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

December 2018 and January 2019

This is a meaty book. It was the book I picked to read and discuss with the fifth grader.

The book is full of themes and covers a lot of world history, a lot of perspectives, a lot of big figures, and a lot of controversies.

It offers an opportunity to reflect by daily answering a question in .a written format.

 Related to the theme of WWII. This was a read-aloud which speaks about particular person, his life, his experience, his view, his battle, his rebellion, his firmness, social injustice and chauvinism, injustice, white privilege, irrational unjustified fear.

Sachiko aligns with the WWII theme. It is the story of a Nagasaki atomic bomb survivor. We also watched the PBS film Bomb. The book is heavy, and offers a view of devastation. So it is tough to swallow and we took our time.

We are still less than 50% through with Wonder. I wish we were done with it because it is getting on my nervous but hopefully by end of February we will be done with it. We will watch the film in Portuguese too.

We are moving so we have not been working as consistently as before. Still we are on track with all subjects. The recent history that we covered this year has been tough so we are going to switch gears and start reading something lighter. The book we will read is Where the Mountain meets the Moon. Fifth Grade:English: read and discuss BombMath: Geometry-congruent triangles; PreAlgebra-DecimalsPortuguese: present and past tense, irregular verbsPiano and Violin: concerts and daily 30-min practiceForeign Language: ItalianThird GradeEnglish: read short chapter booksMath: Logical problems and exponentsPortuguese: present tense verbs and vocabularyPiano: concerts and daily 30-min 
We spent Christmas break ice-skating every day. I was sick for most of it but it did not stop us from enjoying ice-skating.  The next few big steps are actually moving, beginning new school, science fair, math challenge. 

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.

Picture Books are Back

Do not, do not underestimate the power of the best form of literature for children. Picture Books!

Yes, they are simple, they have pictures, but remember how a picture can be a thousand words. Yes. Picture Books are a bonanza. And the market is full of fabulous books. Of real books, about real issues and real people, that can invoke the critical thinker in your children from early on.

We live in a world that we cannot allow our children to grow blind. We cannot turn a blind eye and pretend life is not happening. That life is all roses and games. Life can be great, but life can be shitty. We need to tune our children into reality, away from naivety, in a way they can understand. Picture books are a fabulous tool to that end. For toddlers, preschoolers, elementary school children, middle school children, high school children, college students, adults, grandparents, etc. For all.

So let's begin:


The cruelty of the trans-atlantic slave trade: 

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The cruelty of working your life underground, often dying young because of disease; the horror of your children inevitably following your foots steps. If you think this is unpleasant, then amplify this by the suffering of the native Americans in central and south America who died em masse in mines, weeks on end, until their last breath, without sun, without food, without proper air.

Relate this to how limited the naturally occurring resources in the crust are.

It's easy to say that Muslims are bad. As it has been easy to say that Jews are bad. Lets remember that Muslims and Jews were equally hated by christians and equally prosecuted by christians. The cruelty that christians exercised towards the jews and the muslims in the occupied lands is coming back to haunt them. Christians are criminals. So please tell your children that christianity in the past has been the single source of suffering, pain, disease and despicable deaths and tortures.

Nature is our home. If you pay attention in bio class, even if it is Bi-1 in Caltech, you will hear that in nature everything is in balance, and when deviating from the balance, works to go back to the balance, or to a completely new balance. But the drive towards balance, and predictability in nature is a real thing. Nature is finite. The resources in nature are finite. We must manage and plan accordingly. We also should not withhold essential resources, such as water and food, in attempt to subordinate, dehumanize and control people.

People may be different than you. That's not a reason for you to bully them. Let's face it if they are different from you, you are different fro them. 

What if the tables were turned? 

People with physical disabilities are talented and capable. Sick people are capable. Immigrants are capable. A new person is capable.

There is no reason you can determine someones is less than you, whatever that may mean, just by looking at them. What hidden talents does the person have? How can he surprise you? 

People are full of life stories and experiences that are different than yours. You can always learn from them. Taking advantage of someone's disability in order to enrich yourself and to hurt the person is a crime. It's a moral crime.

Why should you be stuck in the comfort of routine? Routine is good and predictable, but routine makes you a human-hater, makes you fearful of everything that is outside of your routine. We as people need to embrace diversity, embrace opportunities to learn, and not fear lack of knowledge and skill, but seek to grow the same. We need to live in comfortable discomfort with our own completeness. Only this way we can meet with open arms others. Only this way we can relate, we can extend a hand, we can understand. Especially, the US, a country of immigrants, is swimming in material reminders that we all came from somewhere else or we don't know where we come from.

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.

The one and only Ivan

Ivan O Grande is the district-wide one-district-one-book reading. Except that this year the district has decided to rush through this wonderful book. Well, the district can proceed as it pleases. We know better.

First, we will be reading the book in Portuguese. We have already read it in Bulgarian a few years ago. As the children are older we will focus on the deep truths and messages embedded in the book. I will be updating this page with our progress and our discussions as they arrive.

Before we began, since we are already familiar with the story, and since the kids are already discussing the book in school I decided to start with real images:
Video of Ivan from the shopping mall and Ivan after being rescued, at the zoo

If you watch the video you will hear that Ivan was bought in the 60s from Belgium's Congo. This immediately screamed to me the three things listed below. Today I only briefly mentioned only Dian Fossey's work with gorillas in Rwanda but we will cover all three topics in the next few days.

• King Leopold of Belgium, and his reign in Congo, the Hitler you hardly hear about
• Dian Fossey and the mountain gorillas of Rwanda
  
• Current restless Congo and Crash course episode on Congo

The following are the notes from our reading and discussions on Monday, January 29, 2018:

1. We focused on the meaning of the opening quote by George Eliot: "“Nunca é tarde demais para se tornaro que você poderia ter sido.” This is the thesis of the book. It is never later, despite all suffering, despite all injustice, to turn and embrace the real you, even if you never knew him.
2. We discussed how people measure time and why they bother-we marvel at the great constructions and elaborate mazes that ancient societies have built in history class, but not in literature class. In ancient societies people measured time with respect to regularly occurring events on which their livelihood depended, similar to how animals in the wild are aware of the passage of time and the changes of seasons. I mentioned the ancient Egyptians, the Cahokia people whose life aligned with the lifecycle of corn, the Hopi whose life aligned with rain, the plain Indians whose life aligned with the the buffalo migrations, and the north-western Indians whose life aligned with the salmon and the whale migrations.
3. “Com o passar dos anos, aprendi a entender as palavras humanas, mas entender o que os humanos dizem não é a mesma coisa que entender os humanos...Precisei de algum tempo para aprender a reconhecer todos esses sons humanos, para ligar as palavras em uma coisa só. Mas fui paciente.”  We discussed how similar genetically apes are to humans, and how overtime humans have disproved much of their own misconceptions about these animals, and all living things. Since we are familiar with Jane Goodall I mentioned her pioneering observational studies with chimps in which she disproved the statement that what differentiates humans from apes is humans' ability to make and use tools. In the sentence above, Ivan makes the point that learning and understanding new tasks, and adapting are not exclusive to humans either.
4. “Todos nós somos primos distantes e desconfiados...Sei que isso é problemático." This, of course is a reference to Darwin's theory of evolution and how hard its acceptance remains within the creationist groups. Fortunately or unfortunately our DNAs differ by just a little. Imagine how much smarter than us is the live  form whose DNA is another 1% different from ours. I also brought in the inherent and wrong human assumption that humans are superior to all other life forms. As we study history we learn that throughout history europeans, in particular, have been making the assumption that "I as a member of my tribe am superior to all other tribes and their members"; this assumption grew into the exercise of genocide when unlike groups united against other unlike groups. One needs to call these events and label them properly as they are encountered in history, otherwise one can never learn to recognize them as they occur when they occur in real life.
5. So where is that shopping mall? I-95 stretches along the east coast from Canada all the way to Florida. I explained, using this map, that the east-west routes are even (I-80 is a familiar example), and now I-95 is our north-south example. But Ivan actually lived in a mall in Tacoma Washington. So, there is a discrepancy. Why?
6. Sense of humour: " Certa vez pude desfrutar de um livro que um dos meus cuidadores deixou em meu domínio. Tinha gosto de cupim.” Did we expect a sense a humour from a gorila?

The following is from the discussion on January 31, 2018

The One and Only Ivan:
Chapter: TV
Page: 50

Portuguese:
“Bob diz que os faroestes não se parecem em nada com a vida real.”

English (translation):
"Bob says that the westerns have nothing in common with real life"

Hollywood has been a very racial institution from its very start. Over the years bad guys have emerged from all areas in which the american white had to be the good guy. Critical thinking dead, the american white supreme character reigned, it was expected and it was sought. 

We started reading "Western Expansion" by Steve Sheinkin, in which it is revealed that cowboys were not white initially, they were primarily ranchers, and overall anything depicted in western films is baloney. This article helps too.

Critical Thinking. Critical Reading! Every sentence in Ivan is a bonanza to ponder and question. Think about it a dog (which is sometimes used as a derogatory term, but is also an animal humans view as their best friend) tells that to a gorilla, one of our closest relatives. This is an amazing sentence.

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 

Olympics

We spent another week at Portuguese Family camp, Mar e Floresta, in Bemidji, MN. It was lovely. A bit cold, but lovely. I met Sophia who is a professor of portuguese language and Sivana who is a brasilian teaching portuguese. I learned about brasilian folclore. I had read some brasilian folkstories but they did not make sense to me. Bulgarian, Russian folclore is straight forward because I am familiar with these cultures. Brasilian folclore also makes sense once some historic background is provided. I was very happy to learn what I did. My kids had a blast. On the way to camp we went to the Mall of America, we visited Todd and Tory. On the way back we went to lake Itasca, met with Minneapolis friends and went to a water park. At camp the kids learned a good deal, even the little guy spoke. The food was fantastic too. The counselors were very helpful, friendly and nice. All the activities were entertaining and engaging. I recommend this camp. I wish more families would participate because it is more enjoyable with more people. I envy my girl now because in her camp there are many kids. She is having a blast. I wish day camp were offered so that the little man would have taken advantage as well. Next year!

Our trip to Minnesota led us to a synegogue which was hosting an exhibit. The theme of the exhibit is what spiked my curiosity. The exhibit had as objective to highlight the strength of civil disobedience demonstrated by the bulgarians during the last days of WWII; actions which, as the exhibit was attempting to protray, were responsible for the saved lives of at least 40,000 jewish bulgarians.

I was disappointed because I have never been present at an exhibit which proves the anti-thesis of its claim. The summary is that under pressure from the third reich, the bulgarian authorities implemented laws which stripped all jewish bulgarians of their civil, political and social rights. Many were sent to labour camps, others were expelled from the larger cities into villages where they had to live in schools, friends' or stranger's homes, and had to rely on hand-downs because they were denied the right to work. Upon further pressure from the reich, towards the end of the war, even after germany began its demise, the bulgarian authorities carried out laws that put all jewish residents from the annexed territories (Macedonia and Thracia) on to trains to the death camps.Towards the very, very end, when the intelligentia most likely did not expect serious repruccusions did it assmble ralleys and demonstrations. A bit too late to be hailed as heros of freedom. Nothing on the scale of rescue effort carried in Northern Europe.

Since the topic came to us, I slowly eased my children into it. We read The Harmonica, The Greatest Ice Skating Race, Baseball Saved Us, and as a counterpoint to the generalization that all japanese were bad, we also read Passage to Freedom which illustrates the true events which took place in the Japanese embassy in Lithuania right at the beginning of the war, and the efforts of the japanese embassador, despite the disapproval of Japan, to rescue hundreds of refugees by issuing them papers which permitted them to travel west, away from the war.

The olympics in Brasil are right around the corner and this is extra motivation to revisit the origin of the games, their revival, talk about some great athletes, and some memorable olympic games. We already read Living in Brasil, which I found quite nice-a beautiful overview of information my kids already knew.

We are going to read about some exceptional athletes that inspire us to reach out, rise from obscurity, dream big and work hard to achieve. We are going to read about Wilma Rudolph, and Jesse Owens. While not related directly to the olympic games which are televised, Emanuel's dream is related to the paraolympic games, which are inspiration in their own right. This year we have been reading very inspirational stories: Ada's violin and the Boy who harnessed the wind, among them. I am inspired to continue finding books that lift the human spirit and human ambition. The book on Jesse Owen is a bit more detailed than what I would prefer, so we will read some and skip some, but we will tie it to Hitler Germany. In addition, I will tell the kids the story of the Boys in the Boat because it is remarkable. I will tell them about WWI, The Great Depression, and the fall out of Germany due to reparation payments to tie it to the rise of Hitler's extreme nationalism in the 30s.






Voices in the park is an interesting book that I found. I was reading Wonder which reminded me of Faulkner's Sound and the Fury. I wondered if there is a picture book which illustrates the literary structure of retelling a story from many different view points. I think this is a very interesting technique. It helps capture what is interesting to each character, and gives deep insight into the character's being. I am very pleased with how the concept is developed and revealed in this tiny picture book. I recommend it.

In portuguese we are currently reading Juca Brasileiro e a Mata Atlantica. I think we will finish and talk about reciclagem before moving on to a story book. There are a few Ruthe Rocha books that I would like to read to the kids before the end of the month. Portuguese is going well. Ballet girl is in camp, is having a great time and is making friends. Sunlight boy is right across the camp with his grandparents. He is in Bulgarian camp in which only two other people speak bulgaria-the grandparents!




The following are my readings for this month. I am very passionate about the election. I think that the country is in a pivotal spot in its evolution and can tip over. Unfortunately the options are not good. Saving Capitalism is an interesting reading, detailing some of the misconceptions of how the economy works and how it is controlled and by whom, The free market, the hallmark of capitalism, is a game whose rules are designed and enforced by the government. When rich people with powerful interests invest in the government to stir into  desired direction, we have corruption. The modern word is rigged, but it is corruption.

The interest of the few is observed at the cost of the well-being of the many. I also enrolled, late, in the local library's reading program for the summer. The topic is sprots related. I am reading Goldfish towards that goal. So far I find the book funny.  I am also reading Night Divided, which was given to me by a friend. This is a book about the Berlin wall. It is quite interesting because it speaks a lot of things I know for certain occurred behind the iron curtain. I do not like the voice, the "I can defeat them", "I can go against the regime" voice. It did not exist. Even one's thoughts were not harbor such bravery because the thoughts were read and interpreted as well. I am not buying the authenticity in the voice of the book. I will finish and wrap up my criticism.


While the kids are away in portuguese camp, I have been busy with picking up the violin and moving forward with piano. I am also reading more portuguese books that we have at home. I am also preparing for some of the science units that I would like to cover this year: Hydrolics, Microscopes, Simple Machines and Solar Energy. I am hoping that we can use any of these as the basis for science fair project. I feel like I am making progress and this is good.

Update: July 25, 2016

 Ali is a nice biography. It offers plenty of historical and personal references to bring the story into context. I do not like boxing, I find this discipline inappropriate as an olympic sport in the current understanding of the term Olympics, which envokes the notion of respect and comraderie. Boxing is violent. I, as a result of these preconceptions, read the biography out of curiosity, mainly driven by the fact the Ali passed away this year, the both the traditional medua channels and social media went overboard in recognizing him and his convictions. After reading the biography. I have a better understanding of some aspects of US history that I never knew-the Nation of Islaam, MalcomX, the Vietnam war and the resistence to it. I also did not know that the guy who talks about Idea, the ad, is the same formidable George Forman that Ali faced. I never knew, but always wondered, what sort of TV personality was this George ad man. Now, I know. I also respect Ali a little bit more, although I believe his behavior was narcisisstic, arrogant and disrespectful. Reading, I recalled back in the late 80s when Lady Tatcher, the prime minister in UK resigned, I heard someone say: "this is a smark woman. she knows when to step down-at the pinnacle of her performance". The precise opposite happened to Ali. I enjoyed the reading, but I will not cover it in our read-akoud sessions because it touches on too many, too complex issues which at this moment are inaccessible to either child.

This is a beautifully written story about Nadia Kumaneci from Romanian, the first gymnist to score perfect 10 in international competition. The story is well narrated, the illustrations are captivating. Few important historical moments and behaviors are outlined, making this book a great conversation starter for the meaning and the attitude towards the olympics in the last century. We will be reading this book very soon.

This was my Sunday, by the pool reading choice. Clearly, I picked the wrong spot. I find this book rather depressing. It depicts times in history which are feorcious and dirty, hummiliating and revolting. More than that, the story touches on some fundamental elements which make such atrocities possible. In particular, people tend to be naive, and with respect to the likelihood of bad events believe that it will not happen to them. In addition people still, after thousands of years of evolution, and especially a 300 rapid period of knowledge gathering, believe in fictional make-believes, tales dictated by men for some men's goals; tales that should long be irrelevant and yet are, by our collective mentality to believe in something simple, something superior, something perfect. I see it as nothing more than a convenient excuse. Oh, this happened. Well, clearly this was the wish of my god, what can I do. In this regard I have to say that I believe that we bulgarians have the best folklore. Nevolyo!

Simple Hydraulics machines has been our focus during the last two days. From the projects that are displayed we built two-the box and the bridge. Our bridge is two-sided.Before the kids returned from camp I built a hydraulic crane. We will talk about pressure and force in describing the machines. I will use these two projects to intorduce them to some scientific vocabulary. I will also encourage the kids to look around for situations or real machines where hydraulic implementations are possible.
From Hydraulics we will jump into solar energy and electricity. The associated activities are for next month. This month activities thus far have been a success!

The problems with mass education today

The problem with mass education today is that it was designed for the world as it was some 150 years ago. The FEW instustrial barones did not require intellectuals who can oppose the dictated statusquo; the industrial barones required submissive workers - brainless machines that simply can clock-in and clock-out.

Today the world is different. All industries cry out for creative, independent thinkers. How to find them when the creativity and independence have been delibertaley removed from them starting at the age of 5 in kindergarten!

History textbooks offer an ideal example to illustrate this phenomenon. History textbooks are stuffed with carefully selected "facts", dates, names, etc. What is deemed historical knowledge is memorizing the carefully selected "facts", dates and names.  Thinking about the evolution of ideas, the historical processes and development of social movements is NOT the scope of education. Why? If children learn to question and marvel at the ingenuity of the big stirrers of history they can see the weakess of the societies they live in. This is trouble which even the government of the free does not want to encounter on a large scale. The history lessons become lessons in memorization not lessons in building character and critical-thinking.

Thus, when in January my daughter came home with a "workbook" activity on Martin Luther King, Jr., a celebrated american hero, I decided that it is my duty to show her the dark side of history.

1. We started with reading about the Declaration of Independece - how it came about, how it was defended, what messages it contained, and how daring of a document it was, and yet how weak in its assumptions it was. 
2. We started to reflect on the prejudices of the "founding fathers" by reading about Lincoln and reflecting on slavery and the Civil War. I pointed out that the Emancipation Proclamation was in fact a demonstration of inequality and not a demonstration of freedom. Quite a strange concept for little children provided its premise. Hard lessons are embedded in history.  
3. We touched on the inequal treatment of other groups, women in particular. They won their right to vote through a long campaign. 
4. We are now focusing on the inequalities and denied freedoms of immigrants.
   
   We started with an excellent book "Separate is never equal" which discusses school segragation in the 40s in California based on ethnicity and appearance. Many other themes are alluded to as well: the unequal treatment of veterans due to ethnicity and appearance,  inaccessible schooling due to ethnicity and appearance. All by design, for a reason. When children think of segregation they zoom immediately to the south which is a biased fostered dangerously in our schooling system, to keep the ethnic groups at odds with one another, and the government in power. So, it is important for me to introduce segragation as a general, and far-reaching movement, by design and for a purpose. 
5. We will tackle the segregation in the south as well, soon, again with a picture book. 
6. Then we will read about Rosa Parks. 

Why Rosa Parks? Didn't you start with MLK? Indeed. As I explained to my daughter one day,



MLK was just a representative of a movement which he neither started, nor fueled. He was well connected because as a pastor he was well travelled. He happened to be at the right place at the time when the long-lasting movement of the masses for equal civil rights had grown strong enough to pose danger to the government. The government needed to make peace and MLK was the link they clung to. MLK was nothing more than a representative for a movement that has been growing for decades and that was fueled by the educated among the blacks. No wonder education and independent thinking is feared and was feared. So, yes, I am talking about the actual people who made the civil rights movement possible-mentioning George Washington Carver, Rosa Parks and Ruby Bridges. To ensure that my daughter understood how insignificant MLK was, I told her that he did not do as he preached (nope, his infidelities with prostitutes are not in the textbook, and are not in my daugther's head but a close approximation is).

So, a movement is not a person. A movement is as implied by the root of the word a process and should be treated and represented as such, not lessened by the scope of one man's achievement or ambition. I will go back to immigration because while the creative juices of this country are mainly imported (Steve Jobs, anyone?), immigrants are mistreated for their ethnicity, appearance, customs and accent. In fact, it is often the immigrants themselves who treat each other nastily following the presumption "if I suffered to make it, you will suffer too. no silver platters, buddy.". If you are familiar with the medical field, you can understand how closely related these mentalities are.

Overall, my goal is to show my children that

• we live in a free but imperfect country
• they must know their rights
• they must speak for their rights without fear
• they must question everything and its purpose
• a movement is not a person, but the collective small and large efforts over a period of time of many individuals
• education is power and freedom 

We should not forget about poverty and unequal treatment for people whose financial means are small. So, this powerful little book, will show up again, long before a related Christmas discussion.

We are also reading the Jumgle book which I have never read and which fits perfectly in our work through the injustices of the free world. The jungle is a free world, with laws, but one needs to be educated and guided in order to navigate that space safely and independently. Perfect fit.

Books that go very well with the Jungle book readings are

Jasper's Story-the story of the efforts to save moon bears in Asia. Wonderful story of survival. Inspirational story about our responsibilities to all living creatures.

Wolves is well written as aare most Gibbon's books. It omits some interesting facts about wolves and includes drawings rather than actual pictures of the animals. In order to overcome this I also included in our reading the "The Life cycle of wolves". Both books are accessible to elementary school children and I recommend them

Let's read and find out Rainforest. This is a fairly simple book but we have covered rainforests in detail before. This book served as a very pretty reminder about where the story takes place.

We are also talking about the election processes, another fine example of the imperfections of our democracy. There are fine pieces of literature which help children navigate this new jungle.

Some of our favoties are displayed below.

The government wants people to be fearful. The funniest is that people are willing to fear things they actually want and accept. While this is not a political blog, the theme is, so I will offer by five cents on the topic of the all-so-feared democratic socialism. If you lose your job and want the government to help you out for a while until you get on your feet; if you lose your money on the market and want the government to help you for a bit until you get on your feet; if you cannot pay a doctor and want someone to cover that cost for free, you are using and abusing the social system. If you are benefiting from it, let others do too, even at a higher cost at the time of their need, because at the time of your need it was a higher cost to them.