Poem of the Week: Sea Fever

 

Sea Fever

By John Masefield

I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;

And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,

And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.

 

I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;

And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,

And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

 

I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,

To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;

And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,

And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.

 

HT: Poetry Foundation 

 

Wordless Wednesday Vacation Part 3

 

Weird Things I Found on My Phone Explained, Part Two

 

 

 A dinner that we occasionally have is Pepperoni Pizza Monkey Bread.  We use a sheet pan instead of a Bundt pan because we need to make enough for 10 people. And we do other fillings sometimes.

This is close to that, but not quite.  This is Pizza Monkey Puzzle Bread.  It's a puzzle because one of the little rolls contains something that is technically edible, but is definitely NOT pizza.

Theoretically, you can figure out which one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Choclo actually managed to crack the puzzle and found... a lemon!

 

Which leaves the puzzle of "Why am I like this?" 

 

 

 

 This is from Oob.

If you look very closely, the imperiled person in the middle is not from the usual WWII army guy collection.

He's holding a sword.

He's a Jedi!

 

It's everyone else who's in trouble.

 

 

 

 Birds!

 

Mike really likes hanging out with Leena, but Oob clipped on a few cute (fake) birbs of his own, much to Mike's confusion. 

In other bird news, we had another baby crow (Ace) show up.  He paced back and forth on the driveway until we came out and fed him.

He must have been very young.  He stabbed the cheese with his beak and got it stuck on the tip- a noob move for sure!

He hung out with us for a few hours until his parents got him flying again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weird Things I Found on My Phone Explained, Part One

 This is my sister holding the llama pinata I sent her.  You can tell she thinks it's hysterically funny!

Almost as funny as I thought it was!

She doesn't like llamas for some odd reason involving a llama that spat in her face as a child.

But this is a llama she can whack!  And it's her favorite color!!

I think this is her "I secretly love this llama" face.

 

This is a photo of Choclo by Choclo explained by Choclo:

This is a list that Oob and I made over a year ago that we used to play a game we called "Transform-o-matic"

You walk into the Transform-o-matic, known formally as "The Basement," and when you walk out you are something else.  Or you don't walk out and you pretend you've been completely obliterated.

But then you close and open the door again and there you are!

I thought it was crazy and awkward that so many of the transformations were the exact same thing.

 

 

 

 I was explaining sp00ders to Mumpy because her house is full of sp00ders.  And some wasps.

I was explaining to her that I was going out through the sp00der filled basement into the garage filled with baby sp00ders because walking out the front door meant walking through the colony of wasps who had built a nest inside the front porch wall, and "at least sp00ders can't fly."

To which she answered, "But they can jump."

Thanks, Mom.

Also I remembered that sp00ders can indeed fly.

 

 

 

Which also explains this picture of baby sp00ders.

Just in case you too are not a huge fan of sp00ders, I will now refrain from posting the dozens of sp00der pictures I took at her house in an attempt to identify some of the many varieties.

But the best part of the whole experience was definitely TTHBLOX's comment, so thank you for that if you ever read this!

Poem of the Week: Fishing on the Susquehanna

 

Fishing on the Susquehanna in July

By Billy Collins

 

I have never been fishing on the Susquehanna

or on any river for that matter

to be perfectly honest.

Not in July or any month

have I had the pleasure—if it is a pleasure—

of fishing on the Susquehanna.

I am more likely to be found

in a quiet room like this one—

a painting of a woman on the wall,

a bowl of tangerines on the table—

trying to manufacture the sensation

of fishing on the Susquehanna.

There is little doubt

that others have been fishing

on the Susquehanna,

rowing upstream in a wooden boat,

sliding the oars under the water

then raising them to drip in the light.

But the nearest I have ever come to

fishing on the Susquehanna

was one afternoon in a museum in Philadelphia

when I balanced a little egg of time

in front of a painting

in which that river curled around a bend

under a blue cloud-ruffled sky,

dense trees along the banks,

and a fellow with a red bandanna

sitting in a small, green

flat-bottom boat

holding the thin whip of a pole.

That is something I am unlikely

ever to do, I remember

saying to myself and the person next to me.

Then I blinked and moved on

to other American scenes

of haystacks, water whitening over rocks,

even one of a brown hare

who seemed so wired with alertness

I imagined him springing right out of the frame.

HT Poetry Foundation

Grammar Thoughts

 

Someone recently asked about when to start diagramming sentences and doing formal grammar.

The easiest way to teach grammar is to just speak correctly at home (which I'm sure you are already doing).  Then, when you start the formal grammar, correct use is the first thing that comes to mind. The Emperor, an English teacher and writer with strong opinions about such things, thinks sentence diagramming is overrated, so we've done a bit as a curiosity, but that's about it.

We taught the parts of speech very early using Schoolhouse Rock (Grammar Rock) videos.  

There is also a great series you can get in the library with titles like, A Mink, A Fink, A Skating Rink: What is a Noun. I don't get any money from links, by the way, they are just for convenience.

 

Probably around 9 or 10 we did Super Grammar, a very fun book with the parts of speech (and punctuation) as superheroes.  We've done a lot of Mad Libs, some other fun books like Comic Strip Grammar, and, for older kids,  Hot Fudge Monday and a proofreading book called Phunny Stuph.   Eats, Shoots, and Leaves is a good one that shows how punctuation changes the meaning of sentences like ""Let's eat, Grandma!" and "Let's eat Grandma!"

Ultimately, most of our grammar, spelling, and punctuation instruction came from the kids writing their own stories, blog posts, and screenplays.  The key is to start young and only correct one kind of mistake at a time so as not to discourage them. When I had a younger kid who was reluctant to write, I would write them letters and they would answer them (incredibly sweet and fun for both of us!). 

Wordless Wednesday: Vacation Part 2

 

 

 

 

Math Snacks

We watched this series a few years back, and, all I can say is that they stuck!  All of them were good, but I think we still refer to this particular video at least every other week because it goes way beyond teaching ratios into teaching human interaction. Also: BREAD!

Home Offices and Schools

 

Within a week we got news that the Emperor would be teaching from home this semester, our college students would be learning from home this semester, and our art student would be painting (and learning) from home this semester.

If you're counting, that's ten of us home full time for the next 4 months at least!

We've been spending part of the summer rearranging things to make sure everyone has space to work ergonomically since we've had a number of people who needed physical therapy after a cramped spring semester.

So the Emperor has this new office set up in our bedroom, complete with a privacy screen and a blank background for video teaching.

Mxyl moved downstairs into the office to have a better desk and more shelf space, now that he's real life working from home.  Klenda, Zorg, and Leena also have desks in this office.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, we did a big clean up in the library to reclaim a quiet place to read, work, play, or socialize.

And we carved out a space for Choclo to draw and listen to music.

 

 

 

 Klenda has her watercolor/ink studio in her room and her oil/acrylic studio in the museum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I now have my own desk again (with all my homeschool stuff) in the living room! 

I haven't really had a desk in a while, so I'm enjoying it.  

Between having a desk and only schooling two this year, I feel ridiculously organized!

Poem of the Week: Sonnet 116

 For my niece, Anja, and my new nephew, John, who married yesterday in the middle of a pandemic.  May you ever rejoice in each other and in the Lord!  Like everyone else, I wish I could have been there!

Sonnet 116

By William Shakespeare

 

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove.

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wand'ring bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me prov'd, I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.

HT: Poetry Foundation 

Image HT: @KrissMacDonald1 via Twitter

Happy Birthday, Mxyl!

 

 

Yes, it's another pandemic birthday:  Mxyl is 23! 

 

Another smaller than usual gathering, but still a lot of fun and a lot of love for our first born!

23 Great Things About Mxyl

1. He's a college graduate!

2. His second movie, Abydos: Incursion is almost ready to come out! 
2. He's a professional web designer.
3. He's a great older brother who has a lot of fun with his younger siblings.
4.  According to those siblings, "He's amazing!"
4. He graduated Summa cum Laude.
5. He knows an astonishing amount about tokusatsu.  
6. He loves the sacraments.  
7. He's got a great sense of humor!  
7. He's a deadly punster. 
8. He looks cool in sunglasses.  
9. He never gives spoilers.  
10. He's passionate about his projects.  
10. He has an amazing ability to learn complex things.
11. He always tries to make things better.
12. He's great with little kids.  

12. He makes beautiful intuitive websites.
13. He always sees things through.  
14. He fan subs Japanese movies.  
14. He loves to help people. 
15. He does a posh British accent.  
16. He's my in house computer support guy.  
17. He's my out of the house errand guy.
17. He's a big supporter of all his siblings crazy schemes.  
18 He has an eye for creating beautiful photographs.  
18.He enjoys really good artistic movies.
19. He enjoys really bad (artistically speaking) movies.  
20. He's teaching himself Python.

20. He watches out for others.

21.  He's helps without being asked.

22. He's good  at the whole adulting thing.
22. He's still supporting the scouts, especially his siblings.  
23. He's a very loving son and grandson!

Wordless Wednesday: New Jersey Vacation Part 1

 

Poem of the Week: Country Summer

Country Summer

By Léonie Adams

Now the rich cherry, whose sleek wood,

And top with silver petals traced

Like a strict box its gems encased,

Has spilt from out that cunning lid,

All in an innocent green round,

Those melting rubies which it hid;

With moss ripe-strawberry-encrusted,

So birds get half, and minds lapse merry

To taste that deep-red, lark’s-bite berry,

And blackcap bloom is yellow-dusted.

The wren that thieved it in the eaves

A trailer of the rose could catch

To her poor droopy sloven thatch,

And side by side with the wren’s brood—

O lovely time of beggar’s luck—

Opens the quaint and hairy bud;

And full and golden is the yield

Of cows that never have to house,

But all night nibble under boughs,

Or cool their sides in the moist field.

Into the rooms flow meadow airs,

The warm farm baking smell’s blown round.

Inside and out, and sky and ground

Are much the same; the wishing star,

Hesperus, kind and early born,

Is risen only finger-far;

All stars stand close in summer air,

And tremble, and look mild as amber;

When wicks are lighted in the chamber,

They are like stars which settled there.

Now straightening from the flowery hay,

Down the still light the mowers look,

Or turn, because their dreaming shook,

And they waked half to other days,

When left alone in the yellow stubble

The rusty-coated mare would graze.

Yet thick the lazy dreams are born,

Another thought can come to mind,

But like the shivering of the wind,

Morning and evening in the corn.