Although her perfectionist tendencies tend to make her stress on the front-end of any assignment, nine-year-old Kathryn is actually quite good at things like creative writing. Her story from last week made me giggle, so I thought I'd share with you. This was inspired by assignment #5 in The Write Stuff Adventure by Dean Rea.
A few things to note in your reading: the "big black thing" at the beginning of the story was based on a day Ken photographed a spider. All spelling and punctuation is exactly as Kathryn wrote it, and no, we have never never studied proper punctuation usage; her knowledge is simply based on Charlotte Mason's ideas of learning things like grammar and punctuation naturally through the reading of good literature.
A few things to note in your reading: the "big black thing" at the beginning of the story was based on a day Ken photographed a spider. All spelling and punctuation is exactly as Kathryn wrote it, and no, we have never never studied proper punctuation usage; her knowledge is simply based on Charlotte Mason's ideas of learning things like grammar and punctuation naturally through the reading of good literature.
Did the part about the spoon make you giggle? {grin}Once, there was a spider named Sam. He was a house spider, but one day a huge black thing came, made weird noises, and then took poor Sam outside. It had just snowed, and Sam was very cold. He had never been so cold in his life. He remembered a song his mom sang when Sam was a baby called "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider." It was a song about his great-great-great grandfather and his life. So Sam made that his theme song for his life. Sam headed for the nearest leaf, and when he got there, he started to work on his book again. He was writing a novel called, "A Spider's Life." This story was about a spider named Fred, a ball of yarn, a girl spider named Angel, and a spoon. Sam was an educated spider, and he loved to write, so he always had a pencil, pen, pencil sharpener, and two or three dollars to buy more pencils or paper. Safe from the snow still falling, Sam soon fell asleep. The next morning, the snow was gone, and it was sunny, so Sam crawled out from under his leaf, made his way back to the house, got inside, and was reunited with his family, and there he lives today.
(This story also reinforces my idea that unless you squish the critter, it'll end up back in the house eventually! Ken is kinder to insects than I am.)
Barb at 
We've worked with this group before. The first play we did with Ms. Tisha (the director) was a Christmas play at our previous church in 2006. As part of a group of toys that come to life in the story, Kathryn played a bride doll, and Ken and I were a retro "Date Night Barbie & Ken", complete with our own Barbie box. When we came to life, we did a little swing-dance to the song "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," but we only had a few lines just prior to our dance. It was fun, and that was Kathryn's first speaking part in a play. The following summer, Kathryn had a small part in a Mystery Dinner Theater comedy play. Most of the kids in these dramas are teens, but Ms. Tisha always includes some of the little ones as well.
with old-fashioned wire-rimmed glasses, a bow-tie, and his hair parted in the middle, he looked appropriately nerdy. Most of the kids already knew "Mr. Ken" from homeschool classes we've taught and from his doing lights and sound for "The Sound of Music" last winter; when he showed up in costume, they all had the giggles. {hee hee!} He's such a nice, calm guy that he had trouble in rehearsals sounding mean enough when we was suppose to yell at Anne, but in the actual play, he pulled it off and made the yelling seem real enough. Besides Ken and me, my good friend Angela was the only other adult in the play; she played the storekeeper Alice Lawson. All the key roles were filled by teens, and I don't think I'm being biased when I say they all did a fabulous job! Drew, a quiet boy with rock-star hair, played Matthew Cuthbert, and he wasn't sure he could manage the dying scene; when he came backstage after that scene he was so proud of himself. Seeing kids like Drew realize they could stretch themselves beyond what they thought possible was so encouraging and uplifting, and blessed my soul.
I played Miss Stacy, the kind teacher who comes to Avonlea after Mr. Phillips is fired. {hee hee!} She and Anne are "kindred spirits." I had to learn to laugh on cue for the scene when Anne almost feeds me dead-mouse-flavored plum pudding. In reading the book and watching the movie, I've decided that Miss Stacy must've been a fan of the Charlotte Mason style of teaching: she gets the school children outdoors as often as possible for exercise, as well as nature study; they go on frequent nature walks, and spend time drawing; she encourages them to read good literature; and her main goal is to teach them to think for themselves. She tells the children, "I believe the best teacher serves as a guide, and if you are willing to put yourself under my guidance, I shall do my utmost to help you form strong ideals that will be the foundation of your future lives."
In my Handbook of Nature Study (a very CM style book!), I found this wonderful quote about having a thirst for knowledge: