I Wish I Could Quit You

Tis the season of curriculum choices. It used to be so fun to go through all of the different choices and think, "finally, I've got it. This is the perfect book/system that will teach the children the way they need and will keep them in their seats for more than a minute at a time." It's been long enough though, that I know there is no way they're going to stay in their seats so I don't even look at what's out there.

I realized the other day though that I spent the whole day talking and giving instruction. By the end of the day I was tired. Tired of hearing my own voice and of having to explain things over and over. I was ready to ditch MCT--too much talking, AoPS--to much looking over the book and asking, "do you understand why this is?", just too much.

So I decided that next year I wasn't going to do two levels of MCT anymore. We were going to go with WWS and be done with it. (Hang on, there's a point to this story.)

Yesterday Harry and I read in his World of Poetry (MCT Voyage Level Poetry) about what MCT considers "Funny Feet." The pyrrhic foot, amphibrach, and amphimacer apparently aren't well known in English poetry but might come up sometimes, so they are in the book. (Granted that I have a MS and have never heard of them, but that's okay.) For some reason the Funny Feet just seemed hilarious. We spent about ten minutes just saying the words. We absolutely cracked ourselves up. 

Then I read a similar chapter on meter in Sam's Building Poems (MCT Town Level Poetry) and he already knew everything because he had listened into Harry and I talking about dactyls and spondee. His assignment was to write four four-line poems using four different meters that included four of the same words. And after only a little hemming and hawing he wrote his first hilariously funny poem.

Later at the grocery store Harry came up and told me, "Hey Mom, you know what would be funny, a poem made up of only spondee with phyrric foot." 

After that we decided if we ever created our own superhero, his battle cry would be "Spondee!"

So, I will go ahead and order the next levels of MCT Language Arts. And just get used to the idea that I'll continue to spend the next few years explaining, cajoling, and giggling. Because really, it's worth it. 

SPONDEE!