cover, THE CLEVER PARODIES! What fun, some 45 years later, to share this listening experience with my son.

This past week, we matched up a few songs from “My Son the Nut” with the classical compositions from which they were inspired:

“Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah”: the lyrics were written to a theme from Amilcare Ponchielli’s “Dance of the Hours” (1876). “Dance of the Hours” was also used in Disney’s “Fantasia” of 1940.

“Hungarian Goulash No. 5”: the lyrics were written to Brahms’ “Hungarian Dance No. 5” (1869). Gustavo Dudamel conducts in this video – and you know how I feel about Mr. Dudamel. MERCY.

“Here’s to the Crabgrass”: the lyrics were written to Percy Grainger’s “Country Gardens” (1918). This performance by the Hastings College Wind Ensemble really scoots along.

Welcome to the best part of my day!
– Jane BH
(Story problem answers: the diner should definitely rent the napkins, renting will run $775. Purchasing napkins and paying a laundry service will cost almost twice as much.)

Quandary

Here is the quandary (vocab): I do not like reading to my son about man’s inhumanity to man; he has enough to deal with without trying to grasp the perplexing notion of cruelty. HOWEVER, the “Wicked History” series books are so well written, organized, researched, and crazy fascinating – we can’t stay away.

We just finished the book on BAD BAD King Leopold II of Belgium (1835-1909); and he was indefensibly bad – Hitler and Stalin BAD. There were passages in the book describing atrocities under his leadership of the “Congo Free State” (his PERSONAL colony) so barbaric, that while reading aloud to my son, I had to skip over paragraph after paragraph.
On the plus side:
– we learned a LOT about what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo and came away fascinated
– we added to our hero list: George Washington Williams (a journalist), Edmund Morel (a most alert shipping clerk) and Roger Casement (a British consul). These men brought the brutal policies of Congo Free State administrators to world wide attention and censure (vocab)
– AND Leopold II died with just about everyone (well, maybe everyone) despising him. (ridiculously small consolation)

from “The Wonder Garden” book by Williams and Broom – stunning

The subject matter gets a LOT happier, but DRAT: we just hate it when a good book ends. We loved EVERY page of “The Wonder Garden” by Kristjana S. Williams and Jenny Broom; luscious illustrations accompanied by solidly interesting facts. This startlingly beautiful book showcases animals of five distinct habitats around the world. We were familiar with the Amazon Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef, but we really hadn’t read anything about the Black Forest, the Chihuahuan Dessert or the Himalayan Mountains. This delicious book is SO on our “read-it-again list”.

Last night my son took a simple matching location-to-fact quiz and then we paired up one piece of music with each habitat.

Music to remind us of five living wonders of our world:
– The Amazon Rain Forest – hosting around 1,500 species of birds, Camille Saint-Saens’ “The Aviary” (from his “Carnival of the Animals”, 1886) was an obvious selection. The music is prefaced by an Ogden Nash poem read by Roger Moore. Elegant:

– The Great Barrier Reef – again, from Saint-Saens’ “Carnival of the Animals”: “The Aquarium”. Gloriously haunting music provides a backdrop for the world’s largest living structure (however, as beautiful as this linked video is, “The Aquarium” takes up only the first 2.5 minutes; the carnival’s donkey and the cuckoo movements follow, for some unknown reason):

– The Black Forest – the habitat for not only the world’s largest owls, but also the setting for several fairy tales from the brothers Grimm. My son and I listened to “Evening Prayer” from the opera “Hansel and Gretel”, composed by Englebert Humperdinck in 1893. We twiddled our fingers during the three minute LONG introduction; however once we got to the meat of the composition we enjoyed possibly the most comforting lullaby ever:

SIDEBAR: another Englebert Humperdinck??? – we followed Humperdinck’s “Evening Prayer” with a short discussion of British pop star (of the ’60’s and ’70’s) Englebert Humperdinck (but really Arnold George Dorsey) (obviously NO relation to the composer of the late 1800’s). My UCLA college room-mate, J’nette, warbled a mocking version of Humperdinck’s giant hit “Release Me” throughout our undergrad years, so I made my unappreciative son endure a trip down memory lane:

– The Chihuahuan Desert – Well, first of all, we had no idea where the Chihuahuan Desert was (southern parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and northern parts of Mexico) and we are practically living in it! We felt the second movement (the “Largo” movement) of Dvorak’s “New World Symphony” evoked the loneliness, uncertainty, and the grandeur of this habitat:

– and finally, The Himalayan Mountains – we paired “the rooftop of the world” with “Approaching the Summit” composed by genius genius genius John Williams for the 1997 movie “Seven Years in Tibet”. We could hear how this music captures themes – majestic and mysterious – from both sides of the Himalayan Mountains (India and China):

Welcome to the best part of my day!
– Jane BH
(The story problems from this week seemed painfully frivolous after reading about the human suffering provoked by King Leopold II. I just couldn’t post any of them.)

Club Gustav

And so it begins: a few nights ago, my son and I started reading, “The Eiffel Tower – Gustave Eiffel’s Spectacular Idea” by Cooper/Bock. Hmmm; the book’s facts differ slightly (actually markedly) from what the Wikipedia entry has to say about the tower and who’s idea it was. Regardless, I knew we would be interested in the construction of the Eiffel Tower – all of those triangles – and the fact is, Gustave Eiffel was a brilliant, innovative, experienced architect and engineer. We also looked at some of his bridges, and his structural plan for supporting the inside of the Statue of Liberty.

Meanwhile, it occurred to me that we had never listened to anything by Gustav Mahler, so I started listening to a LOT of Mahler (a LOT because each and every piece is SO long), selecting compositions to share with my son. And all of a sudden, I thought: we have two “Gustavs” already, why not have this week be all about spotlighting noteworthy “Gustavs”? So we added:

the art work of Gustav Klimt – we admired 12 of his landscapes (via a large calendar). We couldn’t stop looking at “Forest of Birch Trees” and “Island in the Attersee” (both 1902). We also spent time looking at every detail of his most well known painting, the shimmering richly patterned, gold-leafed “The Kiss” (1907).
a review of the music of Gustav Holst, a composer we are familiar with. We listened to a few movements from “The Planets”, his Morris Dance Tunes, and the march from his “First Suite in E flat for Military Band” (we like listening for the monarch reviewing the troops).
then, HOLY CATS, a short study of Gustave the Crocodile of Burundi (we located teeny Burundi on the globe). Oh, this is so sad: according to Wikipedia, “The World Happiness Report 2016 Update ranked Burundi as the world’s least happy nation”. Well, I am sure Gustave is not helping. So far, this 60 year old, 25 foot-long, bullet-proof baddest croc of them all, has killed 300 people. He is THE WORST. He is INFAMOUS (vocab word of the night).

Our music theme last night: what else? Gustav, Gustav, Gustave and Gustavo –

Mahler, Dudamel, and Holst

we listened to Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in C minor, movement III, composed about 1890. There are a lot of moods and themes in this 10 minute movement – lush harmonies, frenetic rhythms, the lure of the exotic melody, and do we hear birdsong? Conducted by the sizzling Gustavo Dudamel:

we can hear Gustav Holst’s messenger god flitting willy-nilly all over the universe. We have probably listened to the “Mercury” movement from The Planets (composed in 1916) about 45 times. It just doesn’t get old.

and for Gustave the Crocodile we listened to, “Never Smile at a Crocodile” from Disney’s 1953 movie “Peter Pan”. Music by Frank Churchill, words by Jack Lawrence. What’s not to like?

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

Le Menu du Jour

~Oh, what a tantalizing offering~

Appetizers –
May we suggest – une petite matching quiz to review things we’ve been learning about lately?

Followed by – a bit of drawing with pastels, focusing on TEXTURE

Zen perhaps – a game of hangman: last night’s word was “vowel” – my son has just learned the difference between vowels and consonants (my bad for not explaining this YEARS ago). Now that he recognizes the prevalence of vowels in all words, the time spent playing our hangman games has significantly decreased.

For le final appetizer delicacy – a story problem from Le Fictitious Local Diner:
The diner’s back room is being decorated with crepe paper streamers for a homecoming banquet, and it is going to involve THE PYTHAGOREAN THEOREM! (FYI, my son understands square roots, but to cut WAY down on time, we used the iPad for this calculation).

The room measures 15 by 20 feet and the party planners want to criss cross royal blue and bright green (school colors) crepe paper streamers from the ceiling corners. Streamers are to be taped and artistically twisted together from one corner of the room, diagonally, to the other side of the room. OMGOSH, right before their eyes, a HYPOTENUSE!
1) how far is it from one corner to another (diagonally across the room)?

2) how many feet of streamer are needed to stretch from one corner diagonally across the room to the other corner, if 1.5 times the hypotenuse are needed to achieve an esthetically pleasing twist?

3) if both colors will be used from corners to corners, making sort of an “X” in the middle of the room, how many feet will be needed of each color? (answers at bottom of post)

Le Main Course –
A favorite book author team, Dr. Dominic Walliman and Ben Newman, who put together “Professor Astro Cat’s Frontiers of Space”, have a new A+++ book out (YAY!): “Professor Astro Cat’s Atomic Adventure” – another case of we-cannot-wait-to-open-it-every-night. So far, we have learned about gravity (we threw a whole bunch of things up in the air and watched the inevitable happen), the scientific method (brother Jim is a molecular biologist, so we are taking a personal interest in the scientific method), the periodic table (organizational perfection), protons and electrons (the speed of those elections mesmerizes us). We are spellbound by Professor Astor Cat’s topics – well chosen, well explained; and graphics – SPLENDID. This book should be on everyone’s Christmas list.

For side dishes – our current fiction novel: “Gabby Duran and Troll Patrol”. YES. And a reading from our current Tom Gates book (“Tom Gates Extra Special Treats – not”). YES.

To cleanse zee palate – a poem: tonight’s selection, “Keep a Goin’” by Frank L. Stanton, a journalist for the Atlanta Constitution newspaper and Poet Laureate of Georgia, appointed in 1925. This poem has been stuck in my head for decades (when my sister was in the 4th grade, she chose to memorize this poem, and in the process, said it aloud so many times that everyone in the family to this day can recite it). Thank heavens it is fun, uplifting, grateful. Good for everybody.

And finally, le dessert tray – three elegant morsels from Frederic Chopin:

“Grande Valse Brilliante”, a waltz composed by Chopin in 1834 and used in the ballet “Les Sylphides”, which premiered in 1909. Everybody who has taken ballet lessons has tour jete’d across the dance studio (hypotenuse style!) to this absolutely charming waltz:

“Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor”, AKA “The Funeral March” to ALL kids (“pray for the dead and the dead will pray for you”), was composed in 1839. A perfectly creepy recording from 1910:

“The Minute Waltz”, more properly known as Chopin’s “Waltz in D-flat major”, composed in 1847. A bit of false advertising, as this piece actually lasts just over 2 minutes:

Bon appetit!
Welcome to the best part of my day!
Jane Heiserman
(Story problem answers: 25 feet, 37.5 feet, 75 feet)

Miners and Minors

Homonyms, homographs, and homophones: the craziness of the English language! Miners and Minors. Wail, Wale, and Whale. Watch (look) and Watch (timepiece). Bark (dog talk) and Bark (on the tree). Homonyms are the life of the party at our language arts gatherings. My son and I had a great time going through a long list of these words last night, and it all started with “miners”.

The 49ers were miners: a few nights ago we completed our second book about the California Gold Rush of 1849. We are still thinking about –

how would we have traveled to California from the east coast; all choices were dreadful. Would we have taken a ship around the tip of South America (hideous seasickness/horrible food)? Would we have taken a ship, disembarked (vocab) in Panama, hiked the 60 miles through the jungle (bugs and disease) and hoped we were able to find a ship to take us the rest of the way? Would we have traveled over land in a covered wagon (we learned that the most dangerous part of covered wagon travel was the CROSSING OF RIVERS. We would not have guessed that.)?
PAY DIRT – this is what happy prospector’s called finding gold dust in their pan of dirt.
those who profited the most for the gold rush: the store owners who sold supplies to the miners, Levi Strauss and his jeans, the Wells and Fargo mail delivery service, and women who cooked, washed, and mended the miners’ clothing.

Hangtown Fry on the menu at Le Fictitious Local Diner (story problem): One of the diner’s cook’s kids was studying about the California Gold Rush, so the cook put a traditional 49er feast on the menu: Hangtown Fry, which he decided to serve with a side of sourdough bread. Hangtown Fry is an omelette (vocab) made of eggs, oysters, and bacon. The meal has been so popular that the chef has had to bake 10 loaves of sourdough every day. If one loaf provides 12 slices of bread, and each Hangtown Fry order comes with 2 slices of bread, how many orders does the diner sell in a week? (answer at bottom of post)

Rounding out our homonym theme, in music: After learning about the gold rush MINERS, we listened to three classical compositions in MINOR keys (in this case, each in the key of B minor). We talked about the difference in sound between a major and minor key, we talked about why each of the chosen pieces needed to be written in a minor key, and then we sat back and enjoyed:

The Hebrides Overture, composed by Felix Mendelssohn in 1830 – the minor key essential for evoking the mystery and might of nature. Wonderfully conducted by the etherial Nathalie Stutzman in this video:

In the Hall of the Mountain King, from the incidental music Edvard Grieg composed in 1876 for Henrik Ibsen’s play, Peer Gynt. Furtive (vocab), stealthy (vocab), secretive and aggressive – brought to us only by the minor key:

Ride of the Valkyries, from Richard Wagner’s opera, The Valkyrie, which premiered in 1870. The minor key brands the women warriors as fierce and relentless in their duties:

Welcome to the best part of my day!
Jane BH
(story problem answer: 420 orders)

Working for Peanuts

We begin our botany unit: “George Washington Carver – Ingenious Inventor”, another “Graphic Library” book, this one by Olson/Tucke. (These books are pretty fun, formatted comic-book style, including a surprising amount of interesting information. Not bad, not bad at all). Anyway, George Washington Carver, FATHER OF THE PEANUT INDUSTRY, has won our hearts: he was focused, deep thinking, moral (vocab), inventive, industrious, and profoundly generous. But back to the botany angle: Carver ended up with three patents for peanut oil utilization (hardly representative of his many many many inventions and contributions). We spent a few minutes wondering what Carver’s scientific response would have been to the present day widespread peanut allergy crisis. We also decided that we wanted to know more about other botanists (vocab), so books on Gregor Mendel and Luther Burbank have been ordered.

Story problem time – the SUMMERTIME SWEETHEART SODA SPECIAL at Le Fictitious Local Diner: Hoping to entice the after-movie date crowd, the diner has run a midnight ice-cream soda special (a large-sized soda with two straws and a side of fries) every Friday and Saturday, since June 1st. Well! This has been so popular that the diner went through two boxes of straws (1000 straws to the box) in June alone! If the special is priced at $5.00, how much did the diner gross on the special in June? If the cost per serving works out to $2.00, how much did the diner net from this special in June? Extraneous question: if a box of 1,000 straws costs $17, what is the price per straw (round up)? (answers at bottom of post)

New fiction reading: We are intrigued by “Gabby Duran and the Unsittables” by Elise Allen and Daryle Conners. This book is original and refreshing, with new concepts and vocabulary all over the place. The introductory adventure involves a movie production (so new words: set, line, soundstage, props); subsequent adventures involve INTERGALACTICS. Adding to this, protagonist Gabby Duran, is a high schooler intent on being an orchestra soloist with her French Horn (and consider us admonished via the internet; we’ve learned that this instrument is properly referred to as the HORN, not the French Horn). So, do you expect us to let it go at that? Our choice for classical music listening last night focused upon compositions that showcased the HORN. We wanted to appreciate the deep, comfortable, warm echo-y sound of Gabby’s horn.

Our inspiration for classical music listening last night – Gabby Duran’s French Horn:

– George Frederick Handel’s Water Music, Movement 2, from Water Music Suite No. 2, composed in 1717 to humor King George I, who desired music for a concert on the River Thames. My son and I love this jaunty full-of-energy fanfare:

– Gustav Holst’s Venus, from The Planets, composed in 1916. “Venus, the Bringer of Peace”, begins with a horn solo, and the horn provides the backbone for this L O N G dreamy movement (just a teeny touch boring compared to the rest of the planets in the suite) (but very restful, if you need to fall asleep) (and sort of sad, too) (OK! Not our favorite, but still a good “front and center” for the horn):

– Maurice Ravel’s Pavane for a Dead Princess, first written for piano in 1899, then orchestrated by Ravel in 1910. This is a slow processional dance, with the horn taking center stage for the introduction. An excellent choice for anyone seeking background music for a good hard cry:

Welcome to the best part of my day!
– Jane BH
(story problem answers: $5,000, $3,000, 2 cents per straw)

Inventors Invent

Patents and Inventions – every night for the past few weeks my son and I have looked forward to opening Travis Brown’s book, “Popular Patents”. We’ve read about patents issued for the adding machine, barbed wire, the moveable-frame beehive, billiard balls, bottle caps, cannons, the safety elevator, fertilizer, frozen foods, glass bottles, helicopters, and the zipper. What we love is that each story has some crazy angle (like how zippers were called “hookless fasteners” until an order for 150,000 units were placed by the Goodrich Company for their “Zipper Boots”). And we continue to notice how EVERY single story reveals inventors that carry patents for MULTIPLE non-related items. They cannot seem to stop: inventors invent!

Speaking of Fertilizer (first US patent for artificial fertilizer granted in 1859) – we read through (OH MY GOSH) “TOILET – How It Works”, meticulously illustrated by David Macaulay. This is a quick little book that can give EVERYBODY a basic knowledge of their toilet and a HUGE appreciation for every city’s wastewater treatment plant (on behalf of all clueless citizenry, thank you wastewater treatment plant workers) (possibly a type of employment that might be worse than being a middle-school bus driver).

Yoohoo! Vikings! We are reading through another Graphic Library (think glorified comic book) offering, this one about the Vikings, “Lords of the Sea – the Vikings Explore the North Atlantic”. My, these were a hardy people. We are finding it interesting to put the Viking explorations to North America in timeline context with the likes of Christopher Columbus and the Mayflower Pilgrims. And BTW, we’ve learned that Vikings never wore helmets with horns.

Reading for fun – My husband and I enjoy the screenwriting of Anthony Horowitz (think “Foyle’s War”), so when I found out that he wrote for the young adult level, I knew my son and I would want to give this a try. We have started his book, “The Falcon’s Malteser”. Lots of things to explain to my son as we read along (starting with the title), but this is a very fun, very clever detective novel. Perfect level for my son.

Who’s Cooking at Le Fictitious Local Diner? (story problem) – in August, the diner is offering two week-long (Monday through Friday) cooking camps; one for 7th and 8th graders and one for high school students. The class fee is $200 per student and includes lunch every day and a chef hat. There is room for 10 students in each camp. If it costs the diner $4 for each lunch, and $50 for cooking materials for each student for a week, and a chef’s hat costs $6 each, how much will the diner spend on each camper? At the end of camp, how much will the diner have netted? (answer at bottom of post)

Only Fun Music Allowed (our classical music theme last night) –

“Dance of the Hours” (note: this piece has a LONG 2 minute intro – the high voltage fun begins about 7.5 minutes into piece), from the opera “La Gioconda” (1880) by Amilcare Ponchielli. Even though this music was hilariously and successfully used in Disney’s “Fantasia” and Allen Sherman’s “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah”, we were sorry to learn that “La Gioconda” is actually a heart-wrenching tragedy. But anyway:

“Chicken Reel”, written in 1910 by Joseph Daly (and used in several animated cartoons to depict rollicking farm life), and arranged for orchestra by LeRoy Anderson in 1946. Anderson had so much fun with this – beginning with the ridiculously grand aggressive Paso Doble introduction. Great piece:

“The Pink Panther”, the iconic Henry Mancini piece composed in 1963. (My son and I love the triangle action.) This short film clip showcases Henry Mancini as conductor, as well as bits of Pink Panther cartoon magic:

Welcome to the best part of my day!
Jane BH
(story problem answers: $76, $2,480)

Sunday School

The Good Book – Last week my son and I read through Graphic Library’s “Johann Gutenberg and the Printing Press”. Excellent! Just enough information about Bibles and print reproduction methods of the 1400s. My son was engaged with every single comic-book-style page, so I am looking at other topics covered by Graphic Library.

New information for us:
– we learned that before 1455 (pre-Gutenberg’s printing press), monks who worked on Bibles had to use sunlight to illuminate their work stations; candles were not used in the manuscript shop because of the fire threat
– we learned that the path from the idea of movable type to the actual printing of a Bible was a LONG path: more than 25 years of continual work – the letters, the ink, the press, the relentless search for financial backing
– we learned that Gutenberg stored his metal letters in cases. The capital letters in the “UPPER CASE” and the smaller letters in the “LOWER CASE”. Thus, the terms!
– 200 Gutenberg Bibles were printed and 48 remain (we talked about the current $$$ value, oh my gosh)

Also studying – “Popular Patents – America’s first Inventions from the Airplane to the Zipper” by Travis Brown. This book is so well researched and so interesting, including patent number details (we sort of skip all of that), and chronological order of “what came before what” in regards to each patented invention. So far we have read about barbed wire and the bottle cap, and we are coming to realize that: 1) the type of person that invents, does so over and over and over – the inventors we’ve read about hold MANY patents, and 2), as we learned this from our study of Thomas Edison, successful inventors protect their ideas with a patent. Poor Gutenberg, how he could have used patent protection.

Story Problems for Sun Days – It is so hot this summer at Farmer Brown’s:

Farmer Brown’s cool farm hands: Farmer Brown knows that a cool farm hand is a productive farm hand, so he is installing 6 new fans in the farm hands’ bunkhouse. He is planning to purchase 4 traditional type large fans for $48 each and 2 state-of-the-art Dyson pedestal fans for $450 each. Farmer Brown’s accountant says this is certainly a business expense and needs to know the total spent. Without calculating on paper or with calculator, what is most likely the total of the 6 fans?
A: $4,800 B: $948 C: $1,092 D: $2,000 (answer at bottom of post)

Farmer Brown’s corn maze: Farmer Brown decided to join the corn maze craze. His angle: the state’s smallest maze (for those that freak out at the thought of becoming lost amid the acreage of a typical corn maze)! Farmer Brown’s maze is going to be 15 feet by 15 feet. At the end of the maze, Farmer Brown will serve up complimentary corn on the cob. The attraction will be open July and August. If an entrance fee of $3 is charged, and on an average 200 people go through the maze each month, and Farmer Brown spends 50 cents for each ear of corn/butter/salt and pepper, how much money will Farmer Brown net by the end of August? (answer at bottom of post)

Music for a Sunday night – Sunday nights are church-type music nights for us, so what better than the sound of a harp to put us in mind of angels? The three ultra-soothing pieces we listened to last Sunday night were all composed in the 1700s.

First, George Frederick Handel’s “Harp Concerto in B flat Major”, movement 1, written in 1736. This movement is beautifully presented by an orchestra in Istanbul, Turkey (sorry, I couldn’t decipher any more information, it was effort enough to figure out the city) (harpists’ ruffled dresses = adorable):

Second, “Harp Concerto in A Major”, movement 3, composed in the late 1700s (best we could do in terms of a date) by (here comes awesome name of the month): Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf. Such a FUN name to say. Every single time. This particular video features a VERY young and most talented harpist:

Finally, Mozart’s “Concerto for Flute and Harp”, movement 2, composed in 1778. This is such a gorgeous yearning melody, presented by a most accomplished student orchestra in Russia and featuring another very young harpist:

Welcome to the best part of my day!
Jane BH
(story problem answer – Farmer Brown’s cool farm hands – C: $1,092)
(story problem answer – Farmer Brown’s corn maze – $1,000)

Jane’s Cool School

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

History

We’re in A+ Book Territory

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So Cool

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Old Business

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Quandary

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Club Gustav

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Le Menu du Jour

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Miners and Minors

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Working for Peanuts

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Inventors Invent

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Sunday School

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