Happy Halloween!

 We made haunted houses (where you open windows and doors for a scary surprise).

 Choclo did a haunted mountain.

Oob did a haunted castle.

Leena did a coral, haunted by a squid!

 And, of course, we carved pumpkins!

Costume pictures tomorrow!

Mostly Wordless Wednesday: Zoo

I'm Oob's favorite!

Me: What animals do you want to see at the zoo?
Oob: Roseate Spoonbills!

Poem of the Week: Theme in Yellow

Theme in Yellow

By Carl Sandburg

I spot the hills

With yellow balls in autumn.

I light the prairie cornfields

Orange and tawny gold clusters

And I am called pumpkins.

On the last of October

When dusk is fallen

Children join hands

And circle round me

Singing ghost songs

And love to the harvest moon;

I am a jack-o'-lantern

With terrible teeth

And the children know

I am fooling.

HT: Poetry Foundation

Wordless Wednesday: Leaf Walk

Awesome Geography: Japan

We do a lot of things involving Japan, not least because Mxyl speaks Japanese, has been to Japan, and does "fan subbing" for Japanese TV shows.

We decided to do origami as our art project and a Sakura Box (box of random treats from Japan) as our snack.

All I can say is that this was both hilarious and amazing!

Not only were some snacks difficult to translate, there were some snacks (Texas Corn!) that were delicious but completely strange (not really corny and nothing to do with Texas - kinda like cheese balls without cheese).
But super fun!  Of course we did Geography Now's Japan episode, and we also watched some Japanese shorts on The Kid Should See This.

American History

 Was it last week that we went to the American History Museum?  We've been a bit bogged down with doctor visits and I'm losing track!  Fortunately those multiple doctor visits should be slowing down within the next few weeks.

At any rate, we've been wading through Land of Hope.  I can't say I fully endorse it, not that it isn't full of good stuff, but it's more appropriate for college level work, IMHO. Or it would be great for a kid who was fascinated by American history.








Lots of thoughtful pages completely covered with text with scarcely any pictures.  I've ended up skimming chapters and discussing the interesting points they bring up, and that's been surprisingly fruitful.

They have also been rewatching some of Liberty's Kids while I've been off doing doctory stuff.


 Our visits to Fort McHenry and now the American History museum have tied in very well and helped put some visual interest into the concepts.



I do think that the military history exhibit on the top floor is probably the best designed museum exhibit I've ever experienced, both in terms of telling a continuous narrative and telling a complex nuanced story.






In the book we are still in the early years of the country, but we are seeing the set up of many of the conflicts that continue to the present day, and this exhibit was a great way to tie everything together in an interesting discussion.

Poem of the Week: October

October

By Robert Frost

O hushed October morning mild,

Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;

Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,

Should waste them all.

The crows above the forest call;

Tomorrow they may form and go.

O hushed October morning mild,

Begin the hours of this day slow.

Make the day seem to us less brief.

Hearts not averse to being beguiled,

Beguile us in the way you know.

Release one leaf at break of day;

At noon release another leaf;

One from our trees, one far away.

Retard the sun with gentle mist;

Enchant the land with amethyst.

Slow, slow!

For the grapes’ sake, if they were all,

Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,

Whose clustered fruit must else be lost—

For the grapes’ sake along the wall.

HT: Poetry Foundation
Image HT: Garry Gay

How to Build an Easy Ramp

Our house doesn't have a lot of steps to get inside.

The front door has two steps to get onto the porch and a sort of half step to actually get in the door.  There is no railing, nor any good way to make a railing.

The side door only has one step, but it's about 7 inches tall.  This is easier if you have someone that has trouble with steps.


On a good day, my dad can manage that step, but on a bad day, I don't want him to have to try, so we built a ramp.

If you haven't used a wheelchair, that probably looks like an enormous ramp for one step, but it's actually a tiny bit shy of the recommended "one foot of ramp for every inch of height."

The ramp itself is just over 6 feet long instead of 7 because I wanted to leave enough room at the end for him to turn his chair (the car port is only 10 feet wide).

I had a hard time finding simple directions to build a ramp, so I'm putting this out there!

Materials: I bought one sheet of flooring plywood, two 2 x 6 boards, some nails, and some traction tape.

How to (short version):

I had the store cut the plywood to 3 feet by 6 feet (keeping the scrap wood).

I cut the 2 x 6s into 4 (6 foot) diagonals.

I nailed the 3 x 6 foot board onto the diagonals.

I nailed the scrap wood onto the bottom of the ramp.

(optional) I spray painted the ramp and added traction tape.

More detail:

The hard part was cutting the correct angle on the 2 x 6s to make the supports. The easiest thing would be to start by cutting them to a 6 foot length.

I used 2 thumbtacks and a length of string to mark the angle.  I put one thumbtack at the corner of the board and put the other tack 6 feet away on the other edge (forming a diagonal line).  I rubbed the line with chalk and then snapped the line against the board so that it left a clear line of the diagonal.   I cut along that line with a circular saw (use a blade with large teeth).

Each of those cuts gives you two 6 foot diagonal boards, so, when you do the second board, you'll have 4 supports.

You space them evenly and nail the top board to those supports.

Now, the thing to remember is that the plywood flooring is about a half inch thick.  Your supports are 5.5 inches tall (2 x 6 is actually 1.5 x 5.5).  I needed another half inch, so I used the scrap wood to make a bottom for the ramp.  This gave it the correct height  (6.5 inches was close enough) and added stability.

Optional: I added a metal edge on one side as a guide to keep wheels from going over the edge). 
I also spray painted it to make it look more finished.  My dad has some trouble with his eyes, so I painted it white for high contrast, then oversprayed it lightly with blue to make dirt show less. 

I finished up by adding traction tape.

I keep saying "I" but this ended up being a home school project!  And a big thanks to my mom and dad for teaching my enough carpentry to make stuff!

Wordless Wednesday: American History Museum

Awesome Geography: Nepal

Following along Geography Now Nepal



Our art activity was this torn paper mountain scene. 

We tore light and dark gray construction paper for the mountains and light and dark green for the hills.

We accented the "mountains" with white chalk pastels to suggest snow, then did a little more on the blue paper to make clouds. 

If it isn't obvious, you generally put the lighter color behind the darker color to give atmospheric perspective.

 I loved the way it came out!

For our snack we made Himalayan flatbreads  (pretty much chapatis) which we ate with Momo sauce.

Our active activity was supposed to be Dandi Biyo, or at least a variant, but we ran out of time.  I guess the active part was rolling out chapatis!  

Also, we all loved the Momo sauce!  Choclo said it was spicy like Indian food and spicy like Mexican food at the same time (guess who likes spicy food?).  But it wasn't overwhelmingly spicy to me, and I have a much lower spice tolerence.

Poem of the Week: The Highwayman

The Highwayman

By Alfred Noyes

PART ONE

The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees.   

The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas.   

The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,   

And the highwayman came riding—

         Riding—riding—

The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.

He’d a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,   

A coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin.

They fitted with never a wrinkle. His boots were up to the thigh.   

And he rode with a jewelled twinkle,

         His pistol butts a-twinkle,

His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.

Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard.

He tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred.   

He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there   

But the landlord’s black-eyed daughter,

         Bess, the landlord’s daughter,

Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked

Where Tim the ostler listened. His face was white and peaked.   

His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay,   

But he loved the landlord’s daughter,

         The landlord’s red-lipped daughter.

Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say—

“One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I’m after a prize to-night,

But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;

Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,   

Then look for me by moonlight,

         Watch for me by moonlight,

I’ll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way.”

He rose upright in the stirrups. He scarce could reach her hand,

But she loosened her hair in the casement. His face burnt like a brand

As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;   

And he kissed its waves in the moonlight,

         (O, sweet black waves in the moonlight!)

Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and galloped away to the west.

Part 2 and Tip o the hat to Poetry Foundation