Geography

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)

The Business of March

March Madness – John Philip Sousa is referred to as “the March King”…but is he OUR King of Marches? We set up a bracket chart, just like college b’ball’s March Madness brackets, pitting four famous Sousa marches against four well loved marches by other composers. We listen to marches every Friday night all year long, so my son has heard these marches MANY MANY MANY times, but to make this official, we are listening to one match-up each night, after which my son determines the favorite. Thus (so far):

(We’ll let you know.)

Shamrocks Rock (one of our story problems from last week) – Farmer Brown sells the cutest pots of shamrocks during the first two weeks of March. He sells a box of 10 tiny pots for $25. So far, 2 car dealerships have ordered 3 boxes each, 6 restaurants have ordered 2 boxes each, and 2 local businesses have ordered 10 boxes each. How much will Farmer Brown gross on these sales? If Farmer Brown pays 50 cents for each clay pot, what will he net on the sales, after he has paid for the clay pots?

March of 1831 – We learned that The French Foreign Legion was founded in March of 1831. The French Foreign Legion???? What provoked us to seek information about the French Foreign Legion? Well, first of all, we want to know about EVERYTHING, and secondly, we are reading about Georgia-born Eugene Bullard (first black fighter pilot), who at the age of 19 found himself in Paris on the eve of WWI, so he joined the French Foreign Legion. Well. We needed to know exactly what the French Foreign Legion was about. Did you know that if you are fighting for the FFL and you are injured, you may apply immediately for French citizenship (you are considered “French by spilled blood”)? Très intéressant. (vocab concept)

Our Music – Getting in the mood for St. Patrick’s Day:
– “Toora Loora Loora” – an Irish-American lullaby written in 1913 by James Royce Shannon. Extremely popular from the get-go, it was #1 on the music charts that year. We like this rendition by “The Irish Tenors” because we like EVERYTHING by the Irish Tenors:

– “The Irish Washerwoman” – a traditional Irish jig, arranged for the Boston Pops by LeRoy Anderson in 1947. We found a video clip of Anderson’s “Washerwoman” played by the Rocky Mountain Wind Symphony. Nicely done!

– “Danny Boy” – this sweet, sweet, tear-jerker ballad written by Frederic Weatherly in 1910, to the tune of “Londonderry Air”, is the unofficial signature song of Irish Americans and Irish Canadians. Alert: Somebody might want to know that “The Fabulous Danny Boy Album” features 12 excellent renditions of this song. That is kind of a lot of a good thing.

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

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

Answers for Everything

Are we having fun yet? Signs point to yes. My son received a Magic 8-Ball for his birthday and he seems fascinated by the idea of receiving answers (to goofy questions) from the black ball. Well, CHEERS! I am always looking for opportunities to expand my son’s game/toy experiences. The first hurdle (and it is a HUGE hurdle) is to find a toy that intrigues him. Did we hit the jackpot with the Magic 8-Ball? You may rely on it! GREAT GIFT!

Non-Fiction – we are continuing to learn from the books “Maps” (yay), “Human Body”(yay), and “Genghis Kahn” (battle/skirmish/double-cross/repeat) (will this book never end?).

Fiction – we are enjoying “Rules of the Road” (winner of the L.A. Times Book Prize) by Joan Bauer. This appealing book skillfully balances difficult concepts (alcoholism, Alzheimer’s) with the inherent hilarity of the shoe business and a new drivers license. I knew we were going to like this book, because years ago I read and loved “Hope was Here” (HKH are you reading this????), also by Joan Bauer.

Le Fictitious Local Diner’s story problem! The diner is sponsoring a community “pie bake” and has set aside one afternoon in November for anyone (meaning high school students who need more volunteer hours for their graduation requirement) to come assemble pumpkin, apple, and pecan pies. The diner will bake the pies and deliver them to the senior citizen center for their Thanksgiving dinner. The diner’s plan is to make 20 pies of each type. Here are the cost breakdowns:

pie tins: $0.50 each, pie crusts: $0.25 each, apple filling: $3.00 each, pumpkin filling: $3.00 each, pecan filling: $6.00 each. The diner’s tax lady needs the total costs for the 60 pies.

Last night’s music program took its inspiration from a poster on my son’s wall: Frederic Remington’s gorgeous, touching, lonely, “The Fall of the Cowboy”, painted in 1895. This painting is on display at the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, so we are lucky to have seen it “in person” several times.

First, to set the mood, we listened to George Winston’s gorgeous, touching, lonely piano solo, “Thanksgiving”, from his “December” album, released in 1982.

My son and I decided that after a long, cold day, the cowboys would want to head off to the local barn dance. We like this video of two fiddle players expertly playing Aaron Copland’s “Hoe-Down” from his ballet, Rodeo (which premiered in 1942).

And finally, a little comfort music for the weary cowboys: John Denver’s “Back Home Again”, released in 1974.

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH

Back in the Saddle Again

Annnnnnnd, we’re back! Since our last post, we have read about Princess Kaiulani of Hawaii (so refined, educated, and loyal to her people) and Genghis Khan of Mongolia (so unrefined, so uneducated, so loyal to himself. In his defense, the living was pretty uncertain on the Mongolian steppe (vocab) in the 13^th century. We get the impression that there was no lack of unrefined, uneducated, and untrustworthy yurt (vocab) dwellers. My son and I are SO glad we didn’t live then and there. So glad.)

Current fiction – we loved learning about Charles Dickens last month, so we decided to tackle “A Christmas Carol”. So far, the book’s conversational style is a delight, although I need to interpret countless phrases and concepts on every page: door knocker, counting-house, Bedlam, workhouses, melancholy, tavern. This is not a problem! Bring it, Mr. Dickens.

Current non-fiction –

Reading only one page a night from Peter Grundy’s captivating book, “HUMAN BODY” gives us plenty of thought-provoking information. Example: on the page about the sense of smell, we learned that a human has 15 million olfactory receptors (vocab), most dogs have 1,000 million olfactory receptors, BUT a bloodhound has – GET THIS – 4,000 million olfactory receptors. So this led to a little discussion about why bloodhounds are the dog of choice for finding lost people, followed by a discussion about how people get lost. Graphics? Genius.

We are also reading through “MAPS”, by Aleksandra Mizielinska and Daniel Mizielinski. What a joy this gigantic book is. Again, one page a night is plenty. As we begin each new country, we find it on our globe, then we treat ourselves to the jillions of darling hand-drawn illustrations. Last night we spent time with the page on France and ended up discussing whether or not we would consider eating escargots.

Our story problem: Farmer Brown’s Halloween – Farmer Brown is giving glow-in-the-dark bracelets for Halloween instead of candy. He can purchase 300 bracelets for $24. How much will each bracelet cost?

If he gives the first 50 trick-or-treaters one bracelet each, but gives the next 100 children 2 bracelets each (because he really doesn’t want to end up with a bunch of bracelets at the end of the evening), how many bracelets should he give to the final group of 10 trick-or-treaters (so he doesn’t end up with any bracelets)?

Scary Music for Halloween –

“Dance Macabre”, by Camille Saint-Saens, composed in 1874. The clock strikes midnight on Halloween, calling the dead to arise and dance until dawn. This splendid video showcases a most skilled youth orchestra from Poland. Well worth the view to watch for the marimba, xylophone, vibraphone, and orchestral bells – instruments of perfection for evoking the sounds of rattling skeleton bones.

“Mars”, from “The Planets”, composed by Gustav Holst in 1914. This is the poster child for menacing music. We love this particular video – it is a simulation of a rover landing on Mars. We’ve probably watched this 10 times.

“Masquerade”, movement 1 (the waltz), from a suite written by Aram Khachaturian in 1941. This video is a full-blown production number, dark and decadent, just like the music. For some reason, it is a bit out of focus, but this only adds to the Halloween creepiness.

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

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

Jane’s Cool School

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

Geography

Tick, Tick, Tick

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The Business of March

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Conversation Circle

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A Ghost by any Other Name

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Answers for Everything

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Back in the Saddle Again

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This Week: One Sculptor, One Scoundrel

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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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