Von Trapp Family Singers

Yesterday, I was hungry.  I am on weight watchers and I've been doing really well.  But yesterday was a hungry day.  All day long, my stomach growled and visions of rich, fattening food streamed through my head.  But I was really good and didn't go over my required points plus.  Instead, I went book shopping!  (because I'm a model of self-control, LOL!)

And I found this treasure:

Since we've been involved in 4H, we've had two Austrian gentlemen come to stay with us.  One last summer, and one this.  Neither Florian nor Raphael had ever seen the Sound of Music, so both times we made it a point to watch the movie with them.  They both seemed to enjoy it.  Raphael just left us a week ago, so Austria and the Sound of Music were still fresh on my mind when I saw the above book.  Well, I couldn't resist.

This got me started thinking, as I have been mulling over read alouds I'd like to focus on this coming academic year, that reading The Story of the Von Trapp Family Singers would make an excellent choice for us.  We'll be studying Modern/American history, so it will fit right in.  (other books I'm thinking of:  The Scarlet Pimpernel, Across Five Aprils, The Virginian).



We also have a Christmas CD of the Von Trapp Family Singers.  Beautiful.  Not at all like the movie, which had great musical style singing, but in reality the family was very much formally trained and could sing a Bach cantata with the best of them!

It's a little early to be thinking of Christmas , I guess.  Must be my longing for cooler weather!

Weekend K'nex

Josh got back from engineering camp Friday night.  Rick found a K'nex double ferris wheel kit they had never built together, so this is what they did this weekend:

Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue - Book 35

Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue; The Untold History of English, by John McWhorter is the next  book in my own personal rabbit trail into linguistics.  Here, McWhorter explores alternative theories of the development of English that are not popular with mainstream views, but which he thinks make a lot of sense.

McWhorter addresses several issues in this book, one of which is why English developed the 'meaningless do.'  English is the only modern language that sticks a 'do' in where none is needed.  Why do we say do instead of just why say we?  That's what other languages do!  McWhorter points out that this isn't some fluke thing that just happened, as most English linguists view it, but that this peculiarity slipped into the language from types of Celtic, namely Welsh and Cornish.    Other topics are why English uses the progressive 'ing' as in "I am going" instead of "I go" as present progressive.  He points out the difference in English between saying I go and I am going.  The first is used in a general, or habitual sense:  On Saturday mornings, I go to the store, for example.  But if someones asked me, "what are you doing right now?" I wouldn't answer:  I go to the store, as in other languages.  I would say:  I am going to the store.  This too is a hangover from Celtic languages.  McWhorter also explores the impact that Old Norse had on English, a gift from those marauding Vikings.

Because of this McWhorter goes into the theory of how grammar was effected by invaders and traveling hordes of tribes.  He doesn't only look at what happened in the case of English but travels all over the world to find similar developments in Africa, India and China.  When adult speakers who are in the minority take over a land and intermarry, they tended to learn the new vocabulary for the most part (with some of their native vocabulary getting mixed in) and plug the new words into their own language's grammatical structure.  So that a pidgeon language develops for the next generation who grows up hearing this type of English (in the case of our language) being spoken.

McWhorter also goes after the disproved but still popular notions developed by Safir and Whorf who, in their kind of PC overenthusiastic desire to paint the picture of the Noble Savage, attributed too much power to how language channels thoughts.  McWhorter very neatly knocks down this approach to language which is based, in part, on misunderstanding of the languages.  McWhorter points out that many linguists study English and European languages but are not so well versed in other languages like Celtic and its dialects or Hopi or Cree and so either dismiss the impact of the language as unimportant in the development of English (as in the case of Celtic) or romanticize the impact of the language as in the case of Native American tongues.

There's much more than this in this book.  McWhorter, with each premise he explores, and in an entertaining way, explains it and then carefully analyzes just what is wrong with it.  McWhorter is a wordsmith.  He writes so cleverly and enjoyably, in such a witty, conversational style which is often pleasantly self-deprecating.  He's a fun guy.  He manages to make all this technical stuff amusing and engaging.

I learned a lot from this book.  It gets two thumbs up from me!

If you want to read more 52 Books in 52 Weeks reviews, go here: .http://www.read52booksin52weeks.com/2011/07/bw-30-c-is-for-cara-black.html 

What we've been up to - 7/24/11

It has been a really busy week!  Highlights:

This was Becky's first week of music camp.  She loves it as usual.  The theme is New Orleans and she is learning a French song, some old jazz number and the box step.  She's also learning to play the trumpet and worked very hard this week and can now play a scale!

She also went to her Basketball game on Tuesday.  When she gets home after camp about 2 in the afternoon she decompresses by watching movies; either Harry Potter ones or Coraline; or she goes up to her room and reads, usually Harry Potter books or Coraline!

Sean started Jr. high work camp Wednesday evening.  Both his good friends are also attending.  It really is too much for him.  I'm glad it is only a 3.5 day thing.  It started Wed. night from 6:00 to 8:00.  Then on Thursday and Friday it ran from 8:30 a.m. to 8:00 pm.  And today it goes from 8:30 a.m. to the 5:30 vigil Mass with a barbecue for all the campers and families following that.  So that's what we are doing tonight.  He got to go swimming yesterday.  I think he's having a good time, for Sean, that is (whose natural state of being is curmudgeon!)

Josh completed his engineering camp at Catholic U.  Says it was great and of course thinks he wants to be an engineer now.  In the middle of the week he said he like bio-medical the most but right now he's saying civil engineering would be his preference.

Will has been getting everything in order (slowly) to attend Berklee.  We have to have everything in by August 1st, so he's working on doctors appts and such.  Will's also been practicing with his new band.  They are doing a fundraiser block party tonight.  I wonder about attendance since it has been 100 degrees here for 3 days.  Horrible, horrible weather.

Hannah continues to work at the NRLC.  She had to go to NIH in Bethesda again to do medical research.  She's gone to two happy hours (one for UD students which turned out to be for not only UD,  but Ave Maria, Christendom and Stuebenville students as well).  Tonight she's going to the block party and tomorrow she's supposed to go kayaking with a bunch of folks from work.

I have been really busy with our new Aquinas Learning Center that we are trying to set up.  And also myself and two other moms are in the process of setting up a new 4H Teen Service Club.  So that's been taking up my time, along with taking care of my aunt.

And, not to leave out my beloved husband, he had an interesting pro bono case which really had him troubled but he wound up not taking it on after all because it was determined that his client needs a guardian ad litem instead of a lawyer.

And now I'm off to my Weight Watchers meeting.  I started up again last weekend.  Didn't really do well this first week back, but I did get into the habit of recording all my food intake, which is a step in the right direction!

Summer Camp Strewing

One way we strew during the summer is attending summer camps.  I love that there are so many opportunities in my area.  My kids get a taste of school, that is getting up each morning and having to show up at a certain place at a certain time to do some focused activity.

Throughout the years we've done:

• Vacation Bible School (as attendees and when the kids get older, as helpers or leaders)
• Workcamps - our parish has a week long away workcamp for high schoolers and a local shorter camp for junior high kids.  Fabulous, hands on learning experience and opportunity to serve the less fortunate.
• Art camps (we've done various ones over the years.  Always a good time!)
• Horse riding camps (only once.  One kid liked it, the other didn't)
• Sports camps (every sport camp has been a failure.  My kids learn that they are not jocks!)
• Drama camps (mixed reviews)
• Computer camps (mixed reviews)
• Music camps (my youngest loves her music camp;  This is her 4th summer attending the same 3 week long music camp.  It is pricey, but well worth it.)
• Dance camps - (fun!)
• Gymnastics camps - (my kids seemed to like these but they never asked to return to them, so maybe not)
• Latin camp - I actually hosted a beginning Latin camp last year.  It was fun, but I didn't have the ambition or energy to repeat it again this year!

And right now my 16 yo is at a week long engineering camp at a local university where he will live in a dorm room and learn about the different types of engineering jobs:  mechanical, biomedical, civil, electrical, etc.  It looks like a great program where he'll learn a ton.  I felt kind of bad leaving him there.  He doesn't know a soul, and he is the quiet type and doesn't usually initiate conversations, so of course this will be a learning experience on the socialization front as well as the engineering one!  Everybody seemed to be really friendly and wonderful.  So hopefully, he'll get over feeling awkward and have a great time.

The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson - Book 34

This book was actually a reread.  I think I read it about five years ago.  I was inspired to reread it after I saw it listed in the bibliography of the History of the English Language Teaching Co. Course I just finished watching.

Bill Bryson is brilliant.  He is so smart and so funny and so engaging.  The book is chock full of interesting facts about English and how it got to what it is today.  Bryson had me snorting and guffawing throughout (even the second time around!). He also had me exclaiming over all sorts of quirks of the English language that one doesn't think about it or even notice as a native speaker. And I will never listen to Lucy in the Sky by the Beatles the same way again!

So this book gets two thumbs from me.  If you want to laugh a lot and learn a lot at the same time, this is your book!

I also really want to read Made in America by Bryson as well.

For more book reviews see 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

Please Help Angela Faddis

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