Photo taken by Lvov
ABOUT OUR WEEK:
The shorter days are such a great idea! I was afraid that we wouldn't get enough completed in just 4 hours, from 9-1, but I was so wrong! Knowing that we have to finish everything by 1 inspires us to work harder and be more energetic and cheerful about the work. We know that it'll all be done soon, and we'll be able to go out and play, or relax, or whatever we want! At 1, we have a nice lunch together. It's wonderful. Instead of working long hours, exhausted or grumpy or disinterested, this short day keeps us sharp and focused.
Monday
BREAKFAST GAMES:
One game of Who am I?
- the main character from My Side of the Mountain (that we read last year)
- Pocahantas
BREAKFAST POETRY RECITATION:
The kids will draw as I recite Dylan Thomas' Fern Hill. We will compare his method of rhyming with Emily Dickinson's and Robert Frost's (poets who generally employ end-rhyme, whereas Thomas brilliantly wove alliteration, internal rhyme, etc. into his mellifluous poems and prose, much like Poe). Then, we will take turns reciting the first of two stanzas of Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods On a Snowy Evening from memory. We will also discuss the meaning, and sing the poem in various musical styles, as well as listen to a recording of Frost reading this poem.
BREAKFAST GEOGRAPHY FLASH CARDS:
If China looks like Mickey Mouse's head and ears, what country is his hat?
Amsterdam is located in what country?
Why is the Indian Ocean called that?
What countries border the Caspian Sea?
What ocean would you sail through from the West Coast of the U.S. to Japan?
From New England to England?
Name five countries in South America.
Is Mexico in North or South America?
What is the southernmost continent, and what ocean surrounds it?
SAXON MATH:
Review of lesson 45 in math textbooks
Akychame - decimal division practice
Lvov - 3-digit subtraction with borrowing and 2-digit multiplication review
SCIENCE READING:
We will read all about icebergs, their formation and dissipation, their danger to sea vessels such as the Titanic, and the threat of global warming melting the icebergs.
DRAWING PRACTICE:
In our sketch books we will draw a grid with a ruler. In each box, we will draw various head and face shapes, without features. We will look in magazines and art books to copy various face shapes. We will give each of these shapes a descriptive name and label them. We will end up with a page for head shapes, for eyes, for noses, for lips, and so on. Then we will learn how to integrate these features into several mix-and-match faces. This will become our artistic "tool kit" of personalized characters.
SCIENCE EXPERIMENT:
Balloon Blowing Machine - Can you blow up a balloon without using your mouth? Yes! Start by putting one cup of warm (not hot) water into a container. Then add one packet of active dry yeast. Add 1/4 cup of sugar and mix with a spoon. Pour half into a small narrow-mouth soda bottle and cover the neck of the bottle with a balloon. Leave the other half in an uncovered bowl. Place both containers in a warm place and leave them for an hour or more. Ask the kids what they think will happen.
When you come back, take a look at the foam that the yeast and sugar mixture created. Why did this happen? A packet of yeast contains huge numbers of microscopic dried yeast cells. When mixed with water and sugar, the yeast eats the sugar and makes carbon dioxide gas. When you make bread, this gas makes the bread rise. In this experiment it makes the balloon blow up. Just as when making bread, if the water is too hot or too cold, it will kill the yeast and the experiment won't work.
The science experiment was fun - we were all cracking up to see a water bottle blowing up a balloon! Last year we did the baking soda/ vinegar volcano experiment, so it was cool to see this same chemical reaction applied in a fresh way. We also learned a little bit about gases, how humans breathe out CO2 just like yeast does, and we learned that it is CO2 that makes soda bubbly, etc.
This led to a great discussion about CO2 being a greenhouse gas, which are gases that trap harmful sun rays in our atmosphere, which heat the earth, which in turn melts the ice caps, endangers arctic animal life, etc. We read a science book all about icebergs to strengthen this connection. We learned also that fossil fuels used for electricity and heating and auto fuel are damaging he ozone, and since the humans are overpopulating the earth, and many of us heat our houses, use non-renewable resources, and buy fuel for our cars, the earth simply can't sustain humans very much longer.
Raising livestock also increases the carbon to an unnaturally high level (their feces are unbelievably damaging to the atmosphere). In addition to increasing the level of greenhouse gases, humans are also cutting down the rainforest, which means that there are less trees to recycle the CO2 created by humans, which of course skyrockets the level of greenhouse gases even more. So it was a great discussion, and Phil suggested that we watch An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore to reinforce these issues.
ADDITIONAL LEARNING TODAY:
We read an article all about Daniel Boone in the "lifestyle/Arts" section of The Republican newspaper. We learned a lot about his tragic life, his woodsmanship and pioneering spirit, etc. What an interesting life!
This led to a discussion about making connections during the mid-to-late 1700's. We tied in discussions of Westward Expansion (we visited the Westward Expansion museum in St. Louis last year when we visited he arch), the journey of Lewis and Clark, and how they were aided by Sacajawea (who helped them with translation, orienting themselves, peacekeping, etc. - even though she had a baby!), and the rivalry between England and France in the colonies, the eventual rebellion of the American people, the American Revolution, France's Louis XVI giving money and troops to the colonies (because France hated England too) even though his own country was starving (he was Marie Antionette's husband)...etc, etc. I love how we get into these discussions!
- We visited a little apple orchard in a village nearby, climbed the trees, and collected many apples. Later that night, we made apple pie from scratch. What a day - good for the belly and the soul!
BRAIN TEASER HOMEWORK:
The girls solved this Braingle brain teaser using the handy online grid. This was great - the kids thought it was really fun, and we shouted out answers together.
_______________________________________________
Tuesday - Library Day
BREAKFAST FAMILY READING:
We will read and discuss one article from the National Wildlife Federation's Ranger Rick:
This article explains the significance of scientists' discovery of a "missing link" fish fossil whose fins had bones similar to metatarsals in humans. This fish existed 380 million years ago and slowly evolved (over 20 mil.years) until it was able to crawl onto land. We owe our terrestrial existence to this early evolutionary "ancestor."
Lvov had an interesting insight into the Ranger Rick article. She observed that if we are evolved from fish (as all land animals are) then our eating fish is a form of cannibalism. She found it very ungrateful to eat fish. We also had a conversation about how early fish, crocodiles, sharks, scorpions, and centipedes were around more than 400 million years ago, and how humans have just been on earth for a blink in the earth's timeline. Even though we're just a blink, we're the ones who are destroying everything. It's interesting. The kids also made a page about the article in their science journals, explaining what is most important about the article in their opinion, and sketching the early fish.
BREAKFAST CELEBRI-TEA:
We're starting this next week - at every morning meeting we read and learn a little bit about famous writers, artists, politicians, etc. - as if we are inviting them to tea.
BREAKFAST POETRY:
Practice reciting and memorizing Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost; stanza 2.
BREAKFAST GEOGRAPHY:
- Name and point to five island nations
- Why did Columbus call the natives in America "Indians?"
- Name all continents and oceans
- What country is long enough north to south to be worn by the U.S. as a belt?
SAXON MATH:
Review of lesson 45 in math textbooks
Akychame: fraction word problems with equivalent fractions and reducing; dividing decimals
Lvov: adding & subtracting with 3-digit dollar amounts; multiplying; word problems
LANGUAGE ARTS:
Silly sentences - read a worksheet of unclear, grammatically incorrect sentences and orally tell how you would rewrite them or add or remove punctuation to enhance clarity.
ADDITIONAL LEARNING TODAY:
- I read my poem "The Wishing Bones" to the girls because it addresses the first fish that crawled onto land, taking the sea within its own body. We had a lot of new vocab workds: buoyancy, permeable, etc. The poem also references the myth of Deucalion and Pyrrha who repopulated the earth after a great flood (a myth from Ovid's Metamorphosis). We discussed how the Bible stole this story with Noah's Ark and the flood, and the girls loved the the notion of making humans by throwing stones (mother earth's bones) behind your back!
CURRENT EVENTS HOMEWORK:
1. Choose one news story online or in a newspaper. First, identify where the story takes place. Then, in your current events notebook, write the date and location at the top of a new page. Under this, sketch the part of the world where it takes place.
2. Beneath your sketch, write a brief summary of the article, as well as your own personal reaction to it. These things should pretty much take up the whole front of the page.
3. Use the other side of your page to rewrite your news article into a one-page story, using your imagination. Authors often use real stories as inspiration for their novels, plays, and screenplays (the version of a story that actors and directors use in movies). You can give your main characters names and personalities, or you can come up with possible motives, or suspects.
For example, you could focus on a family that is struggling to cope with a disaster, you could write about the thoughts going through people's minds as the event was happening, or you could even speak from the point of view of a tornado or a gun. Just make sure that your story uses the original news article as inspiration.
GERMAN:
2 hours of classroom German (level 4, college level 2) at the Adult Continuing Education Center run by the U.S. Air Force. Class is taught predominantly in German.
_____________________________________________
Wednesday
BREAKFAST POETRY:
We will study the life of Rainer Maria Rilke, and recite and analyze two of his poems: Archaic Torso of Apollo and Autumn
SAXON MATH:
Review of lesson 46 in math textbooks:
Akychame - percentages, how to figure out an 8% tax or 15% tip, how to estimate percentages
Lvov - square roots
GEOGRAPHY:
We received a 100-year old sourdough mix from Grandma Lynn (a Montessori teacher) that was made by a tribe in Alaska. We pointed to Alaska on the map, and noted that the two countries closest to it are Canada and Russia. We are soaking the sourdough overnight and we'll make pancakes with it soon.
LATIN:
We've decided to use the Minimus Latin textbook. It's user-friendly, fun, and not intimidating. We're using it with the audio CD supplement (for long road trips). If it arrives on time, we will just look through the book a little and slowly warm up to the idea of Latin. We won't complete any lessons this week.
CREATIVE WRITING:
After studying Archaic Torso of Apollo by Rilke, we noticed that he used many words to convey illumination: glowing, gas lamp, flame, shine, light, blind, light, gleam, light, star. I told the kids that this is an "ekphrastic" poem, a poem that is inspired by artwork. I asked them both to choose one painting to write an ekphrastic poem about, and to write it loosely in the Rilke style, stringing similar words throughout observations, and also ending in a "you must..." command.
Lvov chose Chagall's Abraham and the Three Angels and Akychame chose Picasso's Portrait of Dora Maar. Lvov and I read that the Chagall painting is a scene from Genesis in which Abraham gives hospitality to three angels in exchange for his wife becoming pregnant.
An Ekphrastic Poem Based Upon Chagall's "Abraham and the Three Angels" in the Tradition of Rilke's "Archaic Torso of Apollo"
Bleeding.
Violent red.
Parallel universe.
It looks like the Angels
slaughtered open
a body and feasted.
Fire-ant stained glass:
the sun is gleaming through
the red room.
The angels are in Abraham's wife's womb
absorbing blood with their wings
so the baby will be healthy.
It reminds me of the stained
glass in the Metz Cathedral in France -
but more angry.
My friend and I liked the organ
at the cathedral
it was like a silver tongue screaming.
You must bleed
sometimes.
- Lvov Mhyana
An Ekphrastic Poem Based Upon Picasso's "Portrait of Dora Maar" in the Tradition of Rilke's "Archaic Torso of Apollo"
She sets both eyes upon the Creator,
but her body is unsure.
Is he good or is he evil?
She cannot choose her god.
He is a child let loose in a studio
of rainbow woodblock prints -
pieces of her are strewn about
the floor like bright fabrics.
Choppy, broken, and off-center,
I am what I am.
You must decide.
- Akychame Mhyana
ADDITIONAL LEARNING TODAY:
- Last night the girls learned how to cut and paste text or images from the internet and how to paste it onto a Word document, so that printing is less costly (you avoid the ads and have more control).
- We created a word book today and added this week's words to it (words that we encountered in our daily reading that the kids don't know yet). They looked the words up in the dictionary and wrote their meanings in our word book. I will ask the kids to incorporate these words into their stories now and again.
- The kids wrote great stories in response to their current events homework last night. We edited and revised them today, chiefly focusing on clarity of time and place (making sure the reader isn't confused), fixing run-on sentences, and sticking to either the past, present, or future tense. Lvov's news story was about the Olympics. She told her story from the viewpoint of one of the men who formed the human torch (wearing red, climbing high). Akychame's story was about a group of pipe layers who found an ancient treasure. She wrote her story from the viewpoint of one of the workers, who felt slighted when he wasn't given credit (in the newspaper headlines) for having found the treasure. These kiddos have great imaginations!
Akychame - piano lesson (1 hour)
_________________________________________
Thursday - Library Day
BREAKFAST FAMILY READING:
We will read and discuss an article about Pocahantas, about how she helped lobby for the tobacco industry. We read that she never saved and fell in love with John Smith. On the contrary, Smith never made mention of Pocahantas in his first published memoirs of his trip to America. It was only ten years later, when Pocahantas was a favorite of the Queen of England, that he penned the altered memoirs.
Pocahantas died at age 22, when she and half of her Indian crew fell ill to European diseases during their European trip. She was actually buried in England! It is so much more interesting to learn the true stories behind historical personalities.
BREAKFAST POETRY:
We have memorized Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. The kids recite it beautifully. We also discussed many possible interpretations of it. We also compared Frost and Rilke a bit - the kids find Frost much more accessible.
BREAKFAST GEOGRAPHY:
After studying a map of Western Europe, we will draw it from memory, including country names and capitals. We imagined different countries placed on top of other countries to gauge relative sizes, and sketched the continent, making sure that our measurements were somewhat accurate. We traced the Ural Mountains, figuring out that they separate Europe from Asia.
We also researched Asia to find out which countries are part of that continent. Turkey, China, Russia, Thailand, so many! It was fascinating to us that Russia to the east of the Ural Mountains is part of Asia, but Russia to the West is part of Europe. We are also working with an outdated workbook, but a modern map, so it's interesting to see how the political borders have changed quite a bit just in the past 10 years.
SAXON MATH:
Review of lesson 46 in math textbooks
Akychame - percentages (tips, taxes)
Lvov - diameter, circumference, radius; square roots
Today is usually our Shakespeare day, but Lvov got sick with an ear ache and nausea, so we had to curtail the day a little bit.
ADDITIONAL LEARNING TODAY:
The kids wrote the final draft of their ekphrastic poems. I also quizzed them orally from our word book. They knew all of the definitions.
Akychame - tennis lesson
____________________________________________
Friday - Lvov had to go to the clinic unexpectedly today, and then I had to meet with my lawyer, so our whole day was monopolized by non-school tasks. But it's a 3-day weekend, so hopefully we can complete most of today's work in the next few days.
BREAKFAST ART STUDY:
Picasso - we will start by discussing his life, a few of his famous quotes, and two pictures.
Picture 1: Les Demoiselles D'Avignon
Picture 2: Guernica
We brainstormed adjectives for these paintings, and answered questons like, "what would it feel like to walk through this painting?" In the case of "Les Demois," they said that it would be painful and sharp, because of all of the sharp lines and elbows pointed like weapons. We also free-associated what the different pictures might mean, and identified some characteristics that are uniquely Picasso . The kids came up with some great theories.
Lvov studying Guernica
BREAKFAST MYTHOLOGY:
Pyramus and Thisbe, the lovers that Ovid wrote about. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, the "play within the play" was all about the doomed love of Pyramus and Thisbe, communicating through a "chink" in their shared wall. So I thought it would be fun to give the kids an example of how Shakespeare drew upon mythology for his work. Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet, of course, is also a nod to the Pyramus and Thisbe myth.
SHAKESPEARE:
I will read page one of A Midsummer Night's Dream to the girls. We will also watch the William Hoffman movie adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. The kids watched this performed live several years ago. We will also discuss what life was like at the time of writing, and discuss the main themes of the play.
SAXON MATH:
Review of lesson 47 in math textbooks
Akychame - percentages (with tips), long division, complex multiplication
Lvov - circumference, radius, diameter, square roots
CRAFT PROJECT:
We will learn how to make miniature "illuminated" books, with fancy paper, drawings, and "leather" covers with gold edging on the paper. Next week we will hand-stamp (print) the text (a prayer book with prayers taken from an old German hymn book from the 1920's - we will also translate the song or prayer that we have chosen) so we can learn how difficult it must have been to create books before Gutenberg's printing press (we're visiting the Gutenberg museum next week) was invented. We will also reflect upon how illuminated manuscripts were originally copied by hand by monks, who were some of the only people who could read and write in the middle ages.
NATURE STUDY:
We brought our nature journals to the Kaiserslautern Gartenschau (Garden Show) to sketch the willow tree gothic cathedral, count the number of bunnies we find, and sketch three different flowers. We used our watercolors to paint our flowers.
This was wonderful. We even painted our sketches at the "Garden of Eden" - an alcove filled with strictly Biblical flora! The kids' sketches are great; we just sat there quietly and peacefully sketching away - it was awesome. Akychame played Beethoven on a hanging-log xylophone (we discussed how different log lengths have different vibrations, just like glasses of water with different amounts of water in them). We went on a "barefoot path," tasted various berries, spied on bunnies, and had a wonderful time.
Lvov's sketch of a goat at the Gartenschau
EDUCATIONAL MOVIE:
An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore
We were so affected by this movie - especially the visual aids (graphs, before & after photos, etc.). It sparked a great discussion.
CHESS HOMEWORK:
Play one game a week against the computer, and one game a week against each other.
