Poem of the Week: Those Winter Sundays

Those Winter Sundays

By Robert Hayden

Sundays too my father got up early

and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,

then with cracked hands that ached

from labor in the weekday weather made

banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.

When the rooms were warm, he’d call,

and slowly I would rise and dress,

fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him,

who had driven out the cold

and polished my good shoes as well.

What did I know, what did I know

of love’s austere and lonely offices?

HT: Poetry Foundation

Not winter, but this poem makes me think of my Dad, shaking down the coal stove at 4 in the morning, then coming in to kiss my cheek before he left for work.  Happy Father's Day!

Wordless Wednesday: Bat Boxes

Poem of the Week: Invitation to Love

Invitation to Love

By Paul Laurence Dunbar 

Come when the nights are bright with stars

Or come when the moon is mellow;

Come when the sun his golden bars

Drops on the hay-field yellow.

Come in the twilight soft and gray,

Come in the night or come in the day,

Come, O love, whene’er you may,

And you are welcome, welcome.

You are sweet, O Love, dear Love,

You are soft as the nesting dove.

Come to my heart and bring it to rest

As the bird flies home to its welcome nest.

Come when my heart is full of grief

Or when my heart is merry;

Come with the falling of the leaf

Or with the redd’ning cherry.

Come when the year’s first blossom blows,

Come when the summer gleams and glows,

Come with the winter’s drifting snows,

And you are welcome, welcome.

HT: Poetry Foundation

Teaching Tests

Zorg and Leena decided that they like doing math together, and since Zorg has already completed all the math he actually needs, he likes to keep up his skills with her.

Sometime in January they finished up Geometry, but instead of going into PreCalculus, they decided they'd like to do a test review class.

The community college where Zorg takes classes (joined by Leena next fall) doesn't have any entrance requirements, but it does have a placement exam, done on computer.  So far Zorg has only needed the English placement, but eventually they will both need the math placement.

My kids have never taken standardized tests, and that kind of testing is a definite skill, especially since some of the math is presented in a strange format (I know this because Mxyl and Klenda did these tests).

So I got a book on preparing for the Accuplacer test, and they've been enjoying it.  They know the math involved pretty well, but are learning a lot from the presentation.  It's funny, but after many years of intentionally not "teaching to the test," I'm teaching how to take tests!