Swing Low, You Amazing Battle Hymn of Daisy Doodle!

As you may or may not know, I volunteer once a week and get to spend some time with some truly amazing retired sisters of St. Francis. It is my job to entertain them for a little over an hour on Tuesday nights. Usually, my partner and I do this with read-alouds, trivia questions, completing proverbs or sayings, or playing games, like kicking around a beach ball while naming ice cream toppings, kinds of birds, or the states.

Most of the games we play consist of us throwing bean bags at things. Sometimes we throw bean bags at a multi-colored rug where each color has a points value. Sometimes we try to throw the bean bags into a bucket. My favorite is when we throw bean bags at plastic bowling pins.

Last week we played the game "How many sisters does it take to knock down 10 pins?" Each sister got to throw the bean bag once, then it was passed to the next sister in the circle. The first time we played, we went around the circle many times, and the answer to our question was "21". Rest assured, however, that we got much better, especially when we started letting each sister throw three bean bags on each turn.

In an attempt to mix it up, and because the sisters enjoy singing so much, I have borrowed "The Geri-Tones" song book (I could not make this up, friends) to practice at home. Downstairs neighbor must think I'm insane because he has heard 30 minutes of the following line-up for the last several days:

"Hail, Hail The Gang's All Here" (1917)

"Yankee Doodle" (1770's)

"Amazing Grace" (1835)

"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (1857)

"O! Dear! What Can the Matter Be?" (1792)

"I've Been Working on the Railroad"

"Battle Hymn of the Republic" (1862)

"Daisy Bell" (1892)

Downstairs Neighbor and all the neighbors probably think some old lady is living up here. This musical repetiore is certainly not helping me fight the wide-spread belief that I, Ivy McDougalhopper, am an old lady.

Do you think Ludacris or Black Eyed Peas or someone that cool people listen to make piano arrangements?

Shameless Plug

My good friend Kyle recently joined a band called The Nonsense Doctors where he "slaps some bass". (I really love the movie "I Love You, Man".) . Last night, I went to go see them at the Brunswick Zone in Lakeville, MN. They were fabulous.

Check them out on their facebook page here, watch their youtube clip below, and then go see them play whenever you can!



Please note that Kyle is not in that video clip, but he's super awesome, and so is the band, so I'm sure more recent clips will be posted soon!

Knowledge is the Tickle Monster

Today with some third graders I was reading "What About Me" by Ed Young out of our Scott Foresman curriculum books. The story is about a boy who wants knowledge, so he goes to the wise man. The wise man tells the boy he cannot impart knowledge to him until he gets a rug. So the boy goes to buy a rug, but the rug maker needs thread, and the boy goes off to get some thread. Unfortunately for him, the spinner needs goat hairs to make the thread, so off the boy goes to the goatherd, who is kind of a jerk, quite frankly, and won't give the boy any goat hairs until he has a wooden pen for his goats. Then the boy goes to a carpenter who won't build the pen unless he gets a wife because he is lonely and the women in town "won't have" him.

To be honest, maybe the carpenter is unmarried and undesirable to women because he is kind of creepy and inappropriate. A child comes up to him and asks him to build a wooden pen, and the man replies that he will only if the boy can get him woman. That is no way to do business with children!

But anyway, I'm sure you can see how the story progresses without me retelling the entire thing. Now I am going to spoil the ending though, so if you're planning on running out and buying this book to read, please stop now. The boy eventually gets his rug and shows up to the wise man's place, demanding his knowledge. The wise man is all wise and annoying, telling the boy that he has already gained more knowledge than the man could ever give him just by sitting down and lecturing.

While I can't quote it exactly since the book isn't in front of me, I'll tell you that the moral of the story was two fold:
1. Sometimes it is better to give than to receive.
2. Knowledge comes to you when you least expect it.

Explaining the first moral to third graders was not difficult, since they've been hearing it year in and year out for about 9 years of their lives. The second moral was trickier.

The third grade teacher and I were trying to use student friendly language and analogies that were meaningful to our students without "dumbing down" the content. As we watched the blank looks on the 32 kids' faces become even blanker, we began squishing up our faces, trying desperately to come up with new ways to explain it.

All of a sudden, one boy sits bolt up right. His face lights up and he exclaims, "Oh! I get it!" The teacher and I are on the edge of our seats, "Yes, go on!" she says.

"Sometimes, my grandpa turns into the tickle monster. Usually, he is just Grandpa, but sometimes he becomes a tickle monster and chases me and my sister around and tickles us until we can't laugh anymore. My grandpa always says that the tickle monster will get you when you least expect it!"

There you have it, friends. Knowledge is like the tickle monster. In fact, who is to say that knowledge and tickle monsters are not synonymous. They do both, as it seems, come to you when you least expect it.

An Important Part of My Childhood I Nearly Forgot

Remember Mr. Yuk? Mr. Yuk was an important part of my childhood that I nearly forgot. They used to pass of dozens, possibly hundreds (alright, maybe I exaggerate), of these stickers to us in elementary school. If I remember correctly, and I probably don't, Mr. Yuk was tied to a health unit that was repeated every year in elementary school, much like the bus safety unit (which I fully intend on discussing at a later date).

It was made very clear that we shouldn't ever drink window cleaner, toilet bowl cleaner, or bleach, let alone mix them together into some kind of potent cleaning cocktail no matter how much the colors of these liquids resembled Kool-Aid. But liquids were not the only thing addressed. Children were also discouraged from chewing on urinal cakes, feces, brillo pads, and kitty litter. Then, just to make sure we could have no fun at all, I seem to remember my first grade teacher spending probably more time than should have been necessary explicilty instructing a room full of six year olds not to lick the outlets. That may or may not have happened. First grade was a long time ago.

This year I am co-teaching fourth grade science, social studies, and health, and, much to my disappointment, I have not seen a Mr. Yuk unit. Do you think they don't teach this unit anymore because kids have gotten smarter? Even if that is so, I am convinced it is because we used to be more inquisitive and active. We weren't stupid, drinking Kablam! because it was purple like grape Kool-Aid. No. We were little scientists, curious to see if, when mixed with Windex, Kablam! was a suitable substitute for Kool-Aid when the parents were too busy to mix some up for us. As for licking outlets, my friend Linnea would say that is a self-correcting behavior.

After learning about how consuming or licking all these things was bad for us and would cause us to turn green and keel over dead, we were given sheets and sheets of these Mr. Yuk stickers and instructed to go home, tell our parents about everything we learned, then stick these things all over the house.

Looking back on it, I am surprised more parents didn't become irate when their children started putting stickers all over everything. Sales of Goo-Gone were probably quite good when I was a kid. I wonder if Goo-Gone stock has plummeted since they've stopped handing the Mr. Yuk stickers out in the public schools.

Here is a pretty awesome commercial I cam across. Now, I wasn't even born when it aired, so it isn't technically something important from my childhood that I nearly forgot, but it is pretty awesome, so you should enjoy:

An Exciting Operatic Extravagance

I am beyond excited because yesterday I bought tickets for three operas! My seats and show dates were confirmed today!

Last February I attended "La Traviata" performed by the Minnesota Opera at the Ordway in St. Paul with Mr. Sturm. This year, I am going to be attending Mozart's "Cosi Fan Tutte" in October. The seats were ridiculously cheap, and I'm told I may have a somewhat obstructed view since I'm not terribly tall, but whatever! My plan is to bring Mr. Sturm with me again to this opera, and I was informed by the man on the phone that his height will provide him with an excellent view of the stage and the translation screen.

This will probably just give him more ammunition. Despite the fact that I am a little taller than the average female in the United States, people in Minnesota tend to be on the tall side, and Mr. Sturm is no exception. More than once he has brought up my height. Honestly, it would bother me more, but because of the spirit and motive behind the teasing, I kind of enjoy it, actually.

"Cosi Fan Tutte" is not the only opera I will be attending this season. Later on, I will be attending the world premier of "Silent Night" in November and "Madame Butterfly" in April. I was going to get tickets for "Werther", but the lady on the phone was very convincing. She not only talked me out of it, but talked me into "Silent Night". It is in four different languages and should be half decent.

Don't I lead an exciting life? I think so.