One of the above was the ultimate recycled art: Daegan used dryer lint! Did you spot it?

We then headed inside, and found our seats. Daegan and I read through the program notes. I was pleased to see several familiar cartoon titles; the boys and I spent some time yesterday afternoon watching Bugs Bunny DVDs with high music content to get in the mood for the performance. “Rabbit of Seville” and “Long-Haired Hare”, two absolute classics, were among them.

Here we are, all dressed up and raring to go:

The show looked like this: a large screen with cartoons playing on it, with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra playing the score (most of the time—they did take a few breaks).

So what did I like about this show? So many things. I liked that the show included well-known clips you’d expect (Rabbit of Seville, Baton Bunny, What’s Opera, Doc? aka ‘Killed the wabbit! Killed the wabbit!’), some song bits (Pepe le Peu singing “Tiptoe Through the Tulips, Avec Moi” and Michigan Frog’s “Hello My Honey, hello my baby, hello my ragtime gal…”) but also lesser known clips. I liked that it wasn’t all Bugs Bunny; there was a Sylvester and Tweety short, a coyote and roadrunner one, as well as cartoon’s outside Looney Tunes: Tom and Jerry competing to conduct an orchestra; as well as Scooby Doo and Flintstone montages. I loved watching these cartoons live with an audience with three generations present(grandparents, parents, and children)—it gave me a sense of what it must have been like seeing these shorts as part of the movie-going experience in the 30s, 40s, and 50s. I liked learning about some of the history of Looney Tunes / Merry Melodies, and the making of this ‘Bugs Bunny at the Symphony’ show, which is now 20 years old. We were all impressed that the original slide guitar which makes the initial sound in this clip:

was part of the show, and played by the regular pianist of the CPO. He had to learn only one chord to play the part! The guitar was found in the ‘deepest basement’ of the Looney Tunes/Warner Brothers building, and was damaged, but was restored by a violin maker. Good thing too: the show had tried all kinds of modern slide guitars, from honky tonk to Hawaiian, and nothing replicated the sound properly. I have to admit I was blown away when the CPO played the opening theme live: it sounded spot on, but sooooo much richer than anything that ever came from my TV set.

I also enjoyed learning how the performance was managed, with the conductor and all musicians wearing headphones to hear the ‘click track’. A click track is a sort of metronome synched to the cartoon, keeping the musicians in perfect time to what you are seeing on the screen; you can read more about it on wikipedia here. It was used all those years ago to score the original cartoons, and is still used today whenever an orchestra is used to do the score for a movie. I’d never even heard of a ‘click track’ before. Learning something new makes it a good day.

I’ll leave off with one of the more amusing moments of the afternoon. After an introduction to the show was given by a a member of the CPO, the orchestra picked up their instruments and began making odd sounds. Concerned that Gareth would be frightened (we’re still overcoming his fear of going to see a movie in a theatre, after previews for Jim Carrey’s Scrooge scared the living daylights out of him when we went to see a G movie), I leaned over and asked him if he understood what they were doing. “No,” he said. “Why are they making those strange noises?” “They are tuning,” I told him, “so that all the instruments sound good together.”

“Yeah,” quipped Daegan. “You could say they are ‘Looney Tuning’”.

If this show tours your area, I highly recommend you go check it out for yourself. It’s not always easy to find good quality entertainment that all ages enjoy, but this fit the bill perfectly for us.

I really liked how he got the kids making the birdhouses themselves. Over the course of the next hour or so, the boys used a hammer, a saw, a file (to smooth the rough edges) and even a power drill!

Gareth found it easiest when Jim would get the nails started:

The Birdman had boards sawn about halfway for the lids. It was the kids’ jobs—with parental help—to finish the sawing. I think this is the first time either of my kids has used a real saw. They did great; all fingers and toes still accounted for!

Here’s the finished product:

And the boys labelled and decorated it afterwards. Gareth even drew a cardinal:

While there were enough supplies to build one birdhouse per kid, Daegan and Gareth decided out family should just build one joint house—and it’s not like we’re lacking for birding gear in our backyard. This also gave Jim a chance to help two other young boys who were there sans parents; he actually helped build 3 birdhouses that afternoon. “What a guy!” (said in best Red Dwarf voice).

All in all, a wonderful way for our family to participate in Arts Days. Many thanks to Birdman Andrew Stiles, as well as the Calgary Public Library.

and a set of tangram pieces ($1). Gareth was quite keen to try it out and made several animals yesterday from the beginning part of the book, where the outline of each piece is given:

As you progress through the book, some of the individual shape outlines are removed, until by the end, only the outline of the entire animal is left. Gareth looks quite pleased with himself, no? It was hard to get him to stop so we could have lunch and get to our art playdate at a friends’ for papier mache!

And what was Daegan doing in the background? He’s taken a real interest in learning to handwrite (cursive), and was practicing some letters:

We’ve been using a program I am LOVING called All About Spelling, which I will write more about another time. The spelling lists we practice have Daegan working on spelling (below his level; I’m mainly using the program as a learning-to-read program for Gareth), as well as proper lower-case printing and cursive, like so:

Gareth, in contrast, spells the word any way he can (usually capital letters). This leads to our whiteboard looking like this for ten short words, as I write so the boys can self-check: (the list of words on the right-hand-side came from our discussion of the strategy of looking for smaller words inside larger ones—helpful for both spelling and reading)

I’m sure things will change in the future, but with the new homeschooling room the boys are super-keen to learn, learn, learn and ‘play school’ right now….so I’m running with it!

Daegan started with a rough draft of his thank you letter, and after he and I corrected a few spelling errors and discussed proper format for letters, he did this final copy which we will send. There’s been much improvement in his printing over the past year, but as you can see, while he reads at a grade 9 level (details here), the rest of his language arts skills are solidly grade 3:

He also started a drawing to send along, copying a book cover. He’s quite keen on block lettering right now:

Gareth spent most of his time working on his drawing, which turned out wonderfully. So good, in fact, that Gareth has decided he doesn’t want to send it in the mail at all—he wants to keep it. Thank goodness for scanners and photocopiers!

Gareth wrote the “Dear Grandma” and “Love Gareth” parts of his letter himself, and dictated the rest to me. I do find it amusing how different the boys are. Daegan’s letter was very blunt and to the point, and I had to suggest a few ways to expand it. But Gareth? When I suggested the opening line, “Thank you for the Easter card”, he decided it wasn’t quite right: “Thank you for the lovely Easter card,” he dictated, with emphasis. Quite the socially adept one.

Thank you notes are a great way to have kids get some writing practice that is far more practical and ‘real world meaningful’ than pages of “A A a a ant aardvard apple”. I only wish I were better and remembering to do this. Anyone else suffer from great intentions, but weak follow through?

This novel is highly praised and widely regarded as a “Canadian classic”, and it clearly left an impression on my boys. Here’s some artwork I found on the kitchen table where they were eating lunch and listening to me read the last couple chapters of the book today; first Gareth’s (age 6) drawing, then Daegan’s (age 8 ):

While overall I enjoyed the book, there were a number of elements that disturbed me from my 2011, avid birder point of view.  For example, the owls come to BIlly via being orphaned (Wol) and  mistreated (Weeps), but early on in the book BIlly and his friend are keen on finding owls as pets by disturbing nests and taking young at “just the right age” (old enough to survive, but young enough to “imprint” to some degree on humans). And they in fact go with their science teacher to find nests and do disturb them. Yes, I know that times and morals change, and that was what the boys and I talked about using this book as a spark for discussion. Egg-collecting from bird nests was once a popular hobby as well but is now frowned upon, as is any nest-disturbing activity. The email birding list I am on does not allow members to post locations of nests if they find them, as they know the birds will be hounded by nature-gazers and photographers. In another part of the book, Billy’s dad shoots and kills crows for much of an afternoon—and while crows are hardly my favourite birds, it did seem a tad harsh to shoot them for acting like, well….crows! (They hounded Wol on a camping trip). And another section talks about disturbing a prairie chicken nest, something I find doubly sad as that bird is now extirpated from Saskatchewan, and all of Canada, in fact.

The chapter about the pet fair in which Wol and Weeps and the rattlesnake Billy’s friend snuck in to their display was absolutely hilarious, though. 

Here’s the sea serpent:

The snake:

And the inchworm:

Just a short post tonight as I have a lot on my mind. I am realizing that I am at a crossroads of sorts, that what has been so helpful in the past no longer is—I have moved on, grown, changed. I want (and need!) to make room for new things in my life: new experiences, people, work (like homeschool facilitating next year!). Some of the people and groups I have found so supportive and helpful in the past I find myself drifting away from; I am interested in different conversations, topics, idea. Time for some mental / emotional spring cleaning, I guess. What’s that expression about friendship? That friends are friends for “a reason, a season, or a lifetime”. It is becoming clear that some of my reasons and seasons have changed, and that those lifetime friends are so very elusive, and precious.

And here’s Daegan’s project:

They made these over 3 classes. The first class they discussed the project, and built their armature (rough shape, or skeleton, out of cardboard, tape, and paper.) The next class they put on the strips of wet newspaper—the messy papier mache bit. Today they painted their now dry and sturdy bird shapes. It was interesting for me to look at the planning the boys did on their projects. Gareth’s was fairly cursory, just a simple drawing plan to follow:

Daegan’s, in contrast, was quite detailed, outlining each step in the process and checking it off when completed. The homeschooling Mom in me can’t help but notice how much his printing has evened out over this past year:

He drew two plans, one of the skeleton and one of the covered (papier-mached) body:

And he even painted a rough approximation of his finished project (thus checking out his colour scheme before painting the work itself):

This was the first Homeschool Art class the boys have been able to take together (now that Gareth is 6), and in fact the first art class they’ve ever taken together. It was a really positive experience, with a very gifted teacher, Michelle. And I love how she had them doing involved and MESSY projects at the art centre—my kitchen table (chairs, walls, floors, etc.) thanks you!

The movie showed the rise of origami’s popularity among many groups: artists and artisans, mathematicians, engineers, teachers, children, etc. Some of the creations are absolutely stunning—you really must see them to believe that they could be created from folding one (often large, often moistened) piece of paper. One artist even showed his origami Wilbur, the pig from Charlotte’s Web, a reference that both boys were tickled pink (pun intended! ) to understand.

We learn about Akira Yoshizawa, the Japanese man considered to be the father or modern ‘origami art’, and the originator of moistening the paper to get more interesting shapes. We see how origami is used in many different settings, from classrooms to teach geometry to TV commercials (Daegan was particularly intrigued by the commercials). We learn about the “Bug Wars”, an ongoing battle between artists to create the most lifelike and complex bug—we see simple beetles and butterflies, more complex spiders and scorpions, even a praying mantis! We meet the youngest professor ever hired at MIT—the boys picked up right away that he was homeschooled—and his research that uses origami to solve everything from long-standing mathematical puzzles to applications in medicine. As he points out, what has gone wrong in many human diseases and viruses is that proteins have folded in odd ways. 

I found this documentary to be a useful addition to our math learning. I’d say ages 8 and up, as Daegan was fully engaged but Gareth less so (though he did sit and watch the whole thing even when given the choice to leave and do something else). And don’t be surprised to find lots of folded paper creations around the house over the next few days.