Favorite Holiday Music No. 17 - 12 Days (the David Chase remix)

I laughed until my eyes were tearing almost constantly the first time I heard David Chase's arrangement of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" as performed by the Boston Pops and the Tanglewood Festival Chorus under the direction of the fabulously brilliant Keith Lockhart.  The maestro has this to say about the piece:

"I knew we had a winning new arrangement of 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' when we premiered it in 2007, but the audience's enthusiastic response night after night was unlike anything I've ever seen at the Pops," said Boston Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart.  "Then a flood of letters and phone calls came in requesting a recording of the new arrangement-an incredibly creative twist on one of the greatest Christmas-time classics. We knew then and there that we would make a recording of 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' and that it would become a staple of our Holiday season programming." 

The piece is available for sale in various audio download formats at the BSO website.   There's a commercial for it on the BSO's YouTube channel and as a free podcast on iTunes that lets you hear little snippets, but the music is mostly covered up by the voiceover, unfortunately.

added on the afternoon of 12/23:
You might just be able to catch a live performance of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" via Classical New England online live streaming on Christmas Eve at 7 p.m., EST.  Check out this link to see what else Classical New England has to offer this holiday season.


And I didn't mention it earlier, but this arrangement of the familiar carol has snippets of music from Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Offenbach, Souza, Saint-Saens & Tchaikovsky to Rogers & Hammerstein and even an unexpected appearance by a popular seventies British rock band whose name I will not mention for fear of spoiling the surprise.  It is truly an inventive re-imagining of the original song, and David Chase gets my highest respect for coming up with it!

As an aside, the one new Christmas picture book I bought this year (I can't believe it was only one!) was Laurel Long's Twelve Days of Christmas, which is absolutely gorgeous.

Happy Holidays!

Even Cleverbot knows the Truth.

Jazz's first conversation with Cleverbot went as follows:

!!!!!!!

More "Family Trees"

I mentioned a little while ago that I'd post more pictures from our museum visit to see these wonderful trees that are decorated in the theme of children's books.  I already can't wait for next year's crop!

The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg (sorry, no flash permitted in the museum)

Hitty--Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field

Orange Peel's Pocket by Rose Lewis with illustrations by Grace Zong

Little Women (I'm wondering if there is an Alcott tree each year.  It would seem a sin not to have one in this town.)

Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney and illustrated by Anita Jeram (a family favorite of ours)

An activity to go along with the above tree

"I love you as much as Christmas morning." Quite the statement, I thought.

How Full Is Your Bucket for Kids (new to me, but sweet and not *too* in your face with the message for us, at least the first time through it.)

This was probably my favorite tree: A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead with illustratations by Erin Stead

I'm a sucker for a cute owl.  The penguin doesn't hurt, either.

Another family favorite: If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff, illustrated by the fabulous Felicia Bond

So cute!

Alice through the Looking Glass

According to one of the docents, this one figurine took the woman who created the "Alice" tree forty hours to complete!

Happy Holidays, all!

Favorite Holiday Music No. 16 - Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704)

Baroque composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier wrote a Christmas mass based on four French carols, each of which is sung preceding the movement it inspired.  The fourth and last carol is the one in the YouTube video above, and is performed by the Aradia Ensemble under the direction of Kevin Mallon.  Find the cd or mp3 download of the entire Messe de Minuit pour Nöel here.

Wordless Wednesday - Family Trees

Wordless Wednesday - The Halloween that Wasn't

Wordless Wednesday - Finally, Frost!

Wordless Wednesday - An Autumn Avenue

Wordless Wednesday - It's Apple Picking Time

No comment.

Weekly Wrap-Up: Sept. 26-30

I'm going to experiment with writing a summary of what my home learners did each week just as several of my friends do with their kids.  Hopefully this idea will lend itself to more regular blog posts and also give me a little bit of extra motivation to get something done at home even when none of us feels like it!

We're still slowly adding in subjects as September comes to a close.  Grammar Town, Writing With Skill, and Artistic Pursuits start next week!

JaneG. is thrilled with Spelling Workout--spelling is quickly becoming her favorite subject.  She completed one lesson and began the next this week.

Teaching Textbooks Math isn't a favorite, but it is getting the job done with few tears and complaints.  She is more concerned with her score than I thought she would be, and aims for 100+ percent for each lesson.  She completed seven lessons this week.

Jane is slowly getting a handle on Vocabulary from Classical Roots, and finished the first lesson with a smile on her face.  Her least favorite part is reading about each lesson's words and roots; she prefers the activities that help her to learn the definitions.

We began science this week by learning about the scientific method while reading Stephen P. Kramer's How to Think Like a Scientist.  Using well-written passages that are a pleasure to read aloud, Kramer tells stories to illustrate how the scientific method works.  Charming pictures by Felicia Bond (If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, et. al.) are the icing on the cake.  Highly recommended, and we'll be looking for more books by Kramer, a former junior high school biology teacher.  School Library Journal puts this book at the 3rd-5th grade reading level.

Jane read some of Thorkill of Iceland: Viking Hero-Tales, and explored the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia's entries about the Vikings.  I helped her find one important thing in each section in the encyclopedia to write down in her history notebook.

Both Jane and J.J. listened to several read-alouds this week, including the Story of the World chapters that have to do with the Vikings.  The D'Aulaires book  Leif the Lucky was read and enjoyed as well.  We're going to give The Children of Odin by Padraic Colum (whose Children's Homer we so enjoyed a couple of years ago) a go next week.

J.J. continues to show reluctance to learn how to read, and would prefer to play with Lego rather than work in his Miquon math book.  He completed a math lesson or two, though, and several pages of Explode the Code.  He listened to his first (in his memory) Jack & Annie book this week, and is showing signs of developing a Magic Tree House passion already.  Both Dogs in the Dead of Night (monks in the Alps)  and Polar Bears Past Bedtime (the Arctic) had a (loose) tie-in or two to the Vikings that I took full advantage of.  Now if I could just find our copy of Viking Ships at Dawn, I'd be a happy homeschooling parent.

Jazz is at the charter school, happily reading and discussing The Outsiders, writing personal narratives, learning some algebra, and getting to know many kids his own age.  He's still finding his way, but he seems to be enjoying the journey.

Remembering Jim Henson

My kids and I were privileged to experience Jim Henson's Fantastic World at the National Heritage Museum in Lexington, MA in the spring of 2010.  There were several short films available to view within the exhibit, and this one was one of our favorites.



For more to watch, check out The Jim Henson Company on YouTube.

Happy birthday to a much missed genius!

Wordless Wednesday: Down on the Farm, or Over the River and through the Woods. . .

All photos by Jazz, 13

Ch-ch-ch-changes

To borrow from the Scottish poet for a moment:

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley.

I hadn't written up our homeschooling plans for the fall on this blog quite yet, though we did start back on Tuesday with a few subjects after an August hiatus for camp and vacation.  We generally ease back into things oh-so-gradually, and were following that pattern, when a call from a local charter school came the day after we'd begun.  Jazz's number was up.

We'd originally applied to this school, which is part of the Coalition of Essential Schools, when Jazz was halfway through his sixth grade year of homeschooling.  He was waitlisted.  The school has three or more applicants for every space available, so we weren't too surprised, and we were grateful that his number wasn't in the triple digits like it was for a couple of our homeschooling friends.

This past spring we learned that he'd moved up to #14 for 8th grade, which was a vast improvement on his initial number but, since the school generally sees a turnover of 0-3 students between 7th and 8th grade, we didn't expect him to get in for this year.  But we were hopeful for 9th grade, so this year (2011-2012) was supposed to be our Big Push, the Last Chance to Get Everything Done.  We were planning to do a lightning round of Joy Hakim's A History of US (three weeks per book), get two years of math done in a matter of months (via Teaching Textbooks), dissect frogs & other slimy creatures plus view onions and a whole host of living and formerly living things under the microscope while noting it all down like good classical homeschoolers via Classiquest Biology, and forge ahead with Michael Clay Thompson's language arts programs, as well as read literature on a regular basis, including several Great Books.  Oh, and we were also to begin our study of R.E.A.L. Homeschool Spanish, since that is the foreign language option at the charter school.

With the exception of MCT's Caesar's English, which Jazz wants to keep going with on his own, none of what we planned will be part of Jazz's education this year.  I'm mourning the loss, even while realizing that accomplishing the list above was probably somewhat idealistic, especially with a 5th grader and a 1st grader tagging along.  At the same time, I know he will be energized by his exposure to new teachers and peers and ideas, and will be motivated by someone other than Mom, which is a great thing for this kid at this age.

Essential Schools follow ten Common Principles, which list is one of the things that drew us to this charter school in the first place.  They are definitely ideals that apply to our homeschooling philosophy, as well.  My favorites are the following:

• learning to use one's mind well 
• less is more: depth over breadth
• student-as-worker, teacher-as-coach
• a tone of decency and trust

The following few weeks will bring many adjustments for Jazz and for the rest of us, who are trying to figure out what shape our home education will take now that the driving force of the year is no longer present.  Wish us luck!

Mutual of Omaha presents. . .

. . . our backyard.  ☺   (That's a seventies tv reference for those of you old enough to remember it.)  It's been a hotbed of wildlife activity around here since spring.  Here are a few of our sightings, and some pictures, such as they are.

One.

Two.

You guessed it.

We have a hawk's nest in the woods directly behind our house and have had fun watching the three youngsters grow stronger (and louder).  Needless to say, we haven't seen that many squirrels and chipmunks hanging around, or at least not for long. . .

We think this is Mama, keeping a watchful eye on the proceedings.

Wild turkeys seem to be overtaking this area of Massachusetts, and we have one that enjoys a shady corner of our backyard.  She can be seen hanging out there from time to time before turkey-stepping back into the woods.

"Our" robin was back several weeks ago, using last year's nest in our holly bush by our front walk.  This location made it easy for the kids to peek carefully at the nest every couple of days or so.  That blue of the eggs is my favorite color.  And it was such a treat to watch the mother bird give the babies flying lessons.  As they went from hatchlings to being out of the nest and hopping about the yard to flying, it amazed me again how quickly they go from being newborns to fending for themselves.

Other birds love the woods here, and we've had visits from our friendly neighborhood downy woodpeckers are well as a pair of red-bellied woodpeckers, among others.

Downies

We also sighted a snake, a painted turtle, and a snapping turtle, all within days of each other, all on our smallish suburbanish property.

All this busy-ness keeps our own not-so-wildlife happy.