Copywork: A Cheerful Mom

Is a picture still worth a thousand words if it's a picture of words?

This is first grade gent's copywork. Last month we had one of those days. Weeks? Enough, anyway, that I did a Google search for quotes on cheerfulness and good attitudes for this gent to copy into his composition notebook. Today's quote: "A cheerful friend is like a sunny day, which sheds its brightness on all around." (John Lubbock)

This fine middle gent is clever and mischievous, a bit of an imp. Halfway through copying the quote, he put down his pencil, erased the word "friend," and wrote "mom" in its place. Gave me that cheesy little grin and a kiss. After I took this picture and he'd finished copying, he drew hearts all over the board.

I've noticed that the opposite holds true as well, at least in our home. A grumpy mom is like a stormcloud. Why is it, I wonder, that anyone else in the family can have a bad day and the others just keep on going, but when I have a bad day, when I'm feeling grouchy, glum, grumpy it infects the entire family? Mom sets the tone for the whole day.

My fine young gent has inspired me to remember that I've never regretted kindness and that gentle words and a smile help set young feet on the right path. I'm going to print this picture and put it on my fridge to remind myself that I want to shed brightness on our days.

Midnight Musings: Barf!

The fine young gents have been reading Calvin and Hobbes. Six-year-old gent is particularly fascinated by "not my brother, the other one" Calvin's antics, and recounts the strips with gusto. His favorite these past two days is Calvin barfing in the middle of the night. Which led me to ponder in the middle of the night....

When did we outgrow the word "barf"?

BARF!

It sounds just like what it is. A loud, round, rough word, a vivid verb, the epitome of onomatopoeia. Instead we use the pale and sickly "vomit" or the bland "threw up" or "puke"--such a wimpy word.

From now on, I'm going to say "barf." Barf, barf, barf.

(And then, finally, I fell asleep. I need to stop drinking caffeinated tea before bed.)

Today, I'll be saying "epitome of onomatopoeia" all day long. Try it! It's delicious.

Adopt a word today!

starrify: v., to decorate with stars

blateration: n., blabber; chatter

frutescent: adj., having or approaching the habit or appearance of a shrub

http://www.savethewords.org/

Wednesday Words

Lovely lady, 15, told me a story last night. To paraphrase:
"We had a test today in English. You know those problems that go 'This is to this as That is to...' Yeah, analogies. Well, I did really well. But most of the people in class didn't do very well. So the teacher was trying to figure out why, and she asked, 'How many of you know what the word "elated" means?' And only a third of the class raised their hands."

Two-thirds of a class of high-school sophomores didn't know the word "elated". Which pretty well explains why they didn't do well on the analogy test. If you don't know what words mean, you can't compare them to other words or ideas. Lovely lady did go on to say that the teacher, who's had these students for only nine weeks, went on to say that she needs to teach some basic vocabulary. I said to lovely lady, "Aren't you glad that we started working through that list of words everyone should know by the time they graduate high school?" (100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know) Vocabulary is important after all. Not just so that one can perform well on a test, but so that one can understand what others are saying or writing.

On another vocabulary note, a noun is called "noun". Why is it assumed that a second-grader is not capable of learning the real word for a concept? "Find the naming word." says fine young gent's Language Arts book. He's heard me gripe about this little peeve so often that he now crosses it out himself and carefully writes "noun" above. Same with "action word" and "describing word". Last week, he read his instructions, rolled his eyes and said in a peeved voice "Mom, it's an adjective." (I'm teaching this kid right. It's not my fault, honest. Blame my mom.)

Why should we "dumb things down"--a phrase I'm not particularly fond of in general, but which seems appropriate in this context--in order to make concepts seem easier or more learnable at a developmental stage in which children's young brains are primed for learning new words? I can see writing "noun (a naming word)" initially to help define the concept, but to leave out the word altogether, particularly in a language curriculum, seems shortsighted.

Vocabulary is important. I want my children to know the correct words for the concepts they're learning. They're walking around in the world soaking up the language around them. If we don't use "big" words when we're speaking or writing to children, and if we rewrite new ideas only in words they already know, how in heaven's name will they learn new ones?

Like "elated" perhaps?

Wednesday Word

Mondegreen: A misheard lyric

From Wikipedia:
The American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term mondegreen in an essay "The Death of Lady Mondegreen," which was published in Harper's Magazine in November 1954. In the essay, Wright described how, as a young girl, she misheard the final line from the 17th century ballad "The Bonnie Earl O' Murray."
She wrote:
When I was a child, my mother used to read aloud to me from Percy's Reliques, and one of my favorite poems began, as I remember:
Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
Oh, where hae ye been?
They hae slain the Earl Amurray, [sic]
And Lady Mondegreen.

The actual fourth line is "And laid him on the green." As Wright explained the need for a new term, "The point about what I shall hereafter call mondegreens, since no one else has thought up a word for them, is that they are better than the original."

------------------------------
Olive the other reindeer (All of the other reindeer.)

Surely Good Mrs. Murphy shall follow me all the days of my life (Surely goodness and mercy… from Psalm 23)

Round John Virgin ('Round yon virgin.)

And so on....got any favorites?

------------------------------
And, for word-lover fun, a whole site devoted to mondegreens.

Vocabulary

Lovely visual-spatial learner, 14, is in the process of creating a word wall. In addition to her word roots study, she's slowly working her way through the Houghton-Mifflin word list, "100 Words Every High School Graduate Should Know," creating a vocabulary cartoon for each word, which we then post on the wall. I first encountered the word list at Mental Multivitamin.

Lovely lady fills out a word sheet that includes the word definition, the part of speech, synonyms and antonyms, a sentence using the word and a preliminary sketch of a cartoon illustrating the word meaning. The words are visible, a part of the visual landscape as she takes a short mental break from math or science or reading. The cartoons engage her visual and artistic style, and allow her to bring her sense of fun and humor into her word study. She's more comfortable using the dictionary, and more likely to look up new words she encounters in her reading. Visitors admire the wall, boosting her investment in the product she creates, and they read the definitions of words unfamiliar to them, which means she gets to hear the word used again and again.

I don't know that either lovely lady or myself, if offered a million dollars to recite, say, the correct definition of abjure (the first word on the list) could recite it flawlessly. But I'll bet she could use it in a sentence, and I'm certain that she'll understand the word in context the next time she encounters it in her reading.

I would like to say a few words.

And here they are (in honor of Albus Dumbledore):

Bump

Neato

Zenith

Discombobulated

Discombobulated again, because I am actually sitting at my desk saying "Discombobulated." Out loud, more than once. Singing it, even. (Try it before you judge.) My husband just looked at me as though thinking he might ask what I'm doing, but he seems to have reconsidered. Wise man.

Thank you.
~~~~~~~~~

Merriam-Webster Online Word of the Day