A Melodious Sonnet - Page 55 of 58 - Notes from a word-chaser

Why We Need to Read Poetry — and a Lot of It!

July 4, 2015 by Esther Filbrun · 3 Comments

4 Jul

Last evening, we were discussing poetry as a family. Dad admitted he loves poetry—which is rare for him, since he hardly has time to read anything other than the Bible. We were discussing different poems—some of the more famous ones like The Song of Hiawatha, Paul Revere’s Ride, and Barbara Freitchie. That last one was one we couldn’t quite put a name to, so in the end Mom got one of our poetry books and read it to us while we ate supper!

Why We Need to Read Poetry — and a Lot of It! (picture)

Photo courtesy of Pixabay/Oldifan | License: CC0 1.0

Poems are a needful addition to everyone’s lives. The rhythm, speech, and emotions are sometimes even more beautiful than a fiction novel.

Poems tell stories—stories that gracefully flow in harmonious melody, sometimes sad and sometimes joyfully.

Poems bring out emotions in us that we rarely acknowledge any other way.

Poetry is powerful.

Here are some reasons why you need to read poetry to your children:

Poems develop great language skills. I’m continually in awe at those who can weave such beautiful pictures with a few words—and Lynley Dodd is a great example of introducing youngsters to big(ish) words.
Poetry lightens moods—there’s just something happy about the rhythm of poems.
Poetry teaches great reading aloud skills. Poems are naturally compelling in that they make you want to add greater or lesser emphasis to different parts. By having your child read them aloud, they can learn to read other writings more expressively as well.

Poems are beautiful—pictures of gold made out of twenty-six letters. Your home is missing a lot if you don’t have poetry once in a while.

What are some of your family’s favorite poems?

Some of our favorites include:

Sick, by Shel Silverstein (I could hardly get through reading this out loud the first time, because Mom was laughing too hard!)
Homework! Oh, Homework!, by Jack Prelutsky
Daddy Fell Into The Pond, by Alfred Noyes
The Parsnip, by Ogden Nash
Experiment Degustatory, by Ogden Nash

Midweek Mix-Up — the Cold War and a Free Outlining Course

July 1, 2015 by Esther Filbrun · Leave a Comment

1 Jul

Hello again! In today’s midweek mix-up, I’ve got some great resources for you, as well as some fascinating books I’ve been listening to lately.

Reading this week…

I haven’t actually “read” much this week—mostly because I’ve been doing quite a bit of computer work, and when I’m doing that I can’t read. But I have been listening to a lot of books, and I suppose that counts as well!

Amy Carmichael: Rescuer of Precious Gems, by Janet & Geoff Benge
Progress: Finished (last week: 89%)

This is a beautiful retelling of Amy’s life. There was a lot about her early life, which I enjoyed immensely—often, we tend to hear the most about her time in India, and little about the rest of her life. I hadn’t realized before that she spent a while working in Japan before eventually being called to India, so that—along with the legacy she led and left behind her—was very encouraging for me. Highly recommend this biography—I’ll be putting a review of the book on the main site after a while.

The Lilies of the Field, by William E Barrett
Progress: Finished

I loved the story of Homer Smith—how he just happened to come across a group of four German nuns who badly need help, his coming an answer to prayer. Mother Maria Marthe put him right to work building a chapel for her, but he thinks she’s a bit crazy to ever expect him to be able to do it on his own.

Even though this story is a bit different from the books I usually read, it was fascinating and I’m planning to review it soon.

The Mouse That Roared: A Novel, by Leonard Wibberley
Progress: 68%

What happens when a little country is slighted by a bigger country—namely, the United States? Add in the current world events—the cold war—and the little country running out of money to feed their citizens. The government of the Duchy of Grand Fenwick decides the only way to get enough money to feed their citizens—and settle their quarrel with the US—is to declare war on the US. There’s no way such a small country could win the war—but when they accidently seize the most dangerous atomic weapon in the world, they have suddenly won the war. This is a very humorous tale, one that I’m enjoying even though I’m sure I’ll get more out of it in a few more years.

Inspiring posts this week…

12 Letters That Didn’t Make the Alphabet — Mom sent this to me earlier this week. Who knew that there were twelve other letters we could be using now—but generally aren’t? The only one that we actually use anymore is ampersand (“&”). Remember that old Apple Pie ABC rhyme? “…X, Y, Z and ampersand all wished for a piece in hand….”
Tips for Writers Who Don’t Work Well With Outlines — Great post. I think I tend to be on the outlining side, but many of these tips would apply to me, as well.
Two Harvard Professors Reveal One Reason Our Brains Love to Procrastinate — I found this post fascinating. Useful tips on how to change the way you look at procrastination, and how to practice being productive.
Grammar Websites For Writers — This is a great list of resources, not only for writers, but for homeschoolers as well. Some of the spotlighted websites are for editing, others are for researching and learning about grammar. I’ll be bookmarking this one for future use!
5 Reasons To Pray Before You Write — I’m guilty of not doing this enough. It’s wonderful to have a reminder of where my responsibilities should lie, even if I always seem to forget this until all else has failed.

Resource of the week…

I’ve got two resources for you this week!

For Writers:

Write Your Non-Fiction Book Quickly and Easily: The Magic of Outlining

This is a free outlining course by Nancy Hendrickson, a renowned author and writing coach. I don’t know how long it will be free, but it looks very useful, and I’m planning to take time to go through it soon. My outlining skills need a lot of help.

For Homeschool Moms:

LessonTrek
Get a free lifetime membership!

From the website:

Easy-to-use online homeschool and private school planning.
In just a few minutes you can set up your school year & subjects, create lessons & assignments, record grades, and more.
Features:
Grade recording
Easy drag-and-drop interface
Copy/paste lessons easily
Print weekly lesson plans
Ongoing improvements based on your feedback

My aunt recently shared this on Facebook. If you want to get a free lifetime membership on the site, simply go to the site, sign up for a two week trial, and put in the referral code FFL15. No payment info to enter, and within seconds of signing up you can be planning away! I don’t know how long this deal is going to be available.

If you want simpler version of planning, you could try making your own chart for each child—I cover that in depth on this post.

Midweek Mix-Up — Pride and Prejudice and a Free High School Biology Curriculum

June 25, 2015 by Esther Filbrun · Leave a Comment

25 Jun

Welcome to another round of midweek mix-up! I’ve been doing a lot of reading this past week, beyond a few breaks to do other necessary work and spending some quality sibling time.

Books I’ve been reading this week:

The Sound of Diamonds, by Rachelle Rea
Progress: 45% (last week: 24%)

This story has grown more interesting, and the romance thread has grown stronger, too. I’m taking the opportunity to study how romance books work, and will find it interesting to see how the story ends.

The Annotated Pride and Prejudice, by David M. Shapard
Progress: Finished.

I’m not a big fan of romance, but I loved reading Pride and Prejudice. Probably part of the reason I enjoyed it so much was because it’s an older book—I’m finding that classical literature has a glory all its own, even though it is hard to get into. I’ve also watched a movie based on the book before, and listened to a version of the story on LibriVox, as well, so it was interesting to compare the original story with my memories of the audiobook and the differences with the movie. The annotations for the story were very in-depth, providing a lots of interesting tidbits from Jane Austen’s life and letters, explanations of the social structure of the times, and many other fascinating facts and quotes about the story and the time period it was set in.

This isn’t a book for the faint of heart, though. At close to 800 pages long (the spine is just over 1 ½ in. thick), I highly doubt I ever would have gotten through it but for the fact that I had to read it as part of my school curriculum. In the end it was highly interesting, and all the notes make a study of the time period very informative.

Amy Carmichael: Rescuer of Precious Gems, by Janet & Geoff Benge
Progress: 89% (last week: 55%)

I am loving Amy Carmichael. We have a Trailblazer book about her, but that only tells about her time in India. I’m really enjoying this glimpse into her life as a whole, and seeing how God worked through her to touch so many lives. Her life story is certainly a challenge to me!

Useful posts this week:

24 Ways to Develop Your Muse — I’ve used a lot of these methods before—most of them unconsciously. But they are some of the best methods out there for ideas. I especially like #3—something that has proved very true for me!
Writing Out of an Era — So many tips in here for learning more about the historical period you are writing about! I am definitely going to try some of these next time I’m writing a historical novel—they sound so fun!
Discovering rare and interesting instruments — I’ve only heard of one of these six rare instruments before, so I found this post fascinating. This post would be very useful in teaching your children about different musical instruments, especially if they enjoy music. I think my favorite one here would be the Nyckelharpa—it has a beautiful sound!
Goal Setting for Beginners [Podcast] — This podcast (This is Your Life with Michael Hyatt) is always inspiring to me whenever I take time to listen to it. I enjoyed this quick refresh on Michael Hyatt’s goal-setting principles, and immediately after listening, I typed up this year’s goals into Evernote. I’m now planning to add a few “due-by” dates to some of them.

Resource of the week:

Otter’s Christian High School Biology Curriculum

From the website:

Otter’s Biology is a FREE Christian biology curriculum that incorporates a free high-quality textbook, videos, tons of labs to choose from with a multitude of budget and interest options, living books, a free workbook & answer key, incorporated Greek & Latin roots vocabulary, an independent study schedule, and more! If you are a secular family or a family that believes in evolution, the schedule and labs will still work for you, too (more instructions concerning that are included below)!

This looks like a wonderful (free!) resource for high schoolers who want to study biology! The woman who put this together has a daughter who is a RN student, and she has consulted with her quite a bit as to what was helpful for her prep work, and what wasn’t so helpful. I will be looking into this further, because I believe it could be helpful to me in pursuing nursing as well, but you might find it useful too.

Midweek Mix-Up: 2 Books I’m Reading Right Now, and Tools for Writers

June 17, 2015 by Esther Filbrun · 2 Comments

17 Jun

How has your week gone so far? In this week’s version of midweek mix-up, I’m sharing a couple fascinating books I’m currently reading, and several useful resources for writers and homeschoolers.

Books I’m reading this week:

The Eagle (previously Eagle of the Ninth), by Rosemary Sutcliff
Progress: 6% (page 18 of 192)

The story hasn’t really picked up yet, but I know it will get interesting, so I’m doing my best to persevere! I’m hoping to get through this one soon, so I can read its sequel—The Silver Branch—before we have to send it back to the library.

Amy Carmichael: Rescuer of Precious Gems, by Janet & Geoff Benge
Progress: 55%

Mom bought this in audio form a while ago, and yesterday when I was uploading the review she wrote of the Christian Heroes: Then and Now Series, I was reminded of the fact that we have it. Since I hadn’t listened to it yet, and since I was doing work that could be done while listening to a story, I was delighted to do double-purpose here.

I’m loving Amy Carmichael’s story! I knew she was from Ireland, but hearing the different little tidbits of her early life—first, the family went from a life of upper-class richness to being too poor to go to finishing school. Then she had a call to do work for the Lord, and began working with the “shawlies”—young women who worked long hours in the factories. Later, she went for a brief stint of missionary work in Japan, and then became too sick to continue there. After that, she had to return to England to help an old friend, and had to recuperate from sickness herself. I never realized before how much sickness hindered her work—but despite that disability, she had an amazing drive and a beautiful vision to bless all those she met with Jesus’ love.

Useful posts this week:

Make the Best of How You Collide Into Others — Fascinating story of a car crash, and also a wonderful example of how fleeting and precious life is.
Christian Historical Fiction Books for PreTeens — This is a beautiful book list! I’ve read some of these books, and some of the others are ones I’d love to read.
The Write Life: Beat Writer’s Block, Increase Productivity and Maximize Your Word Count Every Day — A free ebook, in exchange for your honest review. I’m hoping to read this soon.
National Film Board of Canada: How to Build an Igloo (1949) — We watched this video over lunch time today, and loved it. I’ve always wondered how igloos were built, and this explained it—complete with cutting yourself out of your house once it was built! Even though the film is old, it was incredibly interesting.

Resource of the week:

30 Ultimately Effective Social Media Tools For Writers

Not only social media tools, though, but grammatical helpers, apps for helping you write better, and much, much more! Check it out—I think you’ll find it useful, just as I have!

Midweek Mix-Up: A Full Week, and Scripture Memorization

June 10, 2015 by Esther Filbrun · Leave a Comment

10 Jun

Hello everyone! Welcome to this week’s version of midweek mix-up! I’ve had several full days of work this past week, so I haven’t had as much time to read as I had last week. That’s okay, though, because it’s good to learn that sometimes life just happens. This way, I have the chance to really appreciate the time I do have to work and read—even if it is less than I would ideally like.

Books I’m reading this week:

The Sound of Diamonds, by Rachelle Rea
Progress: 24% (last week: 15%)

The tension is rising. There is definitely going to be a romantic element in the story, but what proportion it takes is yet to be determined. So far, Gwyn has narrowly escaped death, had her worst fear realized, and is now hoping that a lie will get her across the channel to a semi-safe country.

Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod, by Gary Paulsen
Progress: Just finished.

Grandma read this onto mp3 for my brothers, and I just finished listening to it today. Technically, no, I didn’t read it—but it was close enough I think I can count it as actually having read it.

Winterdance is very well written. The story is about a man who ran the Iditarod—the huge dog race in Alaska. It tells of him starting with hardly any knowledge at all about dogs, or the race, or anything—and how he somehow blundered his way to Alaska and ran the race. Fascinating adventures, and apparently it actually is a true account.

There were a few words I wouldn’t use through the story, and Grandma said she did leave one paragraph out because of its content—the story was fine without it.

If I can get this book in print, I’ll definitely be reviewing it—it is a beautiful story of dogs, the relationships you can have with them, and a very humorous account of a rookie running the Iditarod for the first time.

Useful posts this week:

Conflict Vs. Tension – A Guest Post by Melissa Tagg! — Very encouraging! I love how she explained conflict vs. tension, and applied that to life as well as to writing. That note at the end was also very encouraging—somehow, involving God in everything we do really does add a lot of depth to our lives.
Submission – a Heart Matter — I especially loved this note near the end of the post: “…Personally, I know that my father doesn’t like us to wear the color black. He has never said ‘thou shalt not wear black’ but because that is his desire, we try to honor him in that.” I love seeing some of the small ways I, as a young woman, can learn to submit!
The Go Teen Writers Summer Writing Challenge and a Giveaway — This is partly a guest post, partly a challenge. The guest post part is pretty interesting—Lydia Howe (aka Aidyl Ewoh) is telling how she wrote 100 words every day for 1,000 days, and how we can do the same. In that time, she traveled to three different continents, published three books, and fought Lyme’s disease, along with other adventures. The challenge is designed to help you get some work done in the next three months. I’m seriously considering joining—I always find the Go Teen Writers challenges extremely helpful.

Resource of the week:

Ever wanted an easier way to teach your child memory verses? Say hello to FreeBibleMusic.com! The songs on here are free to download and use. There are three different artists that helped create this “Scripture song bank”—Abigail Miller (I love her music!), Buddy Davis, and Kirk Gable/the Kirk Gable Band.

Out of the sixty-six books of the Bible, there are only twelve books that there are no scripture songs for: Ruth, 2 Kings, Ezra, Esther, Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, Nahum, Zephaniah, Haggai, Philemon, and 2 John.

Also of interest—there is a small section of stories for children on this site. These stories were apparently written and then acted out by Lydia Howe—the same girl who just passed the 1,000 day mark above—and her family. The twelve stories are roughly five minutes long each, and are fun adventures your children will enjoy.

Writers: What was the last writing challenge you participated in?

(For me, this would be Camp NaNoWriMo in April—I failed horribly.)