Technology

High Five!

dwarf-planets-121120b-02

FIVE?  Last night we were reading from “Information Graphics – Space”, and my son and I were startled to learn that there are 5 dwarf planets in our solar system.  FIVE????  Of course, we knew about Pluto, but 4 others?  Joining Pluto: Ceres (actually an asteroid, but so large that in 2006 it was designated a “dwarf planet”), Eris, Haumea, and Makemake.  We learned more about these cuties via a Wikipedia search.  And we want this poster!

Bullard book

Required Reading:  We have finished reading “Eugene Bullard, World’s First Black Fighter Pilot” by Larry Greenly, and it deserves another shout out.  Really! What this man (1895 – 1961) couldn’t do well.  He wasn’t just the first black fighter pilot (WWI), he was a prize-winning boxer, an excellent drummer, a night club owner, a spy for the French Underground…he spoke excellent French (once serving as an interpreter for Louis Armstrong when he toured France) and passable German.  Eugene Bullard was an American with a CAN DO attitude – who started from nothing and did everything. (This book also casts a wonderfully positive light on France.  Quite refreshing.)  This should be required reading, or at least an alternative choice for high schoolers struggling through “All Quiet on the Western Front”.   A definite HIGH FIVE in the inspirational/motivational reading catagory.

To honor those who served in THE GREAT WAR, we read “In Flanders Field” by John McCrae, twice. (and I wept) (couldn’t help it) (just think what my kids have had to put up with).

poppies

On the lighter side: Last week we started playing HANGMAN.  I am always looking for “normal” interactive games, and I think we have a hit with hangman.  It was fun, and my son quickly figured out the words I had chosen (rabbit, waffle, dentist, cattle); words selected because one comes upon some of their key letters rapidly, if one is simply selecting letters alphabetically (you do know how to play hangman, right?).  We’re playing again tonight.

Mid-Terms: Last Night my son took a multiple choice “mid-term” quiz and scored 100%!  (I had typed up questions that touched on topics we have covered since January – e.e. cummings, Punxsutawney Phil, the doldrums, Catherine the Great, rodents, the French Foreign Legion, and Cleopatra.)  Best of all, he demonstrated an understanding of how to take a multiple choice test – he no longer needs prompting to select the letter that goes with the correct answer. Yay!  We are making progress!

airplane

Farmer Brown story problem:  Farmer Brown had to travel out of state to attend a lecture on hay, and he traveled on a plane with recently refitted coach seats.  The seats were luxurious and really comfortable for everyone under 5’6” tall.  A large man himself, Farmer Brown noticed that 3/5 of the passengers were well over 5’6” tall.  If there are 180 seats in coach, how many people were desperate to reach their destination, de-sardine their bodies and stretch their legs? (answer under signature at end of this post)

empire state building               burj khalifa

High in the Sky:  we have just finished a study on enormously tall structures, and discussed whether we would be happy finding ourselves at the top of said tall buildings.  My top height is the Empire State Building.  My son indicated that he would be OK going to the top of that frighteningly half-mile-high Burj Khalifa in Dubai (which also boasts the world’s fastest elevator) (NOT A PLUS in my book).  Kudos to those who will go where my genetics cannot.

Beethoven

A High Five to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, who recently hosted a FREE performance for kids with autism.  The auditorium was filled!  Music Director Jaap van Zweden conducted Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in C Minor – what a PERFECT choice –  short, grand, majestic, deep (but uncomplicated) and polished from beginning to end.  What a gift.  My son and I decided that we needed to listen to Beethoven’s Fifth again.  For added interest, I selected a different conductor for each of the movements.

Beethoven’s Fifth – movement 1, Leonard Bernstein conducting the Vienna Philharmonic (so, in other words, awesome):

Beethoven’s Fifth – movement 2, Jose Luis Gutierrez conducting the Carlos Chavez Youth Orchestra (good job for a youth orchestra, but excellent job for such a youthful conductor, I swear he looks 18):

Beethoven’s Fifth – movement 3 and 4 (difficult to find these filmed separately because the 4th movement commences without a pause from the conclusion of movement 3), this features conductor Paavo Jarvi conducting the Deutch Kammerphilharmonie Bremen:

Welcome to the best part of my day!
– Jane BH
(Farmer Brown story problem answer: 108)

Lights! Camera! Edison!

Edison

Creativity AND Business Skills – We just completed a unit on Thomas Edison and his brainy brilliance that brought the world incandescent light bulbs, phonographs, movie cameras, etc.  The DK Readers book we read is entitled, “Thomas Edison: The Great Inventor”, but the underlying message is “Inventor? Yes, but this man ALSO possessed extraordinary business skills that were more than a match for his relentless inventing”.  Wow.  My son and I had as many conversations about Edison’s unerring business sense as we did about his creations.

drake better

Good books about bad people – so far we have learned about Napoleon, King George III, Rasputin, and Alexander the Great via the outstanding Scholastic “A Wicked History” series.  The books are well researched and written to our level of comprehension, meaning NOT juvenile, but not mind-numbingly erudite.  The only negative: the photos are always so small, in grey tones/very hard to decipher.  We are currently learning about a really awful person (from a really awful family chock full of bullies, thugs and thieves), Sir Francis Drake.  I had NO idea he was so reprehensible.  AWFUL.

Greetings book

“Greetings from Nowhere” – our new novel, by Barbara O’Connor is an original, entertaining book, just the type we look for (young adult themes my son can understand without the awkward “coming of age” element), with lots of concepts for us to discuss: motel, kitchenette, adoption, and for heavens sakes, last night we had to Google Image CHARM BRACELETS.

hands

Art at the Vatican – to prepare ourselves for a Vatican art survey, we are reading “Michelangelo” by Diane Stanley. Excellent resource.

Dogs playing poker

Art at Le Fictitious Local Diner – this story problem revolves around the diner gussying up the place with selected pieces of what some might call art. Of course, they are installing the classic “A Friend in Need” (the rest of us know it as “Dogs Playing Poker”) by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, purchased for $45.  A portrait of Elvis on black velvet has also been purchased for $90.  Posters of Batman, Superman, and Marilyn Monroe round out the collection, the lot acquired at a garage sale for $10.  How much has the diner spent on “artwork”? (Heh, heh, the answer is not “zero”.)  Money to purchase the exciting wall decor came from the diner’s tabletop jukeboxes.  At 25 cents per song, how many songs had to be played before the art could be purchased?

Inventions for Inventions: our classical music theme last night – we celebrated the inventions of Thomas Edison by listening to a few inventions by Johann Sebastian Bach.  First, we needed to understand what a Bach invention is.  For this, we viewed a superb 7-minute video starring killer pianist Simone Dinnerstein.  This video is a jewel!  Just watch her flying fingers!

Bach’s 15 inventions were composed as keyboard exercises in 1723.  We listened to:

  • “Invention No. 8 in F major”, played by Simone Dinnerstein.  Seriously, we love her!  We want to know where to get our SD Fan Club badges.

  • “Invention No. 13 in A minor”, played by little mighty mite, Annie Zhou, an 8 year old, competing in the Canadian Music Competition a few years back.  Watch her attack this piece.

  • “Invention No. 6 in E major” played by a banjo and double bass.  We watched this for comic relief, but were so pleasantly surprised by the high quality of the performance! Kudos!

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH

Messenger Service

mercury head

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 photo

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!

peacock

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?

dental tools   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 6th 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

 

 

A Test of Faith
...possibly my worst photo ever. Sorry! The subject matter wouldn't cooperate.

…possibly my worst photo ever. Sorry! The subject matter wouldn’t cooperate.

A test of faith – This past week we completed our “Religions of the World” unit, using an Usborne book as a reference.  It was time to test and see what my son had retained.  I set up the iPad for a multiple choice quiz, and presented him with 30 questions regarding Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Sikhism.  Chalk up another A+.  Yay!

Incidental learning: Thermometers – While we were driving around the other day and the car thermometer read 37 degrees, I wondered if my son knew about temperatures.  So that night, we began a small study of temperatures and thermometers. We found a neat website: www.metric-conversions.org, offering loads of interesting facts with brief, understandable explanations.  We learned the difference between Celsius and Fahrenheit and how to convert from one to the other.  We learned that only the Bahamas, Belize, the Cayman Islands, Palau (Palau? We had to find this on the globe), the USA and its territories use the Fahrenheit system.  Consider us informed on the matter.

New academic unit – I am sorry to write that the chemistry unit we began crashed and burned by night number three. Darn book. When I don’t know what the author is talking about on page one, I start to think that this is not a book for us.  After shunning the chemistry book, we tried out a book on “Oceans of the World” and found conflicting sentences in the first paragraph, so we bypassed that resource, too.  This does not mean we are through with these units, it just means we are seeking the right books. (So many, many sub-standard learning materials out there.  How do they even get published?  Sigh.)

Not to be discouraged, we read through a few pages of “A Young Reader’s Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by Adam McKeown.  Excellent!  We are loving this book. We are going slowly so we can keep all the characters straight.

3 books

Novels – Two worthy Newberry award recipients: “Hatchet” and “Flora and Ulysses”

  • Continuing on with “Hatchet”, by Gary Paulsen.  There is nothing original I can say about this important book.  There is a reason it is on so many reading lists.
  • “Flora and Ulysses”, by Kate DiCamillo (everything she writes is so great).  Things we’ve had to investigate while reading this book: CPR, near-death experiences (seeing the “white light”), the words “malfeasance” and “cynic”.  I love books that push us into further learning.

fleur de lis

Our music theme last night focused upon the work of French composers – I provided my son a list of compositions by the French composers that we are familiar with: Bizet, Debussy, Delibes, Gounod, Offenbach, and Saint-Saens.  He selected:

  • “The Infernal Galop”, (the “Can Can”) by Jacques Offenbach, what’s not to like?
  • “Clair de Lune”, by Claude Debussy, the soothing music we needed.
  • “March of the Toreadors”, (from “Carmen”) by Georges Bizet…a rather unusual rendition with bottles and a guy on skates.  Why not?

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH

Desperately Seeking Ganesha

From our “World Religions” unit – we are reading from the Usborne Book of World Religions, last night finishing the chapter on Hinduism. How can our favorite Hindu deity not be Ganesha (the elephant-headed god in charge of removing obstacles)?  GANESHA STOP HERE!  We have obstacles aplenty that need removing.

ganesha line

Math Concept Check – we reviewed fractions, percentages, and ratios last night with the help of jillions of Legos.  So much fun!  Did my son like this?  Well, he went to sleep clutching a Lego tower.  I am taking that as a yes.

 lego math

Current Events – we dipped our toes into current events, using “The Economist” magazine as our resource. We found two articles of interest – first, an update on space probe “Philae” (which had us spellbound in November, when it landed on comet 67P – way way way way way far away).  And, since we just finished a unit on cats, we also read about the latest census of wild tigers in India (numbers way up last year!)(Good show India!).

 philae     tiger

Last night’s music theme was “Classical Broadway” – we listened to a few American musical comedy songs that were either embellished or inspired by particular classical music compositions:

  • “Rosemary” from “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” (Frank Loesser, 1961) references Edvard Grieg’s “Piano Concerto in A minor” (1868).

  • “Baby Face” from the 1967 movie “Thoroughly Modern Millie” (although the song was actually a MAJOR hit in 1926) includes a bit of the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s “Messiah” (1742). (spoiler alert – the music is perfect, but this is one of the lamest youtube pages ever)

  • “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina” from “Evita” (Rice/Webber, 1976).  A significant musical phrase in the chorus certainly must have been inspired from Johannes Brahms’ 1878 “Violin Concerto in D minor”, movement 3. (Have a listen, it is glorious!)

(the Brahms) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOx0eKhD9f0

(Don’t Cry) – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d01NpclvlE

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH

 

Starry Eyed

hubble

From “Professor Astro Cat’s Frontier’s of Space” – Last night was all about the Hubble Space Telescope.  This fine piece of machinery measures in at 43 feet by 8 feet.  Making it personal – we learned that the idea of sending a telescope into outer space was first discussed in 1923 (the birth year of both of my son’s grandmothers) and we learned that the Hubble Space Telescope (HST to those in the know) was launched in 1990 (the birth year of my son).  We thought about this:  the HST has been repaired 5 times. That means astronauts had to sync up with it (how can this be easy?) and perform delicate technical procedures.  Hmmm.  Would we want to be (1) floating around in space and (2) fiddling with a 2.5 billion dollar telescope?

Our Main Science Unit – We are about half way through the “Usborne Book of Scientists”.  We have covered astronomers, physicians, physicists, and chemists.  Right now, we are reading about botanists. I think our take-away from this book is three-fold:  (1) there are brilliant thinkers and observers EVERYWHERE, (2) brilliant thinkers stand on the shoulders of brilliant thinkers that have gone before and (3) brilliant thinkers have always had to battle (often uninformed, therefore seriously irritating) defenders of the status quo. Good book. Really good book.

The Le Fictitious Local Diner Story Problem of the day – The diner has 5 large windows that need constant cleaning (pollution on the outside, grimy fingerprints on the inside).  The “Squeaky Clean Window Washing Service” cleans the exterior windows once a month, and the interior windows once a week. If the SCWWS charges $5 per single side of a window, how much does the diner need to budget per month for window cleaning?

Last night’s music theme was “Dealer’s Choice”– About once a week, I provide my son with a list of 10 compositions. He selects 3, by writing “yes” or “no” next to the title.  I love the programs he puts together.

dealers choice

  • Rossini’s “William Tell Overture” – what’s not to like? We enjoy a recorded version with Arthur Fielder conducting.
  • Respighi’s “The Cuckoo”, from his suite, “The Birds”– a sparkling collage of the two-note cuckoo motive.
  • Leonard Bernstein’s “Mambo”, from “West Side Story” – a steamy-hot composition in the hands of TODAY’S HOTTEST CONDUCTOR, Gustavo Dudamel.  In this video he conducts the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra (Venezuela). Who wouldn’t want to be part of this energy?

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH

Takes a Lickin’ and Keeps on Tickin’!

PROOF! They do make ’em like they used to!  Last night we read a page in  “Professor Astro Cat’s Frontiers of Space”  and learned about “Opportunity”, the NASA exploration rover sent to Mars in 2004.  It was supposed to function (take photos/collect mineral samples) for 90 days.  Well! Just in case you don’t keep abreast of all news interplanetary, “Opportunity” is STILL working! Cheers to the beyond brilliant JPL team that constructed this mighty mite!  Of course, we have already ordered a poster of this little engine that could.

 opportunity

What else we have learned from “Professor Astro Cat’s Frontiers of Space”:

  • the differences between the rocket that took the men to the moon in 1969 and the space shuttle of recent years
  • science experiments aboard the International Space Station
  • advancements in space attire

We do not want this book to end.

Concept Check-up – To study planets, it is essential to understand the difference between a solid, liquid, and gas.  All of a sudden, it occurred to me that I had no idea if my son understood the terms.  After illustrating the differences for a few nights, last night my son was presented with a list of 20 items, of which he sorted into solid, liquid, or gas categories.  Yay! Concept mastered!

Reading – We are back reading “Under the Egg”.  Now that it isn’t competing with an equally complex story plot (“The Absolute Value of Mike”) (we were overwhelmed, so we had to take a short break from both books), this novel is most intriguing. The story centers upon one particular painting of the Renaissance artist, Raphael. The plot thickened last night, when we read about the painting’s possible connection with the Monuments Men of WWII (immediately over to the iPad to look up info on the real monuments men. WHOA).  Great reading!

New Vocab – words, concepts, and locations we came across during STORIES AND STUDIES:

axis   –   cadaver   –   dissect   –   eclipse   –   patron   –   pendulum   –   probe   –   rover

symmetry   –   the Baltic Sea   –   the Mariana Trench   –   Croatia   –   Willem deKooning

Our Farmer Brown Story Problem: Farmer Brown is sponsoring a horseshoes tournament at his ranch to raise money for a local animal shelter. Farmer Brown will charge a $15 participant’s fee, so we calculated the number of horseshoe enthusiasts needed if Farmer Brown’s goal is to raise $1,000.

Last night’s music theme was “The Overture”: of course we first discussed what was meant by the term, “overture”.

  • Overture to “H.M.S. Pinafore”, by Sir Arthur Sullivan. Just under 4 minutes of jolly jauntiness. A definitive taste of the style of Gilbert and Sullivan.  I would have liked to have youtube-linked this piece because you cannot listen to it without grinning, but alas, there is not a super good video of this yet.
  • Overture to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, by Felix Mendelssohn. Over 12 minutes long, but oh so clever – worth the listening time. Get this: written when Mendelssohn was 17.
  • Overture to “The Marriage of Figaro”, by Mozart. Just over 4 minutes in length. From the sixth most performed opera in the world!  Enchanting from the first measure.

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH

Music Mechanics

HOW WE GET THE MUSIC THAT WE LISTEN TO: TUTORIAL

If you are under 40, this post will make you roll your eyes, so it is best that you log off immediately.  If you are over 40 (which is a nice way of saying, “if you are over 50”) I am going to gently explain how I find the music that my son and I listen to during STORIES AND STUDIES.

For this tutorial, please enjoy a mock phone conversation between my mother (in California) and me (in Texas).  FYI, my mother, “The Peach”, is 92 and is pretty much with it.  She 1) has a personal trainer and 2) was explaining just yesterday how to recognize a Tesla car.  When it comes to computers, NOT SO MUCH.  She has had her own gigantic Apple computer for several years, but it was only recently that she stopped trying to “set the margins” when she was composing an email.

So, the conversation –

The Peach:  I want to listen to the music that you listen to during STORIES AND STUDIES.  How do I do it?

Me:  There are a couple of ways. Do you want the long (permanent) or short (temporary) version?

The Peach:  Let’s start with the short version.

Me:  OK.  Write this down:

  • Turn on your computer
  • Log on to YouTube

Once you are on the YouTube website, type in the name of the classical piece you want to listen to into their search box.  Most likely, a series of suggestions will pop up. Scan through the suggestions. Find one that looks interesting, click on it, and enjoy!

The Peach:  How much is this going to cost?

Me:  Nothing!

The Peach:  Are all of the classical music videos on YouTube of the same quality?

Me:  No.  Anybody can submit to YouTube.

The Peach:  OK, what is the long version?  What if I want to have the music with me, to listen to in the car or whatever.  I can’t be logging onto YouTube every time I want to listen to something.  What if I want to own the music permanently?

Me: This is very exciting!  You are really a woman of the 21st century!  Here is what you need:

  • your computer
  • an iPod

The Peach: I am ready! (we are skipping the part about having to purchase an iPod)

Me:  Write this down:

  • Turn on your computer
  • Log onto Amazon

In the Amazon search box, write the name of the composition you are trying to find. A number of suggestions will pop up. You want one from the “digital music” category.

The Peach:  OK, I typed in “Beethoven’s 5th Symphony” and about a thousand suggestions popped up.  How do I choose?

Me:  Good question! Amazon does let you sample 30 seconds of any piece, but with so many to choose from, the first thing I do to narrow down the search is to look for a well-known orchestra or conductor.

The Peach: Well, for heavens sakes, this is something I don’t know anything about. How can I speed up this process?

Me:  Ask me!  I LOVE researching music!  Ask me and I will tell you exactly what recording I have chosen for which composition.

The Peach:  So, now that I have selected a recording, what do I do next?

Me:  Purchase the piece from Amazon. They make it very easy and it is quite inexpensive  (about 99 cents per song).  Moments after the purchase, the music is magically transferred to your iTunes music file!

The Peach: So, it is SOMEHOW now on my computer?

Me:  Yes!

The Peach:  But don’t I have to do something to get it onto my iPod?

Me:  Yes.  Here comes more magic!  Cable your iPod to your computer and the music will automatically transfer.

The Peach: That’s it?

Me: That’s it!

The Peach: What did you listen to last night?

Me: Last night’s theme was “Celebrating the Oboe” – we focused on the piercing, exotic, snake-charmer sound of the oboe.

oboe ipod

  • Handel’s, “Arrival of the Queen of Sheba”,  from Handel’s oratorio, “Solomon”.  This piece features 2 oboes in marvelously intertwining harmony.
  • Tchaikovsky’s final scene from “Swan Lake” – about one minute into the piece, the oboe is fully in charge of the haunting melody.
  • Maurice Ravel’s “Le Tombeau de Couperin” – which showcases the capabilities of the oboe to perfection.  The entire piece lasts about 18 minutes, but this youtube link captures a 3 minute slice.  An excellent introduction to the oboe.

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH