I am teaching a creative writing class for Cypress Homeschool Co-op. We meet every Monday and I am going to be posting an overview of what we covered each week in class. That way for those of you who couldn't take my class because of distance and/or time you may participate on the internet if you choose to do so. You could email me or post directly to this blog in hopes that we can share our love of creative writing with each other. So anyone who is interested just dive right in! I will post assignments so just complete the assignment and follow along. The first assignment is more fun with several people but it can also be completely independent.
January 12: Collaborative Introduction to Creative Writing
Two people come out of a building and into a story. Who are they? What are they doing? Sit in a circle. Write for 5 minutes then pass to the left. Once you get your own story back read it over.
To help people organize their ideas and thoughts Chris has created a simple program that allows people to create an outline. It is simple but it organizes things in a central place so you can brainstorm and write on the same page. You can save it and go back and work on it as needed (no scattered papers just scattered thoughts). If you would like to try this out just let us know and we will e-mail you a copy.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
This week in School
Peter wanted to say "Hi Cousins!" This week in school we talked about marsupial mammals. We read the book "Pocket Babies". Koala Bears have pouches towards their back side and their babies eat their poop because it has special bacteria... yuck! Opossum babies are born really tiny called embryons and they live in their mommies pouch until they are bigger. Kangaroo babies are very similar to Opossums, they are born naked and crawl to their mommies pouch (a short but very dangerous journey) and grow bigger there. The Kangaroo mommy can then get pregnant again and baby #2 can wait in mommies tummy (stops growing and just waits called embryonic diapause or "delayed birth") until baby #1 leaves the pouch. Interesting! Children and parents are both learning!
Peter counted to 20 and is learning to add without his fingers. We read books about mammals as well Wall-E, Bible story books, Dinosaurs, Sharks. Thursday is our library day and we spent an hour reading book after book. Then after that we had our Spanish Story-time where we learned the word for bird: Pajaro! Joey tried his best to say "Gracias" (Thanks) and showed really adorable effort.
Peter misses his cousins and we hope to figure out a way to see our family. Its hard to have family spread so far apart. But Peter has made several friends here closeby which helps. We have a friend Christine around the corner (who also homeschools) with her two children named Owen and Maryanne the same ages as Peter and Sam. Christine came by yesterday and took Joe, Sam and Peter along with her two children to the park. I had to go buy a few things at the store. They had a great time.
For any of you sceptical or curious about homeschooling check this out:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=85408
Peter counted to 20 and is learning to add without his fingers. We read books about mammals as well Wall-E, Bible story books, Dinosaurs, Sharks. Thursday is our library day and we spent an hour reading book after book. Then after that we had our Spanish Story-time where we learned the word for bird: Pajaro! Joey tried his best to say "Gracias" (Thanks) and showed really adorable effort.
Peter misses his cousins and we hope to figure out a way to see our family. Its hard to have family spread so far apart. But Peter has made several friends here closeby which helps. We have a friend Christine around the corner (who also homeschools) with her two children named Owen and Maryanne the same ages as Peter and Sam. Christine came by yesterday and took Joe, Sam and Peter along with her two children to the park. I had to go buy a few things at the store. They had a great time.
For any of you sceptical or curious about homeschooling check this out:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=85408
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Baby Will
I posted several videos and I can't forget William. He can't sing but we got a good one of him falling asleep during dinner. Its taken with our camera so there is no sound. So funny!
This and That
Peter wants to say a few things:
I had a breakfast and meet the teacher activity on Saturday for church and I had a good time. And I am in 6-7 year old class now and Dawn Mangum is my teacher. I will be bigger soon. I am going to build a brick house and take care of it. I am going to have toys, TV, DVD player and movies, oh and food. I will get a Christmas tree and have a car. Where is the brick house going to be? In the back yard. I can buy toys at the store and play with them when I am big and have my own money. Joe will probably live with me but Sam is going to build his own brick house in the backyard. And we'll have our own kid laptops that Grandma Clements gave us so we can go to work. We need two doors so that I have a backyard too. I will be great in my brick house that I build. I'll do good with a car driving.
I like playing with my brothers every day. Will is great fun to play with. We are going to have lots of children and lots of birthdays. The next one is going to be a girl because I like girls and because I prayed about it and my prayers always come true.
We ate breakfast. I am doing great with homeschool. I want to do reading time and make words. In math time I want to Monopoly Junior. I am going to start playing the piano by myself and Mom is going to teach me.
I got a Spiderman toys for Christmas. We opened our stockings one time and there was lots of things inside my favorite was Legos and a Slinky and I got a Transformer shirt. Sam got a slinky too and he got big Legos. He opened a present with a fire engine. I got a radio thing to use in the bath. Joe got a slinky too and he got Legos too. He got Tinker Toys. We had fun.
We have a foreign exchange student again named Phillip and we like him. (We have had 2 foreign exchange students: Andrew and now Phillip: each temporarily while they find permanent host families, it has been good to try out how it all works.) I remember Andrew coming here. We liked Andrew and hope he comes back someday and goes to his home. My favorite thing to do is play Legos. We like each other. Here is me singing Jingle Bells. And that's the end.
I had a breakfast and meet the teacher activity on Saturday for church and I had a good time. And I am in 6-7 year old class now and Dawn Mangum is my teacher. I will be bigger soon. I am going to build a brick house and take care of it. I am going to have toys, TV, DVD player and movies, oh and food. I will get a Christmas tree and have a car. Where is the brick house going to be? In the back yard. I can buy toys at the store and play with them when I am big and have my own money. Joe will probably live with me but Sam is going to build his own brick house in the backyard. And we'll have our own kid laptops that Grandma Clements gave us so we can go to work. We need two doors so that I have a backyard too. I will be great in my brick house that I build. I'll do good with a car driving.
I like playing with my brothers every day. Will is great fun to play with. We are going to have lots of children and lots of birthdays. The next one is going to be a girl because I like girls and because I prayed about it and my prayers always come true.
We ate breakfast. I am doing great with homeschool. I want to do reading time and make words. In math time I want to Monopoly Junior. I am going to start playing the piano by myself and Mom is going to teach me.
I got a Spiderman toys for Christmas. We opened our stockings one time and there was lots of things inside my favorite was Legos and a Slinky and I got a Transformer shirt. Sam got a slinky too and he got big Legos. He opened a present with a fire engine. I got a radio thing to use in the bath. Joe got a slinky too and he got Legos too. He got Tinker Toys. We had fun.
We have a foreign exchange student again named Phillip and we like him. (We have had 2 foreign exchange students: Andrew and now Phillip: each temporarily while they find permanent host families, it has been good to try out how it all works.) I remember Andrew coming here. We liked Andrew and hope he comes back someday and goes to his home. My favorite thing to do is play Legos. We like each other. Here is me singing Jingle Bells. And that's the end.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Peter's first blog entry
Peter:
I have been watching Dungeons and Dragons. We went to Billy Binns birthday party a few weeks ago. We have been playing with toys like Transformers a lot. We have been drawing guys and books lately.
Yesterday, we cleaned up and we go lots of places like the zoo and Wal-Mart. I liked the elephants and the gift shops. I also liked the Antelope and the long horned steers they had there. I wanted to write the word Christmas.
I have been watching Dungeons and Dragons. We went to Billy Binns birthday party a few weeks ago. We have been playing with toys like Transformers a lot. We have been drawing guys and books lately.
Yesterday, we cleaned up and we go lots of places like the zoo and Wal-Mart. I liked the elephants and the gift shops. I also liked the Antelope and the long horned steers they had there. I wanted to write the word Christmas.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)