Homeschool Conference!!!


Look at all those beautiful little feet two people can create!

Look at all those beautiful little feet two people can create!

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Green Eggs and Ham are served...

March 2nd marked the birth date of a man who has had a great deal of influence over this household.

Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known to the world as the beloved Dr. Seuss, was born in 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts.  He credited his mother with both his ability and desire to create the rhymes for which he became so well known; it is said that she often soothed her children to sleep by "chanting" rhymes remembered from her youth.  (just had to add that in, since I'm the Mom and I love to see the influence mothers have had on their children)

In honor of his birthday, we decided to have a little party...
I love a good reason for a party!!!
We started out the day in a most celebratory sort of way...
Green Eggs and Ham were prepared and served...
 
and then looked at and moved about on the plates.
"Sam I do not like them" applied very well. 
There was just something about food being turned GREEN that made it somewhat undesirable to put into our mouths.  (I have to admit that it was even a bit of a challenge for me)

Following our attempt at breakfast, we had a marathon reading day.  We took turns reading every book by Dr. Seuss that we own...then we moved on to our local library and checked out everything they had...we followed it all up by watching all of our Dr. Seuss videos.  And somewhere in the midst of all of our reading and watching we threw in some time to choose some of our favorite quotes by him.  We wrote the quotes out and decorated them accordingly and then scattered them throughout our home.  These quotes have been enjoyed over and over and over again as they've hung on our walls.  Some make you snicker and some have tremendous insight...following are some of our favorites:

(These are no particular order)

"Why fit in when you were born to Stand Out?"

"Step with care and great tact
 and remember that Life's a great balancing act
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft
and never mix up your right foot with your left."

"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple."

"I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. 
Some come from ahead and some come from behind.
But I've brought a BIG bat.  I'm all ready you see.
Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!"

"Today you are you,
that is truer than true.
There in no one alive
who is YOU'er than YOU!"

"From there to here,
from here to there,
Funny things are everywhere!"

"Think and wonder,
wonder and think...."

"If things start happening,
don't worry, dont' stew,
just go right along
and you'll start happening too!"

"You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction YOU choose!"

"Don't grumble! 
Don't stew!
Some critters are much-much,
Oh, ever so much-much,
So muchly much-much more unlucky
than you!"

"And will you succeed?
YES!  You will indeed!"

"Be who you are
and say what you feel
because those who mind
don't matter
and those who matter
don't mind."

"Don't cry because it's over,
SMILE because it happened."

"Look at me!
Look at me!
Look at me NOW!
It is fun to have fun
But you have to know how!"

"We are all a little weird
and life's a little weird,
and when we find someone whose weirdness
is compatible with ours,
we join up with them
and fall in mutual weirdness
and call it Love."

"I like Nonsense,
it wakes up the brain cells.
Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living!"

"Just tell yourself,
Duckie, you're really quite Lucky!"

"When you're in love you can't sleep anymore,
because Reality is finally better
than your dreams!"

"You'll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut."

"My trouble was I had a mind
but couldn't make it up!"

"Unless someone like YOU
cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better.
It's not."


SO why do I care about Dr. Seuss? 
Why do I feel he was worthy of spending an entire homeschooling day on? 
(other than the fact that I love to have a good party) 
What lessons could be learned from this man?

To begin with, children find his stories delightful...
as you read along, your mouth can't help but have a little fun as it twists around all of his crazy words!
He is whimsical and nonsensical...
I find these charming qualities to share with children. 
I love the imagination he exemplifies. 
And that speaks nothing of his determination. 
While studying his life, we learned that his first book,
 And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.png
was rejected 27 times before it was finally accepted and published.
I love the example this teaches...NEVER give up...what would have happened if he had given up the first time or the 10th time or even the 25th time???  I loved having this discussion with our kids.

While I may not agree with everything about this man, I choose to focus on things that I found valuable to share with our kids.  We had a truly delightful day and have enjoyed the quotes hanging all about our home for the past few weeks.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss and thank you for ALL you have blessed us with!
You make for one great party day!

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