Traditional English Sentence Style Helps Prepare Students for College

"Allegorical Figure of Grammar," by Laurent de la Hyre

If your children have their sights set on college, make sure they are prepared for college-level compositions. Pop over to Curriculum Choice to read my review of Traditional English Sentence Style, a FREE high school grammar course that focuses on elegant sentence structure.

Grammar Gaffes: That Insinuating Apostrophe S

I have seen a lot of grammatical errors in my time, but none chaps my hide more than the misplaced apostrophe S. You know the one. It pops up out of nowhere (supposedly) to indicate the plural, but all it really indicates is the writer's unfamiliarity with the plural versus possessive form. (And don't get me started with plural possessives.) I see it a lot this time of year on Christmas cards than come in the mail; that apostrophe S insinuates itself where it's not wanted:

Merry Christmas! Love, the Brown's
Have a great 2013, the Smith's
We fell asleep in English class, the Shafer's

Argh.

I am certain you all know this, but just for the sake of my sanity, bear with me whilst I expostulate:

Apostrophe S indicates possession. Ownership of something.

Joe's coat
Leslie's book
Ellen's hissy fit

To indicate the plural form of a noun, simply add an S.

the Browns
the Smiths
the Shafers

Then there's also the sticky situation of what-if-my-last-name-ends-with-an-s? (Or an x for that matter.) How do I make that plural?

Easy peasy. Add an -ES.

the Davises
the Lennoxes
the Simmonses

Yes, I do know that things get trickier when one needs to indicate the plural possessive. But that is not the object of this post. I'll get to that later.

One fit at a time, please.

Weekly Happenings: Powering Through, Pastels, and Poetry

We were all sick this week. Himself even worked from home, so he was here with us. The malaise was oddly up and down: we'd be poorly one day, and the next only stuffy and cough-y. Then back to poorly the next day. We drank gallons of tea and ate a lot of soup, both storebought and homemade. I doctored up a minestrone mix and the results were super delish. I also made some basic chicken noodle soup with chicken Better than Bouillon lower sodium paste, water, spaghetti noodles, and carrots (I doctored my servings with Italian seasoning). I threw it together because I didn't have any ready-made noodle soup. Turns out my homemade version was millions better. Good to know!

Most of our activities were waylaid, but we managed to get in a good week's worth of lessons.

Here's a rundown:

• Bible study: Psalm 84 with Young Hearts Longing for God
• Grammar: Pronouns, Daily Grammar
• Spelling
• Poetry: continue reading Frost
• Math: yet more fractions
• Composition with Writing with Skill
• Story of the World: the Cold War, the Space Race, Civil Rights Movement, and Vietnam (whew!)
• It Couldn't Just Happen: continental drift
• Exploring the Holy Land: Israel
• Queen Victoria: her adventures continue
• School of the Woods: continue with the great blue heron. This is a long chapter, and I broke it into chunks over three weeks.
• Piano practice
• Assigned readings: Snow Treasure (an AO selection) for Miss Priss, and Cheaper by the Dozen for Tiny Girl

Mind Benders and hot tea -- a winning combo.

The beginnings of a Christmas tree.

On Friday, we enjoyed another pastels tutorial from Hodgepodge. This Sunday being the first in Advent, we opted for a Christmas theme. Miss Priss and I drew the Christmas Tree in Snow, and Tiny Girl felt drawn to Fireplace. Another wonderful Advent pastels tutorial is Christmas Star.

We had a wonderful time last week at my folks' house in the country for Thanksgiving. We arrived Wednesday and didn't leave for home until Sunday. The food was sublime and so was visiting with family. Bliss!

Miss Priss reading The Upstairs Room on the way to her grandparents' house for Thanksgiving.

In homekeeping, I made a few things other than soup this week. I replenished my freezer stash of homemade baking mix, and I also tried my hand at homemade dishwasher detergent. The first load is washing now, so I'll let you know how that goes.

Baking mix.

Several Frost poems engaged our rapt attentions this week. The girls especially connected with "A Tuft of Flowers" and "Mending Wall." Those are of course absolutely wonderful, but the one that spoke the most to me was "Revelation," today's selection. I think perhaps the girls are still too young to be as moved as I. They've not yet mastered the art of dissembling, hiding behind words that have lost their meaning, hiding their hearts, yet longing for true connection.


Revelation, by Robert Frost

We make ourselves a place apart
     Behind light words that tease and flout,
But oh, the agitated heart
     Till someone find us really out.

'Tis pity if the case require
     (Or so we say) that in the end
We speak the literal to inspire
     The understanding of a friend.

But so with all, from babes that play
     at hide-and-seek to God afar,
So all who hide too well away
     Must speak and tell us where they are.


Have a lovely weekend!

I'm linking up with:
Hammock Tracks
Friday Photo Collage @ Homegrown Learners
The Homeschool Mother's Journal
Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers
No Ordinary Blog Hop

Curl up with your computer and a cup of tea and hop a while!

Enjoying Poetry with Your Children: Online Resources

Photo courtesy ToniVC via Foter

People have a lot to say about poetry. I found perusing the web for poetry resources to be a daunting task. It's impossible to read or even locate everything. However, I've highlighted below some resources that are most promising -- to my mind, anyway.

Silvia Vardell's blog, Poetry for Children, is a powerhouse of information. Her Poet Links list will introduce you to active children's writers you may not know. Perhaps you'll find one whose work delights your children. And you.

This page from the University of Lethbridge in Alberta suggests numerous books and websites on teaching poetry, as well as ideas for teaching and enjoying poetry. Developed by the Curriculum Laboratory, the page offers ideas for classroom centers, which homeschooling families could easily adapt. I especially like the prompts to spark an interest in children writing poetry of their own. Some of the listed websites and books are more pedagogically philosophical than necessary for my purposes, but lurking underneath this veneer are great suggestions and inspiration. I loved discovering Georgia Heard and her books!

Don't miss Poets.org, the website of the Academy of American Poets. Its drop-down menu, For Educators, provides a wealth of information, tips, resources, and plans. The site is also a good source for poet bios. I enjoyed the audio files of poets reading their own work. Hearing Robert Frost read "The Road Not Taken" or Dylan Thomas read "Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night" is a not-to-be-missed experience.

Teaching Student to Write and Read Poetry, a free ebook published by Jefferson County (KY) Public Schools for high school-aged students, is available here. I downloaded the PDF file and have only glanced at the contents, but I have high hopes based on my first look.
The Poetry Foundation website has a children's poetry section (look under the Resources drop-down menu) with book picks, a poem of the day, and articles on children's poetry. Here's the article that caught my eye: "Home Appreciation," about -- you guessed it -- homeschoolers and poetry. The website offers a FREE poetry app, too. And the Learning Lab (also under Resources) is packed with helpful and useful content.

While you're making your plans for next year, take some time to explore poetry. These resources can help you hone in on poets, explore poetry teaching methods, and discover family favorites. As always, use your discretion in making poetry choices for your family. What suits one family may not suit another.

This list is by no means exhaustive, nor was it meant to be. Use it as a springboard for your own poetry adventure. Click links and Google book titles (or poets or poem titles) to see what you might find. I found this poem at the Poetry Foundation website. I liked it, and perhaps you will, too:

The Ocracoke Ponies
by Jennifer Grotz
No one saw the first ones
swim ashore centuries ago,
nudged by waves into the marsh grasses.


When you look into their faces, there is no trace
of the ship seized with terror, the crashing waves
and the horses’ cries when thrown overboard.


Every afternoon you ride your bicycle to the pasture
to watch the twitch of their manes and ivory tails
unroll a carpet of silence, to see ponies lost in dream.


But it isn’t dream, that place
your mind drifts to, that museum of memory
inventoried in opposition to the present.


You felt it once on a plane,
taking off from a city you didn’t want to leave,
the stranded moment when the plane lifts into the clouds.


That’s not dream, it’s not even sleeping.
It is the nature of sleeping to be unaware.
This was some kind of waiting for the world to come back.

Poetry Pushback: Jolting Older Children Out of Their Apathy



Photo credit: Casey David

 In my previous installment of this poetry series, Poetry Pushback: Bridging the Disconnect with Older Children, I made the argument that poetry study is a critical component of a liberal (wide) education. A nodding acquaintance with the "major" poets (you know the ones) goes a long way toward college prep. Even more importantly, poetry adds grace notes to life. (More on this topic later.)

So read and discuss with your older children Milton, Shakespeare, Spenser, and Dante. Introduce them to Browning, Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Byron. Mull over Dickinson's pithy lines, Eliot's symbolism, and Donne's "Batter my heart, three-personed God." Light the fire of your children's imaginations.

 And if the fire is weak, throw on the gasoline.

Adolescents can be maddeningly apathetic about many things (chores, for instance, or polynomial equations -- frankly, I can relate) and then vividly passionate about others. These can be tumultuous years. Teens are busy individuating, shaping their specific dreams, formulating plans, studying the world. They often see things differently from adults.

True, all this can make teens and pre-teens difficult to live with (I know I was); but you can use it to your advantage when it comes to poetry. Tap into their energy, whether they are quiet percolators or swirling vortices. Give them a jolt.

Consider this, by Gwendolyn Brooks:

We Real Cool
THE POOL PLAYERS.
SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL.

We real cool. We

Left school. We

Lurk late. We

Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We

Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We

Die soon.

Did you flinch? Are you affronted? What's poetic about this? you may think. Didn't you just quote Philippians 4:8 in an earlier post?

 I did, and I began quoting at ". . . whatever is true. . . ." This poem is an example of an all-too-real truth in our culture. And not just American culture, either, but world culture, merely played out differently depending on the country.

 Read this poem with your older children. Listen to Gwendolyn Brooks read this poem* and consider her thoughts on it. Read this short interview with Brooks about the poem. And then talk about it with your teens.

• Who are these kids?
• Can you picture them?
• How is their world different from yours?
• What choices have they made?
• Why might they have made these choices?
• When Jesus spoke of the "least of these," do you think He meant these guys?
• The predicted outcome is both bleak and realistic. Can anything be done to help?

That last question is intended as a call to action, to service. Now, I'm not suggesting you go hang out in pool halls, although people do that. But if your teen shows interest, talk about service options. Just off the top of my head, I can think of several actions my daughters and I could take:

• Make sandwiches for a local homeless outreach program.
• Serve breakfast to the homeless once a month with a church group.
• Read to or tutor young at-risk children.
• Donate books, games, whatever to youth outreach programs.

All because of a poem.

Poetry can also inspire young hearts and minds, even if those minds tend to cynicism. I admire this poem by Langston Hughes:

Dreams
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

Its brevity may tempt you to zip through it; resist the temptation. Delve a little deeper. Spark some conversation.

• Have you seen an injured bird that can't fly? How did it act?
• Compare a bird when it's first injured to a bird that's adapted to its condition (at a nature center, perhaps).
• Picture a "barren field frozen with snow." What does it look like? What's there?
• How are dead dreams like injured birds or a snow-enveloped field?
• Where do our dreams come from?
• If we allow that God is the source of dreams/aspirations, what does it mean, then, when we let a dream die?
• How can we determine if a dream is one of our own selfish desires or, conversely, part of God's plan for our lives?
• Are we sometimes meant to let go of certain dreams and go in another direction?
• If so, how can we keep from living like an injured bird?
• On the flip side, what might happen if we reject God's dreams and follow paths of our own design?

You can hear Hughes read this poem here. He begins with his poem "The Dream Keeper" and flows into "Dreams."

Expose your child to a wide variety of poetic styles and expression. The Who's Who in Poetry list is important, but don't neglect the 20th century and later poets, either. If you need some help, I plan to list a bevy of resources in a later post. I'm gathering information now.

 A word of warning: Don't turn your child loose! Poetry can be as dangerous as any other literary form. And it's not just the contemporary poets, either. Some of the Earl of Rochester's poems (1647-1680), for instance, freely celebrate his dissolute and libertine lifestyle. Another word of warning: please resist throwing water on the fire by too much talk about symbolism and the like. The poet Jean Little says it better than I do in "After English Class":

I used to like "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening."
I liked the coming darkness,
The jingle of harness bells, breaking--and adding to
--the stillness,
The gentle drift of snow. . . .

But today, the teacher told us what everything stood for.
The woods, the horse, the miles to go, the sleep--
They all have "hidden meanings."

It's grown so complicated now that,
Next time I drive by,
I don't think I'll bother to stop.

I recall discussing a short story (I've forgotten which one) in Advanced Junior English in high school. The teacher pointed out all the green in the story (basically the trees and plants in the woods). "Why do you think the author used all that green?" she asked. The class wisely chose not to respond aloud, but we were all thinking, Because a lot of the action takes place in the woods? The teacher smiled teasingly and drew out the word: "Money!"

Oh. Suuuuure. And since we were teenagers, I'm sure there was a fair amount of eye-rolling, even if we waited until after class to do it.


* Brooks mentions in this recording that this particular poem has sometimes been banned for the term "jazz," since it can have sexual overtones. Listen to the recording yourself to decide if you'd like your children to hear it. You can always have your children tune in after Brooks's intro.

Poetry Pushback: Bridging the Disconnect with Older Children

So it's time to read today's poem at your house. You hope for happy smiles and murmurs of appreciation, but you get wailing and much gnashing of teeth, perhaps manifested in heavy sighs, dismissive shrugs, and pained expressions. And let's not forget the adolescent's coup de grace: the eye roll. Frankly, it would be easier to just zip through the thing and be done with it.

Consider this: when your child(ren) whined about simplifying fractions, you did not throw in the towel. You persevered. You kept your end goal -- a well-educated child -- in mind. We study fractions; we study Tennyson.

To my way of thinking, a complete education includes exploration of and experience with poetry. A well-educated child should be acquainted with Browning, Coleridge, Donne, Wordsworth, et al. Reading poets such as these supplies our minds with beautiful and meaningful imagery, rich language and expression, and noble and profound ideas.

That's all well and good, but when you're faced with teenage (or pre-teen) ennui, what can you do? How can you make the experience more meaningful for your older children?

First off:

 

• Read poetry together. A resistant (or even a developing) appreciation needs shoring up
• Take time for discussion. Explore the poem with your children. Encourage them to connect with the poem. What emotions does the poem excite (or at least prod)? What images come to mind? What do you think the poet wants us to do with his/her words? What's the point? What is your favorite line or phrase?
• Consider keeping a poetry notebook, journal, or commonplace book of favorite lines of poetry. Do some research on poets' lives. Search for interviews with poets to discover what they say about their work. Have children jot down their own impressions of a poem or a line of poetry.

Whoa. I just looked at the clock. We need to get started with our day! So I'll have to leave my next tip (it's a biggie) for tomorrow. Check back for part two of this post: Jolt Them Out of Their Apathy.

Poetry Push-Back: Working Through Resistance in Young Children

Photo credit: Tampa Bay Times

Young children naturally seem to enjoy poetry, in general. But what if yours don't? What if their eyes glaze over when you read a poem to them? What if they openly resist listening?
Well, you could grit your teeth and slog through. But if your end goal is to cultivate a love of poetry in your children, I have a few items for you to think about:

Are you careful in your selections?
The unfortunate truth is that many poems for children are utter twaddle. I reviewed some online poetry websites and found a few that made me wrinkle my nose in distaste. Potty humor, slapstick silliness, doggerel*, and poor verse abound. The same holds true for nursery rhymes. Some are fun, lovely, or both; but others are just plain foolish. Of course, many of these parameters depend on personal taste. What's ridiculous to me may not be so to you.

But if you're asking Just what is poor poetry?, consider this, which I’ve just made up out of my own brain:

A rose climbs up our garden wall
as red as red can be.
When visitors all come to call
it’s quite a sight to see.

Ta da!

We can call this little quatrain a verse, but we cannot call it poetry. It inspires no connection, it invokes no emotions or understanding or images (other than the rose itself). It's not one whit engaging. In fact, there's nothing to it besides an ABAB rhyme scheme and a plodding meter. So in my most humble opinion, this is not poetry.

Let Philippians 4:8 be a guideline for you; it's excellent advice for anyone: ". . . whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -- think about such things."

Are the children developmentally ready for the poems you've selected?
A year or so ago, the girls first encountered William Wordsworth, one of the poets AO designated for a term. Dutifully, I began reading his work to my daughters. They gave it a frosty reception, so I laid it aside for now. They were simply not ready, and I didn't want to ruin Wordworth for them, before they even begin to fathom "thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears."

How do you approach the poems?
First, take care not to bog down younger children with too much background or biographical information on the poet. As Silvia points out, "They [her young children] are starting to pay attention to some of those poems, and they know, for example, who A. A. Milne is when we read his poetry because of Winnie." And that's all they need to know at this stage.

Second, consider your delivery, i.e., how you read poetry aloud. Take in account the themes, tones, or moods of poems when you read them to your children, and do your best to read poetry in such a way that inspires a connection.

Do you like the poem (or poet's work)?
You can't fake it with your children. They know you well and will be able to sniff out your dislike. Select poetry that you enjoy, too, and perhaps your enthusiasm will impress your children. (If your children are older, as mine are, the latter is not likely to be effective. More on older children in another post.)

Whew! That's a lot to think about. If this sounds like work, well, it can be. In my last post of this series, I'll point you to resources to help you in selecting good poetry for your family.

Here's an example from our family, in case you're interested:
When my children were toddlers, I had a subscription to a lovely little literary publication written for their age group. It's been many years, but I still remember this poem (and can quote it from my feeble memory):

Rickety Rackety
Rickety rackety
Rocking chair
I bring my book
And my teddy bear
Mama reads
And strokes my hair
As we rickety-rack
In the rocking chair.
-- by Heidi Roemer

And here's another:

Taste of Purple
Grapes hang purple
In their bunches,
Ready for September lunches,
Gather them, no minutes wasting.
Purple is Delicious tasting.
-- by Leland B. Jacobs

Yesterday, I read a marvelous post about one family's poetry experience. Pop over and read about Angie's quest to engage her younger children in poetical delights. For more insight into these topics, read part one of this series, especially Rev. H. C. Beeching's comments about poetry.

I'd love to read your thoughts and ideas, so comment away!



* Doggerel, according to Wikipedia, is a "derogatory term for verse considered of little literary value. The word probably derived from dog, suggesting either ugliness, puppyish clumsiness, or unpalatability (as in food fit only for dogs). "Doggerel" is attested to have been used as an adjective since the fourteenth century and a noun since at least 1630. . . . Doggerel is usually the sincere product of poetic incompetence, and only unintentionally humorous." The article also points out that writers often use doggerel to "for comic or satiric effect" and to lampoon "popular literary tastes. "

Four Tips Guaranteed to Kill a Developing Love for Poetry

Welcome to part two of my series on poetry for children -- and all of us. In part one, I offered several tips for enjoying poetry with your children. Today I'll address some surefire ways to kill the joy, douse the flame, squelch the delight, sever the connection, and set your children on the path to lifelong irritation, derision, and other means of unappreciation: poetry is "boring, a waste of time, weird, difficult. . . ." Just in case that's your goal. I'm trying to address all options here.

Here we go:

• Avoid reading poetry with your children. Pretty straightforward. Children never exposed to beautiful and, especially important, evocative poetry will never develop an appreciation for it.
• Succumb to your children's resistance. Young children seem to have a natural predilection for poetry. My children loved (and still do) the poems of Christina Rossetti, Robert Louis Stevenson, A.A. Milne, Walter de la Mare, Sara Teasdale, Hilda Conkling, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Emily Dickinson. Even now, if we need to soldier on in an activity (say, housecleaning), I'll cry out, "Excelsior!" and they know what that means, thanks to Longfellow. But now that they're older, I'm getting some flack or a touch of boredom. Bad attitudes, all. Now's the time to throw in the towel.
• Read a poem once and slam the book shut. Poetry, check! If you decide to expose your children to some poetry after all, do not talk about it or the poet. No background information, no short biographical sketch, no exploration of emotions or images the poem might have inspired, no thoughtful consideration of the beauty of the words . . . nothing. Make no attempt to encourage any connection with the poem whatsoever.

Alternatively. . .

• Read a poem and immediately begin to dissect its parts. go beyond mere rhyme scheme. Peruse the poem for instances of dactyl, anapests, enjambment, caesuras, elisions that preserve the poem's meter, etc. Analyze the poem's metrical pattern. Is it iambic pentameter, blank verse, free verse, etc.? What's its arrangement, so to speak: sonnet (Petrarchan or Shakespearean?), villanelle, epic, sestina, epigram, lyric, blank verse, or perhaps an elegy? This is crucial if your children are in the middle grades. Nothing kills poetical delight easier than early and accelerated literary criticism.

Of course, it goes without saying that if your aim to to engender a love of poetry in your children, then you'd strive to forgo these tips. Basically:

• Do read poetry with your children.
• Do persevere in the face of discontent. (I'm planning a separate post on this topic.)
• Do talk about the poem with your children. Share your thoughts, but take care not to trample on their own experience.
• Do postpone serious literary criticism until the later years, perhaps until college. Considering a poem's rhyme scheme (ABBA, etc.) for middle graders is fine by me. If you'd like, casually add in a consideration of figurative language: simile, metaphor, onomatopoeia (which is fun!), and the like. If your children are in high school, a basic understanding of poetic analysis would put them on the right road for their literature classes. (Hmm. This would make a nice post topic, wouldn't it?)

Take at look at part one of this series for more ideas.

What are your experiences with poetry? Did any of the above points ring a bell with you, perhaps in your own education? How would you like things to be different for your children? Respond in the Comments section to your heart's content!

Six Tips for Enjoying Poetry with Your Children

I'm embarking on a new series about poetry. I'll discuss studying poetry in your homeschool, cultivating a life-long enjoyment of poetry (instead of loathing); and finding wonderful sources of poetry.

Homeschoolers, especially those who adhere to a literature-rich philosophy, tend to agree that poetry is an important component of their children's studies. That's progress. I was educated in the public school system and didn't study poetry until high school. Fortunately, I enjoyed it, but many of my peers had an unfavorable opinion. I'm now persuaded to think that poetry appreciation, like many other fine arts, must be cultivated, and it's best to start when children are young.

Here are some tips I've learned:

Make time for poetry. Our days are full and busy; fine art study can fall victim to our schedules. Commit to setting aside a routine time for reading poetry, whether weekly or every day. Some ideas include: at mealtimes; after family devotion and prayer time; right before bed; even in the car!

Select age-appropriate poems. Reverend H. C. Beeching, in his excellent article "An Address on the Teaching of Poetry," says it this way:

The poetry must be suitable to their years. You must not expect little children to enjoy what you enjoy. You can drink claret, perhaps port, perhaps champagne, they cannot; their natural beverage is milk. The sources of joy open to them are the simplest, and to these you must bring them. The grandeur of Milton's blank verse will be as little to them as an organ concerto of Handel's; they must have simple rhythms to begin with, and they must have rhyme; they must have verses that sing themselves. And the subjects, too, must be appropriate to their age.

Strive for joy and charm, especially for younger children. There are many, many wonderful poems for young(er) children, but there's also a world of twaddle. How can you discern the difference? Here's an example Rev. Beeching offers:

. . . I agree with Miss Mason (whom we all delight to honour) in somewhat dreading nonsense verses for children as being a trifle (shall I say) profane. I once heard a mother of the upper classes reciting to her young hopefuls these graceful and spirit-stirring lines:

'Old Mrs. Hubblechin,
Had a little double chin.'

What a criticism of life!

Indeed. You'll find that much verse for children is of this ilk. But that's all they are: verses. They are not poetry. Is there anything inherently wrong with verse? Well, not really. I'll go so far to admit that some of it's quite fun! Just don't call it poetry, and don't teach it as such.

Focus on one poet at a time. There are lots of children's poetry anthologies, and those are lovely. But in the study of poetry, it seems best to select a poet and study his or her work for a bit of time. Call it poetry immersion. Introduce the poet to your children with a brief biographical sketch. For example, my children and I were much better equipped to appreciate the poetry of John Greenleaf Whittier because we knew something of his life. Also, when you immerse your children in the work of one poet at a time, you can compare and contrast different poems. Paul Laurence Dunbar, an African-American poet, wrote movingly and beautifully about life's difficulties and triumphs; but he also wrote immensely humorous poems in the black dialect of his enslaved forebears.

Read the poem more than once. This year, I've been guilty of slighting poetry. Although we've dutifully read our poems, I've tended to read each aloud once to the children, discuss it briefly, and move on to other things. I'm now seeing the weak and withered fruit such activity produces.

Here's a better method, which we've followed in the past. Read the poem out loud to the children. Read carefully; pause at punctuation marks, inflect where it seems natural to do so. Then let the children take turns reading it aloud. I find they enjoy the poem more after several readings than on its debut.

Talk about the poem, giving it more attention that a mere, "Do you like it?" Here's where true poetical delight comes in. Ask children to consider their personal responses. What feelings does the poem prompt? Could you see the scene in your head? How did you picture it? What ideas did the poem suggest to you? Can you relate to the poem or the poet's experience? How so? What line/phrase/words did you find especially lovely/moving?

Some of these questions are obviously more suited to older children, but you get the idea. Talking about the poem encourages us to connect with it and relate to it.

One more tip: don't kill children's nascent apppreciation for poetry by introducing literary criticism too early. Frankly, that can wait until they are much older. When I read poetry today, I never assess a poem's meter, form, or rhyme scheme. Instead, I read for the beauty of the words, my overall response, a connection to the natural world and often the spirit world. I'm reading for the joy of poetry.

And that's what I want to cultivate in my children.

For further enlightenment, I recommend reading Rev. Beeching's excellent article yourself. Here's a link to it on Ambleside Online. I'm linking up with this week's Hip Homeschool Hop. Check it out for great ideas!

Weekly Happenings: Highlighting Our Books

It was back to business this week after taking a week for spring break. Our daily activities of Bible/devotion, poetry (Paul Laurence Dunbar), math, piano, copywork, foreign language, Latin roots for Miss Priss, critical thinking, grammar, and spelling clicked along as usual.

I'm still pleased with Daily Grammar for our grammar studies. This week, we reviewed nouns. What I particularly like about Daily Grammar is that the first lesson is quite rudimentary, and the lessons afterward pick up in complexity. Today's lesson, for example, highlighted collective, mass, and count nouns.

• Collective nouns: class, group, choir
• Mass nouns: gasoline, water, oil
• Count nouns: arena, girls, bus

We made good progress in our readings, as well:

• Oliver Twist: read through chapter three. We are all enjoying this story, but Tiny Girl does not comprehend many of Dickens's ironical descriptions (which are laugh-out-loud funny to me).
• Harriet Tubman: completed. Both children liked this.
• Sea Clocks: The Story of Longitude: completed (Read my review here.) We thought this was very interesting.
• George Washington Carver, by Suzanne M. Coil: read through chapter two. Both children are enjoying this thus far.
• Lilias Trotter: A Passion for the Impossible: read through page 43. Miss Priss and I are enjoying this more than Tiny Girl, who wasn't thrilled with Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution, either.
• Story Book of Science: read the chapter "The Velocity of Sound," which discusses the differences in speeds of light and sound in a thunderstorm. AO added this to Year 4, and I thought it looked good. So we're reading it this year in our Year 5.
• Abraham Lincoln's World: manifest destiny and westward expansion.
• This Country of Ours: the Civil War, particularly the battle of the Monitor and the Merrimac. I've noted that Miss Marshall's overall tone is decidedly pro-Federal; it's especially noticeable in this chapter, wherein the Merrimac is described as a "black monster" and "ugly" more than once, while the Monitor is a speedy, clever machine. I was a tad surprised, since she was able to keep a more balanced tone while writing about the American Revolution.

Next week will be different for us, since Miss Priss will be taking the CAT5 exam. I ordered from Seton Testing Services, and they offer the short form of the test. Ergo, it won't be a tedious exercise of leviathan proportions, like our state's own standardized test.

Here's a lovely poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar, written in 1901:

Rain-Songs
The rain streams down like harp-strings from the sky;
The wind, that world-old harpist sitteth by;
And ever as he sings his low refrain,
He plays upon the harp-strings of the rain.

I'm linking up with the Homeschool Mother's Journal and Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. Pop over to both, do some blog-reading, and refresh yourself!

Review: The Gazebo, By Ethel Pochocki

I am drawn to gazebos. One summer evening, Himself and I pledged our vows to one another in a gazebo, our family seated inside and our friends gathered around us. I am also drawn to charming, quality children's literature, so I was as pleased as pleased could be when, several years ago, I acquired an autographed copy of Ethel Pochocki's treasure of a book, The Gazebo.

This is the story of Mary Rose, a wealthy child growing up in the city a long time ago, and her lifelong love affair with gazebos. As an adult, she works as a diplomat, but when she retires, she builds for herself the perfect gazebo. Mary Beth Owens' delightful period watercolors perfectly complement Ethel Pochocki's elegant prose. Moreover, I admire the quiet message that lingers just below the surface of the story: our life stories have many chapters.

Although this is a picture book, it's written for older children (and adults!) and is best shared with someone you love and a cup of tea.

I've known for a while that Ethel Pochocki hails from Maine, the town of Brooks, to be exact, which we drive through on our way to the coast. I think of her every time, Wouldn't it be marvelous to meet her? I learned today, however, that she passed away less than a year ago, in December, at the age of 85, the author of more than 30 books. She lived a long, lovely life and left a legacy of literature for us to savor.

FREE Shakespeare Copywork

Today's free resource from homeschoolfreebieoftheday.com is a PDF ebook, Quotations from Shakespeare's Plays for Copywork, Recitation and Discussion. Living Books Curriculum provided the ebook, which is usually priced at $10 and includes more than 30 pages of quotations, articles by Charlotte Mason regarding recitation and copywork, and several lined pages. The quotations, selected by Edith Nesbit, author of Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare, are arranged by topic.

To click or not to click, that is the question....

(Sorry. I couldn't help myself.)

"The Most Aggressively Inarticulate Generation"

I came across this short video while I was linking around on blogs yesterday. I think it's fabulous and want to share. So here it is:

Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.

Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks: Latest Update

I haven't posted in quite some time any reviews of the books I'm reading for the Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge.  This is not to say I haven't been keeping up with the reading -- I have.  But time to craft thought-provoking reviews has eluded me to the point that I am so far behind.  So I'm throwing in the towel.

I'll continue the reading, of course, and let you know what I'm reading and some brief thoughts.  It just won't be as formal as before.  So here's a list of what I've read lately:

Jayber Crow, by Wendell Berry.  This was my first taste of Berry (couldn't help the pun -- it just happened).  After what I deemed a slow, albeit enjoyable start, I really sunk way into this book (bibliophiles, you know just what I mean by that descriptor) and ended up loving it.  Berry's poetic eloquence shines through in so many of the passages and descriptions that the prose is just beautiful.  Berry has created a narrative that manages to be rich and vivid yet light as silk.  An added bonus: I laughed out loud on several occasions.

A Far Cry from Kensington, by Muriel Spark.  Very different from my first Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, this small novel is a delight.  The cast of characters is both off-beat and amazingly human, and the plot skilfully weaves comedic elements with suspense, along with a touch of the (supposed) supernatural.  I thought it was a hoot.

The Confessions of Mycroft Holmes, by Marcel Theroux.  This is an unusual story, told in the first person by a man who seems, in the beginning, to be living his life in absentia, almost more like dying day by day instead of living.  But an unexpected bequest from a forgotten uncle -- a house in Massachusetts -- spurs him to a radical life-change, which then leads to other discoveries, not the least of which is an unpublished manuscript that offers more mysteries to unravel.  I very much enjoyed Theroux's writing style and turn of the phrase, and I look forward to reading more of this books.

Yikes! Look at the time! I have to leave for a Scout meeting in an hour and haven't even started on supper.

More later.  And, yes, there's more!

Selecting Children's Literature

In her excellent book Honey for a Child's Heart, Gladys Hunt writes, "A good book is a magic gateway into a wider world of wonder, beauty, delight, and adventure.  Books are experiences that make us grow, that add something to our inner stature."  That simply inspires me.  I want the best for my children, which translates into wanting the best for their minds.  That's one reason I homeschool.

I'm not alone in my desires.  There is much discourse in homeschooling circles as to the book choices children make, how we should guide them and to what degree, what they should be reading, what they shouldn't, etc.  Charlotte Mason referred to inferior children's books as "twaddle," an apt word, and Ambleside Online Yahoo groups members often discuss this idea of twaddle: What is it?  Should I allow it?  Should I exterminate my home of all such horrors?  Opinions, of course, abound.

But just what is twaddle?  Sometimes it's easy to judge, and other times it's not as clear.  That's the conundrum.  In her article "Defining Twaddle," Catherine Levison writes, "It is my opinion that dumbed-down literature is easy to spot. When you’re standing in the library and pick up modern-day, elementary-level books, you’re apt to see short sentences with very little effort applied to artistically constructing them to please the mind. Almost anyone can write — but not everyone is gifted in this field."

But then there is the matter of personal preference.  What I may judge as twaddly, you may not, and vice versa.  I enjoyed Beverly Cleary's children's books as a child, and my daughters enjoy them now; but they fall into other families' twaddle category.  Each family has the responsibility to select children's literature that fits in with their own values.

Looking back, I read quite a bit of twaddle in my time, and it didn't stop me from earning a master's degree in literature later in life.  I've even been known to enjoy a so-called "beach read" nowadays, although I have found that my tolerance level for such has lowered to the point that I rarely choose one anymore.  (At the pool this past summer, a neighbor glanced at my book and said flatly, "That's not summer reading."  To which I replied, "It is for me."  I admit it; I'm a book snob.)  My children read some twaddle now.  I deem it twaddle; they deem it fun.  But I strictly limit their consumption of lower-quality books, just as I limit their consumption of Gummy Bears.

To me, here's the best rule of thumb when selecting children's literature:  would you enjoy reading the book?  C. S. Lewis said, "No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond."

Well said.

For My Edification and Enlightenment

I stole the title above from a psych professor I had as an undergrad (developmental psychology, in case you're wondering). She was forever saying, and I quote, "Blah, blah, blah, blah, for your edification and enlightenment." Perhaps she still does, these two decades later.

I shared earlier that we are using Rosetta Stone French 1 and couldn't be more pleased. Let me amend that: Miss Priss and I are pleased; Tiny Girl is not. She struggles with the pronunciation bit. Anyway, I've been using it as well, in the afternoons and evenings, but I've found I can recall much more than I thought I would. So it's too easy pour moi.

Then I thought I'd check the ol' Internet for free online college courses, which I can take in my loads of spare time. I found this website right away. I'm sure there are others. Of course, not every university listed offers what I want. NYU, for example, seems to offer only mathematics courses. Linear algebra, anyone? I thought not.

But Open University in the UK offers several free French classes. Yippee! The first course takes about 20 hours. So when I finish this box of bon bons I've been devouring (because that's what housewives do), I'll register and take the class. I've nothing better to do.

I AM Speaking English

I have always had a love for words and spoken accordingly, to the amusement (one might say glee) of those around me. I remember in particular one occasion at work many years ago. A co-worker informed me that part of a project had been completed ahead of schedule, to which I replied, "Splendid!" After the knee-slapping hilarity of the others in the room had passed, another person asked me, jokingly, "Why don't you just say 'cool,' like everyone else?"

Why, indeed.

A couple of years later, my dh asked, more than once, essentially the same thing. "Why don't you just speak regular English?"

In my humble defense, I am speaking regular English. English is a rich, complex, and heavily nuanced language, and I intend to speak as much of it as I can. It reminds me of the scene in Sophie's Choice in which Sophie complains about all the English words for "fast," while in French there is only "vite."

I love all the different nuances in English. For example, She put the letter away hastily is very different from She put the letter away quickly. Is it just me, or does the first sentence imply a sense of guilt or subterfuge? The difference of one word opens up vast avenues of new possibilities.

This past summer, my neighbor gigglingly relayed to me something Miss Priss said while visiting her house. My two girls and her two had just eaten some fabulous peanut butter fudge, and then laughed at how quickly they'd wolfed it down. Miss Priss said, "I didn't take time to savor mine." It was the "savor" that threw my neighbor for a loop. "I don't think my girls have ever heard that word before!" A few weeks later, Miss Priss remarked to me that we had enjoyed "a day of splendors!" I had to agree.

Weird? I don't think so. While I can "talk American" with the best of them, I've never felt it necessary to dumb the language down for my children's ears. We limit the amount of t.v. they watch, and they listen to "my" radio stations in the car. Also, the books we read tend to use elevated language. So it's only natural that my children pick it up.

And I think that's cool.