May 2018

The last two months flew by. We were busy and tons of progress was made on many fronts.


Academic Update
English:

My daughter has been mostly on her own with reading. She has been, finally, reading books end-to-end. In April she finished Wonder and Heist. As far as vocabulary goes, she finished All About Spelling 4; we also finished reviewing it and began with All About Spelling 5. In addition we are covering one chapter from Get to the Root of It which I found online. Ten new words with common root from both Latin and Greek are introduced. It's great for spelling and vocabulary and is a must SAT prep work. Do it now, consistently, to not wage a uphill battle later.

My son finished All About Spelling 3 and we are reviewing it. He is almost half way through All About Reading 4. He read parts of the first Paddington book, and various other shorter books.
Update 5/29/18: He is now reading a Mouse called Wolf. He is half way through with AAR4 and we finished reviewing AAS3.

Math

My daughter is finishing up Beast Academy 5C, and we will take about 2 weeks for each of the three sections from BA 5D. We have mostly talked about them already and without extra school work in June and July we should be able to finish these. My daughter also enjoyed reading The secret agent training manual. I think in August she and I will work through a Cryptoclub textbook for middle schoolers. I am going to give her a related book to read which are accessible to her and she will enjoy the history behind the field The Code Book. I am very interested in building a mini Enigma with her as well.

My son is finishing Beast Academy 3C and he will finish Beast Academy 3D in the summer. This year neither did very well in the school math contests.

I did a talk on circles and Einstein on March 14 in my daughter's classroom. While preparing I came across two very useful books: Mathlabs for Kids and Shapes in Math, Science and Nature.

Update 5/29/18: We are reviewing all of the math we have covered this year. This means solving all problems again. This is an entire summer undertaking but it was necessitated.

Science

We are going to focus on science in the summer. We are going to primarily explore electricity and magnetism, and electronics. I am not sure if we will go into the engineering or the electronics side, we will see. I do want them to build before they program. We are using Electronics for Kids with the MandLab Kit. 

I am taking a course called from nand2tetris which builds a computer from the ground up. I am also reading about Turing, Godel and Church's work as well as von Neumann, and Shannon. I am barely scratching the surface but I am hopeful that one day I will be able to teach their ideas to the kids. We are expecting a Turing Tumble game in late May, and hopefully this will help us understand Turing somehow.

In my son's class in April I talked about computer programming, and I came up with three simple Scratch games to demo but did not demo for lack of time. I will try to link the demos here.

• Joke
• Falling Balls
• Flower

My daughter one day told me that in school they were learning about engineering. I asked her what that meant and she did not know how to describe engineering. Well, while my blood was boiling, I went to find a solution and the solution was this loverly book-Engineered!.

Update 5/29/18: I am behind on introducing the magnetism. Hopefully, June will be a good month for science.

Read Aloud Update
As portuguese read-alouds we read O Grande Ivan, Capitao Cueca, Diario de um Banana e Diario de Minecraft Zombie.
Update 5/29/18: We are reading Matilda. I lost all patience with the twelfth book of Capitao Cueca so we switched. As warned Capitao Cueca is the source of a lot of mal language so be warned. We are going to portuguese family camp in June and the kids are going to kids portuguese camp in July!

As history read-alouds we read about Medieval Europe (It's a Feudal World), and the Mayan, Aztec and Inca civilizations (Spotlight on Maya, Aztec and Inca civilizations). The goal is to demonstrate that in the lands the europeans conquered after 1492 there were civilizations which deserve our attention and appreciation, and is to combat the myth for the supremacy of the western civilization. In addition, we will read the following three books: Royal Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali and Songhuy, Sundiata and The middle passage). The goal with these is to point out the existence of civilizations in what world history otherwise refers to uncivilized part of the world, even today. We will move into the real devastating impact on the new world later, but to me it is important to establish the basis with which to combat the cultural bias recorded in books.

Update 5/29/18: We visited the Maya and the Aztecs. We are reading about the Incas and are making good progress.

Nothing can be a better teacher of history than the history we are living in right now. This reminds me of a book I recently finished which I would read as a read aloud to the kids when we get to the period-Most-Dangerous-Ellsberg-History

In addition to all of these activities, the kids and I together had the opportunity to explore how public opinion is manipulated through sensational propaganda. This was inspired by two events. One happened with my son whose teacher had given him gun because 'there is a study that shows that chewing gum helps boost one's score on a test', and the other came from my daughter, whose math teacher had told her that using an app called Dreambox 'would boost her score on a math test'. Both claims turned out to be hoax. There were 'studies', both very limited, and both sponsored by the entity that would positively benefit from the conclusions, both with very limited factual results, and both with no publication in peer-reviewed journals. I was grateful for this opportunity to dismantle a myth, but I was saddened that we need to combat ignorance among our very teachers. What is worse, fundamentally, I believe the teachers, resorted to this granny-tales because they are under test-results-pressure. So tests are the culprit.


Music Update

Both have grown with their music training. The girl more so than the boy but he is working hard.

Starting after language camp the boy will begin cello lessons in place of his second piano lesson. He is a singer so he may want to sing in the school choir in the fall as well, but we will see if our schedule would allow it. The girl has one piano contest in 10 days and both have a recital in about a month. Then summer.
Update 5/29/18: One lesson down for both for the summer. More free time should be good. We continue to maintain the discipline and practice every day.

Summer Update

The summer plans are still in the works. What is planned is plenty of summer pool time and two weeks of language camp. I am particularly excited about the summer camp because it will be a chance for the kids to be semi-independent, and it will be a chance for us, their care givers, to get a little break. What I am hoping to be able to do is to take a trip to Europe towards the end of the summer or even in September-October.

Hustle and Bustle of the Fake Holidays

In October in the United States' school children get a day off in commemoration of Christopher Columbus' arrival to the continent. Even though, there is no confirmation of Christopher Columbus' place of birth, the Columbus day is now primarily celebrating Italian heritage. The problems are a few.
Problem 1: Christopher Columbus' arrival to the continent was not the unique event I was raised to believe in. Others had beat him to this feat; not only had they beat him but they had successfully developed sophisticated, long-lasting nations, cultures and traditions unlike the ones seen in Europe. While the Europeans struggled in the wilderness of the new continent, the wilderness proved quite welcoming to the already living here inhabitants. Even for europeans this arrival and 'discover' was nothing unheard of; after all Norway folks have been taking the voyage for a while. Chances are also that African sailors had visited long before Columbus and with inside information from the African continent, the Spanish and Portuguese sponsored trips of discovery.
Problem 2: Christopher Columbus was a brutal person, as were all that followed him. In the name of God he justified slavery, genocide and rape. In the absence of scientific knowledge, but in the sea of theologically-driven ignorance, he and the ones that followed advertised that God is on their side. More or less like the extreme jihadists today.
Problem 3: The white race has written a white history of the united states, but also lived white history. It is a historical fact that US internal and foreign policies have violated the very founding document of this country by deliberately stripping select, undesirable groups of their fundamental human and constitutional rights. The first undesirables were the inhabitants of this continent that Columbus encountered. The second class of undesirables were the african american slaves. Once people lived here for a few generation a convenient third class was established, the immigrant class. Italians and other southern europeans, Eastern Europeans,  Jews, Asians, Latin Americans were all undesirable and policies were put in place and enforced to discriminate against them, and subdue them to the category of last class citizens.

In November, the United States' school children again find themselves celebrating an invented holiday. An event that holds all hypocrisy of this country within it. Native Americans are conventionally pictured as naked, and uncivilized; as savage, as dumbs enticed by shiny trinkets. Conquerors are pictured as sophisticated, brave, enlightening, send-from-the-Gods, the best thing to ever happened to this land. The holding hands story of the Thanksgiving feast is an invention that makes the american feel good by not contemplating crtitically the negative actions of its anscestors. The egocentric holiday is how US citizens today continue to not understand how their government's actions home and abroad impacts the world's response to them. The Thanksgiving holiday lulls the brain into the belief of the perpetual good guy that the US is, and of course builds the premise which is so hard to refute, because after all if you are the good guy, if you do everything right, why is not everyone liking you. Ask my brother. If he is such a good guy, why aren't we head-over-heels in love with him; why did his wife end her life?

In December we will begin our critical study of US history. We have read books here and there, we have had discussions, but it is important for me to eradicate the false good-guy image that the educational system is trying so hard to build in my kids' minds.

We started with two books: Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne and Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young.
Voices in the Park retells the same event four times, each time by the point of view of one of the four persons involved. The details are amazing. The first voice is a busy, working mother, who is so stressed, she hardly speaks to her son; and who hardly notices her surroundings and when she does her judgement is quick. For example, she sits on a park bench, and two people are ready sitting there but occupied with pondering dinner she does not notice them. She does notice one of them when she realizes that her son is not sitting next to her. Looking briefly at the man on the bench, who looks shabby in his clothing, she swiftly concludes that he is dangerous, a creep. The second voice is that the of the man the mother just concluded is a creep. Turns out he is facing tough time looking for work, and the only thing that brightens his day is the walk to the park with his daughter, and her cheerfulness on the way back home. He does not jump into judging the mother or the son or their dog at all; he too is occupied with his outstanding problem-finding a job-but does not jump to label or belittle. The third voice is the woman's son. He is a sad boy. Quite well off but sad, bored, because of lack of communication. His day brightens as he encounters the man's daughter and he discovers along side her all the joys in the park. The fourth and final voice is that of the little girl, the man's daughter. She is cheerful throughout; she brightens two people's days. The details in the pictures, the characters' moods reflected in the changes in the weather on their respective pages; the fonts used to represent each one-the business-as-usual font used for the mom, the heavy bold font used for the dad, the dull fading font used for the son, and the cheerful, comic style font used for the girl all reflect their inner worlds. Would the story be a story if only one told it. Yes, of course. Would it give you satisfaction? Possibly. Would it give you complete view of each person? Nope. At the very least you will think the man is just a creep. While there are more in the park who experience this event, the four together provide a better interpretation, an opportunity for the reader to reflect, to think, to draw conclusions, to build an opinion. This is the true power of this picture book. The voices of many give you power to understand, to be empathetic, to understand and to want to understand others. So, if one follows party lines and listens to party-line sources only, one is deliberately depriving oneself from the opportunity to be a human being, but instead becomes a robot. We need to listen to the other side, and we need to critically assess what the other side says, and if untrue call it out. Eventually the lies will be broken.

Seven Blind Mice is lovely. Full of beautiful simple illustrations which would appeal to anyone. When I first encountered the book I used it to emphasize colors and days of the week. It served me well. However, this gem offers more than colors and days of the week. There are so many things to discuss.
1. Each mouse reports observing one element of the Something, and her association with something familiar. Well, to get to some of the elements a mouse must pass through other elements, and yet the mouse selectively chooses one of these elements to reveal. The question is does the mouse also share information about other elements, and if not how does she choose which one to talk about. In her choice is the mouse deliberately withholding information from the rest, is she trying to be unique, etc.
2. The white mouse apparently explorers the entire Something. How does she know that she has explored the whole Something, if she is blind? How do we know that we have all knowledge? We never know. We draw opinions based on the best current knowledge we have but this leaves us with the possibility to be able to change our opinions in the light of new information. This is important. No absolute truths exist. There are no absolute right answers. We have best answers for the current state of information availability. This is very important to know. How is she absolutely certain in her final assessment? Could other Something exist which have these characteristics. Maybe we haven't encountered them yet but maybe we can try to draw one? It is hard to draw something new when someone has already biased you by feeding you a truth. This is very important.
3. We as readers play God. We 'know' the answer and probably laugh at the mice. Does God laugh at us? Does it matter if he is deliberately withholding information from us. Another good question to ponder.

So what did I want to drive home with my kids at the onset of our first truthful visit to history lane. When we read anything we need to have our questions ready:
1. who is telling me this
2. why are they telling me this, what is their goal, what are they trying to make me believe
3. how are they telling me their message, what words, what images are they using
4. are they withholding information from me, what questions do i have
5. where can i look for the answers to my questions.

Children are occupied with so much, and all time-pressing, that they are effectively deliberately not allowed to think and to reflect, but thinking and reflecting is precisely what they need to learn to do, and precisely what they need to be given time for.

The book that inspired me is Lies that My Teachers Told Me 

Summer Recap and New School Year Go-Ahead

The summer was lovely, mostly spent in swimming lessons and play. We did maintain some light instruction but mostly we enjoyed the break from activities, deadlines and expectations. We also ate a lot of ice-cream.

We focused on science in the summer, mainly on the microscopic world of living things and some of the important non-loving things they depend on: air and water.

We observed for the first time with the microscope and used it to take digital photos of ready slides and slides we made ourselves.


We also carried out a demonstration of bacteria growth in petri-dish with some jelly.

We grew bacteria obtained from variety of places - toys, teeth, places in the house. We also explored some properties of water. Frozen water occupies space and can break cement which explains the potholes on the roads in the spring (water balloon in cement cup).

We observed how cold (color blue) and warm water (colored red) interact and eventually mix. We observed that air takes space (paper towel in the bottom of cup remains dry when the cup is perfectly vertically submerged, bottom last, in container with water) and has a weight (inflated balloon tips the scale to itself against un-inflated balloon).

We also safely observed the solar eclipse from Kentucky. During our trip to Niagara Falls we talked about the destructive power of water (water can dissolve salts and create big holes), as well as the constructive power of water to generate electricity (energy that needs to be consumed as it is generated). During one of our camping we met a family from South Carolina who cannot wait to move away from the limitations of the national power grid and rely on its own energy generation from natural resources (solar).

On our second trip, whose main objective was the viewing of the total solar eclipse, we passed through St. Louis, MO and Springfield, IL. Upon our return I decided that it is best to address history when the memories of the trip are still fresh. So, we began a first-encounter with American history. My focus was on linking together the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, celebrating the era of western expansion, settlement, discovery and turmoil to the Lincoln's civil war challenge. We used the picture books on Lewis and Clark's expedition to give us the quick background.

I used the "Louisiana Purchase" book to talk about what led to the great luck of Thomas Jefferson. We are using the "Which way west?" as a guide into exploring keystone moments.


The "Missouri Compromise" and the books about Lincoln will help us understand the some of the reasons for the war, the development of Lincoln as a president, and the almost inevitable outcome of the war.

I will tap into the Exploration & Conquest, Struggle for a Continent, The New Americans, Liberty or Death, A new Nation, as well as a recap. Since this is just a quick introduction intended to tie in the two remarkable stories we heard about during our trip I intend to keep everything shallow and brief.

I really like "George vs George", "Two miserable  presidents", "King George and what was his problem", but these will serve us well at another time, may be next year.

After this quick introduction to American History I think that we will go back to the end of the Western Roman Empire and the study the Middle Ages. I came across a nice collection of Shakespearian plays summarized for kids and we will slowly make our way through some of them, and talk about the mastery of the playwright who even today entertains audiences. We are starting with Romeo and Juliet and are talking about drama, tragedy, comedy, satire, sarcasm, conflict, communication,  secrets, absurdities, decision making with full information and decision making with limited information. I will try to include videos or live-performances so that even at that young age the art form can be appreciated for what it is.


Portuguese is a bit shaky at the moment as I am struggling to find a direction. I am probably going to weave in some earlier music, interesting cartoons with some acting movies, with real big books and some proper grammar books. I am using Salpicos for both to get them thinking about rules of the language. I am using media and read-aloud to work on expression, vocabulary and comprehension. Both kids are taking a weekly portuguese lesson as well.



Music is the big focus this year. I want both to emerge well rooted into reading music and understanding some music theory. We have 1 violin class, 2 music theory classes and 2 regular piano classes. We are busy with music lessons and practice almost every day.


Math is great. We are going to tackle fifth grade which conceptually should be easy but technically more difficult. We are going to work on computational speed and accuracy, as well as on thinking and translating word problems into equations. I am going to start working on geometry in earnest too. For the little man we are going to tackle third grade math. He is ready. It will not be very difficult as he already knows multiplication and just needs to get used to the few ways of thinking of multiplication which will give him easy routes.

For reading we are focusing on reading multi-syllable words and concentrating on words' origins. We are continuing to use the Learning Press products-All About Reading 4 with both kids, and All About Spelling 3 and 4.

All About Reading has helped my son tremendously with reading so we are continuing on but at a slower pace than with my daughter. She already reads chapter books and can decipher larger words. With her the focus is on recognizing lapse in understanding and resorting to dictionary. My son's reading I will support with additional reading books from the library to keep his interest in reading outside of the mechanics.

Below are some of the books that we will either tap in or will refer to later on when we encounter the respective topics. I have read and liked all listed books.