September 2018

First big hiking trip:

Our first stop was the Grand Canyon. When we arrived around 2pm, we immediately went to the rim, to take a look. The views were breath-taking. Crowds were everywhere, on a weekday. We walked to the museum, which happens to be at one of the bus stops, and took part in a ranger program along the walk of time. The walk of times is fabulous. Sample rocks and the time period from which they were formed was displayed and some information was included.  The ranger did a fine job narrating, as well as involving the children in the presentation, and answering the many questions the group had.

That evening we saw an Elk. On this trip we ended up setting camp in the dark under the headlights of the car. Our neighbors were not pleased, but hey, that's life!

The next morning we drove to the rim, and took a 1.5 miles hike down the Bright Angel trail! It was lovely coming down, and super difficult coming out. Thankfully, on the trail a bit past the 1.5 mile marker was a ranger who advised me to head back up. I thank her.

The very same day we headed to Zion National Park. We stopped at Page, AZ to grab some lunch, and continued straight to the canyon. The park is mesmerizing. The drive from the entrance to the campsite is beautiful. You can easily view all the main types of formations, along with some of the inhabitants of this wonderful place. We were thrilled and at awe. As the night before at the Grand Canyon, we set up camp in the dark, but our neighbors this time around were quite forgiving. That evening was nice and warm, but windy, very very windy.

The next morning we ventured into the canyon for some hikes. Four trails were closed so we hiked the Watchman (moderate), the Weeping Rock (easy) and the Emerald Pools (lower, easy). We took advantage of the bus which takes the visitor to 9 sightseeing spots. We also enjoyed the 22-minute video at the museum center. On the way back from the Emerald Pools we stopped to dip our died feet in the cool Virgin River waters. Then back at camp, we took our tent down and embarked towards park number three.

But before we even had a chance to leave Zion, we stopped many many times to observe the wild life. Wild Turkeys. Mountain Goats. Deer fighting and competing for territory and females. And of course, we stopped to look once again at the rock formations!

The drive to Bryce Canyon National Park was about 2 hours. It seemed longer because we drove a lot in the dark. But we did not make it all the way to Bryce. We stopped at Hatch which is 20 miles away from Bryce. I had rented a cottage for 2 evenings. Bryan was starving by the time we arrived, so we had dinner in the cafe across the street. Possibly the only cafe in the entire small town. The food was phenomenal.

Then we slept.

The next day, my oh, my, we went to what was, for me the highlight of our trip.

We stopped at the visitor center, got some guidelines on what to hike and got going. We went down the Navajo loop, around the Peekaboo loop, and back the Navajo loop. The Navajo loop is steep up and down. The Peekaboo is up and down the entire time. This was plenty of hiking for us. Coincidentally, we met a friend of mine, just as we were emerging from the Peekaboo trail and about to head up the Navajo trail. Friends make climbing out of a steep canyon easier. Thank you. Bryan had a friend to chat with. I had a friend to talk to, and Sophia hung around to listen to our stories.

The plan was to head to the visitor center. Watch the 22-minute informative movie; fill the junior ranger activity book, and go home. But on the bus we met a family which was talking about how beautiful the night sky over Bryce is, and that in the evening there would be a program with telescope viewing. So we changed plans. Instead of heading home, we went to the lodge for dinner, caught the last bus to the visitor center, drove to the amphi-theatre where the night program was supposed to be, and participated. We learned a lot about the universe. The kids and I participated in some demonstrations. Bryan won a lollipop.  Then we viewed Jupiter, a constellation, and Saturn! We were exhausted but delighted! And at 11pm we were back at the cabin, and slept soundly that night!

Optics

The plan is to explore optics. We are going to use Explore Light and Optics. We are going to also talk about one of the first real scientists, Ibn Al Haytham. There is a large historic component to his research and the methods he settled on.

We have all the materials for an in depth study of optics but as I am also eyeing mechanics we are going to just go over the fundamentals.




History

We are embarking on a over-encompassing study of history. We are starting of world war 1. No particular reason besides that I want to talk about how stupid the war was and how trust and misinformation and miscommunication has a lot to do with history. We are also going to talk about some of the first true historians and travelers-Herodotus and Ibn Battuta

Fun

We are going to use one-way valves to make a model of the heart and super soakers. Who does not like super soakers!

Music

Back in the swing of things. Sophia has two dance classes, one piano and one violin class. Bryan has one piano class. Sophia's first violin teacher told me that kinematic exercises are good for establishing rhythm and feeling for steady beat.

Homeschool

History, Science, Math, and Portuguese are in my court this year.

In History this year we are going to cover African Kingdoms, European Navigators, Conquest, New World, Slavery, Early US history, Civil War, Reconstruction, Great Depression, WWI, WWII, Vietnam, Cold War. I am taking a very liberal approach to US history, meaning that I will avoid lies at all costs. It will not be a pretty tale.

In Science my focus will be on mechanical and electric devices for computation. We are going to talk about Turing machines and transistors a lot. I am studying this material beforehand. It is fascinating.

Math we are going to do a heavy review of what we learned last year, and we will slowly plow through some new material.  Sophia will begin Geometry and is already working through PreAlgebra.
Bryan is finishing the third grade Beast Academy books.

Portguese is a joint effort between me and their teacher in Michigan. I expect to have both reading and speaking more this year. We are also going to work on learning more verbs and tenses. At the moment we are reading O BGA, and the next book lined up is Nicolau Volta Aos Aulas.

Portuguese

What a fabulous month June turned to be!

We have embraced Portuguese. We have succeeded in immersing ourselves in it and we have succeeded in taking pride in knowing, even if a little bit. Mission way under way!

I am going to use this platform to review Mar e Floresta, the Portuguese language immersion village, an experience made possible by Concordia Language Villages in Minnesota.

The family week was wonderful. The program started with three families. Ours had four members; a professor of Portuguese from the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis brought her husband and two young children (probably 1 and 3), and a MBA professor at the University of Iowa brought his 13-year old son.

The daily program was fixed, but the activities were all different. In the mornings there was breakfast, an hour language lesson, an hour activity followed by another hour of language lesson.
The afternoon consisted of an hour for lunch, a nap-time hour and a free time-hour, followed by an activity hour, a dinner hour, an activity hour, a telenovela hour and a fogueira.

The morning activities included football, quemada (a version of dodgeball), peteca, and cooking. The afternoon activities included archery and canoeing. During the bate-papo lessons, we reviewed
the Portuguese we already knew and some basic new vocabulary; we played games such as Spot-It in Portuguese to reinforce the new vocabulary. I enjoyed these activities. Mostly what I realized during these classes is that I didn't come here to have someone teach me the Portuguese I can easily and readily learn on my own from a language book; I benefited mostly from hearing proper speech and cleaning my own pronunciation, allowing myself to make mistakes, catch the mistakes, correct the mistakes and move on without care for grades or perfection. I think that for full benefit it helps to know a great deal and really soak up the immersive environment to smoothen out any misunderstandings and doubts. As an immersion program there was a lot of singing and dancing-a full hour dedicated to music. Perfection!

The food was fantastic. Three rich and fulfilling meals with nothing lacking and providing a great variety. Even if you are a very picky eater, you will not go hungry here.

The environment is very relaxed. I dare say that the week I spent at camp is the first true vacation I have taken. No stress, no rush, no deadlines; just beautiful nature and tranquility.

The housing. Yes, it is a camp. It is not a five start hotel, neither is it a three. As long as there is a bed to sleep on and not freeze over or die of heat exhaustion, I am quite happy. I was very happy with the accommodations. Bring your linens and you will be fine.

The evening activities included introduction to some literary characters, a scavenger hunt, Olympic games style competition; on-going telenovela which was great fun - acted by the counselors, the story could be rewound and fastforwarded for ease of understanding. It was interactive which pleased the audience.

The best was the counselors. The people make the experience. The interactions, the ideas, the attitude-this not only completes but defines the experience.

I highly recommend Mar e Floresta. The only inconvenience for me is the drive but hey, it is worth driving ten times more to have such an experience.

What did Mar e Floresta mean for the kids. First, my little man showed that he can understand and also speak. For my girl, it meant a glimpse of independence, a glimpse of confidence, of empowerment. She lost the shyness and led a class, sang songs, asked questions, participated in activities. This is priceless. They both learned about all the countries who officially admit Portuguese, something very important which I would have overlooked and had indeed overlooked!

So next year, we are not only going back for family week, the young lady is going back for two weeks of immersion. Hurray for this fabulous discovery, at the right moment of our lives!

Concordia villages offers youth immersion camps and family immersion camps for 15 languages! Aproveite! Bom acampamento!

The boy at the piano

Last Sunday, I sat down Sunlight boy at the piano. I placed colored stickers on the keyboard and we started. I had not recorded my journey with Ballet girl, but from some video recordings I have she seems to have picked up some simple tunes by the same age, such as Mila Moia Mamo. Therefore I did not hesitate to sit down at the piano with my little man. His hand is small and he cannot control his fingers independently. So for now we stick to one finger playing. We played Hot Cross Buns. We also played the keys in sequence. He did not learn a given thing, but he started learning many things.
During the week, he sat with my daughter at the piano and she held his hand and directed it along the keyboard to produce familiar tunes; then he himself, alone sat by the piano and pressed random keys and sang his favorite songs among which Twinkle Twinkle. The challenge will be keeping Ballet girl away so that he enjoys uninterrupted time at the instrument to experiment to his heart content.
I have also determined that piano will stay open during the day from now on, so he can feel invited to experiment. He is showing interest and I will prepare him and when he is ready we will take on the same path as with Ballet girl. I am excited about this adventure.
He is a good singer. He is a good dancer. He can be a very good player. Good for him:)

This is the book Ballet girl started with when she was 4.5 in the summer. This is the book we are using with Sunlight boy. Right now we are not learning any particular song. We are trying simple elements from them all. Little by little we will be building on.

It will be unfair not to mention anything about Ballet girl. She is moving well into Suzuki Book 2. Ecossaise proved a piece of cake, Short Story took a while mostly because learning it was entangled with reviewing the Book 1 songs and preparing for the recital. We are starting The Happy Farmer now, the first line. I am excited with the progress. The rest of the pieces in Book 2 are longer and more complex, but I don't anticipate any difficulties.

I am trying to stay at least 2 songs ahead of Ballet girl, and at the moment find myself a good distance ahead. I am at Arietta, song 8. I just finished learning it today. We'll continue practicing for another week and move to the next piece. I am excited about my own progress and really excited about being able to play the piano, and play it well. Another benefit to my playing is that daily, more or less, I demonstrate the benefit of consistent practice. My children sit at the piano and enjoy it.