Young Adult Novels

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

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

Back in the Saddle Again

Annnnnnnd, we’re back! Since our last post, we have read about Princess Kaiulani of Hawaii (so refined, educated, and loyal to her people) and Genghis Khan of Mongolia (so unrefined, so uneducated, so loyal to himself. In his defense, the living was pretty uncertain on the Mongolian steppe (vocab) in the 13^th century. We get the impression that there was no lack of unrefined, uneducated, and untrustworthy yurt (vocab) dwellers. My son and I are SO glad we didn’t live then and there. So glad.)

Current fiction – we loved learning about Charles Dickens last month, so we decided to tackle “A Christmas Carol”. So far, the book’s conversational style is a delight, although I need to interpret countless phrases and concepts on every page: door knocker, counting-house, Bedlam, workhouses, melancholy, tavern. This is not a problem! Bring it, Mr. Dickens.

Current non-fiction –

Reading only one page a night from Peter Grundy’s captivating book, “HUMAN BODY” gives us plenty of thought-provoking information. Example: on the page about the sense of smell, we learned that a human has 15 million olfactory receptors (vocab), most dogs have 1,000 million olfactory receptors, BUT a bloodhound has – GET THIS – 4,000 million olfactory receptors. So this led to a little discussion about why bloodhounds are the dog of choice for finding lost people, followed by a discussion about how people get lost. Graphics? Genius.

We are also reading through “MAPS”, by Aleksandra Mizielinska and Daniel Mizielinski. What a joy this gigantic book is. Again, one page a night is plenty. As we begin each new country, we find it on our globe, then we treat ourselves to the jillions of darling hand-drawn illustrations. Last night we spent time with the page on France and ended up discussing whether or not we would consider eating escargots.

Our story problem: Farmer Brown’s Halloween – Farmer Brown is giving glow-in-the-dark bracelets for Halloween instead of candy. He can purchase 300 bracelets for $24. How much will each bracelet cost?

If he gives the first 50 trick-or-treaters one bracelet each, but gives the next 100 children 2 bracelets each (because he really doesn’t want to end up with a bunch of bracelets at the end of the evening), how many bracelets should he give to the final group of 10 trick-or-treaters (so he doesn’t end up with any bracelets)?

Scary Music for Halloween –

“Dance Macabre”, by Camille Saint-Saens, composed in 1874. The clock strikes midnight on Halloween, calling the dead to arise and dance until dawn. This splendid video showcases a most skilled youth orchestra from Poland. Well worth the view to watch for the marimba, xylophone, vibraphone, and orchestral bells – instruments of perfection for evoking the sounds of rattling skeleton bones.

“Mars”, from “The Planets”, composed by Gustav Holst in 1914. This is the poster child for menacing music. We love this particular video – it is a simulation of a rover landing on Mars. We’ve probably watched this 10 times.

“Masquerade”, movement 1 (the waltz), from a suite written by Aram Khachaturian in 1941. This video is a full-blown production number, dark and decadent, just like the music. For some reason, it is a bit out of focus, but this only adds to the Halloween creepiness.

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

Lights! Camera! Edison!

Creativity AND Business Skills – We just completed a unit on Thomas Edison and his brainy brilliance that brought the world incandescent light bulbs, phonographs, movie cameras, etc. The DK Readers book we read is entitled, “Thomas Edison: The Great Inventor”, but the underlying message is “Inventor? Yes, but this man ALSO possessed extraordinary business skills that were more than a match for his relentless inventing”. Wow. My son and I had as many conversations about Edison’s unerring business sense as we did about his creations.

Good books about bad people – so far we have learned about Napoleon, King George III, Rasputin, and Alexander the Great via the outstanding Scholastic “A Wicked History” series. The books are well researched and written to our level of comprehension, meaning NOT juvenile, but not mind-numbingly erudite. The only negative: the photos are always so small, in grey tones/very hard to decipher. We are currently learning about a really awful person (from a really awful family chock full of bullies, thugs and thieves), Sir Francis Drake. I had NO idea he was so reprehensible. AWFUL.

“Greetings from Nowhere” – our new novel, by Barbara O’Connor is an original, entertaining book, just the type we look for (young adult themes my son can understand without the awkward “coming of age” element), with lots of concepts for us to discuss: motel, kitchenette, adoption, and for heavens sakes, last night we had to Google Image CHARM BRACELETS.

Art at the Vatican – to prepare ourselves for a Vatican art survey, we are reading “Michelangelo” by Diane Stanley. Excellent resource.

Art at Le Fictitious Local Diner – this story problem revolves around the diner gussying up the place with selected pieces of what some might call art. Of course, they are installing the classic “A Friend in Need” (the rest of us know it as “Dogs Playing Poker”) by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, purchased for $45. A portrait of Elvis on black velvet has also been purchased for $90. Posters of Batman, Superman, and Marilyn Monroe round out the collection, the lot acquired at a garage sale for $10. How much has the diner spent on “artwork”? (Heh, heh, the answer is not “zero”.) Money to purchase the exciting wall decor came from the diner’s tabletop jukeboxes. At 25 cents per song, how many songs had to be played before the art could be purchased?

Inventions for Inventions: our classical music theme last night – we celebrated the inventions of Thomas Edison by listening to a few inventions by Johann Sebastian Bach. First, we needed to understand what a Bach invention is. For this, we viewed a superb 7-minute video starring killer pianist Simone Dinnerstein. This video is a jewel! Just watch her flying fingers!

Bach’s 15 inventions were composed as keyboard exercises in 1723. We listened to:

“Invention No. 8 in F major”, played by Simone Dinnerstein. Seriously, we love her! We want to know where to get our SD Fan Club badges.

“Invention No. 13 in A minor”, played by little mighty mite, Annie Zhou, an 8 year old, competing in the Canadian Music Competition a few years back. Watch her attack this piece.

“Invention No. 6 in E major” played by a banjo and double bass. We watched this for comic relief, but were so pleasantly surprised by the high quality of the performance! Kudos!

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH

Second Time Around

July 2, 2015 July 31, 2015

Blue Moon! My son and I observed the blue moon on the final evening of July. We learned that the term “blue moon” (the second full moon, if there are 2 full moons in one month) (very rare) does not refer to the moon’s color, but rather to the centuries-old phrase, “once in a blue moon” (something that occurs with preposterous infrequency). For the vocab list: lunar. And preposterous.

Our first research project! The question was, “which letter of the alphabet begins the greatest number of words and which letter of the alphabet begins the fewest number of words?”. My son guessed that the most words started with “E” and the fewest number of words started with “Z”. We used a real (non-electronic) dictionary and simple subtraction to find the number of pages (2 letters per night). We saved “E” and “Z” for the final night (he was pretty darn close with the “Z” choice). This was such a simple assignment, but surprisingly, it started a number of conversations. We want to do another research project!

The tally, in order of most words to fewest: S with 167 pages, C, P, T, A, M, B, D, R, F, E with 52 pages, H, I, G, W, O, N, V, U, L with only 15 pages (this was a surprise, we thought there would be loads of “L” words), J, K, Q, Y, Z with 3 pages, X with 2 pages.

What we were reading this past week –

“Albert Einstein”: two thumbs up for this DK Biography by Frieda Wishinsky (regretfully, we have been disappointed with several DK books, but this one is excellent).
“The Merchant of Venice” (Shakespeare, obviously): we are reading a retelling of the play by Charles and Mary Lamb (this is a complicated plot line, and this version is OK, not great, but OK).
“Surviving the Applewhites”: our fourth time through this novel by Stephanie S. Tolan. This book is a treasure! It is funny, it is quirky, it is a hot mess – and the message! Wow. It is all about the single-minded pursuit of one’s passion. LOVE THIS BOOK.

Breaking news (and story problem) from Le Fictitious Local Diner! No more baskets of mish-mashed teabag options at the diner! The hot tea service is being classed up and now only English Breakfast Tea (regular or decaf) will be served. The diner’s supplier sells a tin of 200 regular teabags for $35 and a tin of 200 decaf teabags for $40. On an average, 150 customers drink hot tea every week, half of them drinking decaf. How many tins of each should the diner purchase every month? How much should be budgeted annually for the purchase of teabags? If one fourth of the tea drinkers want a thin slice of lemon with their tea, and there are 8 slices per lemon, how many lemons should the diner have at the ready every week?

Tunes for Blue Moons –

“Moonlight Serenade”, by Glenn Miller. HUGE hit in 1939. HUGE. This melody was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1991. We talked about Glenn and listened for his trombone.

“Rhapsody in Blue”, by George Gershwin. This piece was written for piano solo and jazz band, and was composed in one big hurry (5 weeks!), premiering in 1924. We love this video, showcasing not only Leonard Bernstein at the piano, but also clarinet master Stanley Drucker.

“Clair de Lune” (the 3^rd movement of his “Suite Bergamasque”) (we did not know that!), by Claude Debussy, published in 1905. Soothing to the extreme. This video clip features piano virtuoso, Claudio Arrau, and was recorded in 1991, when Arrau was 88! This should give us all hope!

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH

Garden Par-tay

Cicadas Party – Every summer, it gets really loud in our backyard garden. It sounds like a golf course sprinkler system going full blast, but it isn’t that, it is the CICADAS! Last night my son and I did a mini-study of Cicadas. We learned that cicadas sing their song during the hottest part of the day; we learned that the males make all the noise; we learned that people actually eat these insects (deep fried or stir fried) (gag). We watched this well filmed video of a male cicada making his rattling noise (7 out of 10 on the repulsive scale). In truth, my son wasn’t terribly interested; I sort of had to force him to watch this…good thing the video only lasts a minute:

Vocabulary update – two items:

First, I went through the list of vocabulary words we have accumulated over the past year (see “The Wordery” in menu area) and selected 15 words. I presented the list as a quiz with multiple-choice options. Happy report: 100% correct! So pleased with my son’s vocabulary retention.

Second, our Rasputin and Einstein books and our current novel (“Surviving the Applewhites”) have presented us with more unfamiliar words and concepts: crude, dynasty, fasting, heir, hemophilia, icons, monarchy, stage mothers, Swiss neutrality, recluse, and thesis.

The Farmer Brown story problem – Farmer Brown is going to be on local TV, showing everyone how to make his grandmother’s prize-winning Damson plum jam! After the demonstration, he is going to give everyone in the audience (3 girl scout troops), a pint sized jar of the jam. There are 16 girls in each troop. If Farmer Brown’s recipe makes 2 quarts of jam, how many times will he need to multiply the recipe? Farmer Brown does NOT want to disappoint the girl scouts.

Our music theme from last night was inspired by “The Clipper Ship, Flying Cloud”, printed by Currier & Ives in 1852. A few years back, my son and I did a study on American illustrators, and we both loved learning about the firm of Currier & Ives (Currier, the accomplished lithographer and Ives, the finance brains…the selling pitch was, “the Grand Central Depot for Cheap and Popular Prints”). When we finished our study, my son picked out “The Clipper Ship, Flying Cloud” as a poster to put up on his wall.

Music to accompany “The Clipper Ship, Flying Cloud”:

“Sea Songs” by Ralph Vaughan Williams, composed in 1923. This is a 4 minute march bringing together 3 British sea songs. This video clip shows the Houston Youth Orchestra from two years ago. Exceptionally well done for a youth orchestra.

“Overture to HMS Pinafore” by Gilbert and Sullivan, from their very popular comic opera, which premiered in 1871. Jaunty!

“Over the Waves” by Juventino Rosas. We often get this piece confused with “The Skater’s Waltz”, and guess what? The Skater’s Waltz (by Emile Waldeufel) was written in 1882 and “Over the Waves” was written in 1888. (Perhaps another story for another time.) ANYWAY, take a look at this video! The composition is played with surprising delicacy by the intimidating looking Central Military Band of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Welcome to the best part of my day!

– Jane BH

Jane’s Cool School

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

Young Adult Novels

Conversation Circle

Like this:

Zootique

Like this:

Good Books, Bad Books

Like this:

A Ghost by any Other Name

Like this:

Answers for Everything

Like this:

Back in the Saddle Again

Like this:

This Week: One Sculptor, One Scoundrel

Like this:

Lights! Camera! Edison!

Like this:

Second Time Around

Like this:

Garden Par-tay

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: