Lucy Hawking

Heavenly

     vatican     swiss guard and pope

The Vatican – our new unit!  We are Catholic, so the Vatican seemed a logical subject of inquiry.  We’re reading from the August 2015 issue of National Geographic and “The Incredible Book of Vatican Facts and Papal Curiosities” by Nino Lo Bello.  Here is what has IMMEDIATELY captured our attention: THE SWISS GUARDS.  Wow.  BEST UNIFORMS EVER.  Here is what we have learned about the Swiss Guards – there are around 100 guards at any one time, with sole responsibility for guarding Vatican City and the Pope. The basic requirements for becoming a guard:  single male Catholic between the ages of 19 – 30, with Swiss citizenship and Swiss military training.  Very, very cool.  And, again, those GREAT uniforms (we learned that it takes about 32 hours to sew up one of these splendid striped ensembles)!

big bang books
Stephen Hawking said it – so far, Stephen Hawking and his daughter, Lucy, have written 3 remarkable novels for youthful minds about (what else) outer space.  We are on book three, “George and the Big Bang”.  Every so often, there is a break in the story for a few pages of facts and theories.  As far as we are concerned, if Stephen Hawking said it, we are getting the most up-to-date information, un-doctored up and un-watered down.  These books are important.  We are augmenting the Hawking novel with “The Moon” by Seymour Simon.  Lovely book, thought provoking photographs.

persdeids meteor shower

Farmer Brown looks to the heavens and thinks about buying a telescope!  From one of our story problems of last week – Farmer Brown was so fascinated viewing the Perseid meteor shower last week that he realized his farm hands might enjoy having a telescope to view the night sky.  He has found a beginner type telescope for $300.  State sales tax is 8.25% and shipping will run $21.00.  How much will Farmer Brown spend if he wishes to purchase 2 telescopes?  If Farmer Brown wants speedier delivery he will pay an additional $15 per item.  What will this bring the total to?

 church singing

Music time – Negro Spirituals.  What sobering and inspiring listening.  But what great songs!  Written by slaves pre-civil war, we learned that spirituals were prayers about the rewards awaiting in heaven and coded encouragement for escaping the chains of forced servitude.  My son and I had a serious talk about the inexcusable wrongness of slavery.

  • “Down by the Riverside” – this timeless spiritual became a signature song for Vietnam War protesters of the 1970’s.  This video clip features Sister Rosetta Tharpe.  What a treasure.

  • “Wade in the Water” – we love this arrangement sung by Oakwood University students.  Refreshing, energetic, outstanding.

  • “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” – I don’t see how anybody could watch this video and not weep (well, my son didn’t weep, but he was captivated) (I wept).  It showcases operatic lyric soprano Kathleen Battle and the Boys Choir of Harlem.  It is just so beautiful.  Also noted: “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” is the anthem of the national rugby union team of England.  That’s weird.

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH

Textbooks – if we ruled the world

We want textbooks that make us pay attention  –

  • by captivating us with quirky information
  • by taking us behind the scenes, so that we gain a sympathetic understanding of the facts
  • by luring us in with intriguing graphics

textbooks 5

We want textbooks that we cannot wait to open each night.  Books like these:

  • Usborne Books – “Explorers”: so excellent
  • DK Eyewitness Books – “Gandhi”: perfection
  • Peter Sis Books – WHOA. Works of art with great information. We learned so much about Columbus, Darwin, and Galileo from the Sis books.
  • Bill Nye Books – information peppered with funniness and energy
  • Stephen and Lucy Hawking Books – “George’s Secret Key to the Universe” and “George’s Cosmic Treasure Hunt”, both make staggering concepts easy to understand by deftly weaving them into story format.
  • “Music Was It” by Susan Goldman Rubin – such an interesting biography of Leonard Bernstein
  • “Professor Astro Cat’s Frontiers of Space” by Dominic Walliman and Ben Newman – anybody who reads this blog knows that we LOVE-to-the-power-of-10 this book.
  • “Moonshot” by Brian Floca – spectacular book about the flight of Apollo 11
  • “A Child’s Book of Art” by Lucy Micklethwaite – my son LOVES this book. He reads it every day, and we are on our third copy.
  • “A Really Short History of Nearly Everything” by Bill Bryson – quirky information delivered in enthusiastic Bryson style

tip jar

Last night’s story problem from “Le Fictitious Local Diner” – There are 3 waitresses working the morning shift at the café, and on Saturday, they split a tip jar that contained $57.  The 4 waitresses that work the afternoon shift split a tip jar that contained $78.  Who went home with more tip money – a morning or an afternoon waitress?

 tea cups

Last night’s music program celebrated TEA TIME. We learned about theme and variation and the concept of orchestration by focusing upon the classic American sweetheart melody, “Tea for Two”.

  • First, “Tea for Two”, written by Vincent Youmans and Irving Caesar for the 1924 Broadway smash-hit, “No, No, Nanette”.  ADORABLE (and makes us want to know what a sugar cake is).

  • Second, “Tea for Two” as interpreted by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1927. Long story short: Shostakovich won 100 rubles by re-orchestrating “Tea for Two” in less than one hour, after listening ONE TIME to a recording of the song. It SPARKLES!

  • Next, in 1939, jazz pianist great, Art Tatum put his spin on “Tea for Two”. FANTASTIC.

  • And then, oh my gosh, The Lawrence Welk TV Show (1951-1971) featured “Tea for Two” SIXTY SEVEN times during the course of its long broadcast run. I just don’t know what to say about this variation; I am still stunned on so many levels. On the plus side, my son was mesmerized by the two musicians demonstrating such skill on (the duck-billed platypus of instruments) the accordion.

 Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH