Hubble Space Telescope

But I digress…

When my sister and I were kidlets, Saturday nights would find us accompanying our parents to a neighboring home, where the adults would play bridge for hours.  Well, this family’s house was a salute to the bland tones of beige (yawn) and sort of a tannish color (double, NAY! TRIPLE YAWN).  And other than a rather large set of ornately carved wooden salad servers – hung on the wall as an art piece – there was NOTHING interesting going on in this house.  Anyway, courtesy of these long nights in Neutralville, here is what beige means for me:  NO CREATIVITY HERE.  NO INDEPENDENT THINKING HERE.  LET’S PLEASE MOVE ON.

But I digress.  Our current book basket is filled with the work of wildly independent, creative thinkers.  Not a beige tone in the lot.

No Beige Here:  “The Adventures of Miss Petitfour” (book 1), written by ridiculously gifted Anne Michaels, charming illustrations by Emma Block.  This is a collection of short stories concerning Miss Petitfour and her 16 cats, but for us, this book is about the glorification of words.  Words we know but forget to use. (Example:  Miss Petitfour and team enter a FESTOONING competition, not a mere “decorating” competition.)  And the cats names!  Our favorite is Purrsia.  PURRSIA.  This might be the first book we have ever read spurred on solely by the author’s mastery of fanciful vocabulary.  I was thinking feline adventures might hold little appeal for my son, but when I asked him if he thought we should order book number 2, he immediately scribbled “YES”.

No Beige Here:  “The Boy Whose Head was Filled with Stars (A Life of Edwin Hubble)”, written by Isabelle Marinov, illustrated by Deborah Marcero.  Lately, my son and I have been comparing photos sent from the Hubble Space Telescope (launched 1990) and the JWST (launched 2021).  So, a BIG YES to a book about Edwin Hubble (1889 – 1953).  INSIDER SCOOP:  Hubble’s father did not want him to study astronomy.  WHOA.  REALLY?  INTERESTING.  Was he concerned that astronomy would not provide a steady income?  Was it for religious reasons?  Hmmm.  Anyway, Hubble acquiesced and taught high school, coaching a basketball team until his father died, then Hubble scrambled back to astronomy. 

And we learned that he “only” managed this: TWO NOTEWORTHY DISCOVERIES:
1) the universe is so much bigger than we thought (even during his studies, the brightest scholars thought the universe was “limited” to the Milky Way).
2) The universe is getting bigger all the time. 

The book concludes with a focused reflection from the author:  
“It is this cosmic perspective that I’ve tried to convey through Edwin’s story, a perspective that is lost on so many of our world’s leaders.  Planet Earth is nothing more than an infinitesimal fraction of a mote of dust in the vast cosmic tapestry.  Maybe one day, this realization will help us overcome our narrowness of perspective, which lies at the root of so many of our earthly problems?”

No Beige Here:  “Old School”, by Gordon Korman.  Oh, we do love Korman’s books (I think we have read “Schooled” 5 times).  In this book, middle schoolers experience becoming united for a cause, find surprising connections with senior citizens, and among other things, they learn about WWII code breakers/shuffleboard/the pleasures of a restorative cup of tea.  This was a thought provoking story that we looked forward to reading every night.   And my son learned the double meaning of the term, “old school”.

No Beige Here:  Reporting in on our around the world tour – 

We are still LOVING this unit, brought to us by the Lonely Planet Kids, “The Travel Book”  .  Since last post, we have journeyed around the Arabian peninsula,  (took a Wikipedia detour to learn where vast supplies of oil actually come from – not dinosaurs as we were thinking, but ancient fossilized mini marine life)(as loads of people know, just not us), have studied the STANS:  Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan (we learned that “stan” means “land of”).  We are now heading toward Australia and Oceania.

Favorite new things we’ve learned:

Pakistan:  Jingle Trucks  (definitely NO BEIGE here!)

Jordan:   Royal Desert Forces (police) ride camels

Nepal:  We love this country’s flag (the 2 triangles symbolize the Himalayan mountains, and the 2 major religions – Hinduism and Buddhism)

Qatar:   Best in the good will category:  Qatar created the largest flag in 2013, then had it recycled into 200,000 book bags for school children distributed around 60 countries

Easy story problem from the Local Diner!  There’s a new Saturday night special at the Local Diner!  Date night calls for a bit of sophistication, so the diner is now serving table-side tossed salads!  Oh, the glamour!  What prompted this was that the diner’s chef’s cousin’s brother-in-law,  Mr. Hank, has gotten into whittling and has carved up a dozen pairs of wooden salad servers, which he is selling for $20 per set.  They are just gorgeous.  The diner bought them all,  6 to use for the table-side service and 6 to sell on a trial basis.  If they sell well, the diner will order more.

  • How much did the diner pay for 12 sets of salad servers?
    A)  $120     B)  $144     C)  $200     D)  $240
  • If the diner sells the sets of the remaining salad servers for $30 each, how many more sets of salad servers can they order from the profit?
    A)  3 sets     B)  9 sets     C)  12 sets     D)  1,000 sets
    (answers at bottom of post)

No Beige Here:  Orchestral Offerings – Three rambunctious, bold, imaginative pieces:

Bamboula, composed by New Orleans native, Louis Moreau Gottschalk in 1848.  First of all, the name:  a bamboula is a type of rum barrel drum as well as being a word one would want to say over and over.  This is a longish piano piece, but as we are getting used to it, we love it.  This is the exact recording we listen to – 

Cantina Band, composed by John Williams in 1977 for Star Wars IV.  Inventive, toe tapping, the ultimate quirky background music for the ultimate quirky bar scene –

The Wild Bears, composed in 1907  by Sir Edward Elgar as part of his “The Wand of Youth” suite.  This enchanting short piece transports us into the middle of a children’s raucous hide-and-seek activity.  The chaotic conclusion is perfection.  No beige here –

Welcome to the best part of my day!
– Jane BH
(story problem answers:  D)  $240 and A)  3 sets)

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