A poem I found...

...whilst sorting out our homeschooling material. This was first to be copied, then to be learnt. I remember it well. It was part of a project about snails that one of my boys did one spring.

THE SNAIL

Where he goes he leaves a trail

When he goes where he shouldn't be

His trail is there for all to see.

Our life is like the little snail,

Where we go we leave a trail.

The things we do and the things we say,

Are the trail we leave from day to day.

Cute poem

While I was out weeding in the garden yesterday I made up this poem about Toryn, my little teddy bear, who, indeed, was sat in the apricot tree for a long time while I worked. I hope you like it. 

Ode to my Teddy Bear

My Teddy Bear

Comes with me

Everywhere.

If I'm shopping

He's there,

 If I'm cooking he's sat

Next to me

On a chair.

Then, when I'm out

In the garden 

He's there 

Watching me

From a branch

In the tree.

My Teddy Bear

Has chocolate brown eyes

Which shine

When he smiles.

And he's cuddly

From the tip

Of his nose

To his toes.

When it's time to sleep

At the end of the day

My Teddy Bear

Lays his head

At the end

Of my bed.

It's nice to know 

That my Teddy bear

Is there. 

    

Spring project 2010

During our homeschooling years I often used ideas from others people's blogs. It was useful in many ways because the work had been tried and tested and comments were added for ways to better their experiences. I thought, from time to time, that I would also post about projects and things we studied back in the not too distant past, with the idea that it might also help others who are studying at home. It also brings back great memories, I can assure you.

During the spring of 2010, when my last homeschooler was 8 1/2 years old, we decorated our kitchen door with a spring project. It all looked very jolly and we had so much fun doing it.

We included all our areas of study. Here's how (please note that all of the family speak two languages as a regular thing but for written work, at this stage, I normally treated English as a second language, with Catalan being their first):
Language arts
Catalan:
- a short essay titled "When I hear the word 'spring' I think of..."
- a list of twenty-two spring words to be put in alphabetical order
- look up, discuss and write down sayings about springtime
Spanish:
- learn a poem titled "La primavera ha venido" by Antonio Machado
English:
- colour by letters - an umbrella (from edHelper.com)
- butterfly word search with secret message (from EnchantedLearning.com)
- spring alphabet code (from EnchantedLearning.com)
- making plurals of spring nouns (from EnchantedLearning.com)
Music
- learn a song in Catalan "Els ocells han arribat"
- learn to play the same song on the recorder
Bible studies and memory verses
- discuss and learn - Song of Solomon ch. 2 verses 11 and 12, Hosea ch. 6 verse 3, Joel ch. 2 verse 23
- talk about the significance of the butterfly, rain and rainbows in God's word
Nature studies
- learn about the life cycle of a butterfly
- learn what metamorphosis is and talk about other creatures which go through the same type of life cycle
- learn about the nests of different creatures - fish, wasps, field mice and birds
Social studies
- learn when spring officially starts and how the moment is calculated
- talk about the equinox and the solstice
- learn about the tilt of the earth and how this causes the seasons
- Make a weather chart and plot morning (8:00 am), midday (2:00 pm) and evening (8:00 pm) temperatures + a daily pictogram of the general weather trend
Mathematics
- plot a graph picture using a series of given coordinates (from edHelper)
- learn about symmetry using bugs (from EnchantedLearning.com)
- study simple fractions (using worksheets from EnchantedLearning)
Art
- study and colour various typical spring flowers and learn their names in all three languages - tulips, daffodils, poppies, violets and roses
- study and discuss the growth of the grape vines and draw fortnightly developments
Physical activity
- plenty of nature walks around where we live

Later, we converted the work into a manageable project. Here's how in photos:

The front cover:

Social studies:

Translation of last paragraph. "The word 'primavera' comes from two Latin words - 'prima' meaning 'first' and 'vera' meaning 'green'. Thus, we can say that spring is the 'first green' of the year.

Nature studies:

Catalan:

Spanish:

Maths:

English:

Music:

Art:

Each study subject is separated with  a piece of decorated paper, thus:

I have not included all the work we did as this would have taken much more time. I hope, however, you get the general idea.

If you go here you will find a lapbook about Catalonia (in Catalan).
If you go here you will find a character study (in Spanish).
If you go here you will find details of a project about butterflies and moths, including a mosaic of a Camberwell Beauty butterfly and a quiz to find out how much has been learnt (in English).

Happy March!

March brings breezes loud and shrill,

stirs the dancing daffodil.

This is a photo of Adel church and it's churchyard, West Yorkshire. Apparently, it is "one of the best and most complete Norman churches in Yorkshire".

I agree with one of my bloggy friends - daffodils are such happy flowers.

Oh, by the way, the verse is from a poem by Sara Coleridge, called "The Months". I remember learning it at school when I was six!

A poem to learn

This is the poem my youngest son learnt for our family concert at the end of 2012. I just love the images it evokes...

Winter Time

Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,
A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;
Blinks but an hour or two; and then,
A blood-red orange, sets again.

Before the stars have left the skies,
At morning in the dark I rise;
And shivering in my nakedness,
By the cold candle, bathe and dress.

Close by the jolly fire I sit
To warm my frozen bones a bit;
Or with a reindeer-sled, explore
The colder countries round the door.

When to go out, my nurse doth wrap
Me in my comforter and cap;
The cold wind burns my face, and blows
Its frosty pepper up my nose.

Black are my steps on silver sod;
Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;
And tree and house, and hill and lake,
Are frosted like a wedding-cake 

Robert Louis Stephenson

Hmm... I remember experiencing that "frosty pepper" more than once when I was a little girl.

Nursery rhymes

You may have the understandable impression that nursery rhymes are little poems about everyday life in the past or imaginative little ditties to entertain when all else fails in the waiting room of the doctor's surgery. I have sung them, my mother sung them to me and Grandma to her, most likely. But have you ever thought about how these apparently innocent little rhymes originated?

Take Georgie Porgie, for example. He was King James I of England's lover. His real name was George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. Georgie also had an affair with the then Queen of France. His romance with Anne of Austria is mentioned in the famous novel "The Three Musketeers", by Alexander Dumus.

Ring a Ring o' Roses is a little poem about the Bubonic Plague, more commonly known as The Black Death. The "ring of roses" refers to the patches of red spots which appeared on one's body at the onset of the disease. A "pocket full of posies" were little bunches of flowers people took around to warn people that they were ill. The sneezes were the last sign, then you fell down - DEAD.

Another rhyme based on British history is Three Blind Mice. The "farmer's wife" mentioned was the daughter of King Henry VIII, Queen Mary I, a staunch Catholic who ran after any protestant she could find. So much so, she became known as "Bloody Mary". Her husband was King Philip of Spain. The "three blind mice" were three noblemen who adhered to their protestant faith and were subsequently burnt at the stake.

Bloody Mary is also the "Mary" featured in the rhyme Mary, Mary, quite contrary. The "garden" was an ever growing graveyard of protestant martyrs, "silver bells and cockle shells" were instruments of torture and the "maids" or "maiden" was the original name for the guillotine.

Goosey, Goosey, Gander is another song about disturbances between Catholics and Protestants, Little Boy Blue was Thomas Wolsey, an apparently very rich and arrogant cardinal during the reign of King Henry VIII, London Bridge is Falling Down is an allegory concerning Anne Boleyn, Humpty Dumpty was not an egg, but a cannon, or maybe King Richard III, Jack Sprat is said to refer to King Charles I, Jack and Jill were King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette of France...

I could go on. As you can see, they are not the most adequate thing to be singing to your baby!

There are some fun ones, however. For example, Polly Put the Kettle On, Little Miss Muffet and Hey Diddle Diddle, Hickory Dickory Dock, 1,2, Buckle My Shoe, Pussycat, Pussycat, etc.

Just check them out before repeating them to your little ones! Here is a useful web:

http://www.rhymes.org.uk/

Homophones

As you might or might not know, I like language and words and having fun with both.

Homophones are words which sound the same when spoken but can differ in their spelling and will differ in their meaning. The English language is stuffed with homophones, maybe more than others, but you only realize this when you are teaching it as a second language!

The following little rhyme is one I used to teach my kiddos when studying homophones. It gives a fine example of just what they are.

Dr. Bell fell down the well 

And broke his collar bone!

Doctors should attend the sick 

And leave the well alone!

Now read this joke through. It's one of my favourites!

Now, there's a bunch of fish in a tank and one says to another, "Does anyone know how to drive this thing?"

I think I'll leave it there! Have a nice day : )

Haiku

Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry. It is supposed to have nature or emotions as a theme and should be 17 syllables long. These syllables are normally divided between three lines to a rhythm of 5 - 7 - 5. 

This is very easy in Japanese but can get a bit tricky when tried in different languages and so the rules tend to bend.

Some time ago I challenged the family to a haiku competition. Any theme, whatever came into their heads to write about. The results were amazing, to say the least, and haiku poetry took off. For some days it was all we used to communicate to each other. All instructions, news, anything, was given out in haiku form. It got our brains to work and we had such fun.

I thought I would publish some examples here on my blog (but I'm not going to publish who all the authors were!):

This is a haiku
It doesn't make any sense
Refrigerator.

P. saw his neighbour.
Guess, then, what he said to him.
He said, "Oh, hi Q".

Early one weekday morning...

Anna you must rise,
It's time for school, you realize,
Please, don't make us late.      

To which Anna replied:

No, no, no, no, no,
No, no, no, no, no, no, no,
No, no, no, no, no!

Family poetry

Naughty Nina's Cooked Pumpkin Poem

I like cooked pumpkin

Can't think why.

You would like it, too,

If only you would try.

I don't mean to eat it, silly

I mean to throw it 'round.

And what a lovely mess

When "splat" -- it hits the ground.

Mummy doesn't like the colour

Or the noise it makes 

But I'm going to persuade her

No matter what it takes.

I throw it at the wall,

And some lands on a chair, 

And you will have a problem 

If you sit down there. Ha! Ha! Ha!

Tongue twister

The three-toed tree toad

A tree toad loved a she-toad

Who lived up in a tree.

He was a two-toed tree toad 

But a three-toed toad was she.

The two-toed tree toad tried to win

The three-toed tree toad's heart,

For the two-toed tree toad loved the ground

That the three-toad tree toad trod.

But the two-toed tree toad tried in vain,

He couldn't please her whim.

From her tree toad bower

With her three-toed power

The she-toad vetoed him!

¿Qué es poesía?

¿Qué es poesía?, dices mientras clavas
En mi pupila tu pupila azul.
¡Qué es poesía! ¿Y tú me lo preguntas?
Poesía eres tú.
                                               G. A. Becquer