Limerick & Free Verse

This week we worked on poetry and the Homeschool Jedi wrote his own limerick and free verse poems. 

A widow who lived in Shanghai 

Constantly wished she could fly.

So she bought an airplane,

But she crashed in a plain,

Wishing she’d never again have to fly.

In the Park Home Run

The pitcher was furious from the previous hit,

so he threw a hard ball through the strike zone.

Though a little bit inside,

I smacked the ball to third.

Right in front of the players feet,

it bounced to the left of his head.

I rounded first base on a beeline straight to second.

The fielder overthrew second base

to the outfield instead.

I kicked up dirt as I rounded second base,

past third,

I could almost see home plate.

The right fielder threw the ball a little to the right of the fourth bag.

The catcher dove for the ball.

While I slid, a slight traffic jam occurred.

“SAFE,” yelled the umpire!

With helmet knocked off, 

I strutted back to the dugout

inspiring my team with the home run.

With our magnificent hits,

we will definitely win!

Ducks and Platypuses

         Platypuses are rare creatures and can be found in some zoos, while a duck is a common creature that can be found at a nearby pond or park.  These two creatures may look alike, but are different in their own ways.  Ducks and platypuses are two amazing species of animals that God created so alike yet so different.

         Ducks are eight-pound birds that have a bill, webbed feet, and brown and white, waterproof feathers, which also make up its tail.  Ducks are generally ten to fifteen inches tall.  Its head color depends on its gender and species and can vary from brown to green to purple-blue.  During its five to fifteen years of living, the semi-aquatic bird learns to fly and lays eggs.  The female duck generally lays eggs once or twice a year, lying up to fifteen eggs at a time.  The father then watches the eggs twenty-six to twenty-eight days to keep them safe from predators.  Sadly, ducks are killed for sport by hunters and cannot defend themselves.  Ducks can be found living in North America, Europe, and Asia.

         Platypuses weigh about one and a half to five pounds and are seventeen to twenty inches long with a similar appearance to the duck.  Platypuses have a beaver-like tail, waterproof fur, and similarly to the duck, webbed feet and a bill.  As a semi-aquatic mammal, platypuses are one of the five rare species of mammals that lay eggs!  Even though ducks and platypuses both lay eggs, many people do not realize that ducks are birds, while platypuses are mammals.  The female lays one to three eggs and protects them without help from the male platypus.  In the same way as the duck’s hatching sequence, platypuses’ eggs generally hatch within twenty-six to twenty-eight days.  Differing from the duck, the platypus has a venomous claw on each foot to protect themselves from predators. However, platypuses have an identical lifespan to ducks of five to fifteen years.  The platypus is native to Australia.

         Platypuses are rare creatures and ducks are more common.  Whenever you see these creatures, remember that God made two things alike, and yet so different.

The Hobbit

The Jedi and I have been working on a really fun Hobbit curriculum the last several weeks.  He's enjoyed reading the book and seeing the movie.  Last week I assigned him an essay on dragons and asked him to either draw or make a dragon to go with the essay.  He chose to make an origami dragon which turned out pretty cute...sorry, that doesn't sound very boyish.  The dragon turned out scary, well, that's not right either seeing as it's made of paper.  Anyway, I scanned his essay because he is really improving in cursive writing (something public school taught for three weeks and then never required him to use again). 

Historical Fiction

The Homeschool Jedi has been working on writing a historical fiction piece.  He researched the time period, language, and sayings of the era.  After writing his first draft, he went back to the drawing board to add more details about the main character's family life.  He also researched for information about fish found in the Sea of Galilee, the type of fish most likely to have been shared when Jesus fed the 5,000, and what kind of money was used during that time. 

The Jedi could have chosen any time period in history and even though many eras and settings may have led to an easier writing process, he did a fantastic job on making this historical fiction story believable.   

Historical Fiction - Courageous

-->

Courageous

 by the Homeschool Jedi

            “I caught one!” Natan exclaimed as he drew in an immense fish from the Sea of Galilee. 

            “Ha, ha,” Eli chuckled, “that makes five fish today, yet you caught the biggest Barbel of all my fishermen!  It is payday today and you have earned ten denarii!  Your father would be so proud.  Go buy some bread and your welcome to use my net to catch some fish for your family. Tell your three sisters and your mother I said, shalom!”

            “Thank you so much!” Natan called out on his way to the market.  With his money, the thirteen year-old boy bought five loaves of barley bread.  After catching fish with Eli all day, Natan was disappointed to come up with only two Sardines in the nearby lake.

            While cleaning Eli’s net, Natan thought about his family.  Natan was glad that his family knew Eli, as he was the only one who survived the terrible storm in the sea when his boat capsized, killing Natan’s father.  Natan clearly remembered the day when he was five years old and Eli swore to protect Natan’s family.  Natan thought of what Eli always says, “Your father would be so proud.”  Eli is right, Natan thought, my father would be proud.  I took over his job to keep food on the table because we all know mother’s sewing is not enough.  I’m proud to be my father’s son!

Suddenly, Eli’s gentle hand tapped Natan’s shoulder; “I’ll finish with the net later, but for now, follow me.” Eli said.  Natan obeyed Eli’s orders.  “We are going to see Jesus.  He has been healing and teaching in Galilee since this morning, and a crowd has been following him all day long.  If we hurry up, we might be able to get to a position where we can see and hear Jesus.”

            Natan had heard of this Jesus man and knew others were calling him the Messiah.  Natan knew the prophecies of Isaiah about the King of Kings, and so far, Jesus was meeting every description.

            Natan followed Eli into a massive crowd of people.  Eli said, “Listen closely, Jesus is teaching about repentance and eternal life.”

            Natan was shocked!  Eternal life?  Natan asked Eli a question, “What does He mean, eternal life?”

            “Patience, you are a smart boy, you will learn what He means.” Eli replied.

            In the center of the crowd, Natan could see Jesus smiling at the people as He talked about Salvation.  There were well over five thousand people!  The same crowd of people had been following Jesus around all day throughout Galilee.  Having not seen anyone stop and eat all day, Jesus asked His apostles to look for food because He knew the crowd was hungry.

            “Jesus’ apostles are looking for food.  Would you like to give your bread and fish to them?” Eli asked Natan.

            Natan pondered, What about my household, my three sisters need something to eat.  This bread cost me two denarii; we need the other eight for clothes, and…

            A tall, strong man asking for food interrupted Natan’s thoughts.  “Andrew!” Eli exclaimed, “I haven’t seen you in ages.  Natan, this is Andrew, I did business with his father.”

            “Uh, hello.”

            “I have come here looking for food for Jesus,” Andrew said, “Do you happen to have any?”

            “NATAN,” a gentle, but booming voice said inside his head, “GIVE YOUR BREAD AND FISH TO ANDREW”

            When the voice vanished, Natan looked around to see who said it, and who else heard it. When Natan realized God said it and nobody else heard it, Natan gave his food to Andrew. “Good choice, your father would be so proud, and so am I,” said Eli.

            Andrew went running back to Jesus.  “Sir, a little boy has given two small fish, and five small barley loaves, but not everybody will get enough food.”  Jesus did not reply because He was in prayer. When He finished, He broke the bread and fish and separated them into separate baskets.  He told the disciples to hand out food to everyone. 

            “Look at what you have done!  Everyone is filled!” Eli exclaimed.

            The disciples collected all the uneaten leftovers, and twelve baskets were filled!  “Jesus, how about we give the leftovers to Natan.  He is very courageous and today has lived up to his name, ‘to give’,” said Andrew.

            “Eli,” Natan started, “I have learned that God can do a lot with a little, and I can’t thank you enough for bringing me here today.”  Natan knew and believed that Jesus was God’s Son.  He couldn’t wait to share the incredible story with his mother.

            “Natan,” Andrew yelled, “Jesus wants you to have the leftovers.”

            Natan was shocked as he stared at the baskets of food, “Eli, could you possibly bring your family over for dinner tonight?”

            “I’d be honored,” Eli responded.

That day, Natan learned that when you listen to God’s voice, He gives numerous blessings.

Research Paper Assignment

While to most of us, well - me anyway, the thought of writing a research paper sounds like a daunting task.  When this assignment came up for the Jedi all I could think was, "I just spent the last 2 years writing research papers!"  Fortunately for me, this was his assignment, not mine. 

Out of all of his writing assignments this year, this is the first time I took a hands-off approach to see what the Jedi came up with.  Well, as hands-off as I could be anyway seeing as our family visited Mesa Verde the week before he wrote this paper and we checked books out at the library together.  Anyhow, he wrote this paper by himself and handled most of the revisions. 

We're almost at the 1/2 year mark for homeschooling and I'm already noticing a drastic improvement in his writing and his desire to produce quality work.  It's not easy, but we're getting the hang of this.  I hope you enjoy his writing sample and please feel free to ask the Jedi questions about Mesa Verde. 

Mesa Verde

Mesa Verde and the Anasazi People

In southwest Colorado, Mesa Verde National Park holds historical evidence of early Native Americans.  Mesas, flat plateaus, cover this eighty-one square mile National Park.  It is a significant place that helped shape America’s Native American history.

            Mesa Verde, Spanish for “green table,” is roughly one and a half miles above sea level.  The park collects ninety inches of snow a year and has temperatures ranging from fifteen to eighty-five degrees Fahrenheit.

The Native American tribes that lived in Mesa Verde from the sixth to twelfth century were called the Anasazi people.  The word Anasazi means “ancient enemy,” but due to the negative meaning, these Native Americans became known as the Puebloans.  They came to Mesa Verde to defend themselves from their enemies, the Cheyenne Indians in the sixth century.  The Anasazi people first built their houses on top of the mesas, but they soon built houses within the cliffs along the sides of the mountain to protect themselves from rain, snow, and falling rocks.  They built the houses out of wood and stone covered with adobe, a mixture of dirt, ashes, and water used as cement.  Their religious and family events took place in kivas, which are circular dwellings built underground.

A kiva

Ladder to climb down into the kiva

The women made baskets and pottery used for storing food and water and cooking. They cooked food in the baskets by heating a stone and placing it in the basket with the food and water.  The stone would heat the food in the basket and cook it.  They cooked food in pottery by placing pots over the fire until the food was cooked.  The men planted crops on the fertile mesas and hunted bison throughout the land.

The Anasazi people believed that the sun was their god.  It is for this reason that they built their cliff dwellings facing the East, the way the sun rises.  Another reason the Anasazi faced their dwellings toward the East was to avoid wind, which blows from the West to the East, and absorb the most heat possible.  The Native Americans climbed up the mountainside to protect them from wild animals.  They scaled the mountain by making notches in the rock to grasp as they climbed.

The Anasazi tribe did not have running water and just had one spot to relieve themselves.  This caused sickening hygiene problems, which killed people because they had no cure for the infections.  Another common health problem for the Native Americans were dental complications.  A severe drought came and forced the Anasazi people to move out once and for all around 1275.

On December eighteenth, 1888, Richard Wetherill and Charles Mason were looking for lost cattle when they stumbled along Mesa Verde.  They took mummies, arrowheads, axheads, clothing, and pottery to archaeologists to study and determine the mysteries of Mesa Verde. 

On June twenty-ninth, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Mesa Verde as a National Park. Roosevelt said he made it a National Park to “preserve the works of man”.

The people of Mesa Verde, its discovery, and its transformation into a National Park are things that both helped shape Native American history and our country’s memoir.  Preserving one of America’s National Parks is a great responsibility so the cliff dwellings can be enjoyed for generations to come.

Bibliography

Crewe, Sabrina and Anderson, Dale. The Anasazi Culture at Mesa Verde. Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Gareth Stevens Publishing, 2003

 “Dec 18, 1888: Wetherill and Mason discover Mesa Verde,” n.d. Accessed November 27, 2012. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/wetherill-and-mason-discover-mesa-verde

“Mesa Verde National Park.” n.d. Accessed November 27, 2012.  http://www.desertusa.com/ver/du_ver_map.html

 “Stepping back in time.” 2010. Accessed November 27, 2012.

http://www.visitmesaverde.com/mesa-verde-history.aspx