Yellow House Homeschool Treat

June 12, 2008UncategorizedPenny

Today was our annual trip to the fairground park, carefully timed to coincide with nice weather and a school day. We thought we would never manage to get the two together! So our day started kind of like this: Mike complaining about how boring all the rides were and insisting that he’d be taking Antonia on this Boomerang thing before she’s very much older, never mind the fact that you have to be 15 cms taller than she is now. So here he is, waiting to be turned upside-down at Mach speed on the Boomerang and he would like us to think he is waving!

Shortly after lunch, it became apparent that the rides were so ‘boring’ that he would stick with the position of official photographer instead.

Nothing would induce him to abandon his new vocation and get back on a ride.

As for me, I don’t think I’ve had so much fun since last year. Of course, we didn’t have to queue once, and if we wanted to take a ride several times, we just stayed on it. There was only about one other kid in the entire park of Antonia’ age, though there were a couple of coach loads of middle school kids on their end of year treat. The place was so quiet that the attendants were willing to watch Antonia while we went on ‘big kid’ rides. We managed a couple, before Mike discovered his new purpose in photography. Antonia was thrilled with the whole day, and, at the end, exhausted. Between us, we took over a hundred rides. It was great!

Fox

June 10, 2008Nature StudyNature StudyPenny

It’s not often we see a fox in broad daylight, though there are lots around. This one was tempted by fallen cherries. The jays sit up in the cherry tree stuffing their beaks and dropping half of what they pick on the ground. We don’t mind because we have two cherry trees, and the one that ripens earliest doesn’t produce very nice fruit. We protect the other one by hanging CDs in it, which sort of works, maybe.

My darlings are back!

June 8, 2008UncategorizedPenny

Mike and Antonia returned from a 24 hour excursion to a high mountain refuge, followed by lunch at a friend’s on the way back. I had my reasons for not going, but the main one was that I wanted to get some work finished. Antonia returned full of vulgar jokes, barbaric markings (felt-tip pen), and tall traveler’s tales.

She had seen many things she half understood: a cannon at the top of a mountain with a man standing beside it… she saw this through binoculars, but nobody else saw it… her friend M. was to attend a ceremony where he was to give everyone bread and say something she couldn’t quite remember about bodies … (First communion. She was heartily shocked when I told her her friend was a Christian! It’s not as if we keep her in a box or anything, but she hadn’t put all the bits of information together)…

… She had the judgment of character and the temerity to ask the Master of the House what kind of child he liked least. He replied, “The kind that tears the House apart.” … She had enough experience of her nearest and dearest to drag her father through the door of the House before his parting remarks on WiFi were concluded, lest they miss lunch … She made some accurate observations on the behaviour of dogs, especially young partially trained ones … Her remarks on natural history were detailed, but astonishing: she saw foxgloves of every colour of the rainbow, or was it bluebells? She saw a multi-coloured spider, the size of my big toe, which shot liquid at them from its bottom (spinnarets?) She was able to assure everyone it was venomous, which she had on the authority of all of her grandparents. (One of these experts is more than usually ignorant of nature, and they all live 6000 miles apart, so I don’t know how they came to know the same kinds of spider) … Oh! and by the way, she saw a marmot from the window of the refuge in the morning. Now that does sound accurate, and even exciting, as they are shy.

I was completely fascinated. If a child’s willingness to tell you everything they have been doing and seeing is an indicator of a good relationship, then there is nothing wrong with ours. True, we fell out only ten minutes later, over the question of whether I would hang around acting as her lady-in-waiting while she teased me incessantly with names I dislike, or whether I would, instead, go and chat with my husband. But, she didn’t exactly clam up on me then either.

I went downstairs to chat with my husband. I told him it was lucky we had a dentist appointment for Monday, since the main part of my crown (of which I lost a chunk about 2 months ago) came out last night, and was now sitting in our house museum. He said, “I told you so! Didn’t I tell you so? Well it’s no good expecting me to do anything about it now!”. I replied that I hadn’t asked him to do any thing about it, and he said: “Of course you didn’t…. BUT, if you HAD, I wouldn’t have been able to.”

So there.

I’m taking up archaeology

June 7, 2008UncategorizedPenny

With my translation project slowly drawing to a close, nothing would do but I must sign up with the Open University again. I was missing it! And as Antonia becomes more independent I am starting to look towards my plan for a Masters degree and eventually perhaps a doctorate. Starting in September I will be taking a course in archaeology. I have lots of other plans and my dear husband is quaking in his boots, in fear of their cost. I don’t blame him either, it’s appalling how much extra I have to pay by living in Europe.

I don’t think my next course will qualify me to work on digs or anything like that, but I hope I’ll have the background to understand archaeology as it applies to areas of art history I’m interested in. In the meantime, I’ve realised that I’m not going to be able to approach future study in the same leisurely manner I adopted in the past. I’m going to have to squeeze my reading, and writing too, into short, intensive bursts, surrounded by periods of interruption. These are not my best working conditions.

So… I’m developing a new method of note-taking, that involves taking the notes before reading the book. (I love typing that with a straight face). Seriously, though, I’ve decided it will make my life easier if my notes are based on the expanded book structure, and I can get the first part of that from the table of contents and headings. I insert extra parts that might have been subheadings if the authors had chosen to go wild in that particular direction. Then I can quickly scan it and markup any parts that are likely to be relevant for particular questions, and include any further research or action items I need to do in separate headings. I use a mindmapping software called FreeMind for this. So far it seems to be working quite well. I am finally working on reading my way properly through Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice as an introduction to the course which I think may be more content based. It is a thick tome full of useful, well, theories, methods and practices many of which are more applicable to some interests than others. So far I am getting through it pretty quick so maybe my method works!

I’ve done huge amounts of reading this week. The hard thing is going to be finding the right balance.

Virtual travel: Vietnam

June 6, 2008GeographyGeographyPenny

I’m doing a fun thing for myself whereby I choose a country each week and find out something new about it. It won’t necessarily be a representative overview of that place, but a little something eclectic, eccentric or interesting. I have a list of countries, and country-like areas that I feed into random.org. My country for the week is the one that gets placed randomly at the top of the list. This week it was Vietnam.

I started out thinking that all I knew about Vietnam was the war. I had even forgotten that it had also been colonised by the French at one point in it’s history. I began wondering how the Vietnamese people feel about the war now, and how they remember it. I found one answer to this, but not before I discovered something more cheerful: the poems of the 18th Century poetess Ho Xuan Huong. These are usually erotic in an intellectual kind of way. These two translations of The Jackfruit give the idea.

Jackfruit, trans. John Balaban

My body is like the jackfruit on the branch:
My skin is coarse, my meat is thick.

Kind sir, if you love me, pierce me with your stick.
Caress me and sap will slicken your hands.

The Jackfruit, trans. Nguyen Ngoc Bich

I am like a jackfruit on the tree.
To taste you must plug me quick, while fresh:
the skin rough, the pulp thick, yes,
but oh, I warn you against touching –
the rich juice will gush and stain your hands.

You can find several translations of her poems on the Internet, but I liked this page because it reproduced the poems in the original language side by side with an English version, and you can get an idea of the original rhythms. I wish there were sound files of the originals so we could get an even better idea.

This turned out to be one page in a very beautiful project, a site with articles about 54 things that the author chose as representative aspects of Vietnamese culture. The choices include individuals, like Ho Xuan Huong, concepts like education and everyday objects like bamboo and boats. There is also a page on Griefs of War and one on French Men, so it was interesting to get a perspective on those two aspects of Vietnamese history. There are enough references to all sorts of literature, film and history here that anyone following them all up would certainly learn a great deal about Vietnamese culture. For now, I just enjoyed reading the site and musing on all the ideas. It was also interesting to think about what I would choose as representative of my own culture if I had to make a similar list. It seems that the author of this site may be currently living and working in France.

Vietnam seems to be one of the more densely populated countries on the planet, but it still has a lot of natural beauty. I enjoyed this gallery of photographs from various parts of the country. The photo above is not part of the gallery, where copyright presumably applies. Instead it comes from Wikipedia.

Next week I’m going to Argentina, virtually!

Multiplication tables

June 5, 2008MathematicsMathematicsPenny

We have reached the stage in maths where Antonia is learning multiplication tables – and enjoying it! It’s the kind of thing that appeals to her. I know there are lots of methods around, but here is the one we chose.

We have a set of dominoes that goes up to 12 | 12. The ones we are working with go face down on the table and we pick them in random order. Obviously we started with the easiest ones: anything multiplied by 0, or 1. Then anything multiplied by 10, or 11 up to 11 x 9. Then we did 2 and 5 which was relatively easy, since Antonia can already count in 2’s and 5’s. After that we started taking out the easiest dominoes and adding new ones, one at a time. Her choice of which domino to add is a bit eclectic, so she is not learning the tables in any particular order. This may be a good thing. Also with this method, she realises very easily that 2 x 9 and 9 x 2 are the same multiplicationa and don’t have to be learned twice.

I feel it’s going quite quickly, as we are doing the tables up to 12 x 12 and we are now down to 20 dominoes still to learn. For some reason, the French schools seem to take about three years to get through the multiplication tables, but that seems excessive. I’ve also noted that she is good at recalling the multiplications she knows when it come to doing problems in her maths book. I think avoiding the rote learning of reciting multiplication tables in order may be helpful.

Carpe Diem

June 3, 2008UncategorizedPenny

Mike claims that Carpe Diem means ‘seize the carp’!

We all know perfectly well that this is not the case. But today we seized the one day in the foreseeable past and future when it was not raining and we did not have some prior engagement, and took off to a water garden not too far from where we live. It was beautiful and interesting, with plants in flower, petrifying fountains, insects, sculptures, water chimes, … and coach-loads of school kids getting their education.

I was able to observe that Antonia’s allergy to school has not decreased one little bit. Whenever she saw them, she headed determinedly in the opposite direction. We still got close enough to see that they spent their time being herded around in crocodile formation, getting told off for taking up space and making noise and being lectured about plant types. I’m still kind of wondering if they actually learned more from this experience than my kid did. I half suspect that neither the school-kids nor Antonia actually ingested that much new information. What I do know is that she had a lovely time appreciating and observing everything the garden had to offer.

I think the school kids were mostly bored. The other interesting thing that happened is that as the garden was fairly small and closed, we told Antonia she could go where she liked as long as she was on the paths. Practically as soon as she was out of our sight, one of the gardeners assumed that she was with a school party and either lost or playing truant and ordered her back to her guardians. That was kind of strange!

All in all we had a nice time, and as I type the rain has set back in again.

Indian films for children

June 1, 2008Arts and CraftsArts and CraftsPenny

I want to write about two Indian films for children that may interest those who like to offer their kids a multi-cultural perspective.

I just saw this movie, which has the title Behind The Mirror in English. I was by myself, as Antonia and Mike decided they were too tired to trek to a cinema out of town. It’s probably just as well, as I would recommend it more for older children (10+) and teenagers. It’s a relatively slow moving film that depends on complex ideas and immerses the viewer completely in Indian culture. Really young kids may not get so much out of it, unless they already have some contact with India. This is really a ‘thinking film’, about the loss of ancestral cultures and the mitigated advantages of modernity that affect many of us to various extents. The film also raises interesting questions about the education of children and their autonomy in choosing their own path in life.

I also regretted seeing this film with the French voiceover. I thought it clashed badly with the Indian mannerisms of the actors. But watching subtitled films is obviously a much harder proposition for young children. That’s why the film was voiced-over in the first place: the organiser’s were aiming at the 6+ crowd.

The theme of the film is the clash of cultures between generations. The little boy, Anirudh, has grown up in the big city. His parents both work all hours, and so does he, at school! The father abandoned his ancestral culture, which he’s inclined to see as primitive and backward. But circumstances force him to take his son back to his home town and leave him with his mother for a while. Anirudh is fascinated by the painted havelis and learns that his grandfather was a painter. He aspires to learn to paint and draw himself. This does not fit in with his father’s vision of the boy’s future.

I’d give this film 5 stars as a serious film for older kids, teenagers and adults. Now, you just have to find it!
And now for some unashamed enjoyment for younger kids. Antonia and I saw Bal Ganesh at the cinema in India, and we are looking forward to getting the DVD, which is available. Bal Ganesh is a nicely animated film, complete with Bollywood style song and dance, that tells the most popular myths of Ganesh. Most of these can be found easily on the Internet in various places. I don’t know if the DVD comes with English voiceover, but Antonia enjoyed watching it in Hindi, though she had been pre-primed with most of the stories before hand. There are other animated films dealing with aspects of Indian mythology for children, though I hear Bal Ganesh may be one of the best. When I saw it, I was at a loss to understand why a film of this quality wouldn’t be much better known internationally. Having said that, we are talking about fun and a basic education in mythology, not an intellectual experience as in Behind the Mirror.

World geography

May 25, 2008GeographyGeographyPenny

I’ve been trying out a bunch of geography quiz sites and this is my favourite. I like all the different formats: clicking on the right answer, dragging countries like puzzle pieces, and typing in country names. I like the fact that it isn’t timed, that it works well, fast and looks nice, that it has multiple levels of difficulty and that it includes some information about each country, city or area.

I’m pleased to say that I pretty much know the countries and geographical features of the world, but hardly any capital cities. Also I only know about half the US states and maybe 1 or 2 of the Canadian ones. Then again, I know all the states of India and none of the provinces of China, though neither of those features are included.

You have to make a minor adjustment to Firefox to get these games to work in it.

I’ll undoubtedly use this site with Antonia eventually. At the moment though, I prefer her to learn about geography from some kind of real contact with each country, rather than blasting her way through the list. I suspect young children may enjoy the puzzle level with the countries, even though it is rated intermediate.

Vrooooom!

May 24, 2008LifestyleLifestylePenny

I am very much into simplifying life, which usually means getting rid of possessions, but occasionally it means acquiring one judiciously. Last night, I vowed that I was going to buy my own car.

The situation with ‘our’ current cars is as follows: both of them are relatively small SUV’s which they make up for by running on LPG. Well, sort of running. The first one is a good 14 years old, and has done quite well considering. It is still on the road, and if we can find out why it drives as if the engine was about to drop out any moment we may even have a buyer for it. The second one was a lemon when Mike bought it at least 8 years ago. Both of these cars spend a lot of time in the shop. When I say a lot of time, I mean that at least one of them is there almost always, and the lemon has now been undrivable and unfixable since September. It frequently has spent six months at a time off the road. One of the reasons for this situation is that Mike has a ‘deal’ with the man who installed the LPG systems. Mike works on his computers for free and the man works on our cars for free. The long and the short of it is that Mike has been getting screwed over for well over 8 years, but he’s declined to do anything about it so far. Furthermore, the cars are of a make the LPG man doesn’t specialise in… in fact there are only 2 garages in the area that can work on them, and neither want to because the cars have been modified and the other guys are not real car mechanics, they just carry out routine procedures on their particular car brand. Their most routine procedure is sending off to Japan for expensive spare parts. Both the cars technically belong to Mike and are insured in Mike’s name for a large sum of money annually, most of which is going to waste. Of course, Mike would say that they are the family’s cars, but I know damn well they’re not mine really, because if they were, this situation would not exist.

In the midst of all this, Mike has spent most of the last several months trying to convince me that ‘we’ want a Suburu Forester. He says this is the ecological choice for us, since we simply must have a 4-wheel drive, because there is thick snow on the driveway for about 5 days a year. He has not specified any details of how we’re going to get rid of two currently unsellable cars and where we’re going to get the money to buy his dream machine. Last night, I reached the peak of frustration and decided that having my own car was the only way forward. It’s a very empowering thought and I spent most of the day learning about cars and calculating.

I wanted one that was ecologically friendly and frugal. Fortunately the two often go hand in hand. I was already pretty sure that I wanted a Peugeot or a Renault, like about 75% of my fellow citizens. I’m absolutely not going to try to argue about whether they’re the best cars in the world, though my family have been happy Peugeot drivers since forever. Nope, the reason everyone has them here is that there are at least 483 mechanics in any area who can work on them and the parts are ubiquitous and cheap. It’s a case of there being safety in herds. If one mechanic annoys me or is busy, I just pick another.

Lucky for me, when I pulled up the list of most ecologically friendly cars, the tiniest Peugeot, the 107, was near the top. Not because it’s a hybrid or an LPG or anything fancy like that. It’s both frugal and green because it doesn’t use much gas. I reckon to drive it about 10,000 km a year which will cost me about 680 Euros a year at today’s petrol prices. I know from my previous Peugeot experiences that I’m unlikely to have to fill it much more than once a month. Even though LPG is half the price of petrol here, our SUVs cost more than twice that much to run. And probably four times as much to insure. I’m hoping for a pretty good rate, even though I’ve never had insurance in my own name before.

Since it is near the top, ecologically, the government will give me a discount of 700 Euros on a new one. In fact a new one with the discount costs much the same as a secondhand one, and either way, it’s going to be affordable for me. So I will probably get the advantages of a new car, such as they are. This is really the best I can do ecologically at the moment. It’s a case of consume less, not smarter. The hybrids are out of my range, and I don’t trust their complexities and the limited range of people who are qualified to work on them. For similar reasons, I doubt I will try to put LPG in a 107, even if it would fit. I decided to opt for petrol rather than diesel as I get a cheaper and slightly greener car. Many people like diesel here as the fuel is a bit cheaper and they reckon the engine lasts longer. I did the math and worked out that a diesel would pay for itself after 15 years. That’s so long a time frame, I’m not bothering.

Of course a 107 is titchy and puny. It has no boot space to speak of. I think this won’t matter so much, because with just two people in it, the other passenger spaces can double up for carrying stuff. And frankly, there are also such things as trailers and roof racks for emergencies. The puny-ness is going to be the major issue. People seem to say good things about the 107s ability to occasionally make long trips. That’s good, but it’s the day to day issues that really count. I may only drive a couple of kilometres on some days but its all on hills. Can this thing climb well enough? Can it take hairpins? I’m only going to find that out with a test drive. Oh, and about that snow stuff? I’ll just do as the neighbours do – leave the car at the end of the driveway within one metre of the snowploughed road. I’ll just have to walk up and down the driveway 5 times a year. Sheesh….

I know Mike is only using the snow thing as a cover for some testosterone-powered guy car syndrome. When I told him my plans, he said “If you want a small car, what about the Mazda Miata?” I know he was just kidding, he’s always wanted one. I told him I didn’t notice the Miata in the ecologically friendly car list. Did he expect to find it there? I am far too sensible to worry about stuff like that. I have more important things on my mind – like should I pay the extra 350 Euros for a blue one.