Parkerkids Homeschool News

Nature Notes

By Dulcie

We are listening to the music of Beethoven this year, and reading books and watching videos about his life. We particularly like Beethoven because he is our Grandma's favorite composer.

Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany, in 1770. He changed the history of music forever with his thrilling and new ideas. Beethoven was born right in the period when people were starting to get new ideas of art and music.

When Beethoven was four years old, he began playing the piano. He was so small that he needed a stool to reach the keys. Mr. Beethoven wasn't a very good father or a very good teacher, because he drank too much alcohol and he worked his son hard; hard enough that some people thought he was cruel.

Right around when he was four years old, Christian Neefe heard one of Beethoven's pieces of music and he decided to teach Beethoven in a kinder and more caring way to work on piano. By the time Beethoven was twelve years old, Neefe decided that he should leave Beethoven alone to conduct his own orchestras. Beethoven showed off to people and charged them money to listen to his orchestras.

Beethoven went to Vienna to show Mozart his music, and Mozart thought it was wonderful. Beethoven wanted to learn something from Mozart, but before he could, he heard that his mother was ill; so he went back to Bonn and right after he got there his mother had died and what was worse was that his baby sister died too. But he had his two younger brothers to take care of, and seven weeks later his father died. Then he decided to go back to Vienna, but by the time he did, Mozart died.

Beethoven once wrote a letter to his brothers saying that some people thought he ignored them because they didn't know that he was deaf.

During his lifetime, Beethoven wrote nine symphonies. In the fifth symphony, there are four notes, and he made those notes the most exciting of all. In the ninth symphony, he made the music so you can make a picture in your mind of his symphony. Symphonies usually have four parts, but he put five parts in his symphony. The first part was the happy feeling you get when you go to the country. The second was by a brook. The third part was villagers, and the fourth part was a thunderstorm. The fifth part was of a shepherd calling that he was glad the thunderstorm was over.

When he did concerts, people came and listened to his concerts and symphonies, and sometimes he came up with new ideas for his symphonies and concerts. Beethoven was a great musician. I like Beethoven.

Narration by Dulcie of the book Beethoven, by Mike Venezia, from the series Getting to Know the World's Great Composers.

Dulcie recently studied the major organs of the body, and is now learning the names of the major bones. Next she will be working on the central nervous system and the digestive system. She enjoys labeling diagrams like this one.

Dulcie and Keni are doing book reports each month as part of their Book-It program. Dulcie's report for December is a story about a horse, and Keni's book for January is a Dr. Seuss favorite. Dulcie is expanding her ability to think about and record her thoughts about what she reads; Keni's requirements are that she read the entire book herself, and then she writes the title and author and traces a favorite picture from the story. (Keni's free book report form is available online from Prestonspeed Publications.)

The Black Stallion
By Walter Farley

The main characters in this story are Alec, a boy, and Black, a horse.

In the beginning of the story, Alec goes on a ship and meets a horse named Black. Then a storm comes. Black saves Alec and swims to an island with him.

On the island, there are fish and seaweed. Alec tames Black on the island. Then a boat comes and saves them.

They go back to New York, and Alec decides he wants Black to be in a race. Alec and Black win the race, and Alec gets to keep Black.

By Dulcie

By Keni

Dulcie and Keni keep poetry notebooks, and we are always working on memorizing poems. When they have learned a new one, they illustrate that page in their poetry notebooks. This one is a favorite that Keni did as copywork recently. Click on the paper to see it better.

We are studying the seven continents this year, and the girls are making and sending postcards to family and friends. One of our favorite "destinations" so far has been Antarctica, which we read about during our cold and snowy week after Christmas. This is a postcard that Keni sent to her Grandma. The reverse reads "Dear Grandma, There are no children in Antarctica, just penguins. Love, Keni".

By Keni

Flowers bloom in color,
Red and yellow, blue and white,
It's a wonderful sight.

The sun is hot in summer,
Swimming in cool water,
Oh, and eating ice cream is a yummer.

It's cold in October,
Leaves fall and trees are bare,
But it's even colder in November.

Brrr, it's cold!
A white blanket of snow covers the ground.
That's because it's winter!

By Dulcie

Dulcie and Keni did an alphaquest for fun, and created such a nice list of "s" words that we thought we would turn them into a puzzle for this issue. How many of these 33 words can you find? Click here to find out!