Sandra Dodd

Yesterday's chat was about language arts, and one thing I wrote was
"
Sandra Dodd: Choosing words for their sound, in a phrase, or for their connotation.
Sandra Dodd: Those are language as an art. How do the words sound in the air? Sometimes something looks great, on paper, but when it's spoken aloud it's ambiguous, or difficult to hear and understand because of a lack of consonants between vowels. :-)



Last night Marty and I were watching a documentary on Buddhist nuns, "Sisters of Ladakh." Part of the narration included the term "inner energy."

Marty says they should come up with a better term for "inner energy." Maybe just call it "innergy."

When the script was written, "inner energy" probably looked fine, on paper.

http://sandradodd.com/languagearts
Exploring words and what people do with words, and where they came from, is a good way for new unschoolers to deschool a little bit--to play freely in and around material that could be, sometimes is, taught in school, but that can be explored for fun.

Sandra

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teresa

We had one of these the other day. We were trying wood burning for the first time, and in a quick Google search for a how-to video and design ideas, we learned that wood burning is also called pyrography, drawing with fire. My oldest, Woody, was very impressed with the meaning of that word, and my littlest, Fox, thought the word sounded like pirate, which was just dandy to him because at the craft store they'd each picked out wooden "swords" (actually crosses) to wood burn designs into.

It turned out that drawing with fire was every bit as intimidating as it sounds. But the playing with words, ideas, and associations was great fun!


Teresa

P.S. There's a picture of one of the swords on my blog, http://honeyhousehomeschool.blogspot.com/2012/08/pyrography.html.

Deb Lewis

That link didn’t work. I think this is the right one:
http://sandradodd.com/language/

***Marty says they should come up with a better term for "inner energy." Maybe just call it "innergy."***

I like Marty’s word. What is “inner energy?” When talking about the energy of individuals doesn’t it all come from the inside? It must be a spiritual thing I don’t relate to. Maybe I don’t have that innergy.

It seems like “personal opinion” to me. Is there another kind of opinion?

I like word games, like book titles that don’t quite work: The Male Siblings Karamazov. The Doggy of the Baskervilles. The Guy in the Heavy Metal Mask.

But back to innergy. I’m am lately amused by the new agey writing and quotes posted at Facebook. Many of them seem to be words chosen for sound alone without thought to the meaning of the sentence.
A fun example is the Deepak Chopra quote generator here:
http://www.wisdomofchopra.com/

Deb Lewis





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Sandra Dodd

Teresa, I know someone names Therese Honey who lives in Houston and plays harp. :-)

I was going to leave a note at your blog, but it doesn't take notes. Another way to burn wood is with a magnifying glass. It's slow, but interesting. It helps to find something to prop your hand on so you can move slowly.

If "pyrography" is fire writing, maybe "pirategraphy" would be those cool maps with an X marking the spot. :-)

Sandra

teresa

There's something terrifically full-circley about this discussion coming round to magnifying glasses and pirate maps! Gosh, those word parts can take you *anywhere*!

I had another bit to add, to the part about word play being free and easy, harkening to school for some, and so being an opportunity for deschooling when it comes up sitting around on a Sunday morning in pajamas or floating in the lake on a Thursday afternoon. It's about numbers play, but I think the point carries.

Just yesterday morning, Woody went out to sit with my mom on the porch while she drank her coffee. (We're nearing the end of our month-long visit to her here in Florida.) They were out there for a while, happily, and then Woody came in to do something else. My mom later told me that they had been playing his "challenge game," where they were to try and stump each other with additions problems that were really hard to do in one's head. Only of course there was the difference of perspective of what constituted a hard math problem. So she was tickled that his eyes would get really big, and he'd say in this weighty voice, "Sixty plus ELEVEN!" As if that would be the game-stopper. :)

Like word play, it was free, spontaneous, easy, and an opener to something much larger--a very sweet moment between a little boy and his grandmother who, not too long ago, was worried that if I hoomeschooled him, I'd never know if he was learning.

I don't presume to know what she was thinking at the time about learning in or out of school, but I could tell by the way she told the story that it was a happy moment for her and one in which an important relationship was strengthened.

Teresa
mama to Woody (6 1/2) and Fox (3 1/2)



--- In [email protected], Sandra Dodd <Sandra@...> wrote:
>
> Teresa, I know someone names Therese Honey who lives in Houston and plays harp. :-)
>
> I was going to leave a note at your blog, but it doesn't take notes. Another way to burn wood is with a magnifying glass. It's slow, but interesting. It helps to find something to prop your hand on so you can move slowly.
>
> If "pyrography" is fire writing, maybe "pirategraphy" would be those cool maps with an X marking the spot. :-)
>
> Sandra
>