Seize the Day

Okay, great job, everyone! Time to move on and think a little bigger.

For this week's assignment, think hard and remember the halls of your high school. What's that you say? You're home schooled?? You're (take your pick) not in high school, already finished with high school, a home school mom, or ..... the halls of your home school are covered with hand prints? Great, just the audience I thought I was addressing.

So, think of that dear school; try hard to remember it. Close your eyes if you need to (or open them and look around if you are still there!).....and this week, try your hand at writing an alma mater for your beloved school.

Alma mater ..... that would be very loosely translated : school song. (The phrase can also refer to your beloved school.) If several of you share the same school, you have several options. You can put your heads together to come up with a good song, you can each write a verse, or you can each write a song. You can put it to music if you like, although you'll have to figure out a way to share the tune with us. You can still write it if you've already graduated (or, uh, flunked out). If by chance you want to write one for a non-home school you've attended (college or any other school), even if they already have one, you can make up one of your own. If you've already written one for your school, we'd love to hear it! Or maybe you want to save that for a time when you can spend more time to make it perfect. No problem, just come up with a fun one for now.

Your song can be serious or silly, but make it something that shows the special-ness of your school. It can be long or short. This is not meant to be an act of worship for your school, but it is a kind of tribute, through which you can bring tears to the eyes of the singer.... or make them giggle as they remember. Whatever. It's your song.

(By the way, any home school teachers reading this post, you don't have to go back through the halls of time and write about the school you went to - unless you want to. You can work on one - alone or with help - for the place where you teach, or have taught. And if everyone in your family prefers to work alone, it's perfectly all right if we end up with 5 alma maters for the Podunk Home Academy of Flexible Learning. Or whatever your school is called.)

As an example, I researched alma maters & found a web site where some people were discussing writing them.
Here's a clip -- and someone called Southport Jim's brief and rather cute attempt. Please excuse his use of the "s" word below ; it's pretty much a no-no at our house : )

Conrats!! :D My high school had a terribly stupid alma mater . . .
High school Alma Maters are SUPPOSED to be terribly stupid...it's an incentive to graduate and go off to college so you never have to hear it again!
Worked pretty well for me...

"All hail to thee our high school,
Our hats are off to thee,
Forever you will find us,
Deedle de de deedle dee!"
Go BULLDAWGS! ;-)
(http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-38304.html)

If you want, you can also research some real ones to get a feel for them. But remember to make it yours. Make it something that brings your school -- or the people who attend/teach/ live there -- to mind.

Happy singing..... I'd better go find my Kleen-ex box.

Write Right, All RIght?

Thanks for the beautiful psalms you posted. I was very blessed.

Okay, time for something easy. Time to try your hand at making a sentence that uses a word (or something that sounds like the word) in more than one way. A little like our recent puns, but not exactly. Personally, I get very confused by the whole homophone / homonym thing, but you can use words that are spelled the same - or not. They just have to sound alike. You can post as many times as you want, and seek to be original or interesting. You can write a sentence, a poem, a song if you like. Use two or more words that sound the same. You might even have 3 pairs of words in your sentence.

But think along these lines:
I blew that silly balloon until my face was blue!
OR
How I long for the long days of summer.

Now, surprise us with how original you can be!

My Heart is Overflowing with a Good Theme.....

When you look at the top of this page, do you see a verse? It should say:

My heart is overflowing with a good theme; I recite my composition concerning the King; My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. - Psalm 45 : 1

So this week, let's do that. I would love to see you write a psalm. No, it won't be Scripture. Scripture is God's Word, alive and sacred. But, do you think you could write a psalm from your own perspective?

If you don't know where to begin, you might choose a specific chapter (or part of a chapter) from Psalms, and use its structure to write your own "psalm." You might want to reflect its excitement, reassurance or faith, with utmost reverence, but from a slightly new environment.

For example, just as David used the analogy of a shepherd caring for his sheep, you might express how God cares for you sort of like you care for your _______. Tell about praising Him with musical instruments you know, or how he protects you from different enemies than the Old Testament Psalmist faced. You decide. If you elect to use a particular Psalm as a model, please let us know which Psalm (or verses) you are using, so that we can read it and see what inspired you.

Our entries will be "psalms," or songs of praise, colored a bit by our culture, but we'll never presume that they are Scripture themselves!

So, hoping the assignment is clear, I look forward to your "composition concerning the King." May He be honored in all we do.

Curds, Anyone?

New category: I had thought about asking you to rewrite or add to some nursery rhyme for your new challenge, but I've decided that is too broad. Instead, I'm providing the rhyme.
Remember this one?

Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet
Eating her curds and whey.
Along came a spider
That sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Muffet away.

Well, here is your chance to be the next Mother Goose (or Father Gander)! You may rewrite the above verse in any way you want. You may change her name, the name of whatever in the world she's sitting on, her visitor, you name it. Or you may use the poem just as it is an add a second verse to follow it up. So pull up a tuffet, scratch your head, and jot something down! You don't need an example this time. Maybe I'll add one in later....