Classical School Blog

Rediscovering Ancient Church Music - Medieval and Renaissance

2008-06-30T20:07:00.000-07:00

The Washington Times reports Gregorian chants by the Cistercian monks of the Stift Heiligenkreuz monastery have shot to the top of the classical music charts, perhaps because players of the video game Halo have gotten hooked on Gregorian chants. It may not just be the game.

There are movements within both the Catholic and Protestant churches to return to ancient liturgy. In the video below, this Gregorian Chant on Youtube.com. Below that, you may want to check out Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli - apparently it looked as if the Church was going to permanently abolish anything but monophonic music in Church services. Authorities within the church during the Renaissance then heard Palestrina's Missa, and they said - Oh, well that's OK...

Chant picture

Summer!

2008-06-15T20:02:00.000-07:00

Summer around our house is pretty eclectic, and we will be away from the blog too as we still have some traveling planned for our daughter. We will be outdoors more, swimming, and reading lots of books, but we also have a tradition of doing more science experiments and computer programming over the summer because both kids are home and they enjoy doing this together. Our son will also be taking a writing course from Scholars Online over the summer and assorted electives from Lukeion.org.

Computers are not a staple of classical education, but definitely wanted to include it for our kids. Computer technology has helped bring back a resurgence in classical education (online Latin and Greek courses, online Great Books discussions), and as a medium, it can make difficult material more fun and accessible.

From MythWeb.com, check out animated stories of Bellerophon (above right), Theseus, Jason, Hercules, Odysseus, and Perseus.

Also the kids are following a tutorial and example games for the free program Gamemaker 7.0. This is a free program that has extensive helps via tutorials, forums, and school-based sites like this. Already we can see that programming provides good error detection practice, and appreciation for what goes into a good game.

Our kids have only been working on their tutorial games for the past 2 weeks, but if you'd like to see some of their work in-progress, download one of their fully executable games here. They are also learning how to edit sprites and the final assignment is to convert their mazes into a classical theme (like Theseus and the Minotaur in the Labyrinth).

For more games on classical themes (most very simple, tells you of the need for more tech-saavy young classical scholars...)

Ancient Greece Olympics at BBC
Ancient Games at Winged Sandals
Who Wants to Be an Ancient Greek Millionaire? (Quia game)
Battlefield Academy: Ancient Romans vs. Britons

We'll be traveling more this summer, so our posting will be more erratic, but we'd like to be back weekly in the coming school year.

Math in Books and Film

2008-05-21T20:09:00.000-07:00

In Arthur Conan Doyle's The Musgrave Ritual, Sherlock Holmes uses geometry to solve a 250 year mystery:

"Well, at least I knew that if Brunton could do it, I could also. Besides, there was no real difficulty. I went with Musgrave to his study and whittled myself this peg, to which I tied this long string with a knot at each yard. Then I took two lengths of a fishing-rod, which came to just six feet, and I went back with my client to where the elm had been. The sun was just grazing the top of the oak. I fastened the rod on end, marked out the direction of the shadow, and measured it. It was nine feet in length.

"Of course the calculation now was a simple one. If a rod of
six feet threw a shadow of nine, a tree of sixty-four feet would
throw one of ninety-six, and the line of the one would of course be the line of the other."

Of course, this is an old idea, and how Thales measured the height of Egyptian pyramids some 500 years B.C. For more Math at the movies, check out Mathematics in Movies (includes clips) and Math In the Movies or Mathematical Fiction for books.

Sherlock Holmes image from Wikimedia

Exercise in Rhetoric: Comparing Alexander and Caesar

2008-05-12T00:01:00.000-07:00

In ancient times, a common rhetorical exercise was to have students compare famous individuals. This past week our son wrote an essay comparing Alexander the Great and Caesar, and we discovered an example from the past. It is a fascinating read, and Appian of Alexandria , makes these men's lives come vividly to life.

Excerpt:

"They were both supremely ambitious, warlike, rapid in executing their decisions, careless of danger, unsparing of their bodies, and believers not so much in strategy as in daring and good luck. One of them made a long journey across the desert in the hot season [1] to the shrine of Ammon, and when the sea was pushed back crossed the Pamphylian gulf by divine power, for heaven held back the deep for him until he passed, and it rained for him while he was on the march. In India he ventured on an unsailed sea. He also led the way up a scaling-ladder, leapt unaccompanied on to the enemy wall, and suffered thirteen wounds. He was never defeated and brought all his campaigns to an end after one or at most two pitched battles...

In Caesar's case, the Adriatic yielded by becoming calm and navigable in the middle of winter. He also crossed the western ocean in an unprecedented attempt to attack the Britons, and ordered his captains to wreck their ships by running them ashore on the British cliffs. He forced his way alone in a small boat at night against another stormy sea, when he ordered the captain to spread the sails and take courage not from the waves but from Caesar's good fortune. On many occasions he was the only man to spring forward from a terrified mass of others and attack the enemy..."

A rhetorical exercise: Alexander and Caesar

Wikipedia: Caesar

End of the Year Testing - Homeschool

2008-05-05T08:18:00.000-07:00

This is a busy time, but wanted to post our links for end-of-the-year testing. Some states require this for homeschoolers and we have always found the information helpful for identifying students' (and curricular) strengths and weaknesses.

Currently we are using Piedmont Educational Services for the ITBS.

In previous years we used Family Learning Organization for the California Achievement Test.

Giving these tests to your kids at the end of the year can give them some practice at standardized tests and help you plan for what your student needs for the coming year.

Here's a link with more Testing Services for Homeschoolers.

p.s. We've recently received word that our daughter has been accepted into a clinical trial. We'll post when we can, but may be a little spotty until we get into a more regular routine in mid June. We'd appreciate your prayers for this next step in her treatment.

Writing a Socratic Dialogue

2008-04-22T00:01:00.000-07:00

Our son's just finishing his online Logic course through Biola, and after reading Plato's Meno, the students were asked to write a Socratic dialogue on any topic of their choice. This assignment is a perfect cap to a logic course; I also can't help thinking it will make him more successful at being able to analyze the arguments of others and persuade some to his own opinions when important topics (different philosophies, religious beliefs, social or political opinions) are being considered.

Wikipedia describes the Socratic method as "a negative method of hypotheses elimination, in that better hypotheses are found by steadily identifying and eliminating those which lead to contradictions. The method of Socrates is a search for the underlying hypotheses, assumptions, or axioms, which may subconsciously shape one's opinion, and to make them the subject of scrutiny, to determine their consistency with other beliefs. The basic form is a series of questions formulated as tests of logic and fact intended to help a person or group discover their beliefs about some topic, exploring the definitions or logoi (singular logos), seeking to characterize the general characteristics shared by various particular instances."

Some common features of a Socratic dialogue (from Peter Kreeft's Socratic Logic):

1. The goal is moral or philosophical.
2. Define the question and ambiguous terms.
3. Question, rather than giving one's opinion.
4. Examine the why of the discussant's belief, especially looking for ambiguous terms, a false premise, or logical fallacy.
5. Trace premises back to additional premises.
6. Draw out consequences of the belief (reductio ad absurdum)
7. Construct an argument that contradictors the belief.
8. Closure and proof.

Here's an excerpt of our son's Socratic Dialogue. He wanted to address the issue of Free Will. If you'd like the read the entire dialogue, click here.

"Adelphos: Socrates, why do you waste your time by chatting with the people on the street?

Socrates: Ah, Adelphos! What a delightful surprise!. I have waited years for somebody to ask this question. Exactly in what sense am I wasting my time?

Adelphos: You aren't teaching anyone with your little dialogues in a way that can change their fate. Look at Demos there. He is the son of wise Erasmus, and also a wealthy young man of Athens. The gods know the number of his days, and he has inherited the wisdom of his father and the kindness of his mother. Look upon his face, his bearing, his diligence. He will be a fine young man whether he listens to you babble on for hours or not.

Socrates: There are a few questions I want to ask you. First, if the gods know the number of Demos's days, does that necessarily make any action of his futile?

Adelphos: It does not. The good deeds of a good man bring much blessings, whether his life is long or short.

Socrates: And is it always the case that good fathers have good sons?

Adelphos: That is not the case, though there are more good sons that come from good fathers than bad sons that come from good fathers or good sons that come from bad fathers.

Socrates: Exactly what causes the exceptions, particularly when bad sons are born to good fathers?

Adelphos: It depends. Sometimes it's the result of the bad character that's given to the sons by the gods. Sometimes it's the ideas imposed upon the sons by other people that corrupt a naturally good character.

Socrates: How do these ideas get imposed upon the naturally good sons?

Adelphos: From spending too much time listening to the ideas of other people with poor character and imitating their actions. Let me give you an example. Alcibiades was born of a good family and he had plenty in terms of beauty and cleverness, but he turned out bad because he was surrounded by a few reckless and wild people.

Socrates: Yet it would seem to me that if anyone was fated by the gods to be good, Alcibiades was. It looked as if he had many gifts from the gods and blessings from his parents, yet he turned out bad because he imitated the poor judgments and actions of others. Was he simply fated to spend his time with evil friends and so to learn to make bad choices? Or did he choose to do so?

Adelphos: I see where you are going with this, Socrates. But choosing and being fated to choose are the same thing..."

For more examples of Socratic dialogues, check out the Google books excerpts from Peter Kreeft's Socrates Meets Marx

The First Historian: Herodotus of Helicarnassus

2008-04-14T00:01:00.000-07:00

The world's first historian was Greek storyteller Herodotus of Helicarnassus. He was a wonderful storyteller, but some critics (from Thucydides to modern historians) have bemoaned his inaccuracies, leading some to call him instead, "The Father of Lies."

What led Herodotus to research and record historical events in such detail, traveling long distances to obtain first-hand accounts of events, then retelling them as stories? It's Herodotus that we owe the credit for the Spartan Dienekes' great line at Thermopylae, "So much the better, then we will fight in the shade."

Because Herodotus enjoyed entertaining others with his stories, he related well-chronicled events as well as hearsay, gossip, and outlandish fables, but even the latter often had some basis in truth. Here a team of explorers recently found evidence that Herodotus' stories of gold-digging ants were ac tually marmots that uncovered gold by the incessant burrowing in the Himalayas. For another Herodotus vindication, check out Herodotus and the Ancient Etruscans.

Wikipedia: Battle of Thermopylae

Blog Break - Back April 14th

2008-03-29T15:10:00.000-07:00

We are traveling out-of-state and will have a brief break. See you soon!

Saint Patrick

2008-03-17T16:24:00.000-07:00

Saint Patrick was kidnapped at the age of 16 by Irish pirates. As a slave, Patrick recalled his Christian upbringing and instead of becoming embittered, he was penitent: "I was at that time about sixteen years of age. I did not, indeed, know the true God; and I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people, according to our deserts, for quite drawn away from God, we did not keep his precepts, nor were we obedient to our priests who used to remind us of our salvation...And there the Lord opened my mind to an awareness of my unbelief, in order that, even so late, I might remember my transgressions and turn with all my heart to the Lord my God, who had regard for my insignificance and pitied my youth and ignorance. And he watched over me before I knew him, and before I learned sense or even distinguished between good and evil, and he protected me, and consoled me as a father would his son."

One of his jobs was tending sheep, and it was there Patrick developed the habit of praying unceasingly. Friendly traders helped him escape after 6 years, enabling him to return to his family, but he would return to Ireland as a missionary, converting kings and whole kingdoms, and establishing churches all over Ireland.

Saint Patrick's Prayer for the Faithful

May the Strength of God guide us.
May the Power of God preserve us.
May the Wisdom of God instruct us.
May the Hand of God protect us.
May the Way of God direct us.
May the Shield of God defend us.
May the Angels of God guard us.
- Against the snares of the evil one.

May Christ be with us!
May Christ be before us!
May Christ be in us,
Christ be over all!

May Thy Grace, Lord,
Always be ours,
This day, O Lord, and forevermore. Amen.

Saint Patrick - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
St. Patrick: Pilgrim, Patron and Model
Saint Patrick: Prayer for the Faithful
The Confession of Saint Patrick
Saint Patrick Statue

Early Christian Symbols - Chi-Rho and the Mosaics of San Vitale

2008-03-10T20:56:00.000-07:00

For our son's Art History, we've been enjoying slowing working our way through Laurie Adams' A History of Western Art. It was in the chapter on Early Christian and Byzantine Art that discovered the beautiful mosaics of San Vitale.

In the picture at the left, the green shield is decorated with Constantine's Chi-Rho. Constantine was very important in the history of early Christianity because his Edict of Milan made it safe for Christians to open practice Christianity. A precise account of Constantine's relationship to Christianity is not known, but according to Eusebius, Constantine saw two visions before his battle with Maxentius. In one, the Cross appeared against a light with the words "In this sign you conque," while on the other, he was told to place Chi-Rho - the first two letters of Christ's Greek name on the shields of his soldiers. Eusebius also told of Constantine's baptism as a Christian.

For more views of the mosaics, check the following link: San Vitale Basilica.

For more, read here about Early Christian Symbols.The fish is an acrostic: in Latin fish is icthus; in Greek, Iota Chi Theta Upsiolon Sigma is an acrostic for Jesus Christ, of God, the Son, the Savior (Iesous Christos, Theou Uiou Soter). The drawing of two fish and an anchor (at right) was another early Christian symbol seen in an ancient Roman catacomb.

The two images above were taken from Dr. Ralph Wilson's Ichthus as Early Christian Symbols.

Building an Ancient Greek Ship - Trireme

2008-03-03T00:01:00.000-08:00

The bireme (2 rows of oars) was used during the Trojan Wars, but the trireme would become the ultimate warship in Greece's victory against the Persian fleet at Salamis in 480 B.C.

Here's more about the history and archeology of the trireme. Click here if you want to find paper templates and rules to re-enact the Battle of Salamis, and here for a very short trireme Youtube video that shows a working trireme at sea.

Triremes usually 170 rowers arrange in 3 rows. They were very narrow and built for close in battles, rather than long open ocean campaigns. For a great review of the importance of the Trireme at Salamis, read here. The Persians attacked the Greeks, but by the time the battle was over, 200+ Persian boats were lost compared to 40 of the Greeks.

How Triremes Were Made
Kids' Examples: Building Triremes with Popsicle Sticks

Latin Mnemonics, Flashcards, and the National Latin Exam

2008-02-25T00:01:00.000-08:00

Here's a link to our Latin 1 Mnemonics Study Sheet My son and I found ourselves drowning in conjugation and declension rules, and though we had the chants memorized, we were confused about which chant was which. These are our own homespun mnemonics - Imperfect Bam Bam, Perfect Cousin It (from Adams Family), Future Little BO Peep and Ent (Lord of the Rings). The file is a pdf file, so you can only open it if you have Adobe Acrobat Reader. Other sites: Cornell Latin Mnemonics and for some entertaining Latin mnemonics songs (including downloadable music files) check out Julie Dyson Hejduk's Latin Study Materials site.

For flashcard practice, we usually use free cards at Flashcardexchange.com (search under Latin or Wheelocks) and Quia.com Both sites are have a free membership option, but require registration.

Our son will be taking the National Latin Exam in March, and the best all-around site we found for review is NLE KET Distance Learning. Previous exams (including answer keys) are posted at the National Latin Exam site.

Flash from the Past: "He regarded his education as defective..."

2008-02-19T19:20:00.000-08:00

He "regarded his education as defective"(his formal education ended at age 15), but he was determined to improve himself through reading and independent study. He would become the quintessential self-made man, inventor, land surveyor and speculator, businessman, soldier, farmer, writer, politician, and President.

This Flash from the Past lost his father at age 11, but was guided by his older brother to be a land surveyor (he surveyed his brother's turnip garden below - and added, "Survey'd by me").

As a teen, he had trouble with his temper leading a family friend to bemoan, "I wish that I could say that he governs his temper. He is subject to attacks of anger and provocation, sometimes without just cause."

At some point in his late teens, though, he began a campaign of self-improvement, read biographies and histories voraciously, and tried to tutor himself in good manners and a consistent habit of discipline that would train him to hold his temper. He was ambitious, but preferred to "let my designs appear from my works than my expression," and applied himself to doing.

Who was this? This was our first Executive-in-Chief, Founding Father George Washington.

We got hooked on learning more about GW since visiting Mount Vernon for the first time this spring. Washington was a tweaker and a genius at management - whether it was inspiring his ragtag army, orchestrating the cooperation of some very difficult personalities in his government, or running his grand estate. He was inspired by the Stoics, and his later command of his outward character would be important in establishing his new country's credibility. He had a vision for our country, and he would inspire generations to come. He was so valuable in dire times because, as David McCullough put it, he had a genius for seeing things as they were, and not as what he wished them to be.

There are more details than we can list about GW, his excellent but clearly micromanaging of Mount Vernon(experimentation with different fertilizers, crop rotation, farm implements and 16-sided threshing barn), numerous architectural tweaks (including faux stone exterior and wood stain), and of course his management of such talented but complex people as Adams, Hamilton, Jefferson, and Madison.

Last year after we visited Mount Vernon, I got hooked on learning more about Washington, enjoying both McCullough's 1776 and the Novaks' Washington's God. For an online article by the Novaks, check out What Washington Saw in God at USA Today.

Mount Vernon: George Washington
George Washington's Rule Book of Civility
George Washington: Farmer

Is the Cave in Ancient Rome the Wolf Den of Romulus and Remus?

2008-02-11T00:01:00.000-08:00

While Emperor Augustus' palace on Palatine Hill was undergoing restorations, archeologist discovered a underground grotto believed to be worshiped as the site where a wolf nursed Romulus and Remus - the Lupercale.

Not all archeologists agree, but it is quite a find as the area is covered with mosaics. So far it is too structurally fragile to enter, but archeologists are exploring it the best they can with endoscopes and laser scanners. For more a few more pictures, check out this article at BBC News

The cave of Romulus and Remus?

Blog Break

2008-01-21T15:53:00.001-08:00

We will be taking a break from our blog because our daughter will be having the first of her surgeries down in California this week. Please keep us in your prayers. If you'd like to send her a card or words of encouragement, please visit her caring bridge site above, and bless you.

- P.S. We're back and thank you for your prayers. Her surgery was successful and she recovered much more quickly than we anticipated. Soli Deo Gloria!

The Fantastic Imagination

2008-01-21T15:45:00.000-08:00

We have been enjoying George Macdonald's Princess and Curdie stories. Here is an excerpt from his wonderful essay on The Fantastic Imagination:

"One difference between God's work and man's is, that, while God's work cannot mean more than he meant, man's must mean more than he meant. For in everything that God has made, there is a layer upon layer of ascending significance; also he expresses the same thought in higher and higher kinds of that thought: it is God's things, his embodied thoughts, which alone a man has to use, modified and adapted to his own purposes, for the expression of his thoughts; therefore he cannot help his words and figures falling into such combinations in the mind of another as he had himself not foreseen, so many are the thoughts allied to every other thought, so many are the relations involved in every figure, so many the facts hinted in every symbol. A man may well himself discover truth in what he wrote; for he was dealing all the time things that came from thoughts beyond his own."

There are certainly many sublime moments in George Macdonald's books, and their highest moments have nothing to do with his writing ability, which is quite cumbersome at times.

For the discovery of George MacDonald, I have to thank C.S. Lewis, who said he had always considered GM his master.

Princess and the Goblins at Google Books

Classical, Modern, and Discovery-Based Science

2008-01-14T00:01:00.000-08:00

A classical education has much to contribute to science teaching, particularly with showing students how science discoveries are made - science should not be taught as a disembodied list of facts to be memorized. Understanding science in its historical context, provides a more realistic view of how science can be fallible, how can be advanced by the efforts of individual men and women with their own personal motivations, and how different problems can be discovered and solved with the processes of close observation, testing, analysis, and communication with colleagues.

A great historical example of a classical approach to science is Faraday's Observation of a Candle series of lectures. These can be read here. This series of lectures combined so many elements of good science teaching: closer inspection of every day phenomena, a deeper exploration of facts, a thorough examination of scientific assumptions, and a testing of hypotheses. Currently there is great interest in discovery-based learning, but as it is equally important not to stamp out student-led inquiry and curiosity, it is important not to withold facts and technical information that will allow greater complexity in students' scientific thinking.

Last month, I did some science experiments at home with the kids because both were beginning to study the periodic table (pH for hydrogen). The text they were using didn't provide any historical content for why the red cabbaged could be used as an acid-base indicator, so with a little digging, we all were able to discover how the interest in acids and bases came about, how the color changes were important the textile industry, and how research into some of these color-changing substances is important for today and possibly even more for the future.

At The Origins of Acids and Alkalis, we learned that ancient Egyptians and Greeks identified different substances on the basis of taste. Vinegar was sour (acid). Alkalis came from the Arabic word al-qaliy which stood for a slippery substance left over after burning.

But the interest in acids really took off when French fabric dyers in the 16th century discovered that acids created colors that were much more vibrant (we thought of our Easter egg dyeing with vinegar).

There are many take off points for this study. Some of you may like to explore natural dyes at a site like Pioneer Thinking and Natural Dyes. We also talked about current ideas about possible health benefits of the anthocyanins and examined the structure of anthocyanins. We also tested various substances around the house, and found that most of their predictions about acids and bases were correct. But there was one exception that seemed to stump us. The kids dissolved a praline in some water, and had expected it to be a bit acidic (doesn't candy dissolve your teeth?). With a little bit of research into this unexpected result, they learned that the acid that makes dental cavities is caused by sugar because the sugar makes bacteria sticky to teeth, and it's the acid produced by the bacteria that makes holes. So what kind of science is all this? Classical-Modern-Discovery-Based Science, I think.

Yarn Picture

The Fall of Ancient Greek Civilization - The Peloponnesian War

2008-01-07T00:01:00.000-08:00

Our son's midterm paper topic (Schola Tutorials) over Christmas break was Who Should Have Won the Peloponnesian War. I confess to knowing very little about the Peloponnesian War, but the topic piqued my curiosity as I remember from some of my friends at Harvard that Thucydides' The History of the Peloponnesian War was mandatory reading for Gov 40, the killer pregov / prelaw course (like the premeds' Organic Chem). So why should this old book be required reading?

We've been wending our way through The Baldwin Project's The Story of the Greeks and I came to realize that there is a lot to learn from this War for any citizen of a democratic country. Athens should have won. It wasted its talented leaders and could not act decisively to unite the different dissenting voices within its city states. Human vices of arrogance, greed, and cruelty, doomed much more than who would rule Greece. I was surprised to learn that most of my son's online classmates felt that the Spartans should have won the war. Certainly this could make for a good discussion or debate over the dinner table!

An excerpt from Gilbert Highet's The Classical Tradition:

"It is not always understood nowadays how noble and how widespread Greco-Roman Civilization was, how it kept Europe, the Middle East, and northern AFrica peaceful, cultured, prosperous, and happy for centuries, and how much was lost when the savages and invaders broke in upon it...We are so accustomed to contemplating the spectacle of human progress that we assume modern culture to be better than anything that preceded it. We forget also how able and how willing men are to reverse the movement of progress: how many forces of barbarism remain, like vocanoes in a cultivated island, still powerfully alive, capable not only of injuring civilization but of putting a burning desert in its place."

----------
For those of you interested in samples of middle school writing, here's our son's short position paper on the War:

Athens should have won the Peloponnesian War.

The Athenians' loss in the Peloponnesian War meant a loss of Greek independence and setback for the principles of democracy throughout the Western world. At the start of the war, Athens had good resources, a superior navy, and a good general in Pericles. Pericles' war strategy was to protect his population behind the Long Walls. Sparta attacked the countryside, but could not significantly harm the people or the supply lines to Athens, which were protected by their fleet. Athens was defeated mainly due to a plague that struck, killing almost one-third of the population, including Pericles.

Sparta ended up winning the war, but ruled poorly over Greece because of poor leaderships and a society that was not oriented toward government during peacetime. Spartan culture emphasized only military strength and denied its citizens individuality and free choice. As a result, Spartan culture had little in the way of the arts or philosophy. Children were taken away from their mothers at age 7 and raised by nurses with little coddling and only simple food. This culture was non-Biblical. Whereas the Bible places importance on the family and the different roles of father, mother, and child, the Spartan culture placed little importance on family, and replaced the family with the state.

As a result of Sparta winning, all the Greek city-states were weakened. As a result, it was easier for Macedonia to conquer them several decades later.

Athens should share some of the blame for losing the Peloponnesian War. Athens went to conquer Sicily and Syracuse, exhausting their navy and army, and making them more vulnerable to defeat. Also, the Athenians had a bad tradition of exiling or killing some of their greatest leaders. Many were so anxious that their leaders would gain too much power and become tyrants that they accused them of crimes that many probably did not commit. Many good leaders may have been killed, exiled, or forced to defect to another country, like Alcibiades.

The Age of Pericles was a time when politics, philosophy, and the arts flourished in Greece. Pericles also created a large number of public works projects that made living easier for the Athenians. If Athens had won the Peloponnesian War, perhaps that age would have continued.

A War Like No Other - NRO
The Plague of Athens
Peloponnesian War Picture

Christmas Carols

2007-12-10T13:33:00.000-08:00

"Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song." - Psalm 149: 1

This picture is from a medieval collection of Christmas Noels or carols from the 16th century.

Our daughter's school had their Christmas concert last week and we were treated to a marvelous concert of Puer Natus in Bethlehem, In Dulci Jubilo, and Psallite. It was a remarkable concert, all the more amazing because it is such a small school (150) and a school that originally grew from homeschooling families. Click here to listen to an excerpt. The string quartet was made up from the parents, but the singers were all 2nd-12th graders. It was beautiful.

This History of Christmas Carols site suggests that a Roman bishop in AD 129 was the first to advise that an Angel's Hymn be sung at a Christmas service. St. Francis of Assisi was credited for reviving Christmas songs when he included canticles in his nativity plays in 1223.

If you like to learn some of these old carols (especially wonderful if you are learning Latin together), you will love Choral Wiki. There is a treasure trove of free choral music (piano music included), MIDI files, and other resources to sing them at home.

Ever since we were married, we have watched a video of Lessons and Carols from Kings College every Christmas. On YouTube.com, we found an excerpt, Once in Royal David's City. Enjoy!

Snowflake Templates, Snow Crystals

2007-12-03T00:01:00.001-08:00

It's that time of year again! Here are some of our favorite sites for enjoying the beauty of snowflakes, reading about the science and mathematics of their formation, and making your own to put up on the window or Christmas tree.

Snowflake Templates at Yarn Owl
More Snowflake Patterns

For more Snowflake Study consider Koch Snowflake (Fractal) and the beautiful Snow Crystals site.

Do you know where the saying about no two snowflakes are alike came from? The research of a self-educated Vermont farmer who became fascinated by the beauty of snow crystals.

"Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty; and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated., When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind."

We have both the Caldecott medal winner Snowflake Bentley and the book which contains many of his original photographs Snow Crystals.

If you freeze a piece of black velvet, it keeps individual snowflakes long enough so that you can see their individual details more clearly.

Classical Writing: Progymnasmata - Aesop's Fables: The Sick Lion

2007-11-26T00:01:00.000-08:00

We've found progymnasmata exercises to be a fun and helpful way for our kids to learn how to write. Here's two progymnasmata exercises our 10 year-old daughter (5th grade) recently did for her class. If you have a reluctant writer, see if reading these examples might help encourage them to get their feet wet.

First is the Aesop's fable; the second, a re-telling; the third, an imaginative elaboration. She was told to include hydrographia (description of water), topographia (description of place), and pragmatographia (description of event) in addition to working in: a who/which clause, 2 "ly" words, a "because" clause, and 5 "quality" adjectives.

#1: The Original Aesop's Fable: The Sick Lion

A Lion, unable from old age and infirmities to provide himself with food by force, resolved to do so by artifice. He returned to his den, and lying down there, pretended to be sick, taking care that his sickness should be publicly known. The beasts expressed their sorrow, and came one by one to his den, where the Lion devoured them. After many of the beasts had thus disappeared, the Fox discovered the trick and presenting himself to the Lion, stood on the outside of the cave, at a respectful distance, and asked him how he was. “I am very middling,” replied the Lion, “but why do you stand without? Pray enter within to talk with me.” “No, thank you,” said the Fox. “I notice that there are many prints of feet entering your cave, but I see no trace of any returning.”

He is wise who is warned by the misfortunes of others.

#2. Re-Telling of The Sick Lion

Once there was an old and weak lion with dull, ruffled, brown fur, who couldn't take care of himself. He thought for a long time, then decided to feed himself by pretending to be sick. He quickly returned to his den. Before he entered, he jumped over a shining river that had tiny little waves that rippled in the sunlight. His den had a hole for an entrance, leaves for his bed, with a tiny puddle of water to drink from near his bed. Animal bones were scattered throughout his den.

Because a shiny black crow saw the Lion looking sick, the news spread like wildfire. Soon all the animals from the youngest mouse to the oldest turtle knew the Lion was sick. Immediately he was visited by hundreds of animals who expressed their sorrow. The Lion quickly, messily, and hungrily devoured them.

In a few days, the Fox who had shiny orange fur and a black tail came to visit the Lion. Amazing, but true, he discovered the Lion's trick before he entered the den. He stood outside the Loin's den and asked, "How are you Lion?"

"I am very sick, come in and talk to me," the Lion replied.

"No," said the Fox, "I saw many tracks going in, but none going out," and he left.

He is wise who is warned from the misfortunes of others.

#3. Re-Telling of The Sick Lion with a Twist

"Mr. Psychiatrist," said Holon the Lion, "I am having problems. I used to get lots of food, but now I'm getting none."

"Right, right," grumbled Grendlen the Bull. "Tell me the whole story, Holon." Holon comfortably sat down on the psychiatrist's couch and the Bull sat on a chair beside the couch. "Well," said the Lion, "When I was returning from a cruise I had won in a contest, the water was beautiful and sparkly, but the water made me sick. Waves were crashing against the boat when we landed. I was anxious to get to my tropical paradise. The beautiful shoreline was filled with zebras, giraffes, elephants, and antelope. The seagulls were driving me crazy! Then I collapsed in my bed for I had arthritis.

The next day, I carefully stalked a zebra. The smell wafted into my nostrils. As I pounced, a sharp pain struck me on the leg making me cry out, scaring the zebra awa. I stumbled back to my straw den, and thought for five days until I thought of an idea to fool the animals by inviting them to a feast and eating them both."

"Nice, nice, Lion, nice," said Grendlen. "Let's continue the story, Lion."

"Fine," growled the Lion. "Two animals came, both zebras. I ate them all. Then a mean, evil, cruel fox called Argiana, decided to tell everyone that I was eating all my guests. Now at that time I did not know that was bad manners. Argiana was so cocky and stuck up and was like, "You're in big trouble." I thought, "I'll show her!"

"Enough, Lion!," Roared the Bull. "I diagnose you with Food Obsession Disease!" Furthermore, I have to make you eat some Blue Grass of Kentucky and water from the Himalayas."

"What??" yelled the Lion. Then "Whoa!"

For the Bull had tossed him out the window.

"Golly if I didn't throw him out, he would have eaten me," said the Bull. He then put up a sign "No carnivores!"

He who is wise learns from the misfortunes of others.

Aesop's Fables: The Sick Lion

Thanksgiving Resources

2007-11-19T00:01:00.000-08:00

One of our favorite Thanksgiving websites is the interactive site at Plimoth Plantation. The two guides are children whose ancestors were at the 1621 Harvest Celebration.

Another good site is the History Channel's History of Thanksgiving

George Washington's original Thanksgiving Proclamation can be seen below (EarlyAmerica.com)

An easier to read copy can be found here. May find joy and many blessings this Thanksgiving.

Mind Mapping Ancient History

2007-11-12T00:01:00.000-08:00

After a few months in Greek history, I found my son was beginning to swim in dates, ancient names, and battles. Here are two quick mind maps we made to keep the details about Thermopylae and Miltiades straight...

Strong visualizers (strong visual imagery) may also find that learning or review details in this way simplifies their retrieval of information when their summarizing chapters or writing essays.

Our Autumn Leaf Lab

2007-10-18T07:45:00.000-07:00

This year we seemed to have just enough good weather conditions to have beautiful fall colors for Washington state (warm days, cool but not freezing nights).

Working our way through the Periodic Table, we came to magnesium, which is to chlorophyll as iron is to hemoglobin.

These are easy experiments, and if you have autumn leaves, it's a perfect time to do them. Pluck a variety of leaves, cut or tear them into cups. Add alcohol (isopropyl, ethanol, or even alcohol-containing hand wash will do in a pinch) and mash them up with a spoon. Cover with foil and let stand for 1 hour. Then cut strips of coffee filters into the solution and watch for colors that migrate up the filters.

We generated hypotheses before starting the experiments. Hypothesis #1: In plants that drop their colored leaves, the change in color is due to a loss of pigment, rather than an increase in pigment (for instance, yellow leaves have lost their green, not gained yellow). Hypothesis #2: Plants with colored leaves that do not drop have an increase in a new pigment rather than pure loss.

I'm not completely sure you can see the results, but it was interesting. For the red and purple bushes, we could see an extra band of blue that wasn't present in the green or yellow leaves. Chlorophyll a is blue-green and chlorophyll b is yellow-green. It seemed as if the red and purple leaves had chlorophyll a.

We also made other observations as through the course of the experiment. We found the yellow leaves were the easiest to dissolve with alcohol (due to early breakdown of their cell walls?) and thought about the various designs of the leaves. The big maples seemed particularly well designed to catch sunlight (large surface area), but perhaps the addition of blue chlorophyll conferred some energy advantage on the smaller red leaved bushes? Also the bushes had more leaves and were much smaller than the big maples.

When we looked back at our hypotheses, it looked like the behavior of the green and yellow leaves supported Hypothesis #1. Although it doesn't show clearly in the picture, we extracted much more chlorophyll from the green leaves than the yellow. Hypothesis #2 was less clear because we used two red / purple-leaved bushes, one that dropped its leaves, and one that didn't. Both seemed to have both yellow-green and blue-green chlorophyll, and we couldn't determine quantity. Not surprising, more sampling would be necessary to determine something like this!

Early Science and the Study of Chlorophyll and Photosynthesis
Science of Fall Color pdf

Rough Science

2007-10-12T10:42:00.000-07:00

My son has a 2 week break from his Great Books & Latin courses so we've been catching up on science labs. I'm beginning to think that like the need to teach practical theology within the context of our post-modern world, there is also a need to teach science recognizing that we live in a post-modern world.

One common mistake of today's post-modern man or woman is realizing we often know less than we really think we know. For the post-modern science student, the ignorance may be even greater because they lack enough world experience to see how much occurs without a carefully designed lesson plan. When we memorize a list or table of facts, do we really know it? So what is it that we do know, and what is it that we don't?

One nice discovery on my search for links to complement our Fizz, Bubble, and Flash experiments, was the Rough Science science reality show. If you are a Netflix subscriber, you can stream these episodes any time for free. A team of scientists (chemist, physicist, biologist) is dropped in a deserted area with few materials and a challenge to design, make, or find something in the surrounding terrain. How many of us can do this? Maybe we need to think more about our science and get out of the printed page. The first episode we watched challenged scientists to find gold in a gold mining area, purify it and quantitate it using only materials they could find in deserted saw mill.

The experiments we tinkered with this week included Electrolysis of Water using a 9 volt battery, water, and copper wires. The Rough Science team washing using electroysis to make silver iodide so that they could make a camera.

To top off our electrolysis learning we also watched this homemade Exploding Hydrogen video. It was pretty good! Even the outtakes!
Some Rough Science Challenges
Make Your Own Compass, Sea Water Batteries, Silver Iodide via Electrolysis for Camera