Homeschooling

Ranch Report

Ranch Report – this past week I spent two remarkably interesting days at the most wonderful gigantic cattle ranch smack in the middle of Texas (thanx to LynxAC: hostess/friend extraordinaire). I brought back photos and observations to share with my son:
– first of all, the calves are so so cute.
– the responsibilities of running a ranch are endless – purchasing, transporting, weighing, feeding, watering, and branding the cattle, keeping animals healthy, keeping the calves with their moms – it just doesn’t end. Good thing the scenery is so spectacular.
– the speed limit in mid-Texas is 75 MPH. Not that any self-respecting ranch truck is going that slowly. “Thundering down the road” sort of says it.
– there are no bushes growing around ranch buildings, because shrubbery provides places for snakes to hang out. We never stepped outside before scouting for snakes.
– internet connections are not to be counted on…like there is any time for internet meandering.
– this visit gave us a new appreciation of everything Farmer Brown (of the Farmer Brown story problems) does to maintain his farm.
– YES! The stars at night are big and bright, deep in the heart of the Lone Star State.

$math shark$

When the cat’s away – when I am gone, my husband takes over the studies and stories hour. He and my son concentrate on math activities and this past week they enjoyed measured success using a “Math Shark”, which can ask questions about decimals, fractions, and percentages, as well as basic computations.

But now that I am back – topics that are keeping us captivated:
– Eugene Bullard (Larry Greenly’s book: A+)
– Cleopatra (Diane Stanley/Peter Vennema’s book: A+)
– Animal eyes and vision (“Eye to Eye” by Steve Jenkins) (too early to give it a grade, but so far, we are learning a lot!)
– book concepts: the preface and the epilogue. (vocab)
– new science concept “breaking the sound barrier”.

Story Problem Answers! Finally! Thanx to a request from attentive reader FDB, answers to story problems will be posted at the bottom of each post, underneath my signature. Starting today!

Speaking of Farmer Brown – a story problem from this past week: For an upcoming evening gathering, Farmer Brown is going to light his long driveway with lanterns. If he places a lantern on both sides of the drive every 20 feet, and his driveway is a quarter of a mile long, how many lanterns will he need? If each lantern costs $8.00 (including tax and shipping), how much will Farmer Brown be spending? (Don’t forget! The answer is at the bottom of this posting!)

March Madness follow-up (see our previous post, “The Business of March”) – my son’s final two march favorites were:
– “Colonel Bogey March”, composed in 1914 by Lieutenant F.J. Ricketts
– “The Imperial March” (Darth Vader’s theme), composed in 1980 by John Williams for “Star Wars, Episode V”
with the winning nod given to “The Imperial March”. Great footage: John Williams conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, complete with appearance by Darth Vader:

Background music for star gazing in the Lone Star State –

– “Mercury” from Gustav Holst’s suite, “The Planets”, composed in 1916. Mercury, the messenger god, flits all over the place and the music flits all over the place. This is probably one of our top twenty favorite pieces. It is just so different.

– “Clair de Lune” from Claude Debussy’s “Suite Bergamasque”, published in 1905. This clip features the great pianist Claudio Arrau, who was 88 when this was recorded!

Now here is something fun!

– “The Star Trek Theme” straight from the late ’60’s TV show. Composed by Alexander Courage, the minute-long theme was originally titled, “Where No Man has Gone Before”. Deliciously eerie.

– Then we listened to a fully orchestrated version (“Star Trek in Concert”) performed by the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra in 2013. Gorgeous! We wonder if composer Alexander Courage ever dreamed that his short quirky piece would be performed by such an esteemed orchestra. Whoa.

Welcome to the best part of my day!
– Jane BH
Story Problem answers: 132 and $1,056.00

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

Going Nowhere Fast

Last week I replaced my 2009 laptop (and really, it was the oldest and slowest thing in the Apple store that day) and I have apparently entered glitch city. We’ll just see how this post progresses. (*&#$$%!!*)

Going Nowhere Fast – our science concept of the week: THE DOLDRUMS. We located these “no wind” areas on our globe, and imagined being stuck in a sailboat for weeks, praying for any sort of breeze. We also learned the colloquial (vocab) meaning of “the doldrums”.

Switcheroo – My son and I took a hard look at the books we were reading for pleasure and we didn’t like what we saw: books that were were taking way too long to get to the plot. We decided to bail, and try some new books. We are pretty happy with our new choices (both about boys going to school in Great Britain):

ribblestrop

– “Ribblestrop”, by Andy Mulligan. So far we find this book to be quite imaginative, humorous AND it moves right along. We like it!
– “The Brilliant World of Tom Gates”, by L. Pichon. Presented as if written by a chronic doodler, this is fun to read (along the lines of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”) and fun to look at.

Catherine the Great – of the “A Wicked History” series IS great! (Every book we have read in this series has our full attention – so well organized, well written, with a wealth of very interesting information. “Wicked History” books so trump traditional text books.) But back to Catherine – hey, she had her good points (like being insistent about bringing Russia up to modern scientific standards) and she had her bad points (she was the classic power-hungry politician), and she really did have to depose her husband. He was just awful for Russia. This is good reading!

Story Problem from Le Fictitious Local Diner – To bring attention to new French items on the menu (French Toast, French Fries with Béarnaise Sauce (vocab concept), and French Onion Soup), the diner is sponsoring an “Escargot (vocab) Race”. The race track will be set up on a card table and the winning snail will have to travel 5 inches from start to the finish line. Anyone showing up will be given a complimentary beret (vocab), and those showing up with a snail are automatically entered in the race which is sure to be a white-knuckler. First prize is a $50 diner gift certificate. If 60 people show up and each beret costs $3, how much will the diner spend on berets? If two-thirds of the people that show up pay $5 for a cup of onion soup, how much will the diner gross from the soup sales? How much will the diner net, after the cost of the berets and the first prize certificate are deducted?

Order! Order! – My son is learning how to rank things, like “which composer lived first”, or “which state did we live in first, second, third, fourth, and fifth”…I would like my son to be able to rank preferences (“which food do you like the best, next best, next best, worst”, “which color should we paint your room: first choice, second choice, third choice”). This is not the first time we have worked on ranking, but we are having a bit more success this go around. Yay!

Music for the Doldrums – maritime music that could move us out of the doldrums:
– “Sea Songs”, composed by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1923, fully orchestrated in 1942. This is an invigorating 4-minute arrangement of 3 British sea songs:

– “We Sail the Ocean Blue”, from “H.M.S. Pinafore” by Gilbert and Sullivan (1878). This jaunty (vocab) (a LOT of Gilbert and Sullivan music can be described as “jaunty”) (but we like “jaunty”) video is adorable:

– “Sailing By”, composed by Ronald Binge in 1963, this is the music that is broadcast by BBC Radio before the shipping reports. It is a most relaxing slow waltz and could prove helpful for lowering the blood pressure of those who have hit the high anxiety level while stuck in the doldrums.

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

Rodent Rage

Almost finished: We are sorry that we are coming upon the final pages of “Animalium”, by Katie Scott and Jenny Broom. This splendid book is rich in conversation-provoking information and rich in captivating illustrations. This is a book that we have looked forward to opening every single night (even last night, when we had to read about rodents).

Speaking of rodents:

– To establish a baseline, we took a little “Is this a rodent?” quiz, then voted upon the cutest. Our faves: chipmunks, chinchillas, hamsters, guinea pigs, voles, and porcupines. Not our fave: squirrels are on our bad list at the moment (we are unhappily hosting one in our attic, and are attempting to remove him humanely)(but this is not going well, as he is a member of Squirrel Mensa).

– February 1^st I gave my son a pre-test on the big doings of February 2^nd: Groundhog Day. I was quite surprised by how much information he knew about this “holiday”. I am not sure we added much to his store of knowledge, but we read through Wikipedia entries on groundhogs and Groundhog Day, and concluded with a small discussion about whether Punxsutawney Phil was a bit plumper than the average groundhog. We learned that groundhogs are the same thing as woodchucks, which prompted me to recite the “How much wood can a woodchuck chuck” tongue twister. Rodents and poetry on the same night. Winner.

Farmer Brown’s petting zoo story problem – The first graders from the 4 local elementary schools love visiting Farmer Brown’s petting zoo. This year, Farmer Brown has hired a photographer to snap photos of each first grader with one of his sweet hamsters. The photos sell for $2 each (and everyone purchases one). It costs Farmer Brown 50 cents to process each photo and he pays the photographer $35 for each school visit. There are 40 first grade children in each school. NEW CONCEPTS!: What is Farmer Brown’s GROSS income from the endeavor? What is Farmer Brown’s NET income (after paying the photo processing and the photographer) from the endeavor?

What a rat! We have begun another “A Wicked History” (we do love this series), this time we are learning about Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia. Right off the bat we find out that she came to power by disposing of her husband, Tsar Peter III. Yikes. What a rat. We want to know more.

Music for Groundhog Day: Was Punxsutawney Phil going to be greeted by bright sunlight or cloudy skies? We had the music to mark the occasion:

Phil sees his shadow: “Winter”, from Vivaldi’s timeless violin concerto of 1723, “The Four Seasons”. Ugh. We don’t want 6 more weeks of winter! But we are always happy for a tiny slice of Itzhak Perlman magic:

Phil sees his shadow: “Waltz of the Snowflakes” from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Ballet, which premiered in 1892. We may be weary of the cold weather, but at least Tchaikovsky revives us with a winter that is as pretty as it is capricious (vocab):

Phil doesn’t see his shadow: “Symphony No. 6 in F major” (movement 1), composed by Beethoven in 1808. Known also as “The Pastoral Symphony” (familiar to many from Disney’s award winning “Fantasia” of 1940), it is all about the promise of spring. Leonard Bernstein (always a conductor we want to watch) leads the Vienna Philharmonic in this video:

Phil doesn’t see his shadow: “Put on a Happy Face”, composed by Charles Strouse (lyrics by Lee Adams) for the 1960 Broadway production “Bye Bye Birdie”. Hey, Phil! Grey skies are gonna clear up! My son was tapping his toes to this rendition from the mid sixties, featuring The Supremes:

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH

Zootique

Animals all over the place – this week, all of our current reading seems to be focused upon les animaux.

First – the stunning “Animalium” by Katie Scott and Jenny Broom. The idea here is that the reader is walking through a natural history museum learning bits and pieces about biodiversity (vocab). Information is clearly presented, illustrations are sensational, and my son and I look forward to opening this book every night. BTW, our favorite animal phylum so far? Cephalopods (vocab). Each member of this group is so very weird.

Then – “This Side of Wild”, a new book by Gary Paulson, a favorite author of ours. We have read his “Hatchet” many times, and the follow-up stories, “The River” and “Brian’s Winter”. This book is autobiographical (vocab), with Mr. Paulson writing about his relationships with several animals. Side note: due to something Mr. Paulson had written, we were provoked to view a youtube video demonstrating how to use “anti-bear” spray. Yikes. (More zigzag learning. LOVE it!) (and this video is surprisingly excellent).

Finally – we are are working our way through Ogden Nash’s book of poems, “Zoo”. Each of his funny, astute (vocab) poems seems to need an explanation, so each becomes a conversation starter. This book is delicious.

Language Arts Class is now in session –

– A few nights ago, my son and I used “Mad Libs” to work on parts of speech. I don’t think my son saw this as a tremendously hilarious activity, but it was a passable diversion.

– As for even more new vocabulary – so many concept pairings from our animal unit: Matriarch/Patriarch, Predator/Prey, Carnivore/Herbivore, Bones/Cartilage

New menus at Le Fictitious Local Diner! We worked our way through a really involved story problem last night: the diner is printing up new menus and they can’t decide whether to pay to have the menus laminated or to purchase a laminator and do the job themselves. A laminator can be purchased for $200, and a package of 100 plastic “pouches” costs $55. It takes 30 seconds to run one menu through the machine. So:

1) if the diner wants to laminate 200 menus, how long will it take?

2) if a junior employee is paid $10 an hour, how much will be spent on the labor of running the menus through the laminator?

3) how much will the diner spend at the office supply store with the purchase of the laminating machine and the pouches?

4) how much will the diner spend on supplies and labor to laminate 200 menus?

5) if the local print shop will laminate the menus for 85 cents each, is it more cost effective for the diner to pay the print shop to do the laminating?

Music! Inspired by the nocturnal (vocab) animals we’ve been reading about, we decided to find out what musical “Nocturnes” were all about. After listening to a few, we decided that a nocturne might be described as a mature version of a lullaby. Then, I gave my son a list of events that might or might not be enhanced by a nocturne as background music…on the “NOT” list: a birthday party, on the “YES” list: many Robert Frost poems, like one of our favorites, “Good Hours” (which we reread).

“Nocturne No. 2” by Frederic Chopin, composed in 1832. We learned that Chopin is considered the go-to composer for nocturnes, having completed 21 polished works. No. 2 might be the most famous of all nocturnes and is used in SO many movies.

“Nocturne No. 3”, (also known as “Liebestraum”) (Love Dream) was composed by Franz Liszt in 1850. This nocturne is neck and neck with Chopin’s No. 2 for nocturne popularity.

Yes, yes, yes, both quite reflective and beautiful, but then we played “Harlem Nocturne” and WELL, we were overwhelmed! WOW. Had to listen to it two more times in a row.

“Harlem Nocturne”, composed by Earle Hagen in 1939. Lush and SULTRY (vocab). This is the music used for Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer (hard-boiled detective) TV series. (I deemed it unnecessarily confusing to explain “hard-boiled detective”). We listened to this recording by the Duke Ellington Orchestra and it is PERFECTION. My, oh my.

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH

Good Books, Bad Books

Sorry to be on a rant in mid-December, but REALLY! How do poorly edited books manage to get published? Case in point: my son and I were reading a coffee table-style book about birds of North America. The introduction was rather good: we learned that birds with long legs have long necks; we learned that a grouping of bird eggs in a nest is called a clutch. And then the book fell apart. A chapter entitled, “Swifts and Hummingbirds” contained NOT ONE MENTION, NOT ONE PHOTOGRAPH of a swift. And you would think that an author making an effort to explain the simple word, “clutch”, would make sure the reader understood more difficult terms, such as “arboreal” and “terrestrial”. But no. In an angry huff, we have bid adieu to that sham of a book.

Happier reading: we are now reading “Animal Kingdom” by Nicholas Blechman and Simon Rogers…same outstanding graphic format as “Human Body”, which we read a few weeks ago. Currently, we are mid-chapter, learning about senses; last night reading about animal eyes (largest eye: giant squid…eyes covered by skin, rendering them blind: mole rats (GROSS)), tonight reading about animal ears, and the variety of listening abilities. So interestingly presented, we are back to being happy learners.

Even happier reading:

we have finished “Rules of the Road” by Joan Bauer. EXCELLENT story: well written, complex plot, skilled characterizations, and topped off with all sorts of life lessons.
and if it is December, we return once again to a super favorite, “Mrs. Coverlet’s Magicians” by Mary Nash. This book was a Children’s Book Club offering in 1962. I LOVED it then, and I LOVE it every year for a re-read. We are reading the very same copy that my dad read to my sister and me, but the book is still available on Amazon and the plot is a DELIGHT.

Our music project last night – selecting music to enhance another poster in my son’s room, “Checkered House” by Grandma Moses, painted in 1943. (The poster was purchased after we completed a unit on Grandma Moses a few years ago.)

“Over the River and through the Wood”, a poem by Lydia Maria Child originally entitled, “The New-England Boy’s Song about Thanksgiving Day” (but it still works for all of the December holidays), published in 1844. Alas, the composer is unknown. Darling video footage taken from an elementary school winter concert.

“Sleigh Ride”, composed by Leroy Anderson during the heat wave of 1946! Mr. Anderson was VERY smart (a Harvard man!) and VERY funny. A perfect performance by the President’s Marine Corps Chamber Orchestra.

“The Friendly Beasts”, also known as “Carol of the Animals”, words by Robert Davis, penned in the 1920’s, set to French music from the 12^th century. Not too much to look at in this video, but the song is sung by Peter, Paul, and Mary, and it is wonderful!

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

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

Jane’s Cool School

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

Homeschooling

Ranch Report

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The Business of March

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Conversation Circle

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Going Nowhere Fast

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Rodent Rage

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Zootique

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Good Books, Bad Books

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A Ghost by any Other Name

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Answers for Everything

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This Week: One Sculptor, One Scoundrel

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