Pre-School and Personification

My little Josiah loves going to pre-school. It is a small pre-school right here in our county that has not been re-decorated since its inception in the late seventies. I like it because they have not "progressed" in the most negative sense of the word because they still sing Jesus loves Me", have chapel and eat vanilla wafers for snacktime....well, probably. Or the little VBS cookies with holes in the middle of them that make the perfect rings for little fingers. We could not convince our little girl, Shea, to take to this pre-school and there were many mornings that we passed her off to the teacher crying and looking destitute over the teachers' shoulders at her very bad (it felt this way) parents just trying to push her off on the preschool so they could have a little bit of quiet time- just two hours, mind you, of quiet time in their day and reclaim the concept of free time and- oh, where am I? Okay, I'm back, I'm okay. As I was saying, we love our children and we love to be with them. This is why I'm homeschooling, remember?? My point was that, the very same pre-school that made Shea sudder is the same one that Josiah loves. He's the first one up, first one dressed in his little polo shirts, ready to put on his "climbing shoes" and paint something beautiful for mommy at school that day. He's DISSAPOINTED M,W, and F because there is no school to go off to. It is really wonderful. He ran back to me this morning after getting all buckled in and looking very big with his backpack on (thank, you Nonna) because he suddenly exclaimed that he had to give mommy "one more kiss". He came bounding back up the stairs, he braved the rain and his gelled hair (which he's quite protective of) just to throw himself into my arms and kiss me all over. Physical touch is at the top of the list of my Love Languages list, incidently, and so I made the comment that I love boys who like to give out excessive kisses. Always, observant, and quick to take my subtle hint, my husband ran back up the steps (he didn't bound) and gave me another kiss as well. Ahh- I'm glad I live with three men. Someone is always bound to be bounding toward me.

We had our first creative writing lesson in school this morning- quite impromptu. We have starting reading through excerpts from The Book of Virtues and the poem we read this morning had the nicest personification so I decided to seize the moment and explain what this literary term meant and how to use it in writing creatively. Well, I gave a fifteen minute challenge and here are the very creative writings that resulted. Fifteen minutes- three creative minds- one literary term:

Personification- attributing human like qualities to an inanimate thing or idea.

Personification

by Shea Deagle, age 5 (her very own words written down by mommy)

The napkin never wanted to get dirty. But everybody used him.They wiped their mouths on him and he got dirty. He was upset. He got angry. He cleaned himself off with a wipe. The everybody went to bed. The next morning, he got out of his bed and everybody used him for breakfast so he hid and never came out again.

Inanimate object? A napkin

Human attribute?  Wanting to stay clean

Personal inspiration? Daddy (aka Mr. Clean)

The Two Books

A Personification Tale by Jon Langley Deagle

The books lay high in the sky on a little bookshelf.

The two of them talked so well one day they fell-

Their coats were ripped and messy.

They got put back up on the shelf and they were pretty messy.

The clock was blue and it struck two.

The two books were shy and they wiped their coats.

A pack of two came to surprise

To see two books talking while time passed by.

The two told them, "Come, don't be shy. We just want something old to read."

The two books were so happy to be pisked.

They went to Peace Hill and went into a cottage.

The next day the books got read, read, and read. They looked so proud in the cottage.

The two books looked at everything around them. They were the only thing the pair of two read.

The Fair Chair

by Jessica Deagle

The little chair was very fair

And wouldn't stand just anywhere.

Her eyes did roam around the home

For one who looked quite debonaire.

She settled on a strong-backed chair-

With rolling arms and room to share-

Who seemed a comfy place to read.

(Besides, he wore a suit of tweed

And tweed would nicely suit her needs)

She hoped that he would see her there

Beside the fire, looking fair

Her legs quite long, her skirt quite short

(This was the style for the Windsor sort)

Perhaps with her he would consort.

To her dismay one day there came

A small setee with a dainty frame.

The mistress of the house did set

The new setee by the one unmet.

(This made our heroine upset)

That was her spot, her place to be!

Beside her handsome one in tweed

And the new setee, if she knew what was good

Would keep her legs right where they stood

And show no more wood than a setee should.

For hours they sat in their places, unaltered

Till the mistress in her thinking faltered

And decided that the tweed, indeed

Would be a lovely place to read

At the fire alongside the Windsor chair

Who, after all, was very fair.

Once the move was made, her card she played

And a nearby window obliged

A breeze flutterd in, swished her skirting and then

She fluttered her pillow fringe eyes.

The Tweed was quite smitten

Now their tale has been written-

A lesson that all should embrace:

If your fireside's dull, your decor's hit a lull

Don't keep your furniture in the same place!

For the Lord gives wisdom...

"For the Lord gives wisdom, and from His mouth come knowledge and understanding,"
Proverbs 2:6

This was our key scripture during the first week of homeschooling--- ahhhhh! I still cannot believe I am a homeschooling mom. The first two weeks have been wonderful and really a blessing to me. My favorite time is our "circle time" in the mornings when we can pray together and learn our memory verse. These are the moments I have been looking for- time to teach and give attention to God's Word in the mornings and not just hurry through a quick devotion time as they rush out the door for school. Mondays are History day and these are my favorite lessons. We are starting in the beginning learning about the ancients, nomads and early Egypt. We love to look on our Adams' timeline and find what we have learned or read about. I am really having fun. Jon Langley is a learner and a wonderful student- he always wants to do more! Shea is learning how to read. We have covered the five vowels and the letter B. I can't wait for the day when the light goes on for her and I hear her read and know that I was her teacher! Jo Jo is in pre-school now on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and so we are hard core students on those days to get lots done. He loves school and yesterday came home with a big green apple he had painted on a huge piece of paper. It was really too big to hang anywhere. Naturally, I hung it right on the bulletin board in my kitchen! I love being with my children....