Curriculum 2009: Poetry

Now that I've finished a couple of simple sewing projects (the nursing pillow I posted yesterday and curtains for my daughter's room), I'm back to my curriculum posts. Today, is poetry.

Poetry is a topic that I don't do well with so my hope is to expose my kids to the concepts used in poetry, but not necessarily make them experts in it. I'm also not the type of homeschooler who requires memorizing poems; my kids would balk at the idea. And since I'm working towards trying to get my daughter to enjoy learning again, I definitely don't want to do anything that I know would go against that goal...which memorizing poetry would definitely do for her.

Like many of our other language arts subjects, I will be using Michael Clay Thompson's curriculum for this. Sam will be using his Music of the Hemisphere's book, which is the first in the series. It explains all the various poetry vocabulary, giving examples of each. Things such as rhyme, rhyme scheme, eye rhyme, near rhyme, onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance, and meter are covered. It goes into quite a bit more than that.

Mika has already been through this book. I found that we had a very hard time hearing the supposed meter in the examples. That's ok with me...at least she knows they exist. Like the other language arts subjects, she'll be taking the year off. Next year, she'll pick back up and do the second poetry book with Sam.

My next post will cover writing. In that post, you'll finally get to here more about what Mika will be doing in place of formal studies.

My Nursing Pillow

Yesterday, I finally made it to JoAnn's Fabric and bought the fabric to make my new nursing pillow. I shocked myself by actually finishing it all in one day, too. That's quite an accomplishment for this non-sewer who can barely thread the machine. Here's a photo of it; you can click on it to enlarge it to see the fabric better.

I used an off white flannel fabric for the pillow. The removable cover has a sky blue background covered with palm fronds. Over that background are lions, tigers, monkeys, hippos, and elephants. It's a cute fabric. There were girl fabrics that I liked better but since we don't know what we are having, I opted for something babyish rather than girlish or boyish. I briefly considered trying to match my living room decor but the fabric choices didn't work well for that.

The pillow is at least twice the size of a normal boppy pillow. Because of that it works much better than a boppy, too. It's hard for baby to roll off of it because it is so large. As our cat, Gracie found out when Josh was a newborn, there's plenty of room for him to curl up next to the baby as well. I also found out that I could rest hinge end of my laptop on the outer edge of the pillow angled up on top of the baby and then be on my computer while nursing. It's a great pillow.

Here's a picture of me nursing Josh when he was about a year old with the laptop. This was my previous nursing pillow (same basic pattern I made my new one from) which died a quick death due to being made from recycled muslin that was in pretty bad condition, my poor sewing skills, and being overstuffed.

Names, Names, Names

Nine days left until my due date and we still don't have a girl's name. We have a list of ones that sound ok to us, a few name sets (first & middle together) that are ok, but nothing that is coming out as "the one". We've begun joking about taking a list with us and naming her (if it's a her) after she's born. But what if we can't come up with a name then either?

Mostly, there is just something about them that aren't doing it for us. It might be the meaning. One of them is pretty popular with the family but it rhymes with the name of one of our other children, which makes me less thrilled with. Some don't seem to fit with the other kids' names. Some are cute but too trendy. Some the kids don't like, or Scott doesn't like, or I don't like. We just can' agree. Some of them just sound awful a few days later.

So, here's the list so far. It's been getting longer rather than being narrowed down. That's not helping.

Abigail
Sophia
Kelsie
Madelynn
Emily
Madison
Jeanette*
Naomi
Raylene
Sarah
Susan
Susanne/Suzanne
Yahali*
Natalie
Natasha
Adah*
Adalena*
Adalene*
Danielle*
Lillyanne
Teyla
Julia
Juliet
Nadine
Adele

Abigail seems popular. The not-so-good thing about that name is that we have a cat named Abby. The good thing about it that name is that it is the ONLY name Josh will say. We've considered putting it together as Sophia Abigail.

Naomi has been on the list for quite a while. One difficulty with that one is the kids don't care for it and we can't figure out another name to put it with. I have a hard time thinking of the name Naomi (as a first name) without putting Ruth together with it. LOL We've considered Teyla Naomi, but Teyla doesn't have a meaning and doesn't seem to fit with the other kids' names.

Lillyanne was a very early possibility. I forgot about it until a friend mentioned Lily on Scott's facebook.

Natalie Susanne is a more recent thought. I don't care for a name that means "Christ's birthday" because it just doesn't seem to fit for a July baby. Natasha is another consideration with the same problem.

The names marked with an * are ones that were interesting when first seen but not anymore.

It's just not coming together!