February 2019

February brought us real winter. The winter came with rain, ice, snow and winds. There was a lot of shoveling and a few days during which the schools were closed. The sun appears to be back and a warm trend is on the way.


Fifth Grade:

These three books are fantastic and captured my fifth grade daughter's love. I expected her to read the first one only, but she drank all the stories in about two weeks. The language is fabulous, the legends are moving and so very different than what has been so widely broadcast from the western culture. The Chinese culture is brought forward in a amicable and  gentle manner

Third Grade:

Two years ago my third grader read this set of books and was delighted. Clearly, the books continue to appeal to this age group, evidenced by my current third grader's interest. These are not particularly spectacular, but as long as they hold the interest of the reader, as long as they provide incentive to ponder the content, I am satisfied.

Read Aloud:

We needed a light text after the heavy readings we did related to the world wars and the nuclear bombs. Well, Hank Zipzer filled the need. The story is delightful and enlightening. It brings forward the importance of tolerance and the understanding that people learn differently, experience the same event differently, think differently, hold different interest and have different skills. It is a quick and engaging read filled with laughs and reflection on what it is to be different.






My Reads:

 The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise is fabulous. Possibly the best book I will read this year. It is a heart-breaking story. The language is both simple and sophisticated. The psychology too. I cannot recommend it enough. I hope all human being get to hear it, to read it or to have it read to them. I cried during the entire book. I also laughed spontaneously through my tears. Fabulous. Really read it.

Red Scarf Girl was the moving story of a child experiencing the contradictions of the Mao Era in China. I do not know anything about China. This book spun my interest and I read the Great Mao Famine as well. I also watched several films on the Mao era, and the conflict and competition between the two communist giants-China and Russia. I grew up in the shadows of the USSR so lack of knowledge of China is complete understandable now. I wish I had learned more. I am learning Chinese now. All started with this book. Maybe it will motivate you too, to learn more about the history of more than a third of the world's population.

 This book is great. It is simple enough that a child in the fifth grade can understand it. I think that while many people go through school fine and learn basic arithmetic, many are never exposed to large and small numbers. And we live in a world surrounded by numbers of both types. We need to be if not fluent, at least comfortable to navigate this non-trivial realm. This book is great for that purpose, to get one on the journey. I plan to use it with my sixth grader next year.

Nanny Piggins is fascinating. It felt like a political satire. I loved it. I intend to read it as a read aloud in March.

We watched the movie the Breadwinner. I got the books from the library and I hope that in the next few months we would either read them as read alouds or I would pass them as required monthly readings to the fifth grader. The movie was deep and honest. Reminds of the determination and courage of Mulan, but without the glitz of Disney.


Math:

Fifth Grade: Beginning Counting, Congruent Triangles, Parameter and Area, and Rates and Ratios.

Third Grade: Counting and Integers

Portuguese:

We are continuing to read O Extraordinario. We have two more books to read, one about a family from Brazil which passes some time in Antarctica, and one book about the dinosaurs in Brazil. I am excited.

Both kids are taking one hour-lone lesson per week. They both are reading, writing and speaking. At different levels of proficiency but I am content that we are succeeding with maintaining the language live.

Music:

Both kids go to chorus on Fridays.

Both will participate in the annual IMA contest in June. For piano the fifth grade will perform Tarantella by Piezonka, and for violin, she will perform Humoresque by Dvorzak. For piano the third grade will perform The Clown by Kabalewski.

In June both will perform in piano guild. For the guild each is expected to present ten pieces. The fifth grader's pieces are mainly from Suzuki book 3 and Suzuki book 4. The third grader's pieces are mainly from Suzuki book 2. We still have a long way to prepare but I feel we are in a better shape for this endeavor than we have ever been.

New School

We are moving to a new school district. I have decided that while I can supplement well the kids' education, I prefer to supplement to being primary source as has been the case so far. My fifth grader expressed some anxiety related to the move, so I took the move at a slow pace. We have been moving little by little; we met with the principal and the orchestra director of the school. I feel that the approach has been good. We will begin in the new district in two weeks. I am excited. I hope we are not late. I know that on some fronts the kids are more advanced and I expect them to be slightly behind on other fronts.

Black History Month:

We are going to be reading the following books in February and March.

We will begin with learning a little about Gandhi, the movement he began and how it translated to the US. We will move in to learn about MLK; about how Rosa Park was chosen and how her story grew; about the successes and setbacks of the civil rights movement and in particular the desegregation push in schools, a topic which is polarizing still today. Freedoms and rights are both decided by human, and are not nearly self-evident as is indicated in the constitution, hence we have laws which are laws for a little, and then are reversed, and we have laws which are morally solid but came into being by illegitimate means as is presented by the Brown vs the Board of Education case. Lastly, we will go back in time to the heart of the racial tensions in the world, slavery.  I have chosen not to read about accomplished people of color. I have chosen to speak about civil rights because the stories experiences by blacks are the stories experienced by all other marginalized groups, groups the white settlers and their descendants feared and as a result chose to hate and humiliate, with ultimate goal to have them perish.

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