NOTES ABOUT THIS WEEK:
This is our first week back to structured school days after a European vacation and a month-long visit with Phil (their father) who was visiting from Korea -- after 8.5 months apart. It was nice to get back into our routine, to dust everything off and "spring clean" our homeschool. We cleared out our shelves, went through our pencil boxes and notebooks, and also planned the remaining 3 months of school.
And...Good news! Out of the 125 days of DODDS (Department of Defense Dependent Schools) school this year, we have only missed 13 days. So we have home-schooled 112 out of 125 days (we've missed just about 4 days per quarter). That's a 90% attendance rate. Not bad, especially considering that even our days "off" are usually serendipitously educational anyway.
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ART APPRECIATION:
At the vet's office we noticed a framed print of Gustav Klimt's The Kiss. This was coincidental because my Klimt-decorated umbrella just fell apart, so I snipped the panels from the wires and decided that we should use the material to sew "kiss" pillows. So naturally, when deciding which artist to study next, I chose Klimt. Before this, we studied Dali. At a dinner party recently, the adults and kids together were discussing Dali. I love when my kids have the opportunity to incorporate their learning into social interactions.
Lvov and I visited an antiques store in Landstuhl, where we noticed a Dali Bible for sale - the one in the huge red case - for half the going rate. Lvov knew all about Dali, and was psyched to look through the illustrations with me. The owner of the store couldn't believe that Lvov had heard of him. Later, I noticed a Chagall Bible nestled away - Chagall is one of my very favorites! Lvov said, "Oh my god, mommy! A Chagall Bible!" She and I spoke at length about the artist's styles and such, at which point the owner told her over and over again how surprised and impressed she was that a 10-year old would know so much about art. Lvov was very happy!
ARTS & CRAFTS:
We played a game of our home-made Art Cards, which consist of 4 cards for each artist we have studied. On each card is a color picture of one of their paintings / sketches/ sculptures, etc., along with the date, their nationality, the medium, and the school. We play gin rummy with the cards. Flushes can be very imaginative: artists from the Netherlands, cubist art, art created in the Middle Ages, etc. Or it can be even more conceptual, such as "artists who have influenced one another." When we're really in a bind, we can always resort to the easier "still lives" or "portraits" categories. It's fun and very, very educational. Every month we add new artists to our deck.
We also discussed Frida Kahlo's painting "What the Water Brought Me" and guessed what the different images could mean. The kids thought that maybe the disturbing imagery could symbolize her miscarriage - Akychame thought that the bath water could be the waters in the amniotic sac, and everything in the tub waiting to be reborn.
GEOGRAPHY:
We outlined Alexander the Great's journey in candies on the map on our dining room table, while also reading about it in our Kingfisher Ancient History book. We learned that Babylon, the headquarters of ATG's empire, was located about 35 miles from present-day Baghdad, Iraq. We also spoke of Rastafarian songs about Babylon, and their significance for people who also feel that they have lost their homeland.
We also quizzed each other with our geography flash cards: Which countries border the Adriatic Sea? Which countries border Serbia and Montenegro? If you were driving in a car, what is the quickest route from Greece to France, and what are the capitals of each country you pass along the way?
GERMAN:
Not much formal work this week, just what comes naturally with living in Germany. The kids always speak to germans as they are walking around the neighborhood, and also downtown in shops and cafes. Next week we'll hit the books a bit more.
HISTORY:
We studied Alexander the Great this week, after having seen the Hollywood movie about him. To separate fact from fiction, we researched his life and answered basic questions about him for our "History Timeline" binder. It's interesting that back then, no one knew the size of the world they lived in. ATG actually thought that he could conquer the world. Now, thanks to many explorers and conquerors such as ATG, we know every wrinkle and freckle of this earth like the back of our hands. The earth must have been to them what outer space is to us.
We traced ATG's journey on our map and outlined it with candies. His journey appears a bit haphazard and meandering. It's easy to say that, though, with the earth spread out neatly on my dining room table, looking down on him from a god's-eye view. What a crazy, brave, controversial journey!
The kids and I had great talks about inter-racial dating and marriage, the Civil Rights movement, etc. as a result of learning about ATG's marriage to a "Barbarian" and his tendency to adopt foreign customs. So many rich debates stem from his life and legacy: was he a god or a monster? A Macedonian or a traitor? Was he ahead of his time, trying to see all races and cultures as equals, or did he just want to conquer and enslave? Good stuff.
We also quizzed each other with our history flash cards: In the times of the pilgrims, what else was happening in the world? How was Joan of Arc betrayed by the King of France? Marie Antoinette's marriage at age 14 secured peace between which two nations?
HOME ARTS:
The kiddos are both so capable in the home arts. They can deep-clean a bathroom, bake banana bread or cookies from scratch, plant a garden, clean animal cages, create grocery lists, do entire grocery shopping trips themselves, make scrambled eggs and toast for the whole family, deep-clean the refrigerator, plan a party, prepare the guest room for company, you name it! They are home goddesses.
This week they learned some new kitchen skills, such as crushing garlic under a knife to be able to take the skins off easily, how to cut rolled-out dough to make croissant shapes, how to create yeasted breads (rising, punching down, etc) and how to make a decent crust for pies and quiches (and adding basil, crushed nuts, etc. for different flavors and looks).
They are also learning about timing - how to prep, cook, and clean simultaneously to efficiently maximize energy expenditure, space, and oven time. We often start dinner in the morning - baking the veggies or making our crusts so that by the evening when we're sleepy, the job is half done.
The kids are also learning to cook by taste and smell. They taste my concoctions and give meaningful, educated feedback, such as, "the immediate taste is great...OK, now I taste the sesame oil underneath it all, then - ooh! - the lemon cleans out my mouth, but I think it's the ginger at the very end that's way too spicy. That's just too much for me."
They are learning to "read" a taste like one can read perfume - the different nuances of each layer, the complexities. Each taste is a little journey, and they are starting to describe these journeys poetically. I like that! Little by little they are becoming intuitive chefs. They are pretty adventurous, too. They eat caramelized onion & zucchini quiche, curried sweet potato & coconut soup, pear-garlic-feta pizza (with home-made crust), banana-peanut butter smoothies, fresh-squeezed apple-carrot-tomato juice, etc. Even if they don't "love" it all, they at least give it a try and help me with every step of its preparation.
LANGUAGE ARTS:
We added words to our vocabulary word book from Edgar Allen Poe's poems The Raven and Lenore. We also worked on handwriting and cursive, and subject-verb agreement. The kids' vocabularies are skyrocketing as a result of so much reading and so many discussions. It's beautiful to see their evolution - to witness them fine-tuning their thoughts with vocabularies sharp enough to split verbal hairs with.
LATIN:
We had so much fun with Latin this week! We always do. It is so easy to learn (compared to German). We have a blast spotting cognates here and there, out of the blue. In the middle of any old conversation at the store, in the car, wherever - one of the kids will exclaim, "Hey! That word has a Latin root!" And then they'll brainstorm all other English words with the same root, and it will be this wonderful epiphany. For example, the Latin word "circumspectat" is ancestor to a host of modern English words. The kids came up with circumference, circumstances, spectacles, spectator, spectacular, etc. It's so fun.
The kids are learning that words in one language often come from another language, and that although a word has its own meaning, it is composed sometimes of smaller parts that have their own meanings. Learning German and Latin concurrently helps them understand linguistics so much more than they would if they were to study just English grammar. This week the kids were able to read two simple stories in Latin, from our Cambridge Latin text (which I love). Here's a snippet:
Caecilius in horto sedet. servus in atrio laborat. Quintus in tablino scribit. coquus in culina dormit. Cereberus intrat. Cereberus circumspectat. cibus est in mensa. canis salit. canis in mensa stat. Grumi stertit. canis latrat. Grumio surgit. coquus est iratus. 'pestis! furcifer!' coquus clamat.
LITERATURE:
Lvov was very excited to find a reference to Orwell's Animal Farm (which she had just read) in Vizinni's novel It's Kind of a Funny Story (which she just finished). She also likened Vizinni's writing style and "voice" to that of Holden Caulfield in Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye (one of Lvov's all-time favorite books).
Lvov and I went to the library this week, where she began reading Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. She finished it this week. She was tickled to learn that Lewis Carroll was a professor at Oxford University, in Oxford, our new home (in just 3 months).
In lighter reading, Lvov had a blast reading the Nancy Drew pop-up book, which is interactive and has a surprising amount of text to balance all of the eye-catching pop-ups, folds, pockets, etc. on the pages.
Akychame finished Bram Stoker's Dracula this week! Weighing in at a blood-curdling 450 pages, this novel would intimidate anyone, let alone a twelve year old! It was her steady companion this past month, through Germany, Belgium, France, and England. She even read it while floating across the English Channel.
She became interested in Dracula because she loved Stephanie Meyers' Twilight Series so much (in the past 3 months she has read the entire series twice over...3, 900 pages!). She talked to me about what she read every day, reading me her favorite excerpts aloud, or analyzing the plot line with me. Because Akychame was curious about the beginnings of the vampire character in literature, we told her about Bram Stoker's novel and Bella Lagosi acting in the first movie adaptation (hence the main character's name "Bella" in the Twilight series).
It makes me so happy that even though my kids are book worms, and race through book after book, they aren't reading them in haste just to finish them and put another feather in their caps. They relish every page. They constantly tell me about the book, the author, the writing, the story line, etc.
The books become an integral part of our conversation. An outsider would probably guess that the characters we speak of are cousins or close friends of the family. They become real to us. We even take it a step further, comparing and contrasting new characters with past characters, as though they are all our extended family.
It's interesting to watch my kids try to discuss literature with their peers. With a few definite exceptions, their friends respond with blank faces. Completely uninterested, they immediately change the subject to Rock Band or video games or the latest movie. My kids love all of these things too, very much, but nothing trumps literature. And that makes me happy.
This week Akychame also began reading Huckleberry Finn by Mark twain. In lighter reading, Akychame read The Fantasy Encyclopedia by Judy Allen. She immediately turned to the vampires section, which focuses mainly upon Bram Stoker's Dracula! She was so pleased to find the connection!
We all had a great conversation about connections in literature, how there are always cross-references from book to book or book to movie. The more you read, the more you understand these subtle allusions to other great classic works.
We also talked about regional dialects and slang, and how authors often try to create authentic dialogue that captures their characters' natural speech. In Huck Finn, for example, if you read it aloud, you can really catch how they probably spoke in that region at that time.
MATH & LOGIC:
We worked on Investigation # 6 in Saxon Math 76, "Attributes of Geometric Solids." We cut cereal and pizza boxes to recreate box shapes ourselves.
We solved a brain-teaser which involved figuring out which flat shapes can be folded to create a 3-dimensional cube. It was very difficult to figure out without cutting out each variation and folding it. We love the challenge of brain-teasers, bending and folding our minds around questions like these.
Lvov also finished lesson 18 and 19 -- factors, prime factors -- and Akychame finished up to lesson 65 -- adding multiple fractions (both working in Saxon math 76).
MYTHOLOGY:
The Alexander the Great movie highlighted many popular Greek myths. ATG was often compared with Achilles, and strove to out-do him. So, after the movie we read about Achilles in our mythology books.
He was the legendary warrior in the Trojan War (from Homer's The Iliad) - who was dipped in the River Styx by his mother, making him immortal. His mother held him by the heel as she dunked his body, so his heel was not bathed in the magical waters, making it his one weak spot. He died in battle when an arrow pierced his unprotected heel.
This led to a discussion of the saying "that's my Achille's heel." Meaning that it is one's weak spot. Which led to a discussion about how Latin and Greek roots pervade modern languages, just as Latin and Greek myths pervade our sayings and aphorisms (the word aphorism has a Latin root). Even people who have no idea who Achilles is, or what battle he fought in, or who Homer is, know exactly what is meant by an "Achilles heel." Just as people know English words but can't necessarily break them down into their constituent roots. The ancient world gives us the building blocks of our language, and thus, the DNA of our interpersonal communication and even our thoughts and dreams.
NATURE STUDY:
Just bringing some flowers into the house and appreciating them. Our Amarillus is practically tickling the ceiling now, but three weeks ago it was just a little bud taking its first peek at the world. Last week we placed a Moonshine plant on our counter and marveled at its intricate greenish blossoms that seem to share the same waxy skin as the stalks. Lastly, we're finally beginning to smell the earth; a sure sign that spring is waking and warming.
POETRY:
We read Edgar Allen Poe's poems "The Raven" and "Lenore." Lenore is the lost love from "The Raven," so it was interesting to read more about her. We read these with an ear and eye for alliteration, imperfect rhyme, end rhyme, internal rhyme, and so on:
example 1: December, remember, ember
example 2: morrow, borrow, sorrow
example 3: rare, radiant, angels, name, nameless
This last example shows how EAP used the long "a" sound as a subtle cohesive agent throughout the lines. Later, when cooking, we likened EAP's internal rhyming with eggs in casseroles and lasagna - they hold everything together with a similar texture and flavor.
We charted the rhyme scheme for The Raven, and realized that many lines have repeated rhymes within them, or that a rhyme from line B carries over into a line with a C end-rhyme. Very interesting! So we had line like BB; CC; CDDD; and so on. His rhyming is masterful!
Then we went on to analyze the stanzas themselves, and how the last indented line of each stanza repeats variations on one single sentence. This creates a sort of repetition like chanting, which builds energy and can be hypnotic and frightening. It suits the poem's imagery and feel very nicely. The kids were amazed at how much work went into every single line and stanza. They glimpsed the machinery behind the magic. They then came up with their own off-rhymes, such as music/amusing/useful/muscle.
SCIENCE:
We read Ranger Rick magazine's article "The Noisy Boys Band" all about crickets and how they create their song. Amazing close-up photography of their bodies and how they resemble musical instruments. How interesting to actually BE an instrument. I guess we are too; clapping, stomping, singing, clicking, snapping...
In Computer Science class, this week Akychame learned how to make diagrams with "Inspiration" software, and how to create invitations using different programs and also using clip art or cutting and pasting from the web.
SHAKESPEARE: We noted that a Chagall painting in our home-made Art Cards set is named "Romeo and Juliet" - which is what we're currently reading. It's great for the kids to stumble upon these connections in art and literature - or any field or human knowledge. It helps them to mentally graph the world and its connectedness.
Akychame had a piano lesson this week, and Lvov had a horseback riding lesson.
