26.3.09

Poetry of Spring

White Flower

Littlest Child (9), not to be outdone by Eldest's chance at being featured, offered up this poem. I'll take it.

"Spring"

Trees hit by the breeze
flowing through the midnight sky,
a bird flies North, a boat sails South,
the sun starts rising in the East,
beautiful colors round and round,
a lily sprouts up, a spring surprise.
Flowers blooming everywhere, the sun
now risen, shining peacefully, waiting
patiently for spring to call the
sun to warmth. Almost time for
animals to come out from their
winter migrations, for snow's now
melted and, do you hear it,
spring's now calling. It's time
to wake up from winter's cold sea.

White Flower picture by Sonia. Used with permission.
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20.3.09

En La Manana

Hibiscus

This week I thought to reorganize how we do school. Not too much, just at an administrative level that would give my kids more responsibility and flexibility in their work. So I made this list of everything they do (Reading, Math, Hebrew, Latin, Greek, Spanish, Geography, Chemistry Copy Work and so on) and put the list down the left-hand side of a chart. Next to each entry, I put the number of times it needs to be done.

When I put Spanish 4x, I thought I was pushing it. We haven't particularly made strides with the curriculum I have. It's kind of dull and too often we skip it. I told the kids they could do Spanish any way they like, just so I see something written in the little chart box four times a week.

Well. They pulled out the Spanish picture dictionary and began drawing and labeling pictures in their notebooks, writing stories, and by week's end my Little One even wrote a poem. My own Spanish is a bit hit-or-miss, so I'm sure I haven't provided full proofreading backup here, but this is the poem... right on time for Random Acts of Poetry...

En la manana
temprana, en la
primavera temprana,
semillas crecen.
Gente ven paradas y
barcos de vela
y paracaidas
por la arena patina.
Tambien hacen
tantos otras cosas
se divierten.

Okay, roughly, this is the translation. But I do believe she got the poetic sense best in the Spanish...

In the early
morning, in the
early spring,
seeds grow.
People see parades
and sail boats and
parachutes by
the sand. They
also do so many
other things
to have fun.

Flower photo by Sonia. Used with permission.

Found this story from Eldest Child, also in Spanish. An animal story. Very silly...

Yo vi un caiman en la tina de bano y un perro en el bano de regadera. Cinco pelicanos en mi linterna electrica de mano, y zorros en el bote de basura, ye el pollo en el garaje, y los pollitos en mi jardin de flores. Una jirafa en mis abarrotes, un ganso en primer ano... dos gansos en segundo ano! Y cabras en el corredor, una luciernaga en un sandwich de jamon... las vacas en el miel, un camello en mi chaqueta, insectos en mi casa. El venado en la mermelada, y un caballo en la jalea. Unos peces en el jugo, un canguro en el agujero de la cerradura. Ai!

Loosely translated...

I saw an alligator in the bathtub and a dog in the shower, five pelicans on my flashlight, and foxes in the garbage can, and a chicken in the garage, and chicks in my flower garden. A giraffe in my groceries, a goose in first grade... two geese in second grade! And goats in the hall, a firefly in a ham sandwich... cows in the honey, a camel in my jacket, insects in my house. A deer in the jam, and a horse in the jelly. A fish in the juice, a kangaroo in the keyhole. Yikes!

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7.3.09

Quickest Sweet and Cheesy Quesadilla

Quick Fruity Quesadilla

Quick Fruity Quesadilla 3

Quick Fruity Quesadilla 2

When I'm feeling lazy about making lunch, but I want something divine, this works for me...


Quickest Sweet and Cheesy Quesadilla

• cilantro jalapeno tortilla
• top with sliced cheddar
• spread with Sara Beth's Peach Apricot jam
• sprinkle with cinnamon
• add herb of choice (cilantro above, but I think basil might work better)

Wrap and saute briefly until cheese melts. Enjoy!


Quickest Sweet and Cheesy Quesadilla photos by L.L. Barkat.

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6.3.09

Gold on the Forest Floor

Jason bringing Pelias the Golden Fleece. Side ...Image via Wikipedia


Two girls, two poems, in color. Companion words. Little One's came first, inspired Eldest Child's...

Gold

The color gold shining on leaves
swiftly floating everywhere like a
sparkling fog. Hear, the music
starts to play, announcing the
arrival of the color gold.


Forest

The color gold,
shining on leaves,
dappling the
forest floor
with sparkles.

Oh, and I wanted to add this one, a color poem that spontaneously appeared at the dinner table. And this reminds me of Laura's comment over at High Calling Blogs. Yes, part of finding poetry is finding a new way of hearing...


Discriminating

She neatly
picks out
all the peas
and puts them
in a little
green pile.

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2.3.09

Reblog it with Zemanta

Image representing Zemanta as depicted in Crun...Image via CrunchBase



I installed a totally cool plug-in today (required a download onto my computer), called Zemanta. And this is my quick experiment with Zemanta's "reblog it" feature. Here's basically how it appears to be working...

1. On my other blog Seedlings in Stone, I clicked the "Reblog It" button at the bottom of my current post.

2. Zemanta pulled up my current Seedlings blog post on a new screen, in a box to the left and juxtaposed a compose box to the right. I'm not even at my Blogger Dashboard and from what I can tell I'm about to post straight from this screen.

3. In lieu of being at my Blogger Dashboard, I simply type my blog address and id stuff right here on this Zemanta screen.

4. I'm wishing there was a picture option here, but there doesn't appear to be. Oh well. Maybe I'm missing something? [Okay, now after publishing I went into my Blogger Dashboard and lo and behold there are some picture options. Way cool! I'm going to dump one into the top of the post.]

4. One of the features is a quotable section. I just clicked on one of the paragraphs from my original post (that Zemanta has put up on this screen I'm at) and it inserted it right here:

Many moons ago, I promised to gently exchange Links for Art. So today I'm delighted to share Rebekah's Blue Field (and add a permanent link in my sidebar). Rumor has it there is a story behind this field, or perhaps a little poetic love (tell us, Rebekah, oh do.)Seedlings in Stone, Mar 2009



Okay, this is a new toy I think I'm gonna totally love. [Back at my Blogger Dashboard now, I'm also picking some related articles simply by clicking on them, and I assume they'll be inserted at the bottom of this post. Very, very nice. Also, back at my Blogger Dashboard for Round 3 (even time-savers have to be navigated), some things appear to be buggy. So I opened up Blogger under a different browser that doesn't support Zemanta and I'm making my final fixes here without bugginess to bother me.]


Goodwordediting's Seedlings Reblogged

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