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.

July, one strange summer month

This month ballet girl is attending a day camp. She loves it. It is a great preparation for next year when in July she will be at Portuguese camp in the woods of Minnesota.

This month, we managed to slowly get back to a routine in regards to reviewing things and moving on with new material.

Portuguese

We started reviewing things we should be solid on, such as animals, colors, common objects and expressions. We moved on to read a book about dolphins and a book about a rabbit, Felpo Filva.
We also spend more time speaking Portuguese to each other. Ballet girl also received her own account at Elefante Letrado which is the equivalent to the US version of RazKidz. For us the program is proving fabulous because it is teaching correct pronunciation and new words in familiar way. At camp we learned about Turma da Monica, so I found a link with revistas. I also uploaded many Turma da Monica videos which I found on YouTube.

For next year, we will move on with 2 formal lessons per week. Reading, writing and oral requirement for ballet girl. The little man is mainly going to work on expending his vocabulary and putting phrases together.

Math

Ballet girl is working on the multiplication table and she already understands and knows the algorithm for multiplication of multi-digit numbers. She also learned that multiplication can be thought of as finding area. For this we reviewed the basic geometry we learned last fall. We carried the analogy to the multiplication of fractions. She also learned about telling time, adding intervals to time, and obtaining intervals from two time stamps.

The little man is fluent with addition and subtraction of multi-digit numbers. He understands division and multiplication, and in particular knows that axb=bxa and can show it. He also knows the trick for multiplication by 10 and knows how to demonstrate this. We are moving through fractions, and I think by the time school begins we will wrap up Singapore Math 2B with him.

With Ballet Girl we will tackle Singapore Math, level 5 and master Singapore Math, level 4.
For the little man, we will move into multiplication of multidigit numbers, and we will begin Singapore Math level 3.


English

We did not read as much this time around, because the reading time has been mostly occupied by Portuguese. However, we tackled a few books. One was rather dull and it dragged and dragged (Shiver's the pirate who was afraid of everything), so at page 92, I stopped and that was the end of that book. We moved on to read The Wednesday Witch which so far is rather nice and peaceful. We also read books about the bigger rivers in the world from the series, Rivers Around the World. Here is a link to the selection at the Amazon store. These are simple, the message is the same, and consistency for the early ages is very important. There are also the Let's read and find out about science books which we like and is very appropriate to the elementary school level. Here is one about water on our planet which we read and loved.

Ballet girl will be expected to read independently each day, do copy work once a week, spelling lesson twice a week which will incorporate a dictation portion.
The concentration for the little man is learning to read phonetically. We have started with the Bob Books and we will move on from there.

Bulgarian

Ballet girl is a fluent, even if a reluctant reader. Ballet boy is getting surely there as well. They continue to speak mostly in Bulgarian, they listen to stories in the car. I need to upgrade the CDs but this is going well. We will just need to maintain and not forget and expand by reading, reading, reading. In a few years, we can start reading the big books we have. For now we are on repeat with the children's books and the books borrowed from the library which I translate during read-aloud time.

We will study sentences and some very basic grammar with ballet girl. For the little man, the emphasis will be on reading.


Piano

Also great progress. The little man is interested, he sits and plays. At the moment he is not expected to do anything and it is up to him to entertain his desires. Formal lessons for him start in August. Ballet girl is moving on, she is currently on piece 10 from the second Suzuki book. We stayed on some pieces for ever last year which ticked me off but it was well worth it. Because we measure the success in this arena not by the amount but by the quality. Practice for her is not as much fun, but because she is used to it, she sticks with it. Also I have noticed that if she encounters a tough spot she herself allocates enough tries to get it right. So, she does not practice by a fixed time but by accomplishment, by making progress.

For the young lady the focus will be on technique and music theory as she works through the pieces. For the little man, the goal is to get him started on a good journey and make it part of him.

Everything Else

Soccer in the fall, Ballroom dance in the winter and the spring, and swimming next summer. I learned my lesson from a year ago not to overdo it and not to rush-there is time for everything. Activities need to be enjoyable for everyone.

Trips

We have not taken any major trips in July but we will probably go to the Hesston Steam Museum this month. In the next two months, I hope to go to St.Louis and climb the Arch. At the moment I don't have any solid plans but as I mentioned under the Portuguese section, next year in the summer, we plan to return to the family Portuguese camp and ballet girl will be off to her first 2-weeks sleep-away camp. I am so confident that it will be a good experience for her for a few reasons-she already knows a lot of the staff and some of them are regulars, come year after year; she also made friends and some of them are coming back next year; and some of her local Portuguese-speaking friends will be going to camp too:)

UPDATES:

Elefante Letrado

It is a good program to expose my child to hearing Portuguese spoken correctly. However, I don’t think that the product is well done. Here are my daughter’s and my objections:

• 1.       There is no check when she has completed an activity.
• 2.       The books do not appear to be leveled. What I mean is that some of the earlier levels contain hard words which are easy to guess and I assume the method that is implemented is sight-reading. However, the Portuguese language is relatively easy to read and I think that books focusing on systematic rules for the lower levels are more appropriate.
• 3.       I find the teacher interface difficult to navigate. When I try to add books at a more advanced level I see books but I cannot add them. It is not clear to me why after my daughter has clearly demonstrated reading, hearing a book and answering quizzes, she is not given credit for these activities.
• 4.       The number of books under the more advanced levels is limited which to me demonstrates that the product is still in its infancy.

Mar e Floresta

Usually when I enjoy something I become obsessed to find out all there is to find out. So, I searched and searched and reviewed past pictures, online posts about the past summer camps; found out who are the people who teach your kids Portuguese and I concluded the following:

• 1.       The for credit program, having not experienced it personally, is nonsense. Why? First of all, think about it, the claim is that in 4 summers, 1 month each (4 summers overall) you will learn Portuguese-you will speak, write and read at the level of a student with 4 years of language training! In sixteen weeks! Did you learn your native language in 16 weeks? If you are a programmer, did you learn to program in 16 weeks? In 16 weeks you cannot begin to scratch the surface of learning a language. Language learning is a very complicated task-it involves learning pronunciation, learning idioms, learning grammar! And did you learn your native language from instructions by your gym teacher or your first grade teacher? Yes, you learned a little, but it took you years to become proficient in topics by interactions with teachers who have received more specialized trainings. Yes, elementary school teachers can definitely help you get going, but they are not the source of more advanced language skills. Don’t take me wrong, these people who come are fabulous-they are nice, passionate about their language and they genuinely want to teach you, but you will get the most basic level. No wonder teachers at the high school level are required to have solid language experience and mastery of the language at advanced levels. You will be exposed to more by the interaction with a real, professionally trained teacher. You will learn something but you have to put more effort to maintain and better yet grow what you catch here, when you are at home. Learning a language above all requires time, patience and practice; definitely not sporadic 4-week spurs. This are great add-on but are not a sufficient condition for language acquisition.
• 2.       The program is very repetitive. The songs, the activities are rotated over and over. There is very little new material year over year. There is very little ahead planning. Most of the planning is done on the spot at the time of camp. I understand that because up until the camp starts the counselors are not sure about the spread of knowledge of the attendees. However, wouldn’t you want to have a curriculum, or set expectations that need to be covered and met? The counselors feel stressed because they have to think on their feet, and I understand that. Both issues will be resolved if there were some form of a curriculum.
• 3.        I think that to benefit most from the experience you should only look on it as one input, not as the sole source. You need to learn all the grammar and reading on your own or with a trained teacher. Then come to camp to practice, practice, and practice and be immersed in a form you cannot experience at home. Basically, learn the hard stuff at home and come here to practice what you have learned, get a sense of the Brazilian ways, and make friends. Don’t come here to actually learn Portuguese. Do your homework first and come here to master it, get the snippets and intricacies that you cannot get on your own.

Piano

I realized that the best use of the lesson time is to get as much technical stuff done at home and in class get the technical tricks and musical theory and culture that you cannot deduce on your own. For example, I would go to my classes with my pieces read out and the music more or less down hands together. During the lesson I would be coached on improving my motions on the keyboard, on understanding and following the dynamic, on different ways of thinking about the sections of the piece and strategies for mastering the tricky spots. If I hadn’t done the pre-work I would have taken extra four classes to master what I mastered in four. Basically, leave as much time to drain the knowledge from your teacher. This is what you are really paying for, not the actual technical assembly of hands synching to produce sound. This is the easy stuff and requires time. The hard is understanding the music and making it what it was meant to be.

Trip

We traveled. We drove to Arkansas to see friends that we have not seen in four years. It was lovely.

The first day we drove to Jefferson City, MO and passed by Lincoln's house in Springfield, IL. It was a spot on activity-my daughter remembered and was impressed by a lot of what she saw. My son, too, was quite impressed with the organization of the homes, to the relative position of each room, to the details within each room. Both kids sat through the informative movie, asked the ranger lady good questions, followed the rules. Great experience getting in touch with history. Passing though the streets of Springfield we saw the dome of the Senate and learned that this is where the laws of Illinois are made by senators.

We spent the night at Jefferson City and on the way out noticed the dome of its senate, thus realizing that we are in the capital of Missouri! Lucky on my part as my US geography is very weak. Driving through MO reminded me a lot of Bulgaria, and my native region in particular-the rocks, the cliffs, the farms.

Entering Arkansas was also very exciting. The terrain changed, there was a river by the side of the road. The people were very friendly and gave us so much useful information. While in Arkansas, we visited two museums.

The first museum, the Museum of Native American history, was recommended by the lady at the visitor center off the highway. It was a wonderful museum. The visit was self-directed with the aide of portable remote controls which at the press of the button with the number of an artifact detailed information about the artifact. This is how I first learned about atl-atl and intend to make one and try one during the summer. We learned and saw things used by people during different parts of human history, looked at solutions they have found for common problems that we solve even today. Living history and a great experience. I loved the fact that the museums were small and very cozy and very personal. I could stop and read all the information, ask the lady at the desk questions and not worry about the whereabouts of the kids. There were hands-on activities for them too but the best was the living, life-size, real objects.

At the museum I received a recommendation to go to another museum, the Museum of the Ozarks. The Ozarks is not a tribe, which is what I initially thought. The Ozarks is the name of an area. It may have been derived from the name of a tribe as in Aux Arks by the french. However it is derived, the name stands for a region and the people and the history of the people within this region. What is impressive about this museum was that the history spanned prehistory all the way to the modern world. To me it meant a lot. I did take US history class but I learned nothing. I do remember hearing about the new deal but I don't know anything about it. Well, in this museum I learned how the new deal impacted the local life and how it is still present, in ever weaker way, today. History became from an abstract object a very relevant, living, vivid part of my life. And yes, this museum too, was small and cozy, child and parent friendly. Here we found a great coloring book of horses for the girl and a nice set of lincoln-logs type of set for the boy! I loved the museums of the south and I loved the friendliness of the people of the south. I was happy and well-received down there. A very charming place.

While in Arkansas we went to a trampoline place and a roller-skating indoor place. In both places the kids had wonderful time but what impressed me most about the local kids was how patient and attentive they were of one another-patient to take turns and wait in line, looking out for others' safety and extremely polite.

On the way back, we drove to Saint Louis. I wanted to go sightseeing but the morning was too cold and the weather report was for challenging driving conditions so I opted out for leaving early and arriving safely which we did. Before we walked home we made a final stop at our favorite pizzeria to feed and warm-up! A good way to spend the holidays with friends and learn and appreciate the country we live in a bit more.

Our friends were wonderful-they opened their doors and welcomed us in their home. The kids played beautifully together and were respectful of one another. Parting was difficult and was accompanied with tears by all but we will soon see each other again. I felt happy, relieved and content.