I Read The Water Will Come Because I Wasn't Afraid Enough of Drowning (JK I Am The MOST Afraid of Drowning!)

Found a new-to-us creek access (and soooo many snakes) on the kid's college break!

The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World by Jeff Goodell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I actually read The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet first, and loved it so much that I immediately checked out another of Goodell’s books-and two weeks later, I’m reviewing this one, too!

I don’t love this book, at least not for its writing style. In The Heat Will Kill You First, I feel like Goodell really cracked the pattern of vivid anecdote followed by elucidating science. The anecdotes WERE very vivid, which drew me into the science, which gave me the information, and then off I went to the next chapter. This book still has the science, but the anecdotes are a little less vivid and less interesting, or maybe I’m just less interested and don’t feel as much of a call to action reading about real estate as I was reading about migrant laborers dying in the fields. I don’t really feel sorry for the people who live on a narrow spit of land in Florida and want their shitty gravel road maintained AND I don’t feel sorry for the county government that has to spend all the county’s money yearly rebuilding a road that serves a whopping twenty people. 

Okay, I feel a little sorry for the county that raised its roads and got sued, anyway...

Other times, though, the real estate anecdotes worked. I’ve been interested in the Marshall Islands since my older kid studied it in AP Human Geography. My entrypoint was how cool stick maps are (I’ve since seen a real Marshall Islands stick map in a museum, and it’s just as cool in person!), and that same class also covered how the islands are being affected by global warming, but not in the vivid, anecdotal detail here. Goodell also showed me another unexpected point of connection to the Marshall Islands: many of the people there are leaving for my home state of Arkansas, of all places! I don’t love that for them, since they’re apparently mostly working at the chicken plant there. Fun fact: my high school chemistry teacher would threaten us with future employment at the chicken plant if we weren’t studying hard enough. The chicken plant is the WORST work, and I don’t wish that on anyone, much less people forced to leave paradise due in quite a large part to America’s actions.

On the trail down to the new-to-us creek access, we also found a lovely spot for a portrait!

This would have been a great book to read with my teenager when she was studying AP Environmental Science and AP Human Geography, and it’s also interesting to read it in today’s political landscape, when I can see connections between climate change and the COVID pandemic, Israel’s attempted genocide of the Palestinians, and Russia’s war on the Ukraine. Mostly, though, it makes me want to take a trip to Miami Beach. I’ve never been there, and it doesn’t seem like IT’s going to be there for very much longer, either…

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AP Human Geography: The Geography of Religion in Your Town

Here's an assignment that I gave Will for AP Human Geography, designed to get her exploring data and making her own connections:

OUR TOWN'S CHURCH MAP PROJECT

ASSIGNMENT: Map and analyze places of religious worship in our town.

1. Use Google Maps to create your own map in which you pin every place of worship in our town.

1. Use different colors or icons to differentiate the following:

1. Each religion (Christian, Jewish, Hindu, etc.)

2. Each denomination of the Christian religion (Catholic, Methodist, Anglican, etc.)

2. Refer to Rubenstein ch. 6 to make sure you’re searching for all religious faiths.

2. When your map is complete, use it to analyze the places of worship in our town. Use a combination of written analysis and graphs that you create. You should have at least five graphs or visual analyses, and at least one page of written analysis.

1. You will come up with your own criteria for analysis, but some possibilities might include:

1. the ratio of houses of worship to population numbers

2. the ratio of numbers of houses of worship of different faiths to each other

3. location trends that reveal dispersal of houses of worship of different faiths

This turned out to be a fun way to manipulate data, as well as a sneaky way to reinforce Will's understanding of the different religions and denominations for her AP Human Geography exam. 

Will's map was particularly interesting to me. For a long while I've had the idea that our area has a large evangelical population, and Will's map, in which she's labeled the evangelical churches with burgundy pins, seems to bear that out, although interestingly, the population of evangelical churches skews toward the south of town. I'd be curious to see the map stretched farther in all directions, actually, as to the east and west of town it's also pretty rural. Does a rural setting correlate to a larger evangelical church population?

Here's her ratio of religions in our town:

This pie chart was a good spot to show Will how the data can be expanded and contextualized with further information. For instance, the ratio of Buddhism might seem a little high, but some of the Dalai Lama's family live here, and there's an excellent Tibetan Mongolian Buddhist Cultural Center here. You can speculate, then, about how these pull factors might affect the ratio. 

If you were an AP Human Geography student, you could perhaps even write an essay on that topic!

After seeing Will's map, I'm not as surprised by her ratio of Christian denominations:

Can you see the artifact where she used the eraser tool on this graphic? She had to edit it because she'd accidentally typed "LSD"--oops!

Since Will is almost completely unfamiliar with organized religion (shame on me!), a very important component of the AP Human Geography exam, I thought that this project worked well to give her an understanding that hopefully felt a little more hands-on than just reading chapter 6 of Rubenstein. Not only does she have a sensorial understanding of what the map of our town represents, but we can also drive around and literally look at these buildings that we've driven past her whole life, or stop and walk around them, study the architecture, etc. 

To be honest, I don't know if this more personal type of project *really* helped make the concepts in chapter 6 less abstract for Will, but she DID score a 5 on her AP Human Geography exam, so there you go!

A Quick and Easy Carnival Unit Study

 

Check out the glory that is homemade king cake on this Fat Tuesday that features a full foot of snow on the ground! Earlier today, I was outside attempting to shovel the porch, then the steps from the porch to the driveway, then the godforsakenly long driveway from the garage down to the street. I've been shoveling it practically daily this month, it feels like, when there was, you know, an inch or less of snow on the ground, and it always takes me something like an hour and it sucks.

But whoa. Shoveling a foot of snow is a whole other beast! I was all, "OMG this is hard. This is totally why I've heard that people have heart attacks shoveling snow every winter. OMG AM I HAVING A HEART ATTACK?!?"

Just when I was about to, I don't know... just, like, sit down in the snow and give up, pretty much, a totally random neighbor that I have never seen before in my life literally rolled up my snow-covered driveway in his tractor with an honest-to-god SNOWPLOW attachment on the front and was all, "How about I get your driveway for you?"

Friends, I cannot even tell you how thrilling it was to finish shoveling my porch steps while watching this guy plow my whole driveway for me. Like, right before he showed up it had become clear to me that I was NEVER going to get this driveway shoveled, it just was not in the realm of my possibility, and then BOOM! Half an hour later and I'm tucked back inside the house all warm and comfy and with a skid-free driving surface.

Also, I just need you to know how embarrassing I am. The guy introduced himself, told me who his wife is, and I have just now realized that not only do I not remember his name (I remember his wife's name, though?), but I distinctly remember that I definitely, absolutely did not introduce myself in turn. Just... WTF, ME?!? Peopling with other people is so hard!

ANYWAY, now that I've gotten you to join me in cringing in embarrassment (I'm definitely going to be remembering this in 40 years when I have 2:00 am insomnia...), check out this super fun, super easy, and pretty quick unit study that I pulled together to do with Will yesterday and today. We can pretend like it's part of her AP  Human Geography study, since it's a comparison/contrast of the traditions that surround the same religious holiday around the world, but it's also just really fun, and a chance to admire the spectacle of some beautiful performance art, and an excuse to listen to beautiful music, eat delicious food, and, if you're feeling wild, even dress up a little!

WORLD CARNIVAL BADGE ACTIVITIES

I found this fun Girl Scout badge to award Will after our carnival study. Depending on how strict your local uniform police are, it's appropriate for the front or back of a Girl Scout's uniform (it's going on the front of Will's uniform, because that's how we roll). Or it could just be a cute little patch for a kid's jacket or bookbag!

• New Orleans, Louisiana, holds the largest Mardi Gras celebrations each year.

• This year, even though the parades are cancelled, New Orleans is still doing a lot of fun activities. Check out their website here:

• https://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/

• Watch videos of parades from prior years:

• https://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/videos

• Definitely look at the Yardi Gras photos!

• https://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/news/parade-of-homes-2021-style

• Here’s a really good article about house floats from NPR:

• https://www.npr.org/2021/02/16/967761058/in-a-year-without-parades-mardi-gras-in-new-orleans-is-all-about-house-floats

• The king cake is a beloved Mardi Gras tradition. Read about it here:

• https://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/history/king-cakes

• Make sure you learn the following information:

• When/where they were invented

• What’s the secret inside them, and what it means

• The traditional colors, and what they represent

• Do an Instagram or Google Image search to find examples of king cakes.

• Make a homemade king cake using one of these authentic recipes:

• https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/eat-drink/article_075cd21c-55b3-56e5-b62e-c514de40b4f0.html

• If you’ve got Spotify, here’s a playlist of festive New Orleans music:

• https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1Z8rT8bVkHdD78TIs19Mee?si=g6JKTjvmRcGUn9n3SGDrdg

• Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, holds the largest Carnival celebrations each year.

• Read this webpage to explore the various traditions of the Rio Carnival

• https://www.riocarnaval.org/rio-carnival/what-is

• Samba schools are about more than just dancing! Read about them here:

• https://www.riocarnaval.org/rio-samba-school/rio-samba-schools

• Search YouTube for streams of previous years’ parades entering the Sambadrome.

• Read here to see what you should search for, such as the children’s parade and the winners’ parade:

• https://www.riocarnaval.org/samba-parade/samba-parade

• Be aware: topless nudity is very common in the adult parades. 

• YouTube is also a good place to search for a beginner samba lesson. Can you figure out how to do a part of the dance?

• If you’ve got Spotify, here’s playlist of festive Brazilian music:

• https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0Ulu7CI97mVnnvil3yBAhO?si=Lced7e7XT5etxlvcvJmTQQ

• Venice, Italy, holds one of the oldest Carnival celebrations each year.

• Read more about its history here:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival_of_Venice

• Masks are a very important tradition in the Venice Carnival. You can try making your own mask, or just read these tutorials to explore the process:

• Here’s a bauta mask made from cardboard, aluminum foil, and papier mache:

• https://www.instructables.com/Make-a-Bauta-Mask/

• Here’s a plague doctor mask made by sewing, although you could trace the pattern pieces onto cardboard and use tape, hot glue, and paint:

• https://totallythebomb.com/heres-a-free-pattern-to-make-your-own-quilted-plague-doctor-mask

• If you have Spotify, here’s a Putumayo playlist of Italian music:

• https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4sIMtfPQMRtWedyb8F83dt?si=ahRQ_kupSqym1XgboH7W5g

• Check out this website of other Carnival celebrations across the world:

• https://seeker.io/carnival-2021/

Since I really only wanted to do this unit as a fun study on what would otherwise mostly have been a school-free day for Will (mwa-ha-ha!), we didn't put in the time to make either of the Venice-style Carnival masks--although I am reserving the right to make myself that quilted plague doctor mask at a later time! 

Also, that king cake took plenty of time to make! I showed Will how to dye white sugar, but otherwise she baked the whole masterpiece from scratch completely by herself, and it is DELICIOUS.

Although, when I asked her if she'd put a prize inside the cake she said no, because she didn't want anyone to get it and then feel like they had to host a whole party themselves and make another whole king cake, since it's so much work.

Sweet, thoughtful, literal kid!

Homeschool AP Human Geography: DIY Large-Format Maps for Reference

I wasn't super excited when Will chose to study AP Human Geography this year, but it is actually a fascinating subject, and now I'm stoked that we get to learn it!

When Will decides what she wants to study, I generally go into research mode so that I can at least figure out a spine and a logical progression of knowledge/skills. It's more involved when it's an AP course, because we know she'll be tested on a specific knowledge/skill set, but still, this basic research method works. 

As I was reading through other instructors' AP Human Geography syllabi, I came across a reference map project that I shamelessly stole.

In this project, the instructor has her students print outline maps of various regions of the world, and then label them according to her criteria. Not only can these maps then serve as reference and study material, added to when necessary, but also, a kid is going to memorize a LOT of that information just through the acts of researching it and then labeling the maps with it. Will, especially, learns very well through this kind of activity.

Although the instructor had her students use 8.5"x 11" outline maps, you all know that I have my own personal free, custom-sized map-printing website with which I am unashamedly obsessed. Obviously, then, I printed 4x4 maps of all the regions using Megamaps.

And then Will and I spread out across the floor and assembled them!

I have the perfect method to assemble these maps so that they stay together but there's no tape on the front. You don't want your maps to fall apart, but you also want to be able to write and draw on them! What you do is first glue them together with a glue stick on their overlapping edges, and then immediately flip each one over and run Scotch tape along all the seams on the back. It is THE perfect method, and I expect you to do it only this way from now on.

When we had all the maps assembled, Will spent a few days labeling each one:

So excited to label them that we couldn't even unpack from our camping trip first!

I think these maps turned out to be absolute masterpieces:

They're not as perfect as a ready-made reference map, of course, but they're plenty accurate enough to serve Will's purpose of studying AP Human Geography, and I love the thoughtful care that she put into her work:

That's a lot of geography learning that took place during this one project! I'm especially excited about the Africa map, as that one can do double-duty for Will's African Studies class that she takes at our local university.

While I was printing these maps, I did print the giant-sized world map to replace the giant kid-made map of Europe that's been on our wall since Will took AP European History. I'm probably going to hold off on assembling, mounting, and having Will label it, though, because surely the kid is sick of map labeling at the moment. Better to hold off until the spring, perhaps, and then use it as a review before the actual AP exam.

OR should I pay Syd to paint us a world map mural, and then we can label that? A Syd-created map mural might have an unwholesome amount of dragons and sea beasts, of course, but that just improves a map's overall accuracy, you know.

P.S. Want to see more dragons and sea beasts and maps and murals? Check out my Craft Knife Facebook page, where I post resources, WIPs, DIYs, and pictures of my cat.