Snow Update

When I woke up on January 12, 2011 I learned that my dad was off work and that Danbury had received a record amount of snow, 24 inches! It was even illegal to drive that day. When you fell in the snow, it was almost impossible to get up. Considering we already had about 2 feet of snow on the ground, it was deep!

Claude Monet

On January 13, 2011, I studied Claude Monet, the famous painter. He made a painting of the water at sunrise, that was called Impression, Sunrise. An art critic said that it looked terrible and that he should be called an impressionist. Therefore he was the first impressionist artist.
Oscar Claude Monet was born in France November 14, 1840 and stayed there throughout his life. He said that he would be an artist, and when he grew up, he was one.
He had 2 children, Jean and Michel. However after his wife Camille died in September 1879, he married Alice Hoschede who had 6 children.
He had a huge garden, and he painted it throughout the seasons and at different times of day. All of his paintings especially, Waterlilies Evening Effect, the painting I copied above, look terrible up close but nice from a distance.
He lived to be 86, and died in 1926 with moderate wealth. But in 2008, his best painting sold for $71,846,600.

Astronomy

On January 6, 2011 I had my first astronomy class, with Mr. Turner, at his house in Southbury. He was very nice, and had several cats named Isis, Osiris, crazy cat, Amadeus, and Copernicus. We learned about all of the groups of objects in the sky, and four constellations, my favorite is Triangulum.

I made a model of the solar system, out of my Christmas gift, Pluffy. All of the planets are in order, but most are not to scale.

I also made a nmneonic phrase to remember the planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. My phrase was, my very evil monkey jumped straight under Nana's pillow. Without Pluto, the phrase is Mom's very edible mink jumped slyly under numbers.

Spartan Soldier

This is a picture that I drew of a Spartan soldier. Boys had to join the military when they were 7 years old and go on until they were 60 years old. Their symbol is an upside down "V". I loved drawing the picture!

Our Snow Cave

On January 8, 2010 we made a long snow cave. It took about 2 hours, but with 3 different shovels we dug about 6 feet into our pile. It was very warm, and tall. The entrance was small but it gradually got bigger.

Mark Twain Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Marriage

After the Marion Rangers disbanded, Sam moved west to Nevada, to help his brother Orion in 1862. Orion was secretary of state in the Nevada Territory, and Sam was his secretary. Sam quit soon however, for he did not like being secretary to a secretary because there was no pay or work involved.

He then moved to San Francisco, to write articles in the newspaper. On February 3, 1863 Sam signed a newspaper article Mark Twain. This means two fathoms deep, or safe water for a steamboat. The first famous story he wrote, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County which he learned from his friend was in most newspapers. He also mined for gold for a short time, but was fired the same day that he was going to quit.

In 1867 he went on a cruise to Israel, where he met and befriended Charles Langdon. Twain was shown a picture of his sister Olivia, and claimed that it was love at first sight. When he came back to America, Twain went to visit their house in Elmira, New York.

Over the course of the next year Twain wrote over 200 love letters, trying to convince Olivia to marry him. She finally gave in and they were married in February 1870. As a wedding gift, Olivia's father Jervis, gave them a furnished home in Buffalo, NY for he was extremely wealthy.

Hanging Gardens

One of my Christmas presents was a new history book. On Dec. 27, 2010 I did my first lesson. The book has pictures in it, and teaches you how to draw them. While you are drawing, it shows you facts about what you are drawing. I drew the hanging gardens of Babylon.

It was built by King Nebuchadnezzar II, for his wife Amytis, from Persia. It was 100 ft. long, 100 ft. wide and 75 ft. tall. It was built like a theatre with plants on the sides. The gardens also had balconies on the walls. They also had a huge pump to draw water from the Euphrates River. It was 1 of the 7 wonders of the world.