First Dance
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Persian Wedding
Dh and I went to his cousin's wedding last night. This is the first Persian wedding that I have attended. I have seen photos and video of dh's sister's wedding, but I have never been to one. Dh said that it was a really wonderful wedding and reception. I thought so too, but I have no memories of other Persian weddings for comparison and so was glad for his confirmation of my assessment.
First Dance
First Dance
Friday, November 27, 2009
Friday- Homeschool Week in Review for Duncan
Other than the read-alouds and poetry that I have already posted, Duncan also did Kumon and violin on Monday and Tuesday. Then, on Wednesday we drove to my mom's house for Thanksgiving. Today we drove home.
Perhaps playing hide-and-seek with relatives counts as PE!:-)
Perhaps playing hide-and-seek with relatives counts as PE!:-)
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Berea Acceptance Letter!
This warrants a special posting. Christian's first acceptance letter arrived today!
He has been accepted at Berea College in Berea, KY. This acceptance comes with a 4-year, full tuition scholarship.
Yes, I am doing a happy dance!
WooHoo!
Mandy
He has been accepted at Berea College in Berea, KY. This acceptance comes with a 4-year, full tuition scholarship.
Yes, I am doing a happy dance!
WooHoo!
Mandy
The It's-Not-Yet-Thursday Read-Aloud
I do not believe that I will post tomorrow, so here is our Read-Aloud Thursday posted on Wednesday morning.
The Thankgiving Story by Alice Dalgliesh
The quintessential Thanksgiving picture book
Mean Soup
A lovely book demonstrating an appropriate way to channel a child's anger
(I used to take my big boys outside to howl at the moon.)
Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months by Maurice Sendak
While Chicken Soup is indeed full of fun Sendak pictures and poetry, this book and Mean Soup were chosen by one of my little Kumon students who is obviously wanting soup this week!
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Mandy in TN
The Thankgiving Story by Alice Dalgliesh
The quintessential Thanksgiving picture book
Mean Soup
A lovely book demonstrating an appropriate way to channel a child's anger
(I used to take my big boys outside to howl at the moon.)
Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months by Maurice Sendak
While Chicken Soup is indeed full of fun Sendak pictures and poetry, this book and Mean Soup were chosen by one of my little Kumon students who is obviously wanting soup this week!
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Mandy in TN
Wordless Wednesday- Big Man on Campus
Christian, just ahead in the black trench coat, walking his favorite (and may I also add very attractive) college campus.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Tuesday Teatime Poetry- Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Comes But Once a Year
by Thornton W. Burgess
Thanksgiving comes but once a year,
But when it comes it brings good cheer.
For in my storehouse on this day
Are piles of good things hid away.
Each day I’ve worked from early morn
To gather acorns, nuts, and corn,
Till now I’ve plenty and to spare
Without a worry or a care.
So light of heart the whole day long,
I’ll sing a glad Thanksgiving song.
This poem is good for discussing rhyming couplets!
Circle the last word in the first two lines in one color; circle the last word in the next two lines in a different color; so forth and so on. Ask your child to look at year and cheer and tell you what he notices about the two words. He should tell you that they rhyme. Then, look at day and away and discuss that they rhyme with each other but not with year and cheer. Explain that when a poem contains a rhyming pair of successive lines, two lines one after another that end with words that rhyme, they are called a rhyming couplet.
You can demonstrate rhyming patterns with legos, colored beads, or little pieces of construction paper. For example, in this poem you could use two white legos (year, cheer), two red legos (day, away), two green legos (morn, corn), two blue legos (spare, care), and two yellow legos (long, song).
If your child is older or you want to move past the simple explanation of a pair of successive rhyming lines, you can discuss how couplets usually form a syntactic unit (phrase, clause, or sentence) and share the same meter (pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in lines of a set length).
by Thornton W. Burgess
Thanksgiving comes but once a year,
But when it comes it brings good cheer.
For in my storehouse on this day
Are piles of good things hid away.
Each day I’ve worked from early morn
To gather acorns, nuts, and corn,
Till now I’ve plenty and to spare
Without a worry or a care.
So light of heart the whole day long,
I’ll sing a glad Thanksgiving song.
This poem is good for discussing rhyming couplets!
Circle the last word in the first two lines in one color; circle the last word in the next two lines in a different color; so forth and so on. Ask your child to look at year and cheer and tell you what he notices about the two words. He should tell you that they rhyme. Then, look at day and away and discuss that they rhyme with each other but not with year and cheer. Explain that when a poem contains a rhyming pair of successive lines, two lines one after another that end with words that rhyme, they are called a rhyming couplet.
You can demonstrate rhyming patterns with legos, colored beads, or little pieces of construction paper. For example, in this poem you could use two white legos (year, cheer), two red legos (day, away), two green legos (morn, corn), two blue legos (spare, care), and two yellow legos (long, song).
If your child is older or you want to move past the simple explanation of a pair of successive rhyming lines, you can discuss how couplets usually form a syntactic unit (phrase, clause, or sentence) and share the same meter (pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in lines of a set length).
Monday, November 23, 2009
Meditative Monday- In Which I Roll from One Quote to the Next!
Initially, I had thought that I would continue in the same vein as last week- discussing little snail’s journey from the point of view of direction. However, with it being Thanksgiving week, two quotes are walking around arm in arm in my mind grinning at me.
“If a fellow isn't thankful for what he's got, he isn't likely to be thankful for what he's going to get.” Frank A. Clark
“Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Abraham Lincoln
Of course I have days that are just downright overemotional in truly negative ways- frustrating or infuriating, difficult or downright dreadful. If I didn’t, if I were detached from and unaffected by my surroundings and the people in them, then I would not be human. An emotionally healthy person does not live without feeling the impact of unpleasantness. In spite of this, to dwell on this unpleasantness would be like tending the thistle rather than the rose. As Frances Hodgson Burnett put it in The Secret Garden:
One of the new things people began to find out in the last century was that thoughts--just mere thoughts--are as powerful as electric batteries--as good for one as sunlight is, or as bad for one as poison. To let a sad thought or a bad one get into your mind is as dangerous as letting a scarlet fever germ get into your body. If you let it stay there after it has got in you may never get over it as long as you live…
Much more surprising things can happen to any one who, when a disagreeable or discouraged thought comes into his mind, just has the sense to remember in time and push it out by putting in an agreeable determinedly courageous one. Two things cannot be in one place.
Where, you tend a rose, my lad, A thistle cannot grow.
As a whole when looking at my existence, I can choose to be thankful and happy. But, oh my goodness (LOL), this has indeed led me back to little snail’s journey!
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.” Dr. Seuss
As I steer through this journey, rather than choose to wallow in the excrement, I make up my mind to tend with thankfulness and happiness the abundance of good fortune.
“If a fellow isn't thankful for what he's got, he isn't likely to be thankful for what he's going to get.” Frank A. Clark
“Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Abraham Lincoln
Of course I have days that are just downright overemotional in truly negative ways- frustrating or infuriating, difficult or downright dreadful. If I didn’t, if I were detached from and unaffected by my surroundings and the people in them, then I would not be human. An emotionally healthy person does not live without feeling the impact of unpleasantness. In spite of this, to dwell on this unpleasantness would be like tending the thistle rather than the rose. As Frances Hodgson Burnett put it in The Secret Garden:
One of the new things people began to find out in the last century was that thoughts--just mere thoughts--are as powerful as electric batteries--as good for one as sunlight is, or as bad for one as poison. To let a sad thought or a bad one get into your mind is as dangerous as letting a scarlet fever germ get into your body. If you let it stay there after it has got in you may never get over it as long as you live…
Much more surprising things can happen to any one who, when a disagreeable or discouraged thought comes into his mind, just has the sense to remember in time and push it out by putting in an agreeable determinedly courageous one. Two things cannot be in one place.
Where, you tend a rose, my lad, A thistle cannot grow.
As a whole when looking at my existence, I can choose to be thankful and happy. But, oh my goodness (LOL), this has indeed led me back to little snail’s journey!
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.” Dr. Seuss
As I steer through this journey, rather than choose to wallow in the excrement, I make up my mind to tend with thankfulness and happiness the abundance of good fortune.
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