August 2020

Goodness! This was a stressful month. Frankly,  it flew by like a blur.

I taught four science classes during August. The first focused on the properties of air, the second focused on static electricity, the third focused on sound and the fourth focused on rockets.

For the properties of air, we spoke about matter. I demonstrated that air has weight and occupies space.

For static electricity we covered what matter is made out of: atoms. What atoms are made out of: protons, neutrons and electrons. We covered how electrons can leave the atom, and how free electrons can jump (shock). We talked how we can protect ourselves from static electricity: by using special clothes and boots, by touching metal when leaving a car, by being inside during a storm, or making ourselves into a small ball if we are outside. I demoed how charged balloon attracts another balloon, or pieces of paper, or pieces of salt and pepper, or dripping water, or a can of soda.

For sound: we build a popper, a whistle, a popsicle kazoo, a straw kazoo,  a paper flute and noise makers with balloons. We talked about vibrations, how sound waves travel, how our ear works and how to protect it.

For the rockets we reviewed the forces that need to be overcome for a rocket to leave Earth. We made rubber rockets, balloon rockets, straw rockets, and skewer rockets.

We also benefited from some classes that we offered by other people working in my company. S. took an improvisation class, a painting class, a song writing class and a book club. B. took a Lego class. 

We also went on a week long vacation to Michigan. It was very pretty and we needed that vacation very much. Bryant Park is great. Haserot Park on the Old Mission Peninsula is possibly the only public park there. It is very pretty, and not busy on the weekends. The Empire Beach was my favorite in 2010 and 2014, but the beach portion has shrunk substantially. I am not sure why but I was unpleasantly surprised. I do not recommend it.

I starting reading a lot of books, and did not finish any. Grit, It's even worse than you think, So you want to talk about racism, Just Mercy(we also watched the film)(I recommend this TED talk by Bryan Stevenson), The New Jim Crow, Port Chicago 50, Stella by the Starlight, Bob. I need to read Roll of Thunder, Hear my cry and The Birchbark House.

We also continued to homeschool. We are somewhere a third of the way in 5th grade and 7th grade.

August 2020 Homeschool Update:

5th Grade:

Math: PreAlgebra Ch 1

English: IEW 10, 11, 12, EIW-Lessons 1-8, Novel - Front Desk

Portuguese: Simple Past Tense, Simple Present Tense, Lessons

7th Grade:

Math: Geometry-polygons, Competition Math - number theory, Counting & Probability - tricky counting and probability

English: IEW 6, 7 ; Novel - Lu, Hello Universe, Just Mercy

Portuguese: Simple Past Tense, Simple Present Tense, Lessons

Read Aloud: Ghost, Sitting Bull

Social Studies: Just Mercy (Movie)

Movie related to a book: The One and Only Ivan

Exercise: Bike, Basketball, Run, Swim, Hike

Here are our 5th and 7th grade curricula:

5th grade Curriculum:

Music: Daily Piano and Cello practice

Arts: Paper & Scissors recreation of battles

English Writing: IEW- Medieval History and Essentials in Writing 5

English Spelling: All About Spelling 5 & 6

Literature: One book a month (three novel studies - Old Yeller, The Giver, Hatchet), one month focused on non-fiction texts, one month focused on fiction short stories and poetry.

Math: AOPS Pre-algebra and Geometry

Portuguese: Brasileirinho, reading, Gramatica Ativa 1

Social Studies: focus on American history from perspectives of Native Americans and Immigrants, critical look on American history and traditional look on American history.

Science: We will focus on hands-on science using books such as:  Explore Gravity (Physics, Forensics, Blood Bullets and Bones,  Rocketry, Exploring the Solar System, Beyond the Solar System, The Apollo Missions, Scientists in the Field Series (The Manatee Scientist, Sea Turtle Scientist, Inside Biosphere 2, Eclipse Chaser, Mission to Pluto, The Mighty Mars Rovers, etc.)

PE: workouts at home, bike, play outside, basketball, swim, hike, walks

7th grade Curriculum:

Music: Daily Piano and Violin practice

Arts: Whatever she finds on the internet

English Writing: IEW- Modern History

English Spelling: All About Spelling 6 & 7

Literature: One book a month (three novel studies - Roll of Thunder Hear my Cry, The outsiders, The Westing Game), EIL 7

Math: AOPS Algebra, Geometry, Counting and Probability, Competition Math, ACM prep, and MathCounts prep

Portuguese: textbook, reading, Gramatica Ativa 1 & 2

Social Studies: focus on American history from perspectives of Native Americans and Immigrants, critical look on American history and traditional look on American history.

Science: We will focus on hands-on science (making observations, taking measurements and drawing conclusions)  using books such as:  Explore Gravity (Physics, Forensics, Blood Bullets and Bones,  Rocketry, Exploring the Solar System, Beyond the Solar System, The Apollo Missions, Scientists in the Field Series (The Manatee Scientist, Sea Turtle Scientist, Inside Biosphere 2, Eclipse Chaser, Mission to Pluto, The Mighty Mars Rovers, etc.). We have a subscription to MEL Chemistry and will follow the experiments for an introduction to chemistry.

PE: workouts at home, bike, play outside, basketball, swim, hike, walks

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!

Finally Summer!

Finally, it is summer-ish! We have had a few 80+ degree weather days. We have been spending most of our time outdoor. We even went to the pool on Saturday, May 31-the earliest EVER!

Our Bulgarian friends are planning to move to Indiana in August, so we are spending as much time with them as possible. The kids are. They really play well together. Especially, after this crazy winter which had us all pinned inside for SO LONG!



Ballet girl went on a field trip to the zoo with her class. I chaperoned which was very enjoyable! However, be warned that a bus full of kindergartners is much closer to one's understanding of a zoo than the actual zoo. As I put it -I went with the zoo to the zoo! I have to add that my observations revealed that there are some very creative kids out there and I implore parents far and wide not to stop their kids from killing the boredom of a school bus ride with creativity. These three very energetic boys who sat in front of me invented a fishing game-they used their school ids which were tied to a string as a fishing rod which they passed through the opening separating the seat from the back of the seat. Clever and Fun!  Sunlight boy also went on a field trip. His class visied a wild life preserve in Joliet. Both trips were fantastic experiences for the kids. Thank you to the school district for sending all elementary classes on a field trip this year.

School will be officially over next week. Dance will be over too-the recital is on June 14. The piano recital is on June 15. So, summer is really knocking on the door! The activities that we have planned are: Lego class in mid-June, swimming classes-2 weeks in June and 2 weeks in July.

 First, and foremost, we plan on following closely the World Cup. Especially com Brasil em mente e no coracao. Vai selecao! A gente ja tem o fuleco em casa, graca a nossa amiga Fatima do Recife. A gente ja tem uma bola brazuca, a bola mais cientifica das todas as copas mundial! Vai ser uma festa mundial no Brasil. Eu gostaria muito de ficar mas nao planejou bem, entao a gente so vai assistir.

Yes, we loved Poppy so much, her adventures with Mr. Ocax were so well enjoyed that we went on to read the adventures of Ragweed, technically the prequel to Poppy. When we finished Poppy, we spent one evening reviewing the book. We talked about our favorite parts-Sunlight boy loved the fights and the part when Poppy gets into Ereth's bathroom; for Ballet girl-the thrill was the daring journey to the New House. We also talked about how the characters change during the story-how Poppy changes from a scared, timid mouse to a daring, questioning one; how Mr. Ocax changes from a villain to a very intimidated by a rival owl, the clear sign of a bully; how Lungwort changes from a leader, to a fearful messenger, to a lost, hopeless loser, to a bragging told-you-so unnervingly boasting attitude. The amount of information the kids remembered was astounding, and the book was a good starting point for deeper discussions. We started with Ragweed, and right off the bet, we started comparing and contrasting the two books-how Ragweed parts with her family versus how Poppy parts with her family; how Ragweed feels starting on his journey versus how Poppy feels emerging onto hers; what Ragweed fears versus what Poppy fears; how Clutch is different than Ereth; how Silversides is different than Mr. Ocax. How the boy in the book about Poppy plays a different role than the girl in the book of Ragweed. I love these books. They get me to have good discussions with my kids and to lead them to think not only at what is literally in front of them but also to think in the context of what they have already encountered and experienced. The books in this series will be required reading in either fourth or fifth grade along with a book report and a creative activity attached.
Aside from discussing the characters as they are, we have also talked about survival in nature. Yes, Mr. Ocax terrifies the mice but in order for him to survive he has to eat. Yes, the mice have to survive so they have to find food, and have to migrate towards where there is abundance of food. What happens if there is not enough food? The mice split or die. We discussed this dynamics in the context of Evolution-how the changing environment, in this case lack of food, shapes the choices the population has. We discussed why there is one owl and many mice, the food chain, and how the number of each animal is controlled. As I said, I love this series of books and I highly recommend them to educators and parents.

We did not talk much about plants as I had hoped. The last two months have been occupied with ad-hoc activities which had taken a good chunk of our reading time. This book however is great. One page per topic with very good illustrations. We are reading one page per night, and after we are through, we will re-read but also demonstrate or observe during nature walks what this book indicates. I am excited.

Portuguese is going very very well. We read Macaco Danado, Abraco, Familias Divertidas, Se voce grita no zoologico, Choco encontra uma mae. These books went well with the zoo theme at school and with mother's day which took place in May. The kids remembered a lot of the vocabulary. They can both answer simple yes, no questions-they understand the questions that are asked and answer them. They also occasionally offer in their response the correct word. Since we have been reading a lot about mice, most of the portuguese books we will be reading will include mice as protagonists. We already read O rato do campo e o rato da cidade, O Rato Roeu a Ropa do Rei de Roma. There is the Rato e o morango maduro and some others. I have also started reading some Contos da fada. I received the book pictured here from Brasil. It is a first grade-learn to read and write portuguese book. It is great but we will mostly use it to learn to speak starting now, and in second grade we will use it to learn to read. The progress I have seen in my kids in the last few weeks has been very encouraging. Com a copa mundial eu tenho ainda mais esperanca, e como a communidade brasileira organiza uma festa juninha sera ainda mais especial. Este ano e o ano da Lingua Portuguesa na minha casa. So da sorte!

The First Language and The Second Language and The Third Language

BULGARIAN

The first language is exactly that-the base, the foundation. We use it for everything, all the time, inside and outside the house. We have a rich personal library full of wonderful children's books. And you will think-this is enough! But it is not. To keep this language alive, I have integrated it with our other languages. It is not a stand-alone language any more because this would have been a severe limitation. When in the presence of other language speakers we comfortably switch but among ourselves we never do. I maintain a discipline about that. The first language is a tool in the communication toolbox but it IS the most important tool. The library has been my savior to that end because as children grow it is very easy for the first language to become outdated and limiting in terms of richness of expression. If you cannot find the words, you cannot express your ideas and you want to be heard and understood, therefore you will resort to the toolbox with the richest language tools set. Every topic my kids express interest in has been covered in details with books we have borrowed from the library and with activities and experiences inspired by ideas from friends or the local community.It is very very difficult to keep up-it is time consuming, it is humbling but it is also empowering. To keep the first language alive and well, it has to be enriched and the contents of the toolbox maintained and upgraded constantly.

ENGLISH 

The second language or the trouble maker, the sever competition of the first language. Yes, English. It was a later comer and reaped the benefits of the solid foundation laid by the first language. It is obtained through an immersion-type of experience-2.5 hours per day during the school year. It is the language of everything that is around us. It is the inevitable one. The one that will be present without effort. Instead of fighting it I choose to embrace it. I just make sure I am one step ahead in the game with the first language. What I mean is the following. Schools, at the moment the main source of immersion in the second language, are predictable-they have a curriculum. As a consumer of this system a parent knows what and when will be communicated. I cover that ground ahead of time in the first language and more in depth. Thus I hope to accomplish two goals: 1) I do not allow the first language to lose relevance and suffer from limitation and 2) I explain concepts once my way, the teachers reinforce what I have covered in a similar or a different way giving me an opportunity to have a discussion and solidify, reinforce the learning/foundation-laying. I thought the concept of reading in the first language and reading in the second language proved to be a breeze.

 PORTUGUES

The third language is the most difficult one. It should be relevant. It should be important. But it is very difficult to make it because there are only three potential consumers. Our resources are not limited-there is youtube, tons of free picture books on the internet, and so many books we have at home. The lack of need for it makes it a low priority and brings out a resentment towards it. I have struggled because my own knowledge is limited and my confidence is very low. But I am the only one to teach it. I have to motivate myself, it has to be relevant and important to me-the teacher-for me to be able to transfer that to the children. I tried 15 minutes/night but this has proven insufficient. One story and Q&A does not make a live language. I have decided to upgrade to the following strategy: 1)Twice a week with each child individually we will read and do activities from a textbook 2)Every night we will read a story relevant to the months topic-we will start with favorite animals 3)Once a week all evening activities will be in portuguese-a movie and a story and conversations.My goal with this language is to make it useable even if with very limited scope. I am laying the foundation but it will be on them and me to more seriosly build later on.

Portuguese

This is a sensitive topic for me. I do want my kids to speak Portuguese. I need to pick up the pace and I will once the piano recital is out of the way.

What motivated this post is what I have observed recently. My kids love music- they love to listen, to sing and to dance, the entire music experience. I first won them with Galinha Pintadinha's songs

, then cartoon movies (Disney's Joao e pe de feijao) and some books that I found online (Joao e pe de jeijao-Girasol) and read on my Kindle to them, as well as books which I simply have translated to Portuguese and books that I have purchased which are in Portuguese. I have all the materials, but I do not have the time for a full immersion (plus Bulgarian and English are both important now).  So, I settled for the next best thing -spend at least 15 minutes every night speaking, reading, singing in Portuguese.

This strategy works well. The kids know a lot of words, some sentences and a lot of songs. Ballet girl, especially, is willing to experiment. Sunlight boy too, to an extent. Tonight, for example, we sang: O sapo nao lava o pe, Joaninha Formosa, Dona Aranha and Coelinho da Pascoa; we read one simple book about bichos/bugs-bichos no quintal (first grade reader that has brilliant pictures and which I translated myself).