isock

You've heard of ipods, imacs, iphones, etc. Well this is Faith's new invention of the isock--think it will catch on?

Hello again.

This blog is about the Netherlands. I don't know why the font won't change to normal, but everything is underlined. Sorry.

The Low Countries
Luxembourg, Belgium, and The Netherlands (or Holland) make up the Low Countries. They are called “low” because they have no mountains. The land is mostly below sea level. The Dutch used windmill power to help drain water from the land. They say “God made the earth and the Dutch made Holland”.

The Dutch people wear wooden shoes called sabots or klompen to keep their feet dry on the marshy ground. Canals go down some of their major streets. Since they are always very near water, the Dutch teach their babies to swim when they are very young. In the winter the canals freeze and children can ice skate on them. Some of the people live on houseboats because there is not enough land for housing. They are taxed by square foot of land used so they build their houses very tall and thin going up several stories. Some houses are built on posts to keep them from flooding. The Dutch travel by bicycle and sometimes by boat. The Dutch see themselves as very open to different views.
Rembrandt and Vincent Van Gogh are some of the great artists that come from the Netherlands.

Vincent Van Gogh was never happy. He used thick paint and short jabs in his paintings.
Tulips are exported from the Netherlands to all the world. There was a time (1630’s) when a tulip was worth it’s weight in gold. Many people speculated in the “tulip trade”, called “tulip mania”. When that went out of fashion, many Dutch lost their source of income. The Dutch economy crashed. It is considered the first recorded “speculative bubble”. Nice how history repeats itself, eh?
They are famous for cheese and chocolate. We tried some cheeses, chocolate, and Belgian waffles. (faith with little cheese just out of it's wax covering)

Some Dutch songs are “The Broom oh the Broom”, “We gather together”(in the hymn book)
We also made pinwheels, did “windmill” exercises, and played “I am a Little Dutch Girl”. We listened to “Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates which was a great story that included a lot of Dutch history. We also spent a day (Grandparents Day) at Holland Hall!

Oops, it's a sideways video! Oh, well. Jared's windmill is pretty cool anyway. He used a motor to make it go.

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. It's the first time that we were just on our own as our little family. We got to keep all of the left-overs, and it didn't matter if everything didn't turn out perfectly. Which, everything was great. I used all of our fanciest dishes and we all cleaned the house just as though we would have company, but WE were the company this year. I really like my family. I'm thankful for each one of them. We're thankful for you guys too! Hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful.

Damian carving the turkey.

Marisa and Jared looking at their weird reflections in the silver goblets that Heidi and Mark gave us for our wedding and that I've only used twice!

We also all memorized my favorite Thanksgiving poem. Cheers!

The Turkey Shot Out Of The Oven

The turkey shot out of the ovenand rocketed into the air,

it knocked every plate off the tableand partly demolished a chair.

It ricocheted into a corner

and burst with a deafening boom,

then splattered all over the kitchen,

completely obscuring the room.

It stuck to the walls and the windows,

it totally coated the floor,

there was turkey attached to the ceiling,

where there'd never been turkey before.

It blanketed every appliance,

it smeared every saucer and bowl,

there wasn't a way I could stop it,

that turkey was out of control.

I scraped and I scrubbed with displeasure,

and thought with chagrin as I mopped,

that I'd never again stuff a turkey

with popcorn that hadn't been popped.

by
Jack Prelutsky

Grandparents Day at Holland Hall

It was Grandparents and Special Friends day at Holland Hall last Tuesday. Since we aren't near enough to invite our grandparents, I went to take pictures, and Faith was Marisa's Special Friend and Jared was Eric's special Friend. We got to go through their school day with them! It was a fun day.Marisa and Eric are both in the school musical "Bye Bye Birdie". They dressed up for this day because they were taking pictures for the poster. they we're dressed circa 1958. Marisa looks so much like my mom as a teenager! How did we do for authenticity mom?Marisa in Algebra. It took me back. I had a panicky feeling when the kids were turning in their assignments from the previous day, and I didn't have one!They had a small concert for the grandparents and gave us cookies. Here's faith with a big smile after eating hers and waiting for the show.Eric on cello. Marisa on violin but WAY in the back.Here's a bit of the concert. The sound didn't come through all that well. On this next piece Eric is on the piano! I tried to get a shot of him but he's hidden. See if you can hear him over the schreeching violins. I love this song when just Eric and Marisa play it at home. They've realized a dream for me to have a musical family, and now they choose to make music together without it being my idea and forcing them into it! I'll have to record that and post it another time. Then they went to take their pictures.Eric in top row, Marisa center, cheering for "Conrad Birdie".
Marisa with her Special Friend in health class.Eric and Jared in PE. Eric was so good to his little brother that day. They had a great time running around together. They were wearing their matching jackets from Grandma Heidi, and Jared was called "Little Eric"!
Fun day! Wish we could have shared it with our grandparents! We were thinking of you.

Spain and France

Hello again! Here's another catch up week on what we've been doing. Someday I'll be on top of things. (A girl can hope!)

Spain and Portugal
Spain is famous for its bullfighting. During a bullfight the matador uses his cape to encourage the bull to charge. He uses spears to make the bull mad, then finally the matador kills the bull with a sword. Ferdinand was a bull who didn’t want to fight.
In Spain they speak Spanish. The children sing the song “Los Pollitos”. Los Pollitos dicen pio, pio, pio, cuando tienen hambre cuando tienen frio. La gallina busca el mais y el trigo, les da la comida, y les presta abrigo. Bajo sus dos alas, acurrucadito, hasta el otro dia, duermen los pollitos. Flamenco dancing is popular in Spain. The women wear very full, ruffled, skirts and shoes with thick high heels that make rhythmic noises. The author Cervantes came from Spain, we read parts of his Don Quixote.
Many famous artists come from Spain. We learned about Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, and Gaudi. Dali painted things from his dreams. He was a surrealist-which meant his works didn’t make sense. Picasso’s style changed many times, in his latest works items in the painting didn’t go where they would normally belong.Jared's Picasso, his man doesn't have anything where it goes! Gaudi was a famous architect who used many textures and patterns. Some thought his creations were too much and we get the word “Gaudy” from this idea.Tyler (my brother) served his mission in Spain, and he took us to see some of these places.
Christopher Columbus was from Italy, but he was funded by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. He discovered the Americas in 1492. This ushered in the “Golden Age” in Spain when Spain owned much of the world’s land; areas in Western Europe and also South America and a lot of the land in North America. The gold from the Americas made Spain wealthy.
Vasco de Gama was from Portugal and sailed to India around Africa. Ferdinand Magellan sailed West around the world—he didn’t make it all the way with his ship. Sadly, he was killed in the Philippines.
In Spain they eat Spanish rice, oranges, and Spanish tortilla (a potato and egg dish).

France
France is a beautiful, temperate country. French music is full of happy tunes like “Frere Jacques”, and “Jai du bon fromage au lait, qui vien du paiz de ce lui qui le fait, ce lui qui le fait est de mon village, oui madame cest du bon fromage (repeat)”. France is famous for is many cheeses, breads, and pastries. We tried croque monsuier, éclairs, pastries, croissants, French onion soup, baguettes, and French toast. Famous wine comes from France. Different areas of France where the grapes are grown give the wines their names; such as, Champagne, Boudreaux, and Burgundy. We drank both white and red grape juice and tried crackers with different cheeses.The tour de France is a bike race across France. It lasts a month. We rode the Tour de Our Street which lasted much shorter. France also has many famous buildings. Jared built a K’nex Eifel Tower and Arc de Triumph.
Monet and Renoir were a painters from France who used a lot of water in their paintings. They were some the first to start the painting style was known as impressionism. Here's my signature. I thought I was very funny!
Joan of Arc was a seventeen year old girl of France. She heard voices of angels and long dead saints tell her to help King Charles VII obtain his crown. The English owned much of France at that time, and were preventing the king from getting to Reims, the city where the kings were crowned. Joan was granted an army and fought for France. The king was crowned, but unfortunately Joan was captured by the English and declared a witch. For this they burned her at the stake. France was unified and became more patriotic after they heard of Joan’s death, and they fought the English until all of their land was theirs once again.
The French Revolution (1789-1799) was a bloody time in French history. The French were unhappy because the monarchy didn’t care about the poor people and the lack of food. The people were also angry because the clergy and nobility didn’t pay taxes but the poorer people did. They removed the king and had him beheaded and the people tried to govern themselves. They lived through years known as “The Terror” when thousands of people were killed by guillotine. The Scarlet Pimpernel (fictional) risked his life to save many from beheading. This period ended when Napoleon Bonaparte, the general of the army, declared himself emperor of France.

Great Britain

Jared got his Wolf last month! He earned one gold arrow point and 7 silver! It took awhile to sew them all on!

Okay, I changed my mind. I am going to paste in our week synopsis for all who read who care to. This can be your educational blog reading for the day!

England
England is ruled by a king or Queen. Today Queen Elizabeth II is queen. She is guarded by soldiers that wear red uniforms and tall black furry hats.
In 1066 William the Conqueror came to England. He fought the Anglo-Saxon king, Harold at the Battle of Hastings. When Harold’s army came to fight William, they were tired from a previous battle arranged by William. William’s archers shot high in the air and shot Harold in the eye. William was the first Norman king of England. The Bayeux Tapestry tells the story.
Henry VIII had 6 wives that he had beheaded because they had daughters and not sons. His first wife he wanted to divorce because she was past child-bearing age. The Catholic church wouldn’t let him have a divorce so he started his own church, and got to have his divorce, and the tithing monies given to him. To remember the fate of his wives we remember “Divorced, beheaded, died, Divorced, beheaded, survived. His daughter Mary (bloody Mary) came to the throne and killed people who had changed from the Catholic faith. Then Elizabeth I came to throne and blended the two ideas of religion into the Anglican church.
In England they eat tea and cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off, and crumpets, Yorkshire puddings with Salisbury steak, Cornish pasties, fish and chips, etc. English children sing songs like, “The Grand Old Duke of York”, “Wind the Bobbin Up”, and “The Hokie Kokie”.
Most of our favorite authors are from England, William Shakespeare, Jane Austin, Charles Dickens, and Francis Hodgeson Burnet. Shakespeare said in the Merchant of Venice, “How far that little candle throws his beams, so shines a good deed in a naughty world.” We read A Little Princess, and The Secret Garden, (some of the "secrets" in our secret garden)had a tea party with our friends, had a presentation by my British friend, Rose, and watched some Dickens movies. We also enjoyed watching a slide show of our own experiences in England.

Ireland
Ireland is often called “The Emerald Isle” because of all of the green plant life that grows there. We planted our own “secret garden” which included some clover-one of Ireland’s national symbols. Peat (plants pressed together for many years) is burned instead of wood or coal. Their flag has three strips. The Green stripe stands for the green of Ireland and the Catholic people. The Orange stripe stands for the Protestant people, and the White middle stripe symbolizes peace between the two.
Ireland is rich in Celtic tradition. St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. He was kidnapped from England and sold as a slave in Ireland. He worked there for 6 years, then escaped back to England. He was converted to Christianity and went back to Ireland as a missionary. The Celtic cross blends the symbol of the sun (circle) with the symbol of Christianity (the cross).
In the early 16th century England took over Ireland. They took the land from the people of Ireland if they wouldn’t convert to Protestantism. The people were made tenants on their own land, and although they grew lots of food, they had to send most of it to England and they only had potatoes to eat. One year there was a potato blight and there was not enough food for the Irish people. This is called “The Great Hunger”. The people either starved or immigrated to America. Because of these immigrants, America has been very influenced by Ireland.
Hallowe’en originated in Ireland. They first made jack-o-lanterns out of turnips, but when they came to America they couldn’t find turnips, and they used pumpkins instead.
Ireland has many fun myths and legends about leprechauns and faeries and giants, like the famous giant Fin McCoul, who they thought helped build the Giant’s Causeway (a volcanic rock formation in Northern Ireland). Johnathan Swift the author of Gullivers Travels is from Ireland.

Irish step dance is the ancestor of tap and clogging. We enjoyed an Irish step class.Irish music makes you want to dance. Some songs are, “When Irish Eyes are Smiling” and “I am a wee Falorie Man”. We wrote limericks and ate potato dishes all week, and some corned beef and cabbage.

Scotland
Scotland! It's a wonderful country. The Highlands are the mountainous regions. There are many lakes or “Lochs” in Scotland. The most famous is the Loch Ness where some say the Loch Ness Monster lives. We enjoyed making our own Loch Ness Monster stories and watching Scooby Doo meets the Loch Ness Monster! Another famous loch is Loch Lomond, and its “Bonnie Bonnie Banks”.
Robert Burns is a famous Scottish poet who wrote, “Is there for honest poverty that hangs his head and a’that, the coward slave we pass him by we dare be poor for a’that, for a’that and a’that our toils obscure and a’that, the rank is but the guinea stamp, the man’s the gowd for a’that. Robert Lewis Stevenson is from Scotland. We enjoyed reading“Treasure Island” and his poem “My Shadow”.
Many famous people come from Scotland including, James Watt, inventor of the Steam Engine, Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, Alexander Flemming, discoverer of penicillin, and many others.
The Scottish people are very fun. They dance the “Highland Fling” and play bagpipes and wear kilts and read poems and laugh together. Plaid designs are commonly found in Scotland. Each clan or family wove their own tartan design. We found and colored our own “Riddoch” tartan!
A great Scottish song is Donald Where's Your Troosers. (we made a little bit of sound with our bagpipes, but mostly we felt like passing out!)