Today we began Funky Friday class with this gem.
So extraordinary. The depth, the directors techniques, the story telling, the messaging. Carpe Diem indeed.
World School Month #1 Done. Annika
8/20 Sounds of letters, beginning sounds, ending sound, short vowels, blends, Add 3-digit numbers with tiles
8/21 Add three digit numbers with carrying over the units, simply algebra, coloring for business card, Chinese tea ceremony, Hike to sacred cliff dwelling, Tanah Lot
8/22 Classical music, reading her stories, business card drawings, add 3-digit with 2 carrying over
8/23 Classical music, game theory, paper airplane contest, re-writing her Tea story, adding, intro to fractions, nature hike, rice cultivation
8/24 Cooking class, writing fractions, Assisted next town research
8/25 Walk through local town, Bali architecture, traditional Bali reed weavings, subtracting, subtracting with borrowing, presenting Tea Ceremony story
8/26 Subtraction, drawing research pictures, technology: uploading photos, creating documents, email with attachments
8/27 Culminating activity: ATV, fractions, story time, kite flying, exit interviews
8/28 Travel day. Car bingo. Site reading with day. Visit to sacred lake. Story time.
8/29 Fractions, adding with tiles, grouping tens, spelling list 1, story time
8/30 Equivalent fractions, subtracting with carrying over, spelling list 2, story time, reading
8/31 Ubud with parents, French
9/1 Green school. Reading with parents
9/2 Reading with parents, clock intro, shapes intro
9/3 Time, spelling, congruent sides, French
9/4 Geometric shape dissections, vocabulary, practice speech, story time, parts of an insect, exit interviews
9/5 Travel Day, Carpe Diem boat, water activities
9/6 Komodo National Park, spelling, sea creature art, story time, water activities
9/7 Adding carrying over paper, spelling, story time, water activities
9/8 Spelling, math equations, place value, story time, comic book writing, water activities
9/9 Water activities, video-taping commercial, French
9/10 Travel day
9/11 Time, rounding, place value, Singapore video, classical music, reading, writing, story time, insects
9/12 Art & Science Museum of Singapore. Travel to Tokyo, time, TM geometric shapes, reading, Japan videos
9/13 Travel morning. Walk to Imperial gardens
9/14 Buddhism, Shintoism, Sumo, Tokyo research, reading, add WP, spelling, compound words, Planet Earth science, bus ride & train rides through city, reading
9/15 NYC video, Japanese business card ceremony, Planet Earth science, Museum of Innovation, reading, time, producing a business card
World School Month #1 Done. Alexander
8/20 30 minutes reading, 30-minute essay writing on physics paradox, prefixes
8/21 Eclipses, equations step 1 to 4, reading, start business cards, Chinese tea ceremony, hike to sacred cliff dwelling, Tanah Lot (Temple by the ocean)
8/22 Classical music. Eclipse story. Adding integers, Story time, Business card drawings
8/23 Classical music, game theory, paper airplane contest, nature hike, city research, multiplying integers, rice cultivation, reading
8/24 Cooking class, operations with integers, writing recipes, reading, story time
8/25 City presentations, Black hole videos, walk through local town, Bali architecture, traditional Bali reed weaving, operations with integers, reading
8/26 Subtracting integers, equations step 1 to 3, Activity research: monkeys, nature walk, origami, reading
8/27 Culminating activity, exit interviews
8/28 Travel day. Adding/subtracting/multiplying/dividing fractions, circumference area of a circle, reading, bingo car game.
8/29 Fraction skills, monkey research, asteroid research and writing, reading
8/30 Volcano hike
8/31 Reading 2x, Bali info, vocabulary, video script, equations, math puzzle, science octopus, estate walk
9/1 Green School visit. Video volcano production,
9/2 Volcano paper, bug search and research
9/3 Geometry shapes and markings, reading, vocab, white water rafting
9/4 Video editing, reading, exit interviews
9/5 Travel day, Carpe Diem boat, reading, water activities
9/6 Komodo National Park, reading, writing, math, vocab, water activities
9/7 Equations combining like terms, reading, water activities
9/8 Reading2x, short story writing 2x, water activities
9/9 Water activities, reading, editing short story, intro to graphing
9/10 Travel day
9/11 Singapore video, writing, classical music, tenmarks intro, reading
9/12 Art & Science Museum of Singapore. Travel to Tokyo, writing, TM adding integers, Japan videos
9/13 Travel morning, opposites, multiplying rational expressions, reading
9/14 Buddhism, Shintoism, Sumo, Tokyo research, reading, multiply rational expressions, Planet Earth science, bus ride & train rides through city
9/15 NYC video, Japanese business card ceremony, Planet Earth science, Museum of Innovation, producing a business card, reading, writing, all operations one step equations
9/16
World School Month #1Done. Nicholas
8/20 30 minutes reading, 30-minute essay writing on video editing, prefixes
8/21 Eclipses, equations step 1 to 5, reading, Chinese tea ceremony, Hike to sacred cliff dwelling, Tanah Lot
8/22 Equations steps 1-6, Chinese tea ceremony writing, Classic music, Story time, Business cards
8/23 Classical music, game theory, paper airplane contest, nature hike, City research, literal equations, reading, rice cultivation, business cards
8/24 Cooking class, simultaneous equations with substitution, writing recipes, story time
8/25 City presentations, walk through town, Bali architecture, Bali reed weaving, elimination method, reading
8/26 Elimination method harder problems, reading, nature walk, origami, city research, reading
8/27 Culminating activity, exit interviews
8/28 Travel day. Sacred pool. Car bingo
8/29 Reading, research Hurricane Harvey, Early walk to sacred pool, system of equations
8/30 Volcano hike
8/31 Simple probability, special system of equation, reading, vocabulary, video script, math puzzle, estate walk
9/1 Green School visit. Video volcano production
9/2 Video volcano production, tea ceremony five paragraph essay
9/3 Geometric shapes and markings, tea ceremony essay, vocab, White water rafting, video reading
9/4 Video editing, exit interviews
9/5 Travel day, Carpe Diem boat, water activities
9/6 Komodo National Park, writing, reading, vocab, water activities
9/7 Graphing intro, slope of a line, reading, editing writing, water activities
9/8 Equation of a line, slope intercept, intercept-intercept, descriptive writing, reading, water activities
9/9 Combining like and unlike terms, water activities, video editing
9/10 Singapore video, writing, reading, x&/ exponents, classical music, tenmarks &physics intro, editing paper
9/11 Singapore video, writing, classical music, TM intro, reading
9/12 Art & Science Museum of Singapore. Travel to Tokyo. Reading TM graph interpretation, Japan videos
9/13 Travel morning. Walk to Imperial gardens, essay writing, video production.
9/14 Buddhism, Shintoism, Sumo, Tokyo research, reading, equations, interpret graphs, Planet Earth science, bus ride & train rides through city, reading
9/15 NYC video, Japanese business card ceremony, Planet Earth science, Museum of Innovation, reading, NYC video, Japanese business card ceremony, Planet Earth science, Museum of Innovation, equations with fractions, vocabulary, writing vocabulary sentences.
Nutella, Palm Oil, and a Public Service Announcement
One could try to describe this, but why bother. I’ll let her speak for herself. Enjoy
Taxi driver wisdom, Singapore style
Him: “Where you from?”
Us: “United States”
Him: “Hmmm…Trump”
Us: “ugh”
Him: “Empty vessel make most noise”
Thank you, Grasshopper
The tales they weave…
Kids + ball=fun
If in a good life, you give more than you get.. I think on this day, we received more…
“Your only risk, is in doing nothing.” (A love note to an anonymous child)
Them. It’s them that shapes and makes the world. The future. Not just our them, or your them. All of them youngsters. I once read that the moment you have children, your life begins to die away, and their world beckons and becomes the new. Recently, one of my children commented how long a year seems. I commented that it kind of depends, it’s different for everyone. That got a puzzled look. I remarked, “It’s just life-math. It’s the one/over phenomenon, silly”.
It’s the reason summer seemingly lasts forever for an 11 year old kid, and likewise flashes in minutes when you’re 58.
It’s the reason each new back to school year for a parent is both a rush of joy and possibility, bathed in sudden overwhelming sadness for that next notch in time. For some it’s New Years. For me, it’s September.
1/11 vs. 1/58. “One/over.” It accelerates, it never slows, and it’s the same for everyone, no exceptions..
My best advice to any youngster, is to realize time is the best resource you have. Use it to gather that band of figurative wealth, that store of knowledge. Be curious, gain strength from knowing stuff and allow your own character to guide your compass heading. The tea leaves which swirl in your own cup might appear chaotic and senseless. Yet as surely as you sit reading this missive, your tempest will calm, and your own clarity will summon when you least expect it. It will excite, confuse, sadden, frustrate, rejuvenate, despair and elate. Try to be alert to your personal message, for it is often not easily deciphered. It might come in odd forms, different languages, from unusual places. And your personal message perhaps might not even be apparent to you, but others about you, from someone, or ones that adore you (nearly as much) as I do. Know that your direction is yours and yours alone. Your path. Your light. Your calling. To you I say, “Your only risk, is in doing nothing.”
Gain control of your steerage, and confidence will come from the plethora of experiences that have shaped you. From the timely whispers, the considered glances, our love letters, and the guidance at which you eye-roll now. You are the sum total of all of that knowledge, with your very own unique rhythm, thankfully played distinctly to your own music. And that is great, not good. For in truth parents are only shade that blocks your sun, which will ultimately allow your growth beyond any pathetic limited dreams we might harbor. Because what will be possible going forward from this place, resembles nothing that we can know or even fathom.
Smile much. Laugh often. Trust your instincts.
And I will love you forever, throughout all space and time. May the Gods and the Universe bless you with all the beauty and happiness any single person can endure.
[As a parent, I have found only one way to slow, not stop, but slow this inevitable aging process. Keep learning. Keep growing. Keep going.]
Alexander, ‘The Philosopher Scientist’, takes a turn.
(We’ve been mostly off the grid for a bit.)
The Mt.Batur Volcano sunrise hike.
About a week or so ago, we decided to take an early morning guided hike up a Balinese volcano at 2:30 a.m. The spry young bucks took on two dinosaurs, Dad and Professor Art.
After passing a 3:00 a.m. cremation ceremony*, we trekked from sea level to over 1750m in a couple hours. For most of you, nothing. But for these old dinosaurs, it was a wake-up call. Enjoy Allie’s humorous writing, and narration. The kid spins a fine tale.
*more on cremation in another blog post