Don't miss this! Even if you're a veteran, take a moment to read Lissa's advice on choosing curriculum, over at the The Lilting House. Among the gems there, she directs you to this quiz. It's more serious than our usual internet quizzes and offers some insight into what kind of homeschooler you are. Let's all take heed! No sense in filling our shelves with lofty ideas never opened--or worse, twaddle--this conference season.
As we continued down our Emily Dickinson trail, we read the introduction in Poetry for Young People: Emily Dickinson and followed some of the suggestions there. This series of books is really a charming introduction to poetry. Sweet illustrations keep even the little ones engaged. Unfamiliar words are defined for the children unobtrusively on the page. .There is just enough biography to set the poems in context and some gentle instruction on poetic devices.
We clapped iambic meter. Then, the children tried their hands at creating poems of their own patterned after Emily’s poems. The parameters were:
· the poems have stanzas of four lines,
· lines one and three have eight syllables
· lines two and four have six syllables
· the last word in line two rhymes with the last word in line four.
An example that follows this pattern is
The bee is not afraid of me,
I know the butterfly,
The pretty people in the woods
Receive me cordially.
The brooks laugh louder when I come,
The breezes madder play.
Wherefore, mine eyes, thy silver mists?
Wherefore, O summer’s day?
We're having one of those days here in the heart of my home. A day when every time I answer the phone or turn to speak to someone, a new crisis unfolds.Add to that some serious sleep deprivation and very low blood sugar and, well...you can fill in the blanks. But once today, the phone call was from Starry Sky Ranch, and Kim reminded me that, "how we respond is about all we get to decide some days." Read on; she has a gift for eloquence, even on the bad days.
My mother is notorious for her devotion to St. Anthony. She has a direct line and must call upon him at least once a day. She's always needing him to help her find things--it's a 24/7 job. Apparently, it's a devotion that my eldest son is destined to share. Recently, within the space of 18 hours, he lost both sets of keys to the car. It was a holiday weekend and no one could help us until Tuesday. Then, we'd have to tow the car and to spend a couple hundred dollars cutting new keys (something about a computer chip).We looked and looked and looked. My younger children took up the chant:
Tony, Tony, please come 'round. Something's lost and can't be found!
And I took the matter to the prayer board at the 4real forums and asked them to discuss it with St. Anthony. We found the keys in the freezer in the garage. Of course! Why didn't we look there first? Today is the Feast of St. Anthony and I know at least two people who will celebrate this patron of lost things wholeheartedly!
The dream begins. Can you tell we're ready? Thanks to Grandma for the box of flag shirts that arrived just in time for the first kick!
And I'm betting Bobby never imagined that National Team jerseys he left behind would become cutting edge maternity wear! (Note to viewers at home: Bobby was number 11 on the U-17 National Team, back when he was Michael's age; now he's number 15.) And yes, he's starting!!!
I'm Elizabeth. I'm a happy wife and the mother of nine children. I grab grace with both hands and write to encourage myself and others to seize and nurture the joy of every day. I blog here with my daughter, Mary Beth, a wholehearted young lady on the brink of adulthood.
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