My Poem Writing Year #151 - solitaire

Grandma Florence Conolley Dreyer

1920s

Photo by ??

My maternal grandmother, Florence Conolley Dreyer (married to Norman Dreyer of the banjo), used to play cards with me when I was a little girl.  We'd sit at her shiny dining room table and play hours of Go Fish, Rummy, and Old Maid.  Grandma had a yellow Tupperware sugar bowl full of pennies, and somehow I always left that table with handfuls of change.  She has been gone for twelve years now, and I still wonder how many times she let me win.

I learned to play Solitaire from my grandmother, and I whiled away many an afternoon dealing those Bicycle cards into seven stacks and hoping that I would win.  Sometimes I did, but usually not.

This week, I keep finding my daughter Georgia playing Solitaire.  I taught her how to play, and when she lines up those rows of red and black, I think of Grandma and smile.

Here's a good book with lots of Solitaire games if you're interested in learning to play.

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Students - Sometimes writing ideas come from where the past and present meet.  That's how I found this one.

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I Count - My Poem Writing Year #137

There is something about knowing how MANY TIMES you can do something that is very satisfying; quantifiable results offer a certain security.  Yesterday we went to the Wyoming County Fair in Pike, NY, and Henry asked me to time him as he scurried through the bouncy obstacle course.  He was quick - 18 seconds!  

I remember shooting lay-ups in our driveway, and I remember my personal high school record as 125 consecutive baskets.  I also remember trying to pogo stick as many times as I could.  These days, my family and I count rock-skips in the creek as well as number of shooting stars seen.  Sometimes it feels good to count.

Students - in what endeavors do you time yourself or count your achievements?  These very activities might be good writing topics.

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MyPoWriYe #130 - Closet Elevator

This poem is based on a real game that I used to play in my bedroom long ago.  When I was between seven and twelve years old, I had my own closet with sliding doors.  I remember drawing a page of elevator buttons with magic markers to hang right inside.  Then, up and down I would go, arranging my room into different scenarios, lost in a world of make believe.

Students - Our imaginations grow only when we use them.  What do you like to pretend?  Allow your mind to stretch by just playing and making believe.  It's fun!  And who knows... someday you may decide to write or paint or compose music from a game you grew from your imagination.

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Poem #25 & Final TV Turnoff #7 - Boredom

Today is the final day of TV  Turnoff week.  Last Monday, I had only written one stanza of this poem.  Now, to end the week, I've added a second stanza. 

 

In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl's Oompa Loompas sing a song about poor Mike TeeVee (who turns into a television), and Roald Dahl Fans gives us the complete lyrics to this song.  Here's a bit of the Mike TeeVee song below.

What used the darling ones to do?

'How used they keep themselves contented
Before this monster was invented?'
Have you forgotten? Don't you know?
We'll say it very loud and slow:

THEY...USED...TO...READ! They'd READ and READ,

AND READ and READ, and then proceed
To READ some more. Great Scott! Gadzooks!
One half their lives was reading books!

Here's a YouTube bit of this Oompa Loompa movie song.

And here's the classic book if you haven't read it aloud in a while.

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I'm wondering if alternatives to TV would be a good poetry collection...what do you think?

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Poem #24 & TV Turnoff #6 - All Day Long

Here is a picture of our our home just a few days ago.

The Poem Farm 
(Heart Rock Farm)

Photo by Amy LV

If you look closely at the lower left part of this photo, you will see a whitish blob on the cellar doors.  It is Firepaw, one of our many drop-off cats, sunning on the warm metal.  Here is a close up of this gorgeous beast, named by our eldest daughter after one of the cats in Erin Hunter's Warriors series.

Firepaw Sunning

Photo by Amy LV

Today's TV Turnoff poem is in honor of spending more time with pets.  Sitting at my desk this evening, I had begun to write about cooking.  As I looked out the window, my ("I hate cats") husband picked up Firepaw for a secret snuggle, and the poem instantly changed direction.

Are you frequently annoyed by televisions blasting in public places?  Places like your bank, the mall, and restaurant bars?  Well, those annoyances are over.  You, too, can have a TV-B- Gone, a handy contraption attached to our keychains and available to all.  It's a universal remote, and you can just flick off those televisions wherever you find them.  Here's a review at Thingamababy.

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Poem #22, TV Turnoff #4, & Earth Day

 

Earth Day Eve 2010

Photo by Amy LV

Neither you nor I should spend any more time in front of screens than is necessary today.  Mother Earth is waiting...

Tomorrow is Poetry Friday.  Please come back to learn about some delightful poetry CDs and also a few thoughts about how rituals of poetry can deepen our classrooms and our lives.

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Poem #21 & TV Turnoff #3 - A Roll of Foil

For all time and in all corners of our world, children have played with small bits of things, making their own toys from very simple materials.  Even though we have gadgets and gizmos galore in our modern world and wealthy country, we can still do this:

 

Click the arrow to hear me read this poem to you.

This picture book about a young boy in an African village who builds his own toy vehicle out of wire scraps is a good story to recapture a sense of building something out of what may appear to be nothing.

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If you are interested in allowing children to live out their complete childhoods, you may wish to read this article by Lenore Skenazy at the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. 

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Poem #20 & TV Turnoff #2 - The Library

In my life, library use has come and gone in stages.  Our family is in an library-upswing now, regular and consistent library users, and it is grand.  We've tried new cookie recipes, crafts, and have plunged into countless stories.  Our weekly trip to the library is a time we cherish, and sometimes I wonder about all of the other hands that have turned the same pages we now turn.  (Sometimes I wonder where all of our lost books are.)

When my sister and I were little, our mom took us to the library each week, and we'd fill our deacon's bench with piles of books.  Sometimes we didn't go with Mom, and later we'd rush home, curious about what she had chosen, just for us.

For a while, during my 20s, when I was checking out stacks of books for my fifth grade classroom, the overdue fines overwhelmed me; I was afraid to walk into the library for fear of what the librarians would think of me.  I was afraid of punishment or an "evil eye", and I didn't visit often.

Then, several years ago, I read an article by my friend and much admired teacher-of-our-children, Susan Kellner.  She wrote about the strength and power of libraries, and her article in The Buffalo News invited our family right back in with five new cards and overstuffed bags of books.  At our new library, we still keep the books too long and have some fines to pay.  Now, though, every time I write a check, the librarians smile widely and say, "Oh!  We're so grateful.  Thank you for helping the library!"  Now I, too, am in library school, hoping to hold the door for new and long-lost library lovers one day.

So whether you're turning off your TV or not, let your library welcome you in.  It's free and beautiful, full of friends-to-be.  During these difficult economic times, a library is here for all of us, a place where we can find the most valuable gifts for our children and ourselves too.

If you would like today's poem-bookmark (in a somewhat larger size) as a PDF file with three per page, please just e-mail me at amy at amylv dot com with your e-mail address, and I will get it out to you today.

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NaPoWriMo Poem #19 - TV Turnoff Week!

 "According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day (or 28 hours/week, or 2 months of nonstop TV-watching per year). In a 65-year life, that person will have spent 9 years glued to the tube."

    The Sourcebook for Teaching Science 
reporting from TV-Free America

Whoa.  That's a long time.

Here at The Poem Farm ('Heart Rock Farm' is our home's real name), we do not have a television.  We do not hate televisions, we are not hostile toward televisions, and sometimes we watch television when visiting family.  We occasionally watch movies on our computer, and we have no video games.  It's just a family choice, one we actually don't talk about at all because it's always been this way.  Sometimes people ask us, "How do you LIVE without a television?"

We live well.

Living without television isn't for everyone, but for one week a year, it's healthy to turn it off and see what else happens in our lives.  As with anything we spend lots of time doing, it's good to examine and understand why we do what we do and also what we might do instead.  It's not a bad idea to think about how many commercials we watch and what seeds they plant in our minds.

It is TV Turnoff Week from today until Sunday (April 19-25), and you can find many suggestions about how to turn your own TV off for the week here at the TV Turn-Off Network.  

This week's poems will answer the question, "What should I do when my TV is dark?"  Some of the ideas will come from the sites we'll link to.  Some will be fresh.  Some may come from you!

Students - if you turn off your TV off this week, please share in the comments.  You may inspire others, and you may help with a poem idea.  Heck, you might decide to write a poem each day of this week too.  

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NaPoWriMo Poem #18 - Stories Matter

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Earlier this week, School Library Journal published a list of the top 100 Children's Novels.  And at many up-to-the-minute blogs, such as A Year of Reading, you can see this list and get cracking on your own reading or share the list with your students and encourage them to add to their own "life list" of classic books.  Students might even highlight and keep track of the books they've read in their writer's notebooks.  Librarians may wish to pull and display these books too, introducing children to new and old favorites.

On this list, Charlotte's Web, by E. B. White, comes out at number one.  Often, I have thought that the greatest compliment would be to have the last line of Charlotte's Web written on one's tombstone:

"It is not often that someone comes along 
who is a true friend and a good writer.  
Charlotte was both."

I read Charlotte's Web to our children when our eldest was five and our youngest was two.  Telling this to a friend years later, she said, "I could not read that book to my children.  It is too sad."

I thought and replied, "But someday your own mother, their grandmother, will die.  Grieving Charlotte in a safe story-place will prepare your children for that true and real-life sadness."

Books teach.  Books heal.  And tears borne through books are beautiful tears, proof of the mighty power of words.

Tomorrow begins TV Turn-Off Week, April 19-25, 2010.  Children in America spend several hours each day attached to screens.  Throughout the upcoming week, each daily (NaPoWriMo) poem will focus on something to do besides watching television. 

Teachers, please feel free to use these poems to help your students find alternative ways to spend their after-school hours this week.  And if they do...I welcome them to comment (through you!) here. 

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