Charcoal & Children
Lessons November/December (3-11)
My blog has been crazy. Just crazy. We did the thirty days of Elul, followed directly by the Rosh Ha’Shana posts, followed by the Yom Kippur posts, followed by the Sukkot posts. Then I had a reprieve and could do some normal writing in between, but there was Halloween and costuming distracting me, and 17 Cheshvan, and then Election posts, at which point the entire family was sick for three out of four weeks of November, which cut into my putting together of posts. We recovered just in time for Thanksgiving on it’s heels, followed closely by Hanukkah, then 12/21 and then X-mess. *WHEW!!* And of course we’d started school in there, way back after Sukkot, and do you think I’ve had five seconds to do any adventure posts, picture posts, SOTW posts, or art posts? Heck, no! I was lucky to squeeze in a Thankful Thursday, here and there!
So here I am. Playing catch-up on the school blogs I should’ve been posting all along (but didn’t have room for). Which… y’know, I’ve had that Math lapbook sitting in the wings since… October? And the charcoal lesson of ‘Cup n’ Curl’… that was October, too, I think. Just waiting for it’s time to slip in and go public on my site.
Then, I got this idea. An amazing idea. We would do a poem not on our AO poetry list. We’d do ‘The Night Before Christmas’, but we’d do it in little segments, over November/December. It’d get us in the mood, it’d be fun, it’d be like telling a story with our artwork! So we did! And because it would take WAY too much room, I’m going to do the artwork a little differently this time. I’m going to do a ‘collage’ of our pictures that you can enlarge, to see how everyone interpreted the phrases. I printed the poem in grey broken up to match the pictures, and we got those report covers from the dollar store, and put together little picture books for each child to keep. They turned out REALLY nice, too!!
NoTe: As always, click the collage to enlarge for a better look at the artwork. The pictures with no name on them are Brian’s – I wrote the kids’ names on their easels, but not Brian’s. Also, I’m still working on getting a photo editor that doesn’t blow chunks. It took three programs to get these, and I don’t like the results, even then. Still… click in and have a look!
T’was the Night before Christmas
(Now correctly attributed to Major Henry Livingston, Jr.)
T’was the night before Christmas and all thru the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
in the hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.
The children were nestled, all snug in their beds,
while visions of sugarplums danced in their heads.
And Mama in her kerchief, and I in my cap,
had just settled down for a long winter’s nap.
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter –
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash…
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer,
With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
“Now, DASHER! now, DANCER! now, PRANCER and VIXEN!
On, COMET! on CUPID! on, DONDER and BLITZEN!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”
As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too.
And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my hand, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.
His eyes — how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT!”
