Trish’s Blog

Last night we played the telephone game. You know that game where someone starts by whispering something into someone’s ear. That person gets only one listen and then must repeat it as accurately as possible to the next person in line. And it continues down the line until the last person says aloud what was whispered into his/her ear. I have always hated this game because of my hearing disability, but I have never played it with hearing aids, and it wasn’t bad. Everyone took turns starting and we had some good laughs. Especially when we let Zoe start or when I was last in line and said aloud what Josh had just whispered to me, “Help me, a unicorn is trying to kill me.” The kids all burst out laughing.

The last one we did was from an actual poem that Sarah wrote last year. None of us have ever heard it before. She has it memorized and with our encouragement, she recited the whole thing for us. One of her friends from 6th grade used to share her poems between friends and Sarah said they were kind of depressing and emo, but one day this poem just came to her. She said I could blog it.

Drops of rain fall to my face.
I wipe them off to leave no trace.
People drive by thinking I have no fears,
But they can’t see
That the rain’s really tears.

Another flash of pain strikes through my chest.
I stumble back inside, thought I know
I can’t rest.
In this house I turn away from everyone I know
I hurry to my room to pack up everything and go.

“I don’t know where to flee”
Thinks the voice inside of me.
Then I find
That I can’t.
‘Cause the hatred’s pointed at
Not him,
But only me.

We were pretty impressed, and I made a mental note to read more poetry to my children. Zack and Seth became inspired and started rhyming about poop and stuff. They thought they were hilarious. I asked Sarah to write her poem down with the date so that I could have a record of it. The boys decided that they would write theirs down, too. Here’s Seth’s:

Poo fell on my face. I Die.
Chicken’s Die, too.
(this dosn’t Make Sence)
Chickens poo on my face
From this day on…

After that, he wrote another nonsense poem, crumpled up the page to make it look old, and then gave it to Josh to read aloud. It went like, “Ugaa Ugaa tuagar par ma. are tee pee po pa.” Silly kid. We thought it was funny that he tried to make it look old, but then the date he had written at the top was 4-25-10.

I thought Zack’s was going to be just as silly, but it wasn’t bad. Josh said, “What’s it about?” and he answered, “It’s about a guy who comes in the house and shoots everybody.” Josh said, “Ok, now read it again.”

I heard footsteps on the floor.
Then I heard it on the door.
It was at a bad time.
And it was no friend of mine.
I tried it slow at first,
but it ended with a big burst.
I can not write any more.
I just lay here on the floor.

After hearing it in context, there was a little silence after he read it, and then all at once we said things like, “Whoa” or “Wow” or “Holy cow”, and then, “Good job, Zack!” It didn’t have a title when he read it to us, but after typing it up, I noticed that he put a title on it, “Just a Man”.

Now there is just one thing I would like to know… where is he getting his inspiration? He wrote it in ten minutes and then drew a cartoon picture on the back that had nothing to do with the subject of the poem. As Zoe would say, “What heck?”

Posted on April 26th, 2010 by trish
Filed under: Haley Kids, Homeschool