Handicraft Project for a Boy: a hammer & a nail & a chunk of wood...

This is a project my eldest son did when he was 8 years old for his little brother. It's a 'geo board' and is used to make geometrical shapes. We use the metric system generally, being Aussies, but for this project it was less fiddly to measure in inches.

What he used:

Inch ruler

Pencil

A piece of wood (he used pinewood) 6 inches square and about 1 inch thick (or thick enough to allow a nail to go half way through it).

36 one inch (or thereabouts, depending on the thickness of your piece of wood) nails.

A hammer

Sandpaper

A packet of multicoloured elastic bands

What he did:

Sanded the wood to make the edges smooth.
With the pencil and ruler he marked off 5 inches by 5 inches, after leaving 1/2 an inch all around the square and then divided the 5 inch square into 25 squares.

Then he banged the nails in to make 6 rows of nails vertically and horizontally.

As you can see, he didn't quite get the nails in the right spots in places & some were hammered in a tad deeper than planned but he did it on his own and was very pleased with himself.

This is what we did with it:

A very simple and satisfying project and it helped keep a little brother occupied for quite some time each day doing his 'geometry.'

Nature Notebook: June

We've had some good nature walks this month and also a visit to the Blue Mountains. The last time we went The Three Sisters were obscured by a thick mist so our youngest missed out on seeing them but this time we had a great view and just as we were about to leave the mist rolled in to hide them again.

 The Three Sisters, Katoomba, NSW

Gum Tree

This week we used challenge # 42 on the HONS blog and went looking for the three main types of lichen.

1) Crustose (crusty)

2) Foliose (leafy)

Foliose Lichen Growing with Moss on a Rock

3) Fruticose (shrubby) - which unfortunately we didn't see at all.

Barb has links to websites on the page I linked above. Some others we used are:

Lichenland

This Natural History Museum in the UK has a video explaining what lichens can tell us about pollution in our local environment. Apparently many lichens are sensitive to pollutants such as sulphur dioxide and are used by scientists as 'pollution indicators' as they monitor changes in the patterns of air quality.

Lichens and people - ways in which lichens have been used...stuffing mummies, curing baldness, the manufacture of perfumes and cosmetics amongst other things.

                                                             Fungi on a bed of moss

We spent about an hour and a half exploring some of our local bush tracks this morning. It's a lovely time of year to go wandering through the bush - the weather is nippy and the snakes are hibernating. There's only the leeches to contend with and the occasional dog we seem to attract. A very friendly one joined us at the park and accompanied us through the bush. We couldn't get rid of him and ended up re-tracing our steps to get back to where he originally met us after a good hour of his company.

A Track Through the Ferns

A Local Fire Trail

Our Spanish Composers Study

“Music fulfills an important educational function because, above all, it cultivates the spirit.” - See more at: http://www.joaquin-rodrigo.com/index.php/en/para-ninos-menu-principal#sthash.Hz7dT9sM.dpuf

 “Music fulfills an important educational function because, above all, it cultivates the spirit.” 

Joaquin Rodrigo

“Music fulfills an important educational function because, above all, it cultivates the spirit.” - See more at: http://www.joaquin-rodrigo.com/index.php/en/para-ninos-menu-principal#sthash.Hz7dT9sM.dpuf

We've spent the past couple of months focusing on Spanish composers for composer study. A list of five famous Spanish composers with short biographies of each is here. This website, 52 Composers, also has some very helpful  information.
We concentrated on the compositions below and compared arrangements in which the guitar was the main instrument with other versions.

Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Francisco Tarrega- lovely!




Knowing that Joaquin Rodrigo was blind from the age of three after a diphtheria infection gave us a great respect for his talent and what he achieved in his lifetime. We can tend to see people and their achievements in isolation but knowing some of their struggles and handicaps enhances our appreciation of their accomplishments.The two pieces below are his most well-known compositions.





A short extract of the above played on the harp:








Isaac Albeniz was a composer and virtuoso pianist who had a huge influence on Spanish music. The first video below is guitar only and the second is an orchestral version.




Orchestral Version: - a good motivational theme to have going in the background when you're doing serious house cleaning. I go up a gear when I hear this.





I almost passed by Manuel de Falla but I had a quick look to see what I could find and came across this piece which I recognised.





I include this cello version for Moozle because that is the instrument she plays.





The Piano Society has some free recordings of piano compositions written by another famous Spanish composer, Enrique Granados as well as a short biography.

Update: a couple of favourite pieces by Granados. The picture isn't the best on the second video but the only other choice was worse.

 Intermezzo from the "Goyescas," Granados' piano suite based on the artist Goya's paintings; played on cello with guitar accompaniment:





This is exquisite - violin and piano:

Picture Study: Inspired by Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall was one of the artists featured in a set of Montessori artist cards I used with my children when they were little but it wasn't until earlier this year when I was reading Island of the World by Michael O'Brien that I became interested in learning more about him and his art.

 The Three Candles (1938-1940)

In O'Brien's book, Josip, the main character is speaking to his friend, Caleb, a troubled and rebellious young youth whom he had befriended some years before. Over time Josip had encouraged the boy's latent academic ability and when Caleb wrote his poem, Giraffe Wars, he gave it to Josip to read.

"So, how did you like Giraffe Wars?"

"I regret that I did not like it, Caleb."

"Oh, thank you very much."

"However, I did notice your technical competence, and your growing sense of creative intuition."

"Oh, then it's my hypothesis you reject."

"Poetry must never be a vehicle for ideology."

"That's ridiculous. Poetry is always a vehicle for somebody's ideology! Look at Ezra Pound!"

"I cannot read him. His Fascism disturbs me, just as Picasso's paintings disturb because they derive, consciously or subconsciously, from his Communism."

"I like Picasso - a lot!" the boy says in a challenging tone.

"You should go to the Metropolitan and spend time with Chagall."

"Who is Chagall?"

"I will take you to meet him on Saturday. He is in painting what a poet should be in poetry. These heroes you are fond of, Picasso and Pound, they disturb not in the way a painting or poem should disturb. Instead they create a malfeasance in the subconscious - and in the soul."

It's interesting that Francis Schaeffer commenting on Picasso in his book, How Should we Then Live, stated, 'In great art the technique fits the worldview being presented, and this new technique of fragmentation fits the world view of modern man.'
Marc Chagall's view of life was rooted in his faith and permeates his art. A Hasidic Jew, he was born in Vitebsk, Belarus in 1887. He lived through the First World War and the Bolshevik Revolution and when WW2 broke out he and his family escaped at the eleventh hour to America in 1941. The links below have information on his life and work:

Marc Chagall Net  has probably the most comprehensive collection of his art work that I've seen plus biographical information. The art work I've put in this post came from this website.

 Peasant Life (1925)

 To understand the symbolism in Chagall's art see here.

I and the Village (1911)

The Birthday (1915)

Abraham and the Three Angels (1958-1960)

“The Bible is life, an echo of nature, and this is the secret I have endeavored to transmit."

Besides painting, Chagall work included murals, ceramics, tapestries, stained-glass work, theatre and costume design.

 A Midsummer Night's Dream (1939)

 

The Marc Chagall Museum in Belarus

 “I did not see the Bible, I dreamed it. Ever since early childhood, I have been captivated by the Bible. It has always seemed to me and still seems today the greatest source of poetry of all time.” 

 Bride & Groom of the Eiffel Tower (1939)

 

Some art work done by Moozle, inspired by Chagall's Bride & Groom of the Eiffel Tower ( also known as Newly Weds on the Eiffel Tower)

A sculpture using air drying clay

How Chagall's background influenced his art

The story behind this painting done during 1939-1947 is here.