The Peoplehood of the Traveling Swirly Pan: Where Education Meets Tasty

Introducing the Fabulous Jenni Field!

I’m here today to rave about my delightful, hilarious, compassionate, and brilliant chef friend Jenni Field, who offers up her chef-ish secrets for free on her website, in blog posts and charming kitchen-based videos. Jenni, who regularly buys items to give away to her readers, recently came up with a super idea to spread her passion for her most beloved swirly cake pan. She couldn’t afford to buy enough of them to just give them away to whoever wanted them, so she decided to send hers on a transcontinental trip, so that it could experience baking love from many hands in many, many states. She announced her plans on facebook and her website, and to date, she has 172 participants from 48 states and Canada (come on New Mexico and South Dakota!). She calls her newly formed community “Peoplehood of the Traveling Swirly Pan.”

The pan will travel from participant to participant, and each person will bake something in the swirly cake pan, photograph it, share it with the swirly pan community, and then send it on to the next person. A beautiful way to connect the world, don’t you think?

As I was signing up to participate, it occurred to me that this was a fantastic learning opportunity as well. Jenni thinks the pan can rotate to approximately 30 people per year, so she estimates its journey will last more than 5 years. How cool for us homeschoolers, parents, teachers, grandparents, and other folks who love learning to jump on board and follow its progress?

One of Jenni’s amazing creations in her swirly pan

There are so many ways to hook this into our educational plans.

1. Geography: Set up a map and chart the progress. Mark the map with sticker stars as the pan travels from state to state.

2. Cooking/Math: Observe and discuss the different cakes being baked in the same pan. Try some new recipes!

3. Culture: On your map, indicate what kind of cake was made at each stop. Are there cultural themes? Do northerners bake different types of cakes than southerners? Westerners vs. easterners? Or are we all homogenized due to readily available ingredients and an integrated population?

4. Creativity: Discuss the variety of approaches to the same pan that are dependent on perspective. Broaden that discussion to embrace other topics – worldviews, art, religion, politics, music, reading, fashion – you name it.

5. Community: This is fabulous opportunity to get to know new folks and invite friends and family you already know from around the country. Jenni has provided ample venues for connection, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. If we had enough kids involved, perhaps they could continue their correspondence throughout the pan’s 5+ year long journey.

What other ways can you think of to use this project to enhance your education? Let me know – or more importantly, let Jenni know when you sign up!

Mexi-Hexi-Flexigons!!!

Eva looooves Vi Hart, the charming, quirky, and brilliant mathematician who is best known for her verbally quick videos about math and doodling. This week, once again, Eva’s been studying her video on mexi-hexi-flexigons. Take a peek:

Ok. Now you know why we adore Vi. Today, Eva decided was The Day to make these delicious treats, so off we went to the grocery store to buy 12 inch tortillas for the task. We bought a package of 6.

Eva is working with the tortilla strip

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First step is to cut a strip from the center of the tortilla. Proportion is key. Too thin and it won’t hold any food, too thick, and you won’t be able to make enough triangles to complete the shape. Also, fresh tortillas are essential!! Most tortillas will break if you bend them around too much. Even with the package we just opened, we still had some tearing problems. Tortillas #1 – #4 met terrible fates, either from being too small or too big, or tearing when the flexing moment arrived.

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Oh my. We only had two tortillas left! This time, Eva paid close attention to the strip width, and we decided not to do any pre-eating flexing. This one was going to count.

Testing out the triangle strip

Building the triangle stack

This one’s going to work, we just know!

Pulling together the ingredients….

Drum Roll Please! …

 

Om nom nom.

New Year Family Goal-Setting Time: Creativity

Creative outlets are what makes this family function properly. When out of balance, we all four get grumpy and unsettled. This has been especially challenging for us this year as we’ve moved into a very small, charming, and old bungalow with some fabulous unfinished spaces. We naively believed that we could have these spaces (one an attic that will become an art studio, and the second a basement that will outfit a music rehearsal and recording space) finished by early last fall. Ha! North Dakota’s oil boom related growth has kept every contractor and sub-contractor so busy it’s unbelievable. As a result, we’ve had to wait and wait and wait. We’ve been on top of each other, and the space we naturally take up for creating has been pretty much confined to the kitchen table.

The attic in process. The temporary pink foam sheets mark planned vertically placed skylights.

With all our art boxes still packed away in the garage, we (especially Eva and I) have felt unsettled this year. We have had some progress, and we see an end in sight: the attic by the end of the month, the basement by… dare I hope for the end of March? This makes us incredibly happy, and in the meantime, we keep our dining table nice and cluttered and full.

Oh, but the lure of these spaces! Eva and I are already dreaming of our separate writing areas up there, hers a window seat that I’ll build for her, mine a simple table and chair. A spacious Lego area, and of course lots of space for canvasses and paper, paint and pastels. Just the idea of all that gets our creative juices flowing.

in the meantime, Eva is working steadily on her newest novel, a science fiction piece that takes place in an animal cell. She’s had to take out a character, which has proven to be the biggest editing challenge she’s ever faced. But she’s determined. We cleaned off her bedroom desk yesterday so that she could feel more authorly. She’s been making writing-related posts on her Facebook author page that are so cheerful it feels like summer.

Eva is also continuing to explore music, enjoying playing trumpet in band, and teaching herself how to play piano. Bass clef is still sketchy, and she never commits enough to sit down at the piano, but she’ll stand there picking away every time she passes by the instrument (which is often). Spotify and her iPod have helped introduce Eva to new music, and right now she’s really into powerful women with a harder musical edge like Paramore and Joan Jett.

Ian has big goals too, which I’ve talked about before. Now that he’s done with his lengthy application process for the Downbeat Magazine Student Music Awards competition, he’s focusing on an orchestral composition that will begin as a 18th century classical work and transform into a modern heavy metal sound. A collaboration with fashion designer Isabella Taylor, they are working together to create a multi-media piece that moves from stately, refined conservatism to a freedom of expression and thought. She will design the fashions, and the music will help express the message in a runway-show-type presentation. It’s challenging work, and Ian has gotten his music theory teacher on board with the project so that he can receive regular expert feedback along the way.

Another big goal for Ian has to do with the pending space. Once the basement is finished, he hopes to turn it into a community hotspot, welcoming musicians of all ages to come and create music together. He wants to create official performing groups, but also to simply have opportunities to play with new folks just for the sheer delight of making music.

As an extension of this, Ian hopes to produce his first album this summer. We’ve been in steady conversation about this. It’s a challenging thing to take on, mainly because of the wide variety of genres Ian enjoys. How does one place a rock ballad next to a composition for orchestra? Do we make it a hodge-podge collection of his work as a type of demo? Do we release individual songs instead, using his Bandcamp page? Lots of things to consider here, and we haven’t figured it all out yet. There’s also the fundraising to think about. Recording of course isn’t cheap, and we feel it is important for Ian to be involved with this aspect of the business as well. We’ve discussed a possible Kickstarter campaign, which opens up all sorts of new things to research and explore, like what all needs to be in place before the campaign begins, how to make a convincing Kickstarter video, what benefits to offer supporters, and how to promote the campaign to ensure success.

Jamie with his newest book, In Darkest London

And that’s just the kids. Husband-Jamie is shopping for agents for a new YA novel, just published his first academic book, and is about to begin a new novel. I want to paint more and write more. I just met the lovely Elizabeth Raum this week, a professional children’s nonfiction author, and she has me inspired. I’m also lucky to have the brilliant and creative Jennifer Woods in my life, the vibrant editor of Typecast Publishing, who will I swear change the world with her vision and commitment to literary social engagement. Her work and enthusiasm is also quite inspiring and contagious. I can’t wait to see what 2013 brings.

If you see value in these exercises and goals, think about it within the language of school. This is our family’s school, our life. This is our education. If we could be so bold in supporting our schools and teachers, in training and then trusting them to be more subjective in their evaluation of student success – to accept portfolio reports instead of standardized test scores, think about it! The things we do here in our homeschool environment could be made accessible to so many other children! That’s an educational paradigm I could get into.

A Holiday Opportunity to Support Young Talent

Eva’s wearing Isabella’s double breasted jacket with pin-on flower. The shirt underneath is soft and has poofy artist sleeves. The pants are super comfy stretch pants with zippers at the ankles.

Those of you connected to me on facebook know that I’m a huge fan of Isabella Taylor, the 11 year old artist from Austin, Texas who has wowed the world with her paintings, sculptures, poetry, and fabric works since she was a toddler. Her latest endeavor has launched her into the world of fashion. Over the last year or so, she’s been creating designs specifically for pre-teens, and she recently launched her own line. Isabella not only designed all the clothes, but has also been involved in each step of the production process including material selection, fitting, and working with models, agents, and photographers.

For the first time, her clothes are available to the public for purchase. Isabella and her family was kind enough to send a box of these delights to Eva, and I’ll tell you – the quality is unreal. They are so soft, so comfortable, so classy, and so well made. And they’re made in the USA. Whether or not you give these clothes away for the holidays, go check them out and just enjoy looking at all the beautiful pieces Isabella has created. The website is a feast for the eyes in and of itself.  You can find her website here, and you can read my interview with Isabella about her unique education here. You should also take a moment and watch her awesome video. Have fun!

Oh yeah, and before I forget, Ian is giving away 100 downloads of his song “Who Said” to the first folks who let him know they want it. You can email me at gwynridenhour@gmail.com if you’re interested, and I’ll pass the word along to him!

Skyping, Creativity, and Literacy

Just a quick follow up from my last post. This evening, another blog post popped up talking about Eva’s recent Skyping session; it also includes a short film clip from the classroom’s perspective. Renee Boss, who arranged the event, shares my passion for creativity in learning. She has some cool things to say on the topic. Check it out!

Eva Skypes to Share Literacy

A couple of weeks ago, Eva had a new opportunity to Skype with a classroom of 4th graders down in the warm state of Kentucky. Educational guru and family friend Renee Boss made the arrangements for us, and her own son Isaac was a student in the class. A couple of days ago, Renee shared a link to Adolescent Literacy in the Bluegrass that reported on the event. Check it out! There’s even a video clip to let you see what a Skype connection looks like from the classroom perspective.

 

 

The Joy of Postponing Gratification

Ian pictured with the University of Mary Jazz Ensemble and Steel Drum Band

In this age of instant gratification that is fed by facebook posts, easy video uploading, and overnight youtube sensations, it’s tempting for us to long for the easy way. As a culture, we’ve always celebrated those folks who achieve overnight fame: love him or hate him, Justin Beiber is a great example. And it seems everywhere you look, there’s some young whipper-snapper who’s already on Ellen or American Idol, or has a bazillion hits on their youtube video that they put together in just a few hours.

We watch these rising stars at our house for talent inspiration, and because, well, it’s fascinating and somewhat alluring. But you have to be careful; quick success isn’t always the best route to take. One of my favorite mottos is  just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Though Ian certainly participates in activities with more instant gratification – he’s made and uploaded quite a few rough videos of him or him and a friend belting out pop songs and hoping for overnight viral status – it’s the harder work that takes longer that I admire most.

Last year, Ian started taking private music theory lessons with Dr. Anthony Williams at the University of Mary. To begin, his professor gave him just a few bars of melody of John Coltrane’s jazz classic “Bessie’s Blues.” Over the course of the year, Ian worked on that piece, broadening and arranging it for a full jazz band. Jazz is a fluid, generous genre, and it leaves a lot of opportunity for personal interpretation some original composition within the larger frame. Ian worked and worked on this piece, and there were some days he felt like he’d never see the end. His professor used the exercise to teach him music theory (another plug for making education relevant to the student!). The result: a much fuller understanding of music theory, and a kicking jazz piece to boot.

Because Ian’s professor is Awesome, and he directs the university Jazz Ensemble, he had his ensemble debut Ian’s piece last Friday as a part of their larger community jazz concert. He even invited Ian to sit in on the drums as a special guest. To finally hear his piece like we had all been “visualizing” in our minds for a full year – to hear it played by a full, smokin’ jazz ensemble – was, well, there are no words. We were beaming, all of us. Dancing in our seats. Hootin’ and hollarin’.

Perhaps the best part of the evening was that it got even better when we got home. Ian couldn’t sleep – a frequent occurrence after a gig – and immediately began composing a new jazz piece for the university ensemble next year. He knows it won’t be easy or fast. He knows it won’t be instant gratification. But he’s on fire, and he knows the hard work will pay off. I couldn’t be happier.

Guest Post from Eva Ridenhour

Hello all, and welcome to the 2012 National Novel Writing Month! In honor of the month, I am reposting Eva’s 2011 interview with the Office of Letter and Light (they’re the organization who runs National Novel Writing Month). So without further adieu, welcome Eva! (yaaaayyyyyyy!)

Oh, and PS: if you want to see all the Very Friendly comments on her original post, just click on the title below, and you’ll be rerouted to the original.

October 29, 2011 10:04 am

An Early Start: A Q&A with Eva Ridenhour

At eight years old, Eva Ridenhour already defies expectations about what it means to be a writer. Eva writes, illustrates, and publishes her own stories, and has already toured the country selling her own work alongside her father, novelist Jamieson Ridenhour. She’s also uploaded a series of short writing lectures about her process, which you can find on her site. Eva was inspired by NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program, and has written her own work in November two years in a row. Via email, OLL got a chance to speak to Eva regarding her work and experience with NaNoWriMo.

Where do you get ideas for your stories?

I get my story ideas by looking around and exaggerating simple things. For instance, if I’m playing with stuffed animals, I make up a whole new story idea. My favorite stuffed animal is named Kinzy (he’s a koala); he has a big imagination. I like to make up stories about the Koala Wars with all sorts of funny things that have to do with Kinzy. It’s very fun to give him a personality. He loves to eat, and has a best friend named Mark. He’s not very smart, but thinks he’s the most Awesome Thing Ever.

I also love reading. My favorite books by far are the Harry Potter series. They give me lots of ideas, because I like that kind of magical story, and it makes me want to write magical books.

I was inspired to write Birds on the Run and Attack of the Reptiles (my first two books) by my love of bird watching. I like watching how birds act, and could imagine them coming into my house, and talking to me. So I made that come to life.

What do you enjoy more: writing or illustrating?

Writing, hands down. I like writing, because I’m able to bring my imagination to life through words, and I love to read.

In one of your videos, you mention touring with your father. What was the book tour experience like?

It was very fun. I had to get up and talk to people. It made me nervous the whole time, but I loved it, because I got to talk with so many people and meet new people. I liked talking about my books. Once I begin, I can hardly stop!

Selling and signing the books was fun too, because it made me feel excited and happy. It feels good to know that people like my stuff.

Can you tell us a little about your next book?

I am working on more than one book, but I’ll tell you about one in particular. This one is about a monster slayer. I don’t know exactly how it’s going to turn out yet, but there will be werewolves and lots of fighting and fun. The monster slayer is a 12-year-old girl named Talen who has an unusual life. She has alien parents and was born in the stars (but she doesn’t know that); she now lives in a tree. She fights monsters, because a pack of werewolves attacked her on her 12th birthday. There’s also a very wimpy boy named Kevin who has never seen adventure before; they eventually become friends and fight together, even though Talen is a much better fighter than Kevin.

Where did you get the idea to start making videos about your writing?

I was on the book tour when I had the idea of the writing videos. I discovered that I had something to say—that I inspired people. The videos help me talk to people without having to go everywhere. I am hoping that teachers will find my videos and show them to their classrooms. I’m trying to get the word out now by going to teachers’ conventions. My parents are also emailing them to teachers and writers.

What has been your coolest experience as an author?

Neil Gaiman watched my videos, and that’s so awesome nobody can imagine it. He even commented on them. He said, “She does an amazing job.” Debbie Dadey, who writes the Baily School Kids, commented on my website itself. She liked my videos too!

What is your favorite part of the writing process?

I like writing the books themselves more than illustrating, revising, or the rest of the writing process. When I’m writing, I feel like I’m inside the story, doing all the stuff my characters are doing. And I’m having fun!

Managing a Budding Music Career

Ian plays with Hex Radio at a recent VFW gig.

When I look back over the last few posts, I realize that they are more Eva- than Ian-heavy. That’s because Eva and I are doing more face-to-face exploration together than Ian and I are. Ian’s 12 now, and branching out to classes and projects that have less and less to do with my direct teaching of anything. Most of his work – especially in the music world – has long since required expertise beyond what I have to offer.

It’s exciting stuff, and I’m watching his musical personality unfold in his many and varied activities. He composes all the time – pop, rock, ballads, jazz, latin, orchestral work, classical marimba – there aren’t many genres that he’s not excited about. Sometimes this composing happens on the computer, Ian typing out lyrics and singing them out while he goes. Sometimes, like last night, it’s well past his bedtime, and he quickly records himself belting out a few reminder lines on his cellphone. The orchestrated pieces he creates using the computer software Finale. My “assignment” for him this year is to become proficient in Cubase, a computer program that is more useful for creating realistic sounding recordings of his work. I know nothing about Cubase, so the only help I can provide is in the form of library and internet resources, and perhaps a mentor or two.

Ian dressed for the high school marching band. Minus shoes.

If put all together, Ian probably works on music in some form approximately 3-4 hours each day. This breaks down to two hours of daily band rehearsal at the high school, approximately one hour of composing work, and one hour of practice. And then there is musical exposure – listening to jazz masters, watching Coldplay music videos, dancing to Gangnam Style and it’s various parodies; that happens off and on all the time and is difficult to quantify in terms of time spent. To be real, this level of work doesn’t happen every day, and those Magic the Gathering trading cards will often grab his attention much more firmly than the musical task at hand.

Folks who don’t know better might wonder what kind of Tiger Mama I am. 3-4 hours?? For reals! But the truth of the matter is that my main purpose and task as a homeschooling mom is to give Ian the intensive, high quality academic experience he desires while opening up as much free creative time as possible for him to pursue his truest love. This was my commitment to him from the beginning, and as he gets older, I find my job as manager increases as my role as teacher decreases. The only academic teaching I directly provide at this point is history. Between public school, his online class, and internet resources, the rest is pretty much taken care of.

Over the past few months, Ian has become more deeply involved in a wide variety of musical projects and has ambitious goals for the rest of the year. They’re so exciting, I’m going to share some of them here:

• Home record and share his increasing number of original compositions
• Continue composing in all the genres I mentioned above, including songs for his band Hex Radio, songs for his other group Flash, marimba trios for his high school wind ensemble, and other pieces as they come up
• Increase performance opportunities for both solo and band work
• Become proficient in Cubase
• Explore and apply for several categories of Downbeat’s Student Music Awards (there is a lot of prep work for this process, and though it is incredibly competitive, the work involved is a worthy pursuit even if no award is won)
• Prepare for various upcoming festivals and all-state auditions
• Rework his website

The music room is currently our unfinished basement. Can’t wait for sheet rock and insulation!

Coming up on November 9th, the University of Mary Jazz band will be performing Ian’s arrangement of John Coltrane’s “Bessie’s Blues.” This was his major music theory project last year, and after dozens of tweaks and last minute changes, we think it’s finally ready for public presentation. We are so thrilled about this event – I’m downright giddy for it. And tomorrow night he’ll have his first solo gig… ever, I believe. He’s downstairs right now rehearsing; he’ll be singing and playing keyboard – mostly originals.

One of the things he’s most excited about is a budding collaboration between him and Isabella Taylor, a tremendous young visual artist out of Austin, Texas. I’m not going to give any spoilers here – the project will be months in the making, and you’ll just have to be on pins and needles until they unveil. But I’ll tell you this – it’s unlike anything he’s ever done before. It will be fun to see what they come up with together.

With all this work – all these goals – you can see why 3-4 hours each day isn’t so unreasonable. It’s what he wakes up wanting to do and craves all day. In fact, his only criticism of his schedule this year is that there isn’t more time to do music.

It’s like this with intense kids. We parents are just doing our best to keep up, provide the time and resources our kids need, and make sure they go to bed at a decent hour and eat three meals a day. Oh, and brush their teeth and all too. And put on a jacket. And you know, the little things.

If you have similar experiences with your kids, I’d love to hear about them. How do you help your intense kids manage their time? And how successful are you at helping them find open space for creative pursuits? Share your tips! We’d love to hear them.

Oh, and before you go, check out this song that Ian and his buddy Ty from Flash! recorded the other week. Good fun!

Cell Biology Addiction!

Biology is in full swing at the Ridenhour abode. Ian is trucking along with his Thinkwell AP Biology course, and Eva and I are steadily working through the “Cells” curriculum by Ellen McHenry. We’re exploring all the different parts of the cell, playing games, watching cool youtube videos, and making cell art.

Eva is so enamored with cell biology, she’s decided to set her new novel within one. She’s developed quite an extensive plot, shrinking and trapping a goth girl within a cell as the protector of a secret code that her parents (now deceased) placed as codons within the cell’s DNA. This secret code contains the magic formula for world peace. The cell is of course under attack as the evil folks want to get at the codons, and it is up to Goth Girl and a band of superhero cousins to save the day. Every day Eva is working on plot and character development ideas, and her story is feeding her desire to  understand cell structure and functions. She doesn’t start writing the book itself until Nov. 1 (National Novel Writing Month), but she is very excited.

Interestingly, Stephen Colbert just last week interviewed a geneticist from Harvard who is working on mapping the personal genome. At the end of their conversation, he presented Colbert with a tiny slip of paper that held a dot. He informed Colbert that the dot contained 20,000 copies of the geneticist’s new boo; he and his team had converted all the book’s text and photos into binary code, and then converted that code into patterns of TCA and G amino acids, which comprise DNA’s magic alphabet. I couldn’t believe it. It’s Eva’s science fiction/fantasy book, happening right now! I dragged Eva into the room and showed her the interview. She loved it.

The other completely addictive activity we dived into is a video game called CellCraft. Holy cow, folks – this was ridiculously fun. Though the creators definitely took some artistic license (you find the organelles you need, and at one point our animal cell is given plant cell chloroplasts to generate more energy), the science behind most of the game is pretty accurate. The player must run the cell, making sure all organelles are doing what they need to do, and are getting the resources they need to thrive. Viruses periodically attack the cell, which you must biologically defend, and there is an overarching fantasy narrative: an alien platypus race on a threatened planet is sending this cell across the expanse of space to land on a new planet (Earth) where it can grow into new platypusses. Platypi? Whatever. It’s cute and fun. Eva and I played it together for days, and I loved hearing her yell out “we need more lysosomes!!” and the like. It’s free for download, so check it out. Ian played it a little too, but he hasn’t covered cell biology yet. After watching both experiences, I recommend using it after the student has already studied the structure and function of a cell. It’s better as a reinforcement activity than a straight-ahead teaching tool.

We’re wrapping up this week with mitosis and meiosis, and going back to play with some activities and quizzes we skipped over. After we complete the study of internal cell function, we’ll launch in to various cell types. This will in turn move us further out and onto anatomy.

It’s funny – neither of my kids was too excited about biology going in, but now both of them will tell you it’s among their favorite subjects! Until next time….