National Poetry Month Resources

April is National Poetry Month. I forgot about it until I read Becky's blog post about it. Thanks for the reminder, Becky, and for pointing me to some resources.

Here are some resources that I found in the order that I found them:

The GottaBook Blog is hosting a special 30 Poets/30 Days feature for April. Every day in April he will be posting a previously unpublished poem by a different poet and he provides a list of the participating poets on his blog. Sounds like something worth checking out. I haven't jumped on the Twitter wagon yet but if you have apparently you can following the 20poets30day on Twitter. The blog features mostly children's literature so I'm thinking these will be poems suitable for children.

On The League of Canadian Poets National Poetry Month Blog 2009 different League member's work will be featured each day during the month of April. I think this is more for adults. Unfortunately this is the only Canadian source that I could find.

Coloring and activities, craft ideas, and lesson plans from Crayola Calendar

The Academy of American Poets has a National Poetry Month page.
They offer a number of resources for poems to read. I signed up for their "poem a day" email. Their Great Poems to Teach page has a list, along with complete text of, 341 poems taught successfully in highschool classes. The Animated Text Flow Poems page has over 50 poems in flash animation.
They also offer a number of resources to help in writing poems. The NaPoWriMo Pledge Drive page challeges you to write and post a poem each day in April, they even have a board where you can post your poems, whether you participate in the pledge drive or not. In the Poet's Workshop there are three poem writing ideas: Poems Based on Works of Art, Give Chance a Chance, Unexpected Odes. The challenges are more fulling explained in the "Post and Workshop" message board posts so be sure to click through to check it out.

While reading The Academy of American Poets
Poem in Your Pocket Day page I thought about the PocketMod site I recently found and how it would work great for this. It gives instruction on how to fold a single sheet of paper into a 6 page mini booklet that will fit in your pocket. They even have a widget that you can use to design your booklet and you could use the custom page under the personal tab to type in a poem or poems you want to use.

I learned about the RePoWriMo (Refrigerator Poetry Writing Month) Blog through the boards on the Academy of American Poets site. The challenge it to write a poem a day using poetry magnets. If you don't have any you could always make your own or you can use the Online Magnetic Poetry site or the Shadow Poetry's Magnetic Word Poetry site.

The English Room's 30 Days of Poetry site is a couple of years old but the suggestions are still great. It offers 30 Days of ooetry writing ideas especially geared to middle and high school students.

On The Rubber Stamping Blog is a challenge to use poems on/in homemade cards, and for those that think poems must rhyme there is a link to Rhyme Zone for rhyming help. This is a really neat, fun tool for finding words that rhyme with your chosen word.

I have decided to make a special National Poetry Month blog for Canadian Home Educating bloggers. It is a place to share poems you or your children have read and also poems you or your children have written.

Inspired by the Academy of American Poets Poetry Read-a-thon idea, I am inviting Homeschooling Canadian bloggers to use the blog to serve as a master log to record and share the lists of poems they read during the month. You can also use the journaling prompt suggestions on the Poetry Read-a-thon to journal about the poems. Use power point or some such program to turn one of your favorite poems into an Animated Text Flow Poem or create and share a Free Verse Project using lines from your favorite poem.

Inspired by the NaPoWriMo Pledge Drive page I am inviting Homeschooling Canadian bloggers to use the blog to share poems that they write during April.

Wow! I didn't realize...

...it's been over a month since I posted here! Life has been crazy. I feel like the whole month of February was just a big blur.

I've been wanting to blog but not really sure what I wanted to say. Still feeling that way, actually. There's so much I want to share but I don't know where to start so I decided to finally just start and see what happens.

A year from the day he was diagnosed with cancer, FIL recieved his promotion to heaven. It was a day of mixed emotions - sadness because our time with him on earth had ended, relief that he was no longer suffering, and happiness that he was now walking the streets of gold.

The past year has been a stressful time for my family in many ways, but it's also been a time of growth. I hope we can hold on to the lessons we learned and continue to grow.

Anyway, I needed to get that off my chest before I could start posting about other things. I'm hoping to get back into posting more regularly but we'll have to wait and see if that actually happens or not.

The Financial Fitness Challenge

Have you heard about The Financial Fitness Challenge? I got an email about it today and was encouraged to pass the information on. It looks really neat. It is "an educational program designed to enrich the financial literacy of Canadian students sponsored by the Canadian Securities Administrators." There's a chance for children between the ages of 15 & 21 to win one of 13 scholarship prizes.

Here's some quotes from the email:

The Financial Fitness Challenge offers Canadian students the tools necessary to improve their financial education through the use of interactive activities, financial tips, and an online quiz. If students complete the quiz successfully they are entered into a draw to win one of 13 scholarship prizes worth $750, which can be used towards at-home curriculums. The contest runs February 2, 2009 to February 28, 2009.
This year, the Financial Fitness Challenge focuses on building partnerships with not only Canadian students, but with teachers, schools, parents and homeschooling networks like yours so that all Canadian students have a strong support system for understanding and enhancing their financial literacy. As a result, the Financial Fitness Challenge Website offers a multitude of resources to help parents and teachers engage their students with the program both at home and at school.

Be sure to take the time to check it out.

Family Literacy Day World Record Attempt

Heard about this from Alex. Family Literacy Day, established in Canada in 1999, is celebrated January 27 every year. To celebrate the 10th year anniversary, this year Canada is going for a world record - Most Children Reading with an Adult, Multiple Locations. The world record breaking attempt will take place January 23-24. To participate in the record breaking you can join a registered event or you can set up your own event. The deadline for registering an event is January 22. Be sure to check out all the requirements here. I'd love to hear from you about how you plan to take part.

Check out my new adventure!

I've challenged myself, and family and friends, to transform from Couch Potatoes to Road Runners in 2009.

It's been a long time!

I was having computer troubles and avoiding the computer as much as possible so as not to give into the urge to pitch it through the window. Thanks to my mom and sister, I now have a brand new laptop, so computer troubles are gone and I'm ready to get back on track. Now I have to get used to the new keyboard and the new operating system. :) Fun! Fun!! Fun!!!

3 years old!

That's how old Little One is today and here she is trying out her birthday gift - her very own digital camera!



And here she is trying out her camera in the field. She insisted we had to go on a hike so she could take some pictures.



I'm sure you will be seeing some of her pictures in future posts. :)