Andrew and Danielle have entered the home stretch for school...they are both pretty excited about it. Danielle has passed off her last poem for the year (they are required to memorize a poem for every grading period...they have the option to choose from several their teacher has selected.) Her last one was "Pussywillows" by Aileen Fisher, and goes,
Close your eyes and do not peek
And I'll rub spring across your cheek
Smooth as satin, soft and sleek
Close your eyes and do not peek.
She has really enjoyed her poetry, and I think it is so cool that they have this assignment. I wish there had been some similar requirement when I was in school. My poetry memorizer is definitely not as good as my kids, that's for sure.
Andrew is halfway through memorizing his last poem...being for a fourth-grader, it is significantly longer and more difficult. His current poem is "Daffodils" by William Wordsworth
I wandered lonely as a cloud
that float on high o'er hills and vales
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee
A poet could not but be gay
In such jocund company
I gazed---and gazed---but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
The flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude
And then my heart with pleasure fills
And dances with the daffodils.
Andrew really reminds me of his Grandmother Israelsen;
he is constantly choosing poetry that speaks of the loveliness of nature, and its effects on us.
I remember as a child how often she would stop and show me something small and intricate in nature that I would have otherwise missed. My wife now makes fun of me for doing the same thing...I guess I was taught well.
It's exciting to see my kids progress like this, but it is tough at the same time. I'm not ready for them to be a year older, much less teenagers or twenty-somethings...I hear it comes too quickly. It won't be long before I'm sitting up by the kitchen table at night waiting for one of them to come back from a first date, or hoping I've taught them well enough when they venture off to college to keep them from making painful mistakes. I guess I'd better enjoy every single moment now, while they're small and I still know everything, huh?
Reminds me of the Alabama song, "Thank God for Kids"... or the song "Tough Little Boys" by Gary Allan, or best of all, "Butterfly Kisses" by Bob Carlisle. Man, I'm a sap for country music tearjerkers, I guess!
Watch more Religious music videos at EZ-Tracks
Long story short, I LOVE my kids! Can't imagine life without them or their mother. They are my reason for living, the wind beneath my wings...whatever corny catchphrase you can come up with, they are it! What a blessing it is to be a Daddy!
