It's Wild Here

Shred

 

I shred.

I, the shredder.

Am shredding

Paper, now a wave.

A wave of shredded paper,

being shredded by a paper man,

on a cardboard surfboard.

The credit card shark, a credit card of shred,

in an ocean of used,

shredded

paper.

Well, he takes a bite. He is the shredder of the shredded.

The newspaper coastguard in his hotel pamphlet boat,

rounding up all the paper

plate

children

Onto the off-white-paper beach.

He blows his phonebook whistle,

“CREDIT CARD IN THE PAPER!”

one more from jamie

                          It speaks.

I’m in your face.
Invading your space
Like liquid lace seeping through cracks in your unfathomable bubble

of unproven beliefs in a

                    protected world.

But from the holes in the fabric of the universe, it, with hope, comes and heralds.

Like instinct.
Feral.

It comes packaged in a box from nowhere.
From up there
From here and to and there.

It ain’t no god it ain’t no savior
It’s a hope come to watch your behavior

On

The matter.

It speaks.

A hope is it, I you am and we.

IT.

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recent writing by Jamie

I scratch the disk.
Back and forth it resembles a.
A-a-a-another force, from the nether worlds

Trying desperately to get out, get out.
ALIENS scratchin’ at the surface of the OOOOOOoooohhhh.
Zone.

Don’t pick up
your
phone
you might just get blown up.

In fact, most probably, you’ll be captured and be subjected to a lobotomy.

So, go forth my son! HEARKEN! Can you not hear the raging screams of the war? Go hither! Into the-
alien’s U.F.O.! Their fortress! Their Castle! The king of which is desperately tryin’ o so hard to get out and kill us all!

We’ve trapped him in a force field.
You’re the musth that must wield,

The weapon,
Of mass destruction: the bomb, of mass deduction of pop-yew-lation.
Blow ‘em up.
BANG.

Yesterday we attended the WILC Share Fair. Jamie read from The Telltale Heart and Jeremiah showed some of his beanie babies and told the stories of how he came to own them. Ryan ran around and made noise.

After, we went to Cincinnati and visited family.

Jamie - Poe

Jamie is very taken with Edgar Allan Poe. He's read several poems and short stories from this book.

He's also decided to memorize a passage from The Telltale Heart. He's planning to read part of it at the WILC Share Fair.

more books we're reading

These are both really excellent books.  Apologies to Mom for the picture of this (perfectly harmless) snake.

The Snake Scientist (Scientists in the Field Series) (Paperback) by   Sy Montgomery,                                                    Runny Babbit : A Billy Sook (Hardcover) by   Shel Silverstein

New red car, busy morning

This morning, we were treated to a dramatic reading of The Telltale Heart, by Jamie.  Well, by Poe, but read by Jamie.

I read the Raven to the boys last night and Jamie seemed to really enjoy the language. Jeremiah said, "No more Poe at bedtime, please." Jamie's planning to memorize a passage of Telltale Heart, and Jeremiah has moved on to Carl Sandburg.

We read an adaptation of Stone Soup - in this picture book, it is set in China and there are monks who come to town and teach the villagers generosity. What I liked, other than the  lovely artwork, was the explanation of the villagers' selfishness: they had suffered many losses through floods, war and disease. I enjoyed that because it gave the  story a message of healing, rather than the finger-wagging morality of some fables.

We drove the van to Village Auto for regular maintenance and stopped at Dollar General on the walk home. We found some tissue paper for our equinox craft, and an (apparently) spectacular new red car for Ryan. The two important features of this remarkable vehicle are its doors, which DO open, and it's roof, which does not exist (this means little babies can sit in the car.) I think we'll have a picture up here soon, because he fell asleep clutching it this morning and will likely do  the same this afternoon. 

Dardi was here on Tuesday and Wednesday. The kids really enjoyed visiting with her. Here she is with her favorite Yellow Springs treat - Peanut Butter Bumpers.

Wednesday afternoon, we went to the pool and ran into Kira, Joe and Audrey. I had a chance to talk to Becky for a while about homeschooling and plans for fall. She's going to be joining Aullwood and doing some study of birds, and recommended a bird guide that allows the user to find books based first on color before any other feature. It's called Stokes Beginner's Guide to Birds : Eastern Region.  She also mentioned doing a lot of reading about string theory, which is something Jamie wants to study.

After the pool, Jeremiah went to taekwondo. Jamie really hates to go along to taekwondo. He does enjoy watching and is generally a very supportive fan of Jeremiah's efforts, but the classes are in the late afternoon, which is a tiring time to get in the car for a 30 minute drive each way, class in between...

Finally it seems like we're back to having a decent read aloud time in the evenings. Right now we're finishing up The Great Glass Elevator, just starting A Bear Named Trouble which is wonderful so far, and The Prince and the Pauper.  I'm reading some poems each night as well, from A Writing Kind of Day- Poems for Young Poets. Last night we talked about metaphor.

Jamie is plugging away on his Einstein book. Jeremiah is reading a book himself about early humans, and continues working through Explode the Code. We also just started the Highlights Top Secret Adventures Club, so Jeremiah will get a kit every 5 weeks with this mystery to solve, based in a different country. We are starting with Australia.

general school recordkeeping

Jeremiah is reading Calvin & Hobbes and some other early readers. He's also doing addition and subtraction of multiple large numbers.

Both boys enjoyed searching for words with every letter of the alphabet when we were sitting in the parking lot of a busy shopping center, while I nursed the baby.

We're reading aloud:
The Prince of the Pond
some book about facial features, forget title
Kevin Henkes picture books (Chrysanthemum, Chrysanthemum,Chrysanthemum!)
books about owls
National Geographic Magazine
National Geographic World
Joy Hakim's History of Science
Cleopatra, Diane Stanley
more varied books on gladiators and rome

Jamie received a "Lift the Lid on Gladiators" set that contains a gladiator figure with all gear, and various papers and books about gladiators. He is also finishing up his first Key To Algebra book, correcting grammar and spelling in the Editor in Chief series, studying Latin, dictionary skills, and writing his book.

Both boys entered the Dayton Daily News' poetry contest for 12yrs and under.

We've been watching a lot of American Idol, Joan of Arcadia, and various animal programs on Animal Planet, PBS and Discovery channel.

Angel

September 5, 2004

 

Angels are kind, innocent and loving

But hate evil.

A halo represents an angel’s middle or last name.

When I get my halo

It will represent Balo

For that is a name that is quite unique

Because it just would not fit with Mystique,

Michael, or Nicky or Shroud.

That is why when I get a halo…

I will be PROUD!