Dicentra
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Posts posted by Dicentra
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Great Big Sea! I LOVE Great Big Sea!
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Don't forget about Corey Hart, Alannah Myles, Alanis Morrissette, Shania Twain... 😉
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Canadian here so it's probably cheating if I answer. 😉
Heard of and listened to all of them! Was a teenager during the 80s. 🙂
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6 hours ago, jen3kids said:
I do know about the rural high-speed internet dream coming from Elon Musk and others, but that's not an option yet, unfortunately.
DH and I have bought a house in rural NB with the plans to retire there within the next 5 years. We're currently keeping it as our COVID quarantine house, our youngest goes there occasionally as a break from University, and we may eventually list it on AirBnB. But we need to solve the question of internet. We don't want to pay a combo deal for satellite TV so we just want basic internet that we can hopefully hook up some sort of internet TV box to it. We're also considering getting an aerial with the hopes of picking up local channels, but that might not be possible.
Fibre-optic cable doesn't go to the house, so we have to go with high-speed. There are only 2 service provider options, but we'll probably go with the big one, Bell, due to the atrocious ratings of the other option. My question is how well does a Roku box work off of high speed. Would you recommend something other than a Roku? We plan to stream Netflix and Amazon Prime as well, if that impacts anything.
Thanks!
5 hours ago, KathyBC said:So this would be Bell satellite? Or do you have cell service and can get a smart hub? We have the smart hub and Roku works great with that. I've heard satellite is supposed to be faster now, but I would need some convincing that it could reliably stream before going that route again.
Rural Canada here (Northwestern Ontario). We have Xplornet - when we got it, it was either that or dial-up. It's gotten lots better over the years but it still isn't going to stream Netflix or anything like that without stopping to "catch up" every once in awhile. We also have a cell internet connection through the local cell phone provider (TBayTel). It's faster than the satellite but seems less stable, i.e. will drop out more often than the satellite. I can stream Amazon Prime on the cell one and can also stream it on Xplornet but it sometimes does stop to "catch up". If you have more than one person trying to stream, Xplornet is probably not going to work.
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On 10/29/2020 at 9:23 PM, Reefgazer said:
A homeschool mom is asking my advice on a high school chemistry text/curriculum for a student who is weak in math; she is adamant about chemistry, rather than another science option. Free and online would be a plus. What do you all suggest?
If she's determined to go ahead with chemistry, I'd suggest that she look at these programs:
https://www.rainbowresource.com/product/041173/Chemistry-Power-Basic-Single.html?
Walsh Power Basics is probably her best bet. It's not free and it's not online but it's geared towards students who struggle with typical high school level material. She should check with her local homeschool regulations, though, to make sure it meets the definition of a high school level course.
https://fascinatingeducation.com/try-fascinating-chemistry-2/
http://www.friendlychemistry.com/
https://books.kolbe.org/products/john-charlesworths-introduction-to-chemistry
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@Not_a_Number and @regentrude - you both might be interested in the "atoms first" approach:
https://preparatorychemistry.com/Bishop_Atoms_First.htm
as opposed to the "chemistry first" approach:
https://preparatorychemistry.com/Bishop_Chemistry_First.htm
The Chang General Chemistry textbook is more of a "chemistry first" approach. I think there is still a bit of "trust me - we'll talk about why later" even in the "atoms first" approach but much less so. 🙂
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Sorry for derailing your post, @Momto4inSoCal!
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12 minutes ago, regentrude said:
It was like it at school and uni for me and when I homeschooled my highschoolers. It's not chemistry per se, but the way it is taught. Rvery book I used had lots of memorization, rules with many exceptions and no explanation of the Why until much later.
For example, take solubility rules. Chapter 4 in the text, students learn it's soluble if it's this ion with that, but wait, it doesn't work if it's this ion with another one. It falls from space, there is NO explanation of the reason - until chapter 15 or so. That is highly unsatisfying, because I want to know Why, not memorize stuff that seems random at that point.
This is why I am a physicist. If someone comes up with a way to teach chemistry that starts from the actual explanations I might be persuaded to like it.
5 minutes ago, Not_a_Number said:Yeah, I felt the same way in high school. I didn’t take it at college, but I took two years at a gifted high school, and I liked physics much better. (And of course, I’m a mathematician, so I preferred math. Also, programming.)
I think @regentrude and I have discussed this before - there is no logical, simple "starting point" in chemistry like there is in physics. 🙂 If you start with what would seem to be the "beginning", the structure of the atom, you actually need to get into quantum mechanics right away to understand all of those anomalous ions (I promise they do have explanations ;)) and QM isn't exactly a good starting point - it tends to scare students off rather quickly. 😉 I always feel there needs to be a bit of "have faith in me as your chem teacher - I promise this will make sense in a few weeks" when teaching high school or introductory chem. 😄 I keep thinking I should develop a method to teach chem the way regentrude is suggesting but every time I try, I run into some of that "we'll circle back around to this later" stuff. I'm not sure that method is completely possible. 😉
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2 minutes ago, lewelma said:
One third of the Orgo exam is on polymers. Condensation and Hydrolysis of Polyesters and Polyamides under both acidic and basic conditions. Super fun!
For ds's paper on microplastics, he is studying the difference between thermosets and thermoplastics and the impact of their chemical structure on both their recyclability and breakdown in the environment.
Love, love, love!! 😄
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On 10/29/2020 at 9:23 PM, Reefgazer said:
A homeschool mom is asking my advice on a high school chemistry text/curriculum for a student who is weak in math; she is adamant about chemistry, rather than another science option. Free and online would be a plus. What do you all suggest?
Do you know what she means by "weak in math"? Pretty much any chem course that would be considered high school level will require students to have Alg 1 under their belts and be able to solve word problems using fairly simple algebraic manipulation of formulas.
I think this is the Conceptual Chemistry that klmama is referring to:
https://www.conceptualacademy.com/textbook/conceptual-chemistry
I've not taught that curriculum but it's my understanding that it will still contain some math. If a student is doing a chemistry course with no math in it, I think I would call that middle school chemistry and not high school chemistry. I know other folks may not agree with me on that but as a long-time high school chem teacher and college chem instructor, that's my thoughts. 🙂
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5 minutes ago, lewelma said:
He took the equivalent of AP chemistry, and then did an additional 1/2 course in Organic chemistry. Pretty intensive, I might add. Here are the final exams for the last three years. They can't get all the content onto one exam, so I figured looking at three would be good to see all the content we covered.
https://www.nzqa.govt.nz/nqfdocs/ncea-resource/exams/2019/91391-exm-2019.pdf
https://www.nzqa.govt.nz/nqfdocs/ncea-resource/exams/2018/91391-exm-2018.pdf
https://www.nzqa.govt.nz/nqfdocs/ncea-resource/exams/2017/91391-exm-2017.pdf
He also did compound identification through spectroscopy. They used IR spectra, C NMR spectroscopy, and Mass spectrometry to identify compounds like methyl propanoate or 3-chlorobut-1-ene.
He worked for a solid 20 weeks to get through all this content, so it was not a lightweight course.
Both Carnegie Mellon and MIT commented on it in his interviews.
Thanks for the links to the exams, lewelma! My course doesn't go into spectroscopy (it's more just introducing naming/structure/properties/reactions and a bit of mechanisms and synthesis) but I've often thought about offering another course that delves deeper into mechanisms and synthesis and spectroscopy. I remember running GC-mass spec and IR and NMR in uni and analyzing the print-outs. It was actual print-outs in those days. 😉
2 minutes ago, lewelma said:My older boy also did a 10 week long paper on the chemistry behind fracking. Now that was a mind teaser when we ended up in chemical engineering textbooks. Unfortunately, I had no room on his transcript to pull that one out.
My younger is doing his paper on the chemistry of microplastics. So more orgo!
That's another idea I had for an advanced high school org chem half-course - polymers. We could look at the structures, types, kinetics - so much fun stuff to cover! 🙂
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On 10/29/2020 at 8:05 AM, regentrude said:
Freshman chemistry is typically perceived as a very difficult course by the students. Even if she hates chemistry (which I completely sympathize with), a prior exposure would be very beneficial for her.
Agreed - having one's first exposure to chemistry be freshman chem at university would be... stressful. And I wish I could guide you and show you the beauty and wonder of chemistry, @regentrude - I promise it's not as bad as you remember! 🙂
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12 hours ago, lewelma said:
The one class my older boy took that was commented on over and over again by different admissions departments was Organic Chemistry. Apparently, that one really stood out.
That's interesting to hear, lewelma! When I created my Org Chem/Biochem intro course for my dd and then decided to offer it to homeschoolers, I wasn't sure if it was something that would appeal to lots of high school students or if it was something that people would see the value of. It's nice to hear that admissions departments see early (high school) exposure to those subjects as valuable. 🙂
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I found this - it might be helpful:
https://www.lovelypuppies.online/ideas/vizslas-get-along-with-cats/
It gives you a step by step plan. I like plans. They make me happy. 🙂
I also have dogs and cats but am more of a cat person than a dog person. I also have horses. Just remember - dogs and horses are domesticated. Cats are... not. No matter what anyone tells you. Cats would like us to believe they are domesticated - it's all a facade. 😜
This is one of our Great Pyrs with one of our outdoor barn cats. They are best friends.
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26 minutes ago, Dreamergal said:
It looks calming. Extremely tedious though. I grew up like that even in a city, drawing water from the well with a pulley, taking the husk off the coconut from our tree, picking curry leaves from the garden, fresh food never frozen. It does taste amazing but it is not a sustainable way of life in a modern society and even my mother's generation gave up on it. Machines played a huge role in making masalas and batter when it would take an hour of brute strength to make the coconut smooth for curries which a machine can at the touch of a button. Grinding idli batter is a pain as you would have to either sit on your haunches for hours or stand to get the batter smooth with brute strength.
I do a mix of both. I do soaking beans, pulses and make batter for idli and dosa, but in a stone grinder machine, masalas in a mixer. I still roast spices and make them fresh with a mortar and pestle and do as much as I can with it because it takes me back home. But I do it as much for the experience as for the memory of my grandmother.
That's so very true, isn't it? Because lots of us grew up in places where we didn't have to do that kind of back-breaking work to get food on the table, we tend to romanticize it. I'm guilty of that myself. My father was born in Leignitz (now Legnica, Poland) and his family was expelled from the city by the Soviets at the end of WWII. His mother was a young single mother with two young boys and they traveled with his grandfather to Minden, Germany. It was an unpleasant journey and when they got to Minden, they lived for years in old army barracks that had no running water and shared outdoor sanitary facilities for the whole block. After his family moved to Canada when he was 16, they struggled to make ends meet and he never understood the Canadian love/romanticization of camping. He couldn't understand why anyone would think that sleeping "in the rough" outdoors and on the ground was fun. To him, that was something you did out of absolute necessity because that's the only choice you had. It's a very different way of looking at things. 🙂
Back to cooking... I think toasting spices and toasting nuts before using them are two of the easiest and best ways to really elevate the taste of foods. If anyone wants to try toasting shelled nuts, just put them on a cookie sheet (single layer) in the oven at 350F until they start to smell toasted - maybe 10 minutes or so? You have to watch them carefully - they can go from not toasted to burnt very quickly. Pecans and almonds are my favourite nuts to toast but you can toast any nut. You can then use them in cooking and baking - or just eat them. 😉 I make a dill almond chicken salad with wild rice where I use toasted almonds - YUM. 🙂
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8 minutes ago, Spy Car said:
My first thought was that this one might be made of wood. That may be incorrect, but I've seen wood ones from India.
Bill
I think you might be right. I listened to it again and it has a hollow-type of sound to it that really old, dry wood would give. Fired clay wouldn't sound that hollow and would have a "clinky-er" sound to it, if that makes sense.
https://youtu.be/ZuWKwWW9nbk?t=100
I don't speak/understand Spanish (I'm Canadian - we learn French in school :)) but you can see at the point in the video I linked just above that he's doing what you mentioned earlier - grinding without the gentle crushing first. Even when he starts grinding the salt (which would normally sort of "shoot out" everywhere in a smoother-textured mortar), he can just start grinding.
1 minute ago, Spy Car said:Interesting link.
Someone considering a molcajete should also realize they generally need to be seasoned. Soaked in water, well-scrubbed with stiff brushed. Dried. And then be used to grind batches of white rice until you can grind rice and still have it look white instead of gray. It is a process.
All the excess stone has to be smoothed away prior to use.
Bill
Yes! This link talks about how to cure your molcajete:
https://www.rachellaudan.com/2013/07/using-and-choosing-a-mexican-mortar-and-pestle.html
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@Tap - if you're going to buy a molcajete, here's a good guide to knowing if you've got a good, authentic one or a cheap cement one:
https://www.mexico1492.com/blogs/noticias/how-do-i-know-my-molcajete-is-a-real-deal
You can't always go by colour - "black is good, grey is bad" isn't always true as there are natural colour variations in the types of basalt. The link there gives some good tips.
I think I love rocks more than cooking. 😉 But I do like chemistry best and since rocks and cooking are both highly related to chemistry, I'm fascinated by it all!
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22 minutes ago, Spy Car said:
Thanks for the link and the information on the stone. I figured it was probably granite--but was entirely uncertain about that.
Do you see how Village Grandmother has to slowly bang on the peppercorns to crack them at first? That's what I have to do with both my English clay mortar (even more so) and my Indian granite mortar (which has the advantage of a heavier pestle).
In contrast the Mexican molcajete, being made of volcanic stone (is it black basalt?), is rougher and naturally grabs onto peppercorns or hard seeds like cumin, so the gentle bashing stage is eliminated. One just grinds straight away.
There are tradeoffs.
Bill
Yeah - the basalt is going to be better at "gripping" things. (The molcajete should be made of basalt. Some of the cheaper ones are pressed concrete with basalt chips embedded.) If you look at basalt under a microscope:
https://www.earth.ox.ac.uk/~oesis/micro/Igneous/index.html#img=basalt1-ppl_pm15-17.jpg
And compare it to granite under a microscope:
https://www.earth.ox.ac.uk/~oesis/micro/Igneous/index.html#img=granite-ppl_pm18-22.jpg
The basalt has a much finer grain and so will give a grippy-er, rougher texture.
And definitely different mortar/pestles for different jobs. Here the same grandmother is crushing garlic in what I think must be a fired clay set - it doesn't sound like rock when I hear the pestle hitting the mortar:
https://youtu.be/mXjp0-nos50?t=415
@Tap - you've had tons of great suggestions. If you're going to get a mortar/pestle set, I'd go with the suggestion by @Dreamergal to also get a small cast iron skillet to toast spices.
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21 hours ago, Spy Car said:
@Dreamergal A photo of my mortar and pestle from India.
Bill
Bill - here's a grandmother using a mortar and pestle very similar to yours to grind black peppercorns:
Based on my geology lab courses, I'd say it's unpolished granite, as well. I live in the Canadian Shield - I'm surrounded by ancient granite. You get to know the look of it. 🙂
1 hour ago, Dreamergal said:I am pretty sure unpolished granite hand chipped.
Throwing in a grandmother using the grindstone to make coconut chutney.
I have been in love with these grandmother cooking videos ever since I found one months back when I was trying to find examples of someone cutting food against their thumb and found the video of the grandmother using a boti (which you kindly identified for me :)). You also mentioned a version of a boti used for desiccating coconut and the video you shared above of the grandmother making coconut sambal has her using it at the beginning.
The videos are just so calming and the food looks amazing. They make me want to get my ingredients as close to the source as I can. 🙂
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4 hours ago, elegantlion said:
Can we bake the cupcakes in a crock pot? Or maybe that's where you're supposed to do brownies.
Et voilà - crock pot cupcakes courtesy of "Moms With Crockpots"!
https://momswithcrockpots.com/crockpot-peanut-butter-cup-cake/
But I'm confused... How is this a cupcake? Isn't it just a cake? Baked in a crockpot? And what's the difference between cupcakes and muffins anyway? 😉 😜 (Wasn't there arguments about cupcakes vs. muffins on that thread, too, or am I remembering a different thread?)
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Well done!! Tell her that Mrs. S says congratulations!! 🙂
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15 hours ago, MamaSprout said:
This company doesn't work with homeschoolers any longer. Can we remove this from the pinned science threads, please?
I keep meaning to put aside some time to fix up/update these threads and I never seem to get to it! So sorry about that! I'll take out the LabPaq references right away. Edit: Just realized the LabPaq reference isn't in a post of mine. If you tag the author, MamaSprout, you could probably get them to remove the reference.
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Hi all! 🙂
I know - I disappeared. Things have been crazy. Books have been read (but I haven't kept track and so don't have an updated list - will try to do that soon). House/farm were cared for. Gardens were planted, harvested, and now need to be cleaned out since we had our first hard frost last night. Child was home from university for almost 6 months but went back on Monday. She's 5 hours away. In a city where COVID cases are climbing. I can do this. Breathe.
I just wanted to say that the fact that this thread was here each week and I could pop in and read a bit whenever I had a moment made me happy. Thank you for continuing to talk about and share books. 🙂
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@AsgardCA - what province are you in? You're welcome to PM me if you don't feel comfortable stating that on the public forum. 🙂 I graduated my daughter from our homeschool in Ontario in 2018 and she did not go the GED route. Because I knew she was headed for university and then post-graduate studies, a GED would have been seen as odd. She did, however, take the SAT and had 6 AP exams scores on her transcript as well as scores from the Royal Conservatory of Music (she's a piano performance major). Universities in Ontario don't require the student to have any kind of "official" high school diploma or equivalency test. Colleges in Ontario, though, are a whole different ballgame. If your student is looking at a college trade program or an apprenticeship, then a GED might be the better route. I've never heard of a university in Ontario requiring a high school diploma or GED diploma but I have heard of colleges requiring one or the other. Not all colleges, though, so your best bet is to contact some colleges in your province where you think your student might be interested in going and talk to their registrar's office. Ask what their requirements are for homeschooled students and see what they say.
You're welcome to PM me if you'd like!
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Calling music lovers: A music poll - update with song titles ANSWERS
in The Chat Board
Posted · Edited by Dicentra
- Gordon Lightfoot, If you could read my mind, Cotton Jenny Canadian, "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" - that event just had its 45th anniversary on November 10
- Bryan Adams, Summer of '69 Canadian, I had a wicked crush on him as a teen 😉
- Kim Mitchell, Patio Lanterns Canadian
- Trooper, Boys in the Bright, White Sports Car Canadian
- Rush, Canadian, iconic Canadian rock band, one of the only rock bands I know of to record a song in 5/4 time
- Chris De Burgh, Lady in Red, A Spaceman Came Travelling I know he's not American but wasn't sure if he was a Brit or Canadian (just looked it up - he's Irish!)
- Leonard Cohen, Hallelujah Canadian, another Canadian legend
- Celine Dion - Titanic theme Canadian I recognize her talent but she was never a favourite of mine
- Tom Cochrane, Life is a Highway (he's the original, NOT Rascal Flats) Canadian Now that song is stuck in my head 😉
- Dire Straits, Money for Nothing, Walk of Life Brit
- Doug and the Slugs, Too Bad, Making it work Brit? (Dang! Canadian)
- Barenaked Ladies, If I had a million dollars Canadian
- Chilliwack Canadian
- Tragically Hip, Canadian The Hip! RIP Gord Downie
- Sarah McLaughlin, In the arms of a stranger Canadian Isn't it "In the Arms of the Angel"?
- Jan Arden Canadian
- Bay City Rollers, Saturday Night Aussie, aren't they? (Dang - Scots)
- Huey Lewis and the News American
- Glass Tiger, Man in Motion (about a Canadian wheelchair athlete, Rick Hanson, travelling the world to raise awareness and money) Canadian
- Michael Buble, jazz, crooner Canadian Listening to his Christmas stuff right now. 🙂
- Neil Young, stuff with Eagles born Canadian but did a lot of stuff out of the States (the Eagles were American, right?)
- Joni Mitchell, Canadian, a beautiful Canadian gem of a singer-songwriter 🙂
- The Guess Who Canadian From Winnipeg!
- Leona Boyd, classical guitarist Admitting... I don't know If she's Canadian, then I'll have to be pelted with poutine for not knowing that... (She was born a Brit and moved to Canada when she was 8. Hmmm... Yeah - I probably still deserve to be pelted with poutine. ;))