John Philip Sousa

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):

march chart bright

(We’ll let you know.)

shamrocks

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?

French Foreign Legion

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)

irish dance

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

Jams and Jellyfish

jams

Preserves – I know a whole slew of people that don’t know the difference between a conserve, a jam, a marmalade, and a jelly…So I assumed correctly that my son (who limits himself to a regimented diet that has never included any sort of preserves), might not know the difference either.  We read through some luscious sounding definitions, took a little matching quiz, and attempted a taste test at our late-night snack time.  You would think that we had a little momentum going, and after all, what’s not to like about apricot jam and grape jelly?  Yet, surprise, surprise – another classic food-trial fail.  He wouldn’t try a bite.  Don’t worry, I am not discouraged in the least.  Sometimes (maybe once out of every 85 tries) something like this works!  We are a patient people.  A patient people, now with a fully-stocked preserves pantry.

Jellyfish book    jellyfish

Drawing Jellyfish – Have you seen this book, “20 Ways to Draw a Jellyfish” by Trina Dalziel?  Way fun!  So here is what we have been doing: drawing a lot of jellyfish, or “sea jellies”, or just “jellies” (all the same thing).  Such a satisfying drawing activity – first the “oral arms” (squiggly and completely gross), then the big bubble on top, and then the wiry tentacles.  Drawing jellyfish provoked us to learn something about them:  1) there are jellyfish in every ocean on earth, 2) there are jellyfish at every level of the ocean, 3) there are jellyfish of every size.  Fossils reveal that jellyfish have been around for between 500 and 700 million years, making them the oldest multi-organ residents of planet Earth.  Great use of our STORIES AND STUDIES time.

othello book

Othello Update – Well, we can’t all have the same opinion.  Those following the blog know that this play has been difficult for me to read through, due to Shakespeare’s perfectly crafted villain, Iago.  However, my son is apparently riveted: twice now, as I have been about to close the book for the night, my son’s hand has come slapping down onto the page, in essence saying, “KEEP READING”.  Wow.  He likes it!  He is paying attention!  He is communicating effectively!  I love it!

Story Problem from Le Fictitious Local Diner – Exciting doings at the diner! The bathrooms are being remodeled, and the designer is driving the contractor crazy. The designer is very picky about the tile that is being installed, accepting only 2 out of every 6 tiles shown. There are 12 tiles in each box. How many boxes will the designer paw through before finding 80 tiles that win approval?

piccolo, flute, clarinet

     – The Piccolo: the tag-along kid sister to the Clarinet and Flute –

Music Theme:  Shrill Thrills! – Last night we showcased the piccolo!  The shrieking, sky-high, clean-out-your-ears-through-next-week, teeny tiny piccolo!  The selections we chose would be so lacking and so unfinished if it were not for the piccolo.

  • Tchaikovsky’s “Chinese Dance” from “The Nutcracker Ballet”, premiered in 1892.  We enjoyed this darling segment danced by the Royal Ballet (somewhere in Russia – I can’t decipher the descriptive Cyrillic script) (I can only do so much).

  • Respighi’s “Triton Fountain in the Morning” from his symphonic poem, “Fountains of Rome”, which premiered in 1917.  This sparkling, spritely movement opens with piercing exuberance, courtesy of the piccolo.  Sorry, the video footage is not all that one would wish (but the music is A+).

  • John Philip Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever”, composed Christmas Day 1896, and declared “National March of the United States of America” by act of the U.S. Congress in 1987 (wow, 91 years later; talk about a slow process).  This excellent video stars the US Army Field Band, and as is traditional, the piccolo section stands for the most stirring passage.

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH

Wordery

Webster_27s_Dictionary_advertisement_-_1888_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_13641

Words, words, words – this past week, new vocabulary words have been emerging willy-nilly.  We have clocked in a fair amount of time defining unfamiliar words, phrases, and concepts.  Thank you Wikipedia and Google Images!  Last night, I presented my son with a vocabulary matching quiz, to see if the words had been explained well enough. (YAY!  Big smiles here. Phew.)

  • From “The Young Reader’s Shakespeare: Hamlet” by Adam McKeown:  coronation, goblet, immortal, liege, parapet, specter, avenge, revenge, and vengeance
  • From “Flora and Ulysses” by Kate DiCamillo:  arch-nemesis, euphemism, treacle, and villain
  • From “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (translation by Katherine Woods):  baobab (a tree…real or imaginary?)
  • From our new novel, “The Way to Stay in Destiny” by Augusta Scattergood (a book BTW that we are LOVING), we had to do a bit of a side study on the illustrious Hank Aaron.
  • From Mozart’s “Overture to The Abduction from the Seraglio”: seraglio

baobab

Editor’s comments: there is such a thing as a baobab tree (it is VERY weird and ridiculously large, and we can see why the little prince worked diligently to make sure this tree didn’t take root on his little planet), and everyone should take a listen to the “Overture to the Abduction from the Seraglio” – five and a half entertaining minutes (we love the rambunctious cymbal smashing)!

“Overture to the Abduction from the Seraglio” – take a listen!

 mules turkey rooster combs

From our Farm Unit – last night we learned quite a bit about mules. During the course of the past few days we’ve learned about turkey breeds, the three reasons to breed goats (milk, meat, fiber), and we’ve learned about draft horses. This book (“Farm Anatomy” by Julia Rothman) is just dynamite.  There is something new and easy to understand every single night.

Best Farmer Brown story problem from the past week: Farmer Brown has been glad it has been raining, because his cows, sheep, and goats drink a LOT of water every day (we learned this from our “Farm Anatomy” book!). If each sheep needs one to four gallons of water daily and he has a herd of 60 sheep, what is the least amount of water they need during the course of a week?

Last night’s music theme: March’s Marches. Last year, during March, my son and I listened to a different march every night. In truth, the concept ran thin about day 18. Even accounting for the wide variety of marches (military, wedding, graduation, coronation, funeral), 31 marches are a lot of marches. Last night, I presented my son with our list from last year and he selected three to listen to:

  • “The Radetzky March”, by Johann Strauss, Sr., composed in 1848. Such an A+ march; we never get tired of hearing this.
  • “March of the Siamese Children”, from “The King and I” by Rogers and Hammerstein (1951): elegant, and we love listening for the low, reverberating gong tones.
  • “The Washington Post March”, written in 1889, by John Philip Sousa.  Interesting aside: it is said that when Sousa was 13, his father signed him up as an apprentice in the United States Marine Corps band, to keep him from joining a circus band (a parent’s gotta do what a parent’s gotta do).   The link below leads to a neat video, starring the US Marine Corps Band and a nice explanation of the piece by the band leader:

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH

780 Pairs of Saddle Shoes

Did ya miss me?  The past week my husband was visiting relatives and I was mired in single parenthood and there was no brainpower left to reflect upon what my son and I were learning together.

But, finally, a few free hours –

Saddle Shoes: One of the books we are reading mentioned somebody polishing up their saddle shoes.  I don’t believe my son has come into contact with anyone sporting saddle shoes, so we had to Google image said 50’s footwear. There are 39 pages of photos of saddle shoes.  Not a lot of variation, folks.  39 pages?

 saddle shoes 1 photos saddle shoes 2 saddle shoes 3

We finished an outstanding Nobel Prize unit: Thanks to a well-written book, “The Nobel Prize”, by Michael Worek, we are conversant with the prize categories (medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, peace, and economics), the basic set-up of the prize system, and we read about some of the more notable Laureates. The book ends with a chronological listing of the prizes. So, GREAT BIRTHDAY CARD IDEA!!! Along with the usual felicitations, why not include the list of the Nobel Prize Laureates from the year that the birthday honoree was born?

nobel book

Novel update: We decided that the two novels we were reading (“Under the Egg” and “The Absolute Value of Mike”) were too complex to be read at the same time. We decided to take a break from both books. My son chose an old favorite, “While Mrs. Coverlet was Away” as our current novel. When we conclude this book, we will return to either the Egg or the Mike book, but one at a time.

Our Farmer Brown Story Problem: Last night found Farmer Brown packing up crates of oranges to sell to sea captains interested in the prevention of scurvy.  We talked about Farmer Brown’s price per crate ($3.00), how many oranges were in each container (100), the subsequent cost of each orange, and how much a sea captain could make if he sold individual oranges for a quarter.

Our Classical Music theme was “All in the (ridiculously gifted) Family”:

  • The father, Johann Strauss, senior: “Radetzky March”: a glorious march, easily confused with the work of John Philip Sousa.
  • The brother, Josef Strauss: “Feuerfest Polka”:  we LOVE this piece and we refer to it as the “Blacksmith Polka” because it is accented with what sounds like a hammer hitting an anvil. This just has to be the inspiration for “Heigh-Ho” from Disney’s “Snow White”.
  • The Waltz King, Johann Strauss, junior: “The Thunder and Lightning Polka”: take a gander at “Unter Donner und Blitz Polka” (“The Thunder and Lightning Polka”).  The conductor, Carlos Kleiber, is having way too much fun with this piece.

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH