Writing - Eva Varga

Langston Hughes was one of the most important writers and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance, which was the African American artistic movement in the 1920s that celebrated black life and culture. Hughes’s creative genius was influenced by his life in New York City’s Harlem, a primarily African American neighborhood.

His literary works helped shape American literature and politics. Hughes, like others active in the Harlem Renaissance, had a strong sense of racial pride. Through his poetry, novels, plays, essays, and children’s books, he promoted equality, condemned racism and injustice, and celebrated African American culture, humor, and spirituality.

Upon recently reading Langston Hughes’ poem, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, my children were inspired to write a poem of their own. Here’s Jeffrey’s …

rivers

I’ve Known Rivers

I’ve known rivers.

I’ve known the Rogue.

My papa taught me to cast,

to bait,

to reel in my catch.

I’ve known rivers.

I’ve known the Coquille.

The waves thrashing

and crashing against the rocky shore.

I’ve known rivers.

I’ve known the Sixes.

I found a snake, it took me to a world of nature.

I’ve known rivers.

I’ve known the Deschutes.

The snapping, crackling of the tiny waterfalls.

I’ve known rivers.

I’ve known the Sacramento.

The icy touch of the deep, dark as night.

The waves roaring, crashing on the rocks.

I’ve known rivers.

I’ve known the Yu Long.

The bamboo rafts floating

atop the emerald water.

I’ve known rivers.

~ by Jeffrey, age 8

You can read Langston Hughes’ original, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, posted on PoetryFoundation.org

Few hobbies match the flexibility of stamp collecting. It is suitable for nearly all ages. You can collect stamps all 12 months of the year regardless of the climate where you are located and it does not require any special skills or great wealth. Stamp collecting has provided us with a wealth of educational opportunities, integrating all subject areas.

Philately is the study of stamps and postal history and other related items. Philately involves more than just stamp collecting. Stamp collecting is the accumulation of material related to the payment of postage and the carriage of the mails. In addition to traditional postage stamps, many philatelists — the fancy word for stamp collectors — also collect covers, envelopes that carried mail. Some individuals also collect markings or labels applied to mail including postage meters.

Stamp collecting provides hours of educational opportunities as collectors research the images depicted on the stamps. My daughter has learned how to identify birds by scientific order. My son has learned how the engine has changed transportation and he is now learning about bridge construction and engineering.

If one chooses to exhibit, additional learning opportunities abound. In the months we have been exhibiting, the kids have learned word processing, aesthetics of display, how to care for mint stamps, and oral & written communication skills. Stamp collecting has become so important to them that they each do extra chores to earn money to buy mint stamps themselves and make lists of stamps they hope Santa will leave in their stockings.

Collecting and exhibiting has also enabled us to travel; we attended the APS Stamp Show last year when it was in Sacramento where my daughter’s Birds of the World exhibit placed high enough to earn an invitation to the Youth Champion of Champions at the annual NAPEX show. While we couldn’t attend that show (it was in Virginia), we were able to submit her exhibit by mail and her entry was selected for the WESTPEX Flora and Fauna Award.

A couple of great links to help you get started:

American Philatelic Society – the largest, non-profit organization for stamp collectors in the world. Founded in 1886, the APS serves collectors, educators, postal historians, and the general public by providing a wide variety of programs and services.

American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors – a worldwide organization of stamp collectors who exhibit their collections competitively and work together for the betterment of philatelic exhibiting and judging standards and practices.

If you have enjoyed this post, you may be interested in my earlier posts about stamp collecting, the fascinating hobby of philately.

Do you collect stamps or related ephemera? Tell us a little about what you collect and how you got started.

When Sweetie started fly tying earlier this year, she learned of a scholarship opportunity to attend Fish Camp. She expressed interest in going to camp and talked of it frequently. Under the tutelage of experts, the young anglers learn the fundamentals of casting, fly fishing techniques, advanced fly tying, and outdoor skills through an award winning summer fly fishing camp located in Northern California. Surrounded by miles of private stream and fish-filled lakes that provide the ideal fresh-air classroom, the kids have a blast catching (and releasing) lots of trout on flies they tied themselves.

She thereby wrote two essays as a part of the application process and begged to go even if she didn’t win a scholarship. Yesterday, she received a call from one of the volunteers on the selection committee announcing that she had been selected. Knowing that she would be taking part in the fly fishing expo today along side her mentors, she was very excited; I doubt she slept much.

She has shared her winning essays on her blog. I encourage you to hop over and read about what she enjoys most about fly fishing and why she wants to go to camp. She is pictured here with one of the local fly fishers and with another young angler who was also selected as a scholarship winner.

This weekend marked our one year anniversary in stamp collecting and both kiddos expanded their original exhibits to two-frames (32 pages). I am so proud of how hard they have worked to research the stamps and write their story (though admittedly, I did the typing for Buddy).

We spent the entire day at the show on Saturday and much of Sunday. We enjoyed visiting with the other exhibitors (they were still the only youth), hearing the judges’ critique, brainstorming other exhibit ideas, and browsing the dealer tables.

We continue to learn so much about stamp collecting and the tricks of philatelic exhibiting. As of now, we are content to focus on topical or thematic exhibits. As we continue, I’m sure we will begin to explore more in depth topics like cancellation marks and plate errors.

Sweetie plans to revise her “Birds of the World” exhibit once more in preparation for the “Champion of Champions” show in Washington this May. In the mean time, she plans to begin developing a few more exhibits as material (stamps, covers, etc) become available. She may exhibit “Lunar New Year” and “Fungi” by the years end. She is also collecting materials for “Owls”, “Minerals”, “Fantasy Fiction”.

Buddy has an exhibit in mind that is actually quite advanced for young collectors. It may likely take years to collect enough material to tell his story. His focus is on the Danish company, Mærsk. Until then, I hope I can continue to encourage him to exhibit other more kid-friendly topics.

Week 9 – I mailed another batch of Christmas cards and DVDs this week – bringing the total to well over 150. Sadly, I know I won’t receive more a 20% of that number .. but I will continue to send them out each year. The kiddos each wrote a letter to Santa.

Week 10 – I mailed the final batch of Christmas cards and DVDs. Buddy wrote to a cousin who lives in Utah. They’ve actually only met a couple of times and though he doesn’t remember him, I felt it was a good idea to maintain and/or build familial bonds. Sweetie wrote to a cousin in Georgia whom we have actually never met in person. Our migrations home have just never coincided, sadly. We are hoping to change that in 2013 … we have plans to be in both states in the next few months and we will try very hard to link up schedules.

On the flip side, Buddy received a reply from my friend Josh. It was a delight to read his responses to Buddy’s questions about his career. His career path was significantly different than that of my husband and I and our circle of friends that we see regularly (most of whom are engineers). This provided us with a wonderful opportunity to talk about career options and choices. I am confidant that we’ll be able to return to the topic many times in the future. I appreciate very much the time Josh took to sit down with pen and paper to reply to my little guy. His words and influence have indeed made a difference in our lives and I am certain that the relationship will continue to blossom.

I read aloud Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference! this week in lieu of our usual grammar lesson (First Language Lessons). We really enjoyed the story and the silly illustrations that clarified the meaning of the sentences. We chuckled at many of them.

When we finished I asked the kids to think of another example, a sentence of their own or a slight variation of one found in the book. At first, they were perplexed and even frustrated. “This is too hard.” “I can’t think of anything.” The easiest part was the context or character, they knew immediately what they eanted to draw. Sweetie wanted a wise owl and Buddy insisted on Minecraft Steve and a Creeper.

“Watch out Creeper!” / “Watch out, Creeper!”
(I’m not entirely confidant that this one is grammatically accurate – can anyone help?
The first is meant to illustrate a warning to Steve that a creeper is approaching;
the second is meant to illustrate a warning to the creeper that an arrow is about to fall on its head.)

The most challenging part was thinking of a sentence that was identical … the only difference being the placement of a comma. They could come up with numerous sentences but kept trying to add words or tweak it slightly for the opposing illustration. It took a while but after a few minutes of brainstorming, they were both able to come up with an example.

“A wise owl reads about mice.” / “A wise owl reads, about mice.”

I love what they came up with. I shared with them that there are several other books by the same author and they were enthusiastic to read them. The book also has short explanations at the back of the book in case you’re not, as am I, an expert at punctuation rules and grammar.

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