Jerusalem

Chillin’ with the Ladies*

 My son and I have been spending time with the two most recognizable women in the world.

– Mother Teresa, by Navin Chawla  
This was a lengthy book (274 pages) for us, but every single page increased our awareness of Mother Teresa’s brilliant original thinking, her commitment to her calling, her powerful leadership skills.

We read in depth about the three endeavors of her Missionaries of Charity:
– a home for unwanted or orphaned children
– a home and medical facility for those with leprosy
– a home for the destitute and dying 

We have added a heart swelling quote from the book to our Sunday night spiritual moment:  while sitting with a dying patient, Mother Teresa was overheard to whisper, “You say a prayer in your religion, and I will say a prayer as I know it.  Together we will say this prayer and it will be something beautiful for God”.   There is now a poster of St. Teresa of Calcutta on my son’s wall.

– The Mona Lisa Vanishes, by Nicholas Day
There is nothing concerning the theft of the Mona Lisa (from the Louvre Museum in 1911) that is not examined in this book: 

– we learned about Lisa Gherardini, who posed for the portrait 
– we learned about Leonardo da Vinci (it was thought provoking to read that Leonardo was most likely ADHD)(this would explain a lot)
– we learned about French police/detective work in the early 1900’s (just the very beginning of fingerprinting)
– we learned about security at the Louvre Museum (super lax)(then, not now)  
– and finally, a dazzling conclusion to the book:  the thief of the Mona Lisa is revealed, lies surrounding the theft are exposed, and we learned that the painting was returned with great ceremony to the Louvre just prior to the breakout of WWI.

This book is perhaps the most organized and well researched book we have ever read.  It is written in small readable chunks – perfect for us.  Inspired by this book, we now have a poster of the Mona Lisa up on my son’s wall. 

Fiction Fun –

– While Mrs. Coverlet was Away, by Mary Nash –  This classic from 1958 has been on our August reading list for several years.  I just love it…I sort of hope my son loves it too, cuz this was at least our 8th time through.   It is funny, it is clever, it champions self reliance.

Story Problem:  The Local Diner gets Fancy

The local diner has decided to add a refined touch:  from now on, all  breakfast rolls and desserts will be served atop a doily.  If the diner calculates that they serve 50 breakfast rolls daily (7 days a week) and 150 desserts daily (7 days a week), how many doilies will they need each week?
a)  70     b)  350     c)  700     d)  1,400

If the diner can purchase 1,000 doilies for $15 from “Doilies R Us”, will $100 be enough money in the diner budget to purchase a month’s worth of the needed doilies?  (answers at bottom of post)

(I am not defending the use of doilies, I am only writing a story problem)

Classical Music:  finally chillin’ with the ladies, virtuoso style –

– Setting the stage –
1913 – first woman EVER to be hired by a professional orchestra (the Queen’s Hall Orchestra in London)
1918 – first woman invited to join an American orchestra (the Detroit Symphony Orchestra)
2003 – at the very back of the pack:  the Vienna Philharmonic, under pressure from the Austrian government, finally welcomes the first female musician into the orchestra

Any orchestra should be so lucky to be chillin’ with these virtuosos:

Cello Virtuoso, Jacqueline du Pré – (1945 – 1987)  Ask anyone (who knows anything about this) to list 5 cello virtuosos, and Jacqueline du Pré’s name will be on that list.  My son and I sat rapt listening to her play “The Swan” from Camille Saint-Saëns’ 14 movement suite, “Carnival of the Animals” (composed in 1886) –

Flute Virtuoso, Jeanne Baxtresser (1947 –    ), former principal flutist for the NY Philharmonic (for 15 years!).  It was fun to listen to her almost haunting adaptation of Saint-Saëns’ “Swan” and we loved the spirited pace –

Trumpet Virtuoso, Alison Balsom (1978 –    ).  Alas, we knew we weren’t going to find anyone on trumpet playing “The Swan”, but we were happy to find a recording of Handel’s  “Arrival of the Queen of Sheba” (from his 1748 oratorio, “Solomon”), showcasing Alison Balsom, whose performance is perfection.  Even though this has been one of our favorite compositions for years, we still can’t help but smirk thinking about Handel’s fussy piece portraying life in Jerusalem about 1,000 BC  –

Welcome to the best part of my day,
– Jane BH
(story problem answers:  d)  1,400 doilies a week, and “yes”, $100 is enough to pay for a month’s worth of doilies)
*The title of this page came from a “Get Fuzzy” (Darby Conley) cartoon from years and years ago.  The phrase is still making me and one of my other kids laugh every time we think about it.

Finishing Touches

Finished:   Lonely Planet’s “The Cities Book”, AKA “The Seven and a Half Pound Book that is also a Weapon”.   Our plan was to tackle two cities a night and we did!  We ended up taking 200 trips around our globe and it was sort of exhilarating to find every single location.

globe and book

A few final observations:

  • really old cities:  
    • Lisbon – since 1,000 BC
    • both Mecca and Jerusalem – since 2,000 BC 
    • Nicosia – since 2,500 BC
    • Dubai – since 3,000 BC
    • Amman – since 3,500 BC 
    • Shanghai – since 3,900 BC
  • altitude sickness possibility:  Lhasa/Tibet, Santa Fe/New Mexico, Cuzco/Peru
  • city built upon coral:  Male, Maldives
  • cities really close to active volcanoes:  Kagoshima/Japan and Arequipa/Peru
  • world’s steepest residential street:  Baldwin Street (with a 35% grade), Dunedin, New Zealand.  (yes, we compared it to San Francisco’s Lombard Street; sorry, only a 27% grade)
  • cities my son and I would like to visit based solely upon the two page spread in the book:
    • Ljubljana, Slovenia (fairy tale charm with early morning fog making the “weakness” list)
    • Muscat, Oman (pristine beauty)

Finished:   Kimberly Brubaker Bradley’s simply excellent book, “The War that Saved My Life”.  I wanted my son to spend a little time reflecting upon how well conceived and well written this book was, so I had him fill out a report card.  I talked about each category before he decided upon a grade.  This book is so deserving of its 2016 Newbery Honor Book award.

report card

Of course, a story problem:  A Vegetable Tasting at Farmer Brown’s:

sugar snap peas

Farmer Brown has put out trays of cauliflower, sugar snap peas, and turnips because he is hosting a vegetable tasting for local school children (specifically, Ms. Becque’s and Ms. Lesh’s picky first graders).  (There are 18 students in each class.)
Results:

Ms. Becque’s class vegetables Ms. Lesh’s class
6 tastes cauliflower chunks 12 tastes
12 tastes sugar snap peas 18 tastes
9 tastes turnip slices with dip 3 tastes

1)  which class had the pickiest eaters?
2)  what percentage of Ms. Becque’s class tried turnips?
3)  what percentage of Ms. Lesh’s class tried cauliflower?
4)  the school district will will have the greatest chance of getting kids to eat vegetables if they purchase which vegetable from Farmer Brown? (answers at bottom of post)

moon

Finishing up the day – we always end each STORIES AND STUDIES session with 3 pieces of classical music.  Unless I have a very specific theme for the evening (like “The Anvil as Musical Instrument” or “Circus Music Classics” – see “Our Music Themes” in title block), I try to promote drowsiness by selecting something soothing for the final selection.  Something like these:

  • Song to the Moon, from the opera “Rusalka” (1901), Antonin Dvorak
  • The Flower Duet, from the opera “Lakmé” (1883), Leo Delibes
  • The Little Train of the Caipira (1930), Heitor Villa-Lobos
  • Scottish Fantasy, movement 1 (1880), Max Bruch
  • Guitar Quintet No. 4 in D major, movement 3, (1798), Luigi Boccherini
  • Sailing By, (1963), Ronald Binge

or these:

  • The Dove, from “The Birds” (1928), Ottorino Respighi.  This is the very recording we’ve been listening to for years on our iPod. The best parts:  the cooing of the dove throughout the piece, and the ending (just splendid):

  • Theme from “Out of Africa” (1986), John Barry.  We listen specifically for distant rolling thunder brought to us by the timpani:

  • Nimrod, from “The Enigma Variations” (1899), Sir Edward Elgar.  Dignified and sobering.  An adaptation of Nimrod was used in the score for the 2017 movie, “Dunkirk”.  No better choice:

Welcome to the best part of my day!
– Jane BH
(story problem answers:  1)  Ms. Becque’s class,  2)  50%,  3)  66%,  4)  sugar snap peas)

That’s Gotta Hurt

pike manpike manpike manpike man

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.

alexander the great

Shakespeare this past week – we finished up the comedy, “Much Ado about Nothing” and we have just started the history, “Julius Caesar”.

peck novels

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.

pencil grip

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