Brazil

January Jabber

Here is something we didn’t know: the number of books we read a year.  So, the plan for 2024: TRACKING OUR READING –  How many books will my son and I read this year?  How many will we start?  How many will we finish?  How many are good enough to make it into the re-read basket? 

Speaking of reading (from our Farmer Brown story problem collection) – Farmer Brown has a library in his farmhands’ bunkhouse.  The library has 200 books, some on ranch animal care, some on tending crops, some are rip-roaring tales of the old west.  Farmer Brown noticed that 20 of the books have never been read (mostly books on personal hygiene and healthy snacks).  

– What percentage of books have been read by the farmhands?
a)    10%     b)     20%     c)     75%     d)     90%

– There are 60 wild west fiction books that have been read over and over by the farmhands.  These books comprise what percentage of the bunkhouse library? (answers at bottom of post)
a)  15%     b)  30%     c)  45%     d)  60%

Our Current Sy Montgomery Books – Sy Montgomery is an author whose writing appeals to us.  Her journal-style books take us around the world as we join her in following the work of dedicated animal researchers (and we especially love her “researcher bios”) –

 – The Hyena Scientist”:   For this study, Sy Montgomery journeys to Kenya to join a team of scientists focused on and fascinated by hyenas.  For us, the most intriguing takeaway:  hyenas gather in tightly knit clans (and there are CLAN WARS) with an extremely structured hierarchy, and the females RULE.  Do not mess with the matriarch.

– “Amazon Adventure – How Tiny Fish are Saving the World’s Largest Rain Forest”:  Cardinal Tetras, bitty sized fish from the Rio Negro (a tributary of the Amazon River, near Barcelos, Brazil) are sought after by home aquarium owners all over the world, and Montgomery spells out why this fish gathering/transporting industry is ecologically important.  OK, OK, but here is the best part of this book:  learning about Barcelos’ FESTIVAL OF ORNAMENTAL FISH!  Oh my gosh, THE FESTIVAL!  Citizens of this teeny town spend months preparing parade floats, stitching flamboyant costumes, and rehearsing for grand “cast-of-a-thousand” performances in the town stadium.  The festival is also a competition:  town citizens are either on the Cardinal team or the Discus (another small aquarium fish) team.  Teams are judged on costumes and performance AND how politely team members watch their rival’s performance! Yes!  Etiquette always!  The Festival of Ornamental Fish is so on the bucket list.

January Jeopardy – We are quiz show ready!  A sampling  of quirky info from our latest batch of books –

1.  The hippo is the most dangerous animal in Africa.  (from “The Hyena Scientist”,  Sy Montgomery)
2. The didgeridoo is the oldest musical instrument in the world.  (from “A Time to Celebrate”, a Lonely Planet Kids book)
3.  Some of the Olympic swimming medalists from the 1948, 1952 and 1956 games started their aquatic training in Maui’s sugar plantation irrigation ditches.  (from “Sakamoto’s Swim Club”, Julie Abery)
4.  Omaha, Nebraska was the home town of dancing sensations Fred Astaire and sister Adele. (from “Footwork – The Story of Freed and Adele Astaire”, Roxane Orvill)
5.  Crescent-shaped, sword-shaped, and star-shaped are three different types of sand dunes found in Algeria’s Sahara Desert.  (from “Algeria, Enchantment of the World”, Martin Hintz)
6.  According to botanists, there are 8 different types of vegetables (leaf, bulb, flower bud, root, tuber, stem, fruit, and seed veggies – it grieves me that my son does not acknowledge 7 types of vegetables). (from “The Vegetables We Eat”, by Gail Gibbons) (answers at bottom of post)

Music + Academics = A+

  • Philip Glass’s “Negro River”, from his 9 movement “Aquas da Amazonia” (composed for a ballet in the late 1990’s), transports us to the site of our “Amazon Adventure” reading experience.   We hear rhythms and echoes of the river – birds, bugs, frogs, water bubbles, an intruder (a snake?) –   

  • Who wouldn’t want to hear the music of the didgeridoo, the oldest instrument in the world!  The didgeridoo (traditionally made of eucalyptus) in this video clip is certainly elegant.  For us, the drone sound it produces takes us by surprise every single time – 

  • And how about some background music for Farmer Brown’s farmhands as they read through the novels of the American west?  We are really liking Virgil Thomson’s “Cattle” movement from his suite that accompanied the 1936 documentary, “The Plow that Broke the Plains”. This short piece is a comforting patchwork of old west melodies –  

Welcome to the best part of my day,
– Jane BH
(story problem answers:  d)  90% have been read, b)  wild west fiction comprises 30% of the library)
Left over from last post:  our San Francisco family member finally sent us a photo from aboard a cable car: 

What We Want

We want a GRAND SLAM – Go Dodgers World Series 2017!

Dodgers

We always want THE GRAND SLAM (our version) – setting the scene:  I am reading to my son, finishing a chapter and am starting to close the book, and out of nowhere his hand comes slamming down on the page, clearly communicating DO NOT EVEN THINK OF CLOSING THIS GREAT BOOK.  KEEP READING.  It happened again last night.

Animal orchestra

Last night we started reading “The Great Animal Orchestra – Finding the Origins of Music in the World’s Wild Places” by musician/naturalist Dr. Bernie Krause.  When we begin a new book, we read only a few paragraphs to get a sense of what awaits us, but I was so pleasantly surprised with this book – the writing, bright and observant – that I was half way through the 8-page prologue before deciding to close the book for the evening.  This was met with a decided difference of opinion from my son – his hand came crashing down onto the page.  It was the GRAND SLAM once again.  YES.

crusoe 3

We didn’t want to cheat on Robinson Crusoe – I hate to admit this, but we just finished an abridged version (A REALLY ABRIDGED VERSION) of Daniel Dafoe’s classic.  We read through the first chapter of the original, and there was so much explaining necessary at the end of every paragraph, I could see that it would take us forever to plow through the book.  But we still wanted to know about the story inspired by pirate Alexander Selkirk, who lived alone on Juan Fernandez Island (off the coast of Chile) for 4 years, so we found a cartoony version “Robinson Crusoe (Graphic Revolve: Common Core Editions)”, which gave us the basics.  I think we are still hungry to read the real story, but ALAS, I cannot face the work of explaining Dafoe’s work just yet.

cousin tree

We wanted to see where we fit in – COUSIN CITY!  Cousin Caitlin is getting married soon!  Did my son understand the concept of cousin (vocab)?  Did he know where she fit into the family tree?  Did he know where HE fit into the family tree?  Out came the big drawing paper and the pastels and we worked together to create a cousin-centric family tree.

paint 3

(Story Problem) Farmer Brown wants to gussy up his roadside stand – Farmer Brown has plans to paint the inside of his roadside produce stand, as soon as his roadside-stand cashiers (vocab) decide on the color.  So far, 4 quarts of sample paints have been tried out to no one’s satisfaction.  If each quart of sample paint costs $6, and there are plans to try out 3 more colors, but – OH NO – they end up purchasing 5 more samples after the 3, how much will have been spent on sample paint?  A)  $30    B)  $42    C)  $60    D)  $72

After a color is finally agreed upon (YAY), 6 gallons (at $30 each) will be required to complete the paint job.  How much will have been spent on the gallons and sample quarts?  A) $180     B) $252     C) $72     D) $600  (story problem answers at bottom of post)

tango poster

We want to be Tango-ologists – My son and I concluded our South America unit this past week, absolutely loving our guide book: “Not for Parents South America – Lonely Planet Kids”.  This past week we read about:
– the importance of the coffee industry to the Brazil economy
– Columbian emeralds
– the navy of land-locked Bolivia
– AND WE READ ABOUT THE TANGO OF ARGENTINA.  We had no idea how much we were going to love the tango music!  Our toes have been tapping non-stop.

  • “Por una Cabeza” – this true Argentine tango, composed in 1935 by Alfredo Le Pera and Carlos Gardel, tells the story of a man comparing his horse race gambling addiction with his attraction to women.  Whoa.  The music: anguished, gorgeous, yearning – the perfect selection for the tango scenes in “The Scent of a Woman” (1992) and “Easy Virtue” (2008) (shown here):

  • “Hernando’s Hideaway” – if I had more friends that were more musically aware, and I asked them to hum a tango, this is the one they would probably come up with – it is from the 1954 musical, “The Pajama Game”. (The Pajama Game centers around labor troubles at a pajama manufacturing plant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa…Hernando’s Hideway is the local dive bar).  Great fun, a most aggressive tango with no pretensions toward subtleties:

  • “Blue Tango” – Leroy Anderson’s contribution to the tango genre, composed in 1951. My son and I have been tapping our toes to “Blue Tango” for a few years. Every time we listen to this we feel sorry for the snare drum player (mind numbing repetition).  Interesting: in searching for a “Blue Tango” video footage I think I came across more terrible filmed versions of this than of any other music I have researched:

  • MORE????? “Doc Martin Theme Song” – my son has heard this melody so often, as I have watched every episode of this favorite British TV series.  The theme was composed by Colin Towns in 2004, and is indeed a tango.  What a metaphor for the on again-off again relationship between the doctor and of the citizens of Portwenn:

Welcome to the best part of my day!
Jane BH
(story problem answers: part 1 -D)  $72 and part 2-B) $252)

Tick, Tick, Tick

stopwatch

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 –

tick tick books

  • 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 2     water buffalo

– 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?).

TOMS

  • “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 – 

Tom Gates books

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 – 

rio logo new

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)