A Net in Time

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Review: The Forbidden Schoolhouse

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Imagine if you will, you have a nice life.  A good job, educating girls, teaching them, helping them to make their own ways in the community as well.  Respect in the community. Life is good.  You can’t really see anything in your life that needs changing.  Then someone asks you a question “Can you will admit me to your school?”  And so we have “The Forbidden Schoolhouse“.

Black history come into life. Hard story, good message.

This, this is the story of Prudence Crandall and her bravery in accepting the challenge of the question given her.  She would accept this student, a person of colour, into her school.  She would help her learn so that she in turn to teach other children of colour.

I found this book to eye-opening and simply um…it’s really hard to put into words how I felt.  I was horrified at the hatred and the lengths people would got through to maintain the status quo.   The fear, the anger, the self-justification, the meanness, and the kindness.   There are so many opposing viewpoints within the pages of this tome, and in the end…oh… the sorrow.

I don’t know if you know the story of The Forbidden Schoolhouse or the work of Prudence Crandall, it was totally new to me, but I am admittedly not up on black history, particularly black history in The States.  Learning about Prudence Crandall led to me searching out more information on her and her life.

 

I have to admit, it’s easy to look back and say “what these people did was wrong”.  It’s very easy to do so.  It’s easy for us, looking back, to judge the status quo. I have a hard time understanding the vitriolic actions taken against Ms. Crandall and her girls. I can’t really conceive of it, but I don’t live in a place where people have cause to act out such hatred and horror of an outstanding change in the status quo.  It brings to mind to me of how in some places if a person changes their faith, how the family can shun them and cast them out.  In essence, Ms. Crandall’s family “cast her out” for daring to stand up against the established norm. 

The immense bravery of Ms. Crandall in standing against what she believed was wrong.  She knew things could end horribly and yet, and yet she moved forward anyways. She got some good advice, and put a support system into place should it be needed, and then she STOOD. Steadfast, determined in her convictions. Can very many of us say that would we do the same?   To stand against the judgement we would know we would face?

Ms. Crandall stood fast until the lives of her girls and her own life were in immediate and ready danger.  Then she got everyone to safety and left. 

This is a non-fiction book and is filled with images of the people and places talked about in the book. We see copies of letters written, coins and newspaper clippings. 

My thoughts:

This book left an impact on my life.  I would definitely recommend reading it.  Not just to learn about black history, but also to act as an encouragement to standfast in your decisions.  To seek good advice (and to continue seeking), and then once you make up your mind to standfast, until there are no options left for you. It was good to see the goodness of others, folks prepared to help her to standfast, I loved seeing the bravery of her girls and observing the support of her family. Reading level is middle school and up. 

I wish that Ms. Crandall had listened to her friends with their hesitations about her love of Calvin. But in the end, she made the best of it. I thought it was marvellous the response of the town years later. 

  
The Forbidden Schoolhouse
    The true and dramatic story of Prudence Crandall and 
         Her students.
Suzanne Jurmain
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
160 pages, middle school
black history, Prudence Crandall, USA history, non-fiction
Reviewed for Raincoast Books.

Where to find: Amazon Link.

Other Black History books that might interest you.

One Last Word. 

One Last Word. 

March Forward, Girl. 

Art Book: Creative Lettering Sketchbook

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Creative Lettering, I tell yah, I have friends who do this and I am just amazed at how by writing a bible verse creatively, it helps you to ponder that verse just a bit longer.  It’s a good thing to ponder words just a bit longer.. stimulates the mind you know?  🙂

Anyways, as I ponder how creative lettering of verses or sayings helps you ponder them a bit more it has me wondering, if reading it helps, what would actually creating those letters do to your pondering?   Would it help you to think on that passage or quote just a bit more?  It’s a thought you know?

Okay, this book contains 500 stickers, all gathered on pages in the last half of this 64 page sketchbook.  They vary in style and colour which I very much appreciated.  Letters, symbols, animals and more. 

One of the aspects of this Imaginative Illustration Journal that I really like is the teaching, followed by the doing page.  12 lessons with creative pages to practice following, 1-2 pages each.  I like that it’s not all “fill in my design” but leaves room for creative expression.  You can stickers where you want, adding embellishments to make your work all your own.

My Thoughts:

I have to admit that when I first looked at this book I wasn’t wildly impressed. As I stopped to really look at it, I came to appreciate how Marissa Giambrone set this sketchbook up.  First with a teaching page, then with a free form.   Kinda like how I teach my boy a new art form, showing him how to do it, giving lots of examples, and then asking “what will you do with it?”  This book teaches art the way I do.  And that’s a good thing no?

It’s a good book for people of all ages who want to improve their basic ability to make their lettering more creative.  Admittedly, I’d be more inclined to give to a youth 8-15 years rather than an adult, due to initial impression as well as there are more adult oriented lettering books out there that are more expansive than this one.  Though if you just want to fool around on a rainy afternoon, it’ll work regardless your age.  🙂

  
Creative Lettering Sketchbook
Series: Draw, Color and Sticker
An Imaginative Illustration Journal
Marissa Giambrone
Quarry Books
Art Book, Lettering, Sketchbook, How-to, Stickers

Reviewed for: Quarto Books, 64 pages

Where can you find it?  Amazon.

STEM: Ground hog Day

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I recognize that it’s a bit beyond Ground Hog Day but you know… life gets busy eh?  I figure it’s better late than never right?

Learning about Groundhog day while doing a STEM challenge.

Anyways, for groundhog day we watched the movie GroundHog Day.  This movie is from 1993, and stars comedian Bill Murray.  It also stared the groundhog Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania. 

 

As part of the day’s focus I gave the lad a challenge.  Told him he needed to use up some of our stale marshmallows and ANYTHING ELSE he wanted to use.   His goal.. make a groundhog den.   However he defined that was entirely up to him.   I know I had a thought in mind of what he would come up with …but he admittedly went in a completely different direction than I thought he would. 

We also looked up the various groundhogs that are named around Canada and the USA.

In Canada we have the following groundhogs:

Wiarton Willie… Wiarton, Ontario
OilSprings Ollie…near Sarnia, Ontario
Shubenacadie Sam…Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia
Balzac Billy… Balzac, Alberta
Gaspésie Fred… from Quebec

This year they all had different predictions, which makes sense given their geographical distance from each other.

 

Anyways, on to my son’s definition of my instructions.

He took the marshmallows and his spray bottle that we have for the new cat to help her learn some manners. Grabbed a plate from the kitchen and started to spray the marshmallows so he could stick them together and form a basic shape. 

“It’s winter mom, we won’t be able to see the den”.  

He then stuck that in the freezer.

A STEM project for Groundhog day

Every time it froze solid he’d bring it out and add more marshmallows until he had a solid mound of marshmallows with an opening so Wiarton Willie could come out and look for his shadow. 

I have to admit I never got a final picture of the project.  Apparently there was a collusion between Dad and boy and well…. “Mom, It was a mess”.  In the picture above this was step two, the opening is on the side facing away.   It was in and out of the freezer three times with some marshmallows added in different places in each stage.  It would melt and fall apart quickly. 

The end result “this was fun to do mom!”

If I had been inclined to I could have given him a unit study or worksheets to fill out, but meh…when he did this we were still recovering from the effects of a VERY nasty flu that hit our household.   Therefore this was just enough knowledge and activity for the day for him. 

 

If you are so inclined to do a unit study on GroundHog Day, these are some that I found that are free:

Life of a homeschool mom. 
Meet Penny. 
Homeschool Share. 
DIY Homeschooler.

Write a Disclaimer

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Write a disclaimer? I have to admit… when I tend to think of having a disclaimer on my blog I tend to think of the legal stuff we need to do for reviews.   Something like what I have on the top of every post.   Or the amazon one I have at the bottom of my website or the one I use with reviews. (see below).  I wonder about the need to have anything more in-depth than that.But as I work to put my website together better, I am learning about having a broader disclaimer on my site (and no, I haven’t done this yet). … but it is DEFINITELY on my to-do list.  What type of disclaimer?   One that states that I am not a professional, this is my opinion only at the time of writing, my thoughts and opinions belong to me, and individual blog posts might not even truly represent what my blog is all about.

Why would I want to do this?

Because this is a sue-happy world we live in!   I blog because it’s fun and if it makes me money down the road WOOT WOOT!  (that is a goal)   I don’t want someone thinking that just because I have a different opinion than they do, and they have an adverse reaction to it, or I recommend a book for a middle schooler with MY values in mind, and find their values are different and they get all mad at me.  or someone makes one of my recipes without thinking it all through and gets sick… and then wants to sue me… well, that’s not something I want to worry on eh?

What have I learned so far?

The type of disclaimer you put up depends on what you do.  For instance, I put recipes on my blog (on Saturdays) so in that post I should put something like “use at your own risk” cause I don’t know what people’s allergies or food tolerances are like. Seems a bit silly in some ways, but when teenagers eat tide pods…. you gotta watch out for the no-brainers right?  Not meaning that in a bad way but sometimes people don’t think decisions through until after the fact.. I’ve done it myself!   This means you want to include as much as you can to make it clear to folks that this is your blog and you can do with it as you will, and since it is your blog, you can do with it as you like.  You have the right to change it, delete comments, change your mind, give your opinion on different matters or materials and such like.   You just want to easily spell it out to people as you write a disclaimer.

What to include:

1. Your right to monitor and delete comments.

2. Your right to publish letters that people write to you, unless they specify that you cannot.  Or you should at least tell them what you DO with the letters you receive (toss them, save them, use them for a book or a blog post, etc)

3. All materials are use at your own risk.  You are giving your thoughts and opinions, sharing something you know about, but they are making the choice to come and use learn from you.  It’s their risk if they take it.  Your site is for educational as well as entertainment purposes, and not a professional service. 

4. All materials on the blog are yours and others can’t publish or reprint it without your expressly written consent.

5. Explain that if someone buys something from one of your sponsors and has a problem with it.. take it up with the sponsor not you.  All you are doing of providing a service, with your own opinions, not acting as the sponsor with ownership of their product. 

6. Errors and omissions happen!   Be clear with your readers that this can happen and not to hold you responsible for it.   For instance, I’ve learned a lot about disclaimers but I don’t know everything that’s for sure, ergo if this post spurs on your interest to learn more or create your own disclaimer… do more research!  🙂

Wording

Make an easy to read disclaimer.  Spell out everything you need to.  Be serious or have some fun with in as long as you make your point well.   Cover yourself… don’t get in trouble with others over not having a disclaimer.  Better to save a headache then to create one eh?

If you do a search on-line you can find all sorts of disclaimers.  Read what other bloggers do, learn from them, see what to add.  Don’t make it too long (at least what’s on your blog feed), you can always refer people to your full disclaimer. You want it to be easily read and understood. Stay safe with your blog eh?

How to write a disclaimer for your blog

Other Blogging How-to Posts:

Blog Images and Copyright. 

Review: Knock Out

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Knock Out is a really cool book. Seriously.  I really, really, enjoyed this book.   It’s all poetry, about a lad with a serious medical condition, who gets into boxing and finds himself feeling alive.  A VERY well written book that I found myself immersed into and eagerly devouring the pages of.

My review of K.A. Holt's wonderful book of poetry for boys called Knock Out. Follow Levi as he learns to grab hold of his life and live it.

I was talking with my contact at Raincoast Books about how much I enjoyed this book, but how every time I tried to get my lad interested in it, his eyes would glaze over.  🙂   So as much as it’s poetry, written for guys, my lad just wouldn’t go for it.  🙂

I am thinking though, that if you read it to a group of guys, without doing the, “it’s really cool poetry you just might like” spiel… you might get them hooked and wanting to listen to more.   I’m not sure.  It’s just a suspicion based on the quality of the poetry and writing found within the pages.

I read these lines to my hubby

"If you lived in a tent
under someone's armpit
that would be
a one hundred percent accurate match
for this locker room."

 I hooted!  He grinned and then shook his head.  

I loved the conversations back and forth with his brother.   It brought me back to the days when I didn’t know the words to say to my mother so I would write her notes telling her what was going on in my life.  It’s a book full of a real boy with all the hurts and sorrows and joy that come with being a boy whose been ill.  With a family hit with divorce and learning to be who you are, and learning to be who you will be.   There’s so much hope by the end of the tale…. I just know it will all turn out okay.

Easy to read, I found the thoughts easily flowed from one section to the next.  I found myself wanting to keep reading because it was funny and interesting.  Interspersed among the lines were word pictures that just added to the flow, giving breaks in the lines of poetry and adding humour, as well as showing heart. 

It’s a touching and fun, boy-oriented book that some girls might like too as there is just enough mom and friendship/relationship stuff in it to add that extra touch.  Watching Levi mature in the few pages of this book made my heart smile.  

What do I think?

Get this book….if only for yourself as an adult… you’ll find yourself delighted, amused, saddened, and understanding of the fears a child has who has been really sick and needs to mind his health. If you can get your boy child to pick it up and read it, or not hyper analyze it when you read portions of the text to him, you just may have your boy discovering poetry isn’t such a bad thing after all.  🙂  

Knock Out
K.A.Holt
Chronicle Kids
Hardcover, middle school, poetry, boys, coming of age,
pages 244, for ages 10+ 
Reviewed for Raincoast Books.

Where to find?  Amazon Link.

Country Study: South Korea

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It was my husband’s turn to pick what country we studied about two months back and he chose to do South Korea.   It was fun picking out recipes together and spending a week learning about South Korea. 

A study we did on the country of South Korea with a link up for recipes.

We watched a lot of videos, did some reading of websites, and made food.  LOTS of food, we’ll get to that later though. 🙂  One of the interesting tidbits we learned about was the demilitarized zone. This is an area between North and South Korea where people aren’t allowed.  It is host to a wide variety of animals.  We spent some time learning more about the DMZ and the animals there.  This video is a brief glimpse.

 

We watched quite a few videos on Korea, including these ones on 10 things you might not know, and introduction to Korea.  We listened to some language lessons. 

My lad’s interest in archery and Karate led us down those paths in studying the sports of Korea.  We started with the Korea historical bow that Gakgung. 

 
We looked into their form of martial arts, learning about Korean taekwondo and Judo. We were surprised to learn that in Korea they have schools with a sports theme.  This is one of the reasons Korea produces some of the top competitors in Judo. 

Son found out what their flag looked like and some general details and filled out his sheet which… I haven’t the foggiest where he stored it.   But it was done.  In case you are curious, South Korea’s flag looks like this and is filled with symbolism.  The background is white, one of their traditional colours, it represent peace and purity.  The circle in the middle comes from the um-yang (like the yin-yang in China) and represents balance.  The red half positive, the blue half negative.  The Trigrams in the corners represent movement and harmony.  There are four to represent four separate elements: heaven, sun, moon and earth. 

We made some amazing food which we ate while chatting and listening to Korean music. 🙂 I will freely admit we didn’t play it long and we did shut it off after a while as .. well.. it’s not our style and we found it a tad distracting.

What food did we make?   YUMMY FOOD!!!  oh my goodness.. just so yummy.

Hotteok:

These were pancakes with a brown sugar filling.  Very yummy.   Took some fiddling to get them to work well and we had some leftover filling when we shouldn’t have.  But I didn’t know how to stuff them as full as what we should have.  A lad kinda gave up too.  🙂

Bulgogi:

Hubby LOVES this dish so just had to make some.  He and the lad thoroughly enjoyed it.

Kimchi:

Admittedly we didn’t make it, but hubby bought some and enjoyed it.  The lad thought it was fairly good too.  I didn’t have any since cabbage and I don’t get along.

Red bean something or other.  This was harder to make than I thought it would be and my first try burned.  But once we got it made and cooked it was really good.  But I can’t find my recipe anymore.  🙁  sorry.  It involved making a red bean paste.

Honey Butter Fried Chicken. 

Honestly, if this chicken took less time to make, I would make it all the time.  It was very very good.

We attempted to make a rice drink that they do.  Um.. we failed or it just wasn’t our thing, I really don’t know.  It needed to ferment and something else, and the drink tasted okay but I couldn’t do the rice in it and hubby sniffed it and said “nope”.   The lad tried a bit of it and seconded dad’s opinion.  🙂   I gave it good go… but sometimes things just don’t work as they should.

Stay Tuned.  Recipe Linky is Below!

Anyways, that’s our walk through South Korea, I hope you enjoyed your journey.   Just reminding you if you want a more traditional approach to studying countries, to check out SchoolhouseTeachers.com.  They have some wonderfully indepth country studies for you to embark upon. Valetines Sale is: February 12-16, 2018
Here are the Coupon Codes: LOVE18 – $99 for Annual Membership subscription + 6.8 Oz. Dark Chocolate Bar (U.S. customers only) + Winter Print Issue of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine and LOVEMONTHLY18 – $10.95 per month. 

OH!   I also wanted to mention how much we’ve been enjoying the Olympic Games today… watching curling and moguls.   Did you know my friend Lori put together a wonderful Olympics study?   I KNOW how awesome is that!  So grab up your middle schoolers and have some fun with the Olympics.   Find it right here!

What else…oh.. some unit studies you might find helpful in learning about South Korea.

Knowledge quest.   Confessions of a homeschooler.  CIA.  Half-a-hundred acre.  



Create an Image: Use Adjectives Well

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How does one add colour to their poetry?   That’s the question before us today.   Last week we learned about the importance of using strong verbs. And using good verbs is part of writing good poetry, but if those verbs don’t have words to hang on to, then all you have is emotions and action that goes nowhere.  Using good adjectives is paramount to taking your nouns and verbs into the hearts of your readers.   It is the verbs and adjectives you use that lend excellence and quality to the lines of your poetry.  “The force, power and beauty of each phrase, expression and line grow out of the poet’s use of adjective or verb or both.”  (Fairchild)

Using adjectives well helps a poet create an image that draws people in.

When a poet uses a noun in his verb, the poet isn’t thinking about the tree… he’s thinking about the colours changing, a child swinging, of whistling choruses, and safe havens for birds, of seasons passing as weathered leaves flies to the lonely honking of the winter geese.    When a poet thinks of house she brings to mind sweet memories of overbaked pies, and voices raised in shock and smoke billowing as laughter fills a room at a stove forgotten.   The gleaming black of feather falling from the sky that lifts the soul to consider angels in the heavens.   

The poet personalizes these objects he finds bringing them to life and soul, drawing in our hearts as we see the world through her eyes. Use those adjectives, show the world how you see it.  The images we make are the anchor of our poetry.  It gives our readers something to hold on to and those images will bring them back. 

Remember.. this imagery we give our readers isn’t just visual picture but a precise language the evokes any of the senses.. taste, touch, smell, sound.   Consider this: The scared rabbit has soft brown fur.  OR  Plush velvet greets my scarred hands, chocolate hues fighting for freedom.  Which sounds more inviting?  Which gives you an image you can hold in your head?

The use of sensory language is what makes the adjectives used in poetry so inviting.  They help us see the world through the eyes of the poet.  Drawing and holding us in.   Use your adjectives well.  Give them a purpose… Create an image.

Would you like to practice this skill?     If so, click here for a work sheet.