The King of Ireland's Son

The King of Ireland's Son by

Padraic Colum

What a fun month March was for us - Springtime and Irish legends, along with some Language Arts tied into the block. We had such fun!

We're have been preparing a nature project and found some old stumps from a Christmas tree farm that we collected. You can contact one by you and ask them if you can pick up a bunch and they usually will welcome the clean-up and you get some free nature supplies for various craft and school projects! We clean ours off and then bake at a low setting to be sure we're not bringing termites and things into the house.

I apologize that this post will be somewhat short, but we are restructuring things in our home and I have been so busy that I haven't taken the time to document as much or share, but I'm goint to start back as soon as I can and until then, wanted to share this for the month of March and Grade 2!

Our monthly book was "The King of Ireland's Son" and we wove it into our homeschooling, as well. Here are a few pictures of some drawings and MLB's that we did that were tied into the story. Following Eric Fairman's suggestion of color coding grammar, we put our nouns in one color and our verbs in another and formed short sentences. Here are a couple more pictures that we tied into the story. I also wanted to share one of my favorite resources for Irish Legends and it is this book by Yvonne Carroll. Irish Legends for Children contains several wonderful stories to tie into this March Irish block! We also enjoyed stories of St. Patrick and some great legends using some of our favorite Tomie dePaola books! I have been working on various Saint stories that I was hoping to put in one big post and will do so eventually, even if it ends up being summer - lol! Great time to get caught up, right?

Also, I'm really excited because we have decided to move our school back into the old school room upstairs, which had been used recently as a play room. So we emptied it out and prepped it and I just primed it yesterday. I have big plans for this room that I will be sharing as soon as it is finished! Can't wait!

Hope you are all having a wonderful spring and enjoying your little elves and pixies grow!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! A Lovely Story by Christine Natale

The Little Dancer

Long ago, in the beautiful green land called Ireland, there was a wee little goat girl. Her name was Brigit. She lived with her mother in a tiny cottage somewhere between the sea and the rolling green hills. They were poor but happy. Brigit’s mother was a weaver. She could weave the finest linen and most beautiful wool plaids ever seen. They had some chickens who ran free in the grass around their cottage and a milk cow. But Brigit’s great delight was her small flock of six goats. Every morning, Brigit got up with the sun, put a little bit of bread and goat cheese in her bag, took her stick, which was taller than herself and said “Good-bye” to her mother.

Brigit went out to the little goat pen and opened the gate. The little goats came skipping and scampering out and pressed around their little goatherd. She kissed each one on its forehead and lead them all on the well-known path to the green meadow.

Brigit was never lonely with her goats. Each one of them was her friend. They always made her laugh when they leapt up high in the warm spring sunshine and butted their little heads with their brothers and sisters. Brigit liked to copy her little goats. She liked to skip and twirl and leap in the warm sunshine, too! Brigit loved to dance!

She had learned lots of sweet Irish songs from her mother and she sang to herself and danced all day long. She was always happily tired when she returned in the evening and put her pretty goats to be. Sometimes, she could hardly keep her eyes open as she ate the warm bread and soup her mother had waiting for her. Brigit lay down in her little bed with its fine white linen sheets and dreamed about dancing all night!

One day, one of Brigit’s little goats scampered off from the little flock. He was a mischievous little goat named Tomkin. Brigit had to scamper off after Tomkin and she chased him into the wood by the meadow. Brigit found the naughty little goat and shooed him back to the flock. As she was walking back to the meadow, she heard a strange noise. It went Tap! Tap! Tap! It sounded a little bit like a woodpecker, but not as fast. Tap! – Tap! – Tap! It went again. Being as curious as any little girl, Brigit walked softly toward the tapping sound.

Behind the trunk of a great ash tree, she saw a funny site. It was a little man dressed all in green. He had a green jacket, a green cap and a long white beard. He had a little pipe between his lips with smoke curling above his head. He was not bigger than Brigit herself and she was still a very little girl.

The little man was sitting on a log making shoes! He looked up at Brigit and Brigit looked back at the little cobbler. She remembered her manners. “Good day to ye, little Father!” she said.

“Top o’ the morning to you also, wee colleen!” answered the little man.

“Oh what lovely shoes you are making” said Brigit. The shoes were made of soft leather and they looked perfect for dancing.

“Aye, colleen”, replied the little man, “Lovely they are to be sure and fit for a little princess.”

“I wish I was a princess,” said Brigit, “So that I could buy those shoes!”

“It matters not” answered the little man, “You could not by them at any price. They are not to be had for gold. Begorrah, I have all the gold I need already.”

“So you are making them for someone special?”

“Aye, that I am!” answered the little man, with a gruff voice, but a twinkle in his eye. “I am making them for you!”

“For me!” exclaimed Brigit. “But you don’t know me. We have just met. Why are you making me such a fine present?”

“Because you have given me great joy, although you didn’t know it. Every day you come to the green meadow and sing and dance. I have sat in the shadows and watched you day after day. Even in the shade, my old leprechaun heart has been warmed by your music. I thought to myself, why not make some dancing shoes for the little colleen to protect her wee feet? And so I have!”

Brigit had no way of knowing that this was the longest speech the leprechaun had ever made in his whole life. But she did know that no one ever had a better friend. “How can I ever thank you?” she asked.

“You thanked me before you knew it. You have paid me with music and joy.”

The shoes were ready and Brigit tried them on. Of course they fit perfectly! Brigit danced a jig for the leprechaun right there and then. She twirled around and the little man was gone.

Brigit hurried back to her flock and took off the shoes and put them in her bag. She showed them to her mother that night and her mother was amazed! “What a special friend and what a special gift!” mother said.

Brigit danced in the meadow for many years after that. She never saw her leprechaun friend again, but she always knew that he was watching and enjoying her music. As Brigit grew, the shoes magically grew with her. They never became soiled or worn out.

And when Brigit grew into a lovely young lady she left her mother’s cottage and became a dancer. She went to many places in the green land of Ireland and gladdened the hearts of all who saw and heard her.

Christine Natale (posted with her permission)

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What an adorable story! Enjoy with your little ones and thank you for sharing this with all of us, Christine!!!!

Getting Ready for St. Patty's Day!

With the frost he kindled fire;
Drove the snakes from brake and brier,
Hurling out the writhing brood
With the lightning of his rood.
~Edwin Markham

Our St. Patrick's Day display has been out for the past week and we've been enjoying some of our favorite Irish tales. Tomie dePaola is a favorite and his book, "Patrick Patron Saint of Ireland" inspired the needlefelted St. Patrick I made. Tales of leprechauns and some of his other work, like "FinM'Coul" and "Jamie O'Rourke and the Pooka" have been enjoyed the past few nights (these books are appropriate for ages 6+, depending on the sensitivity of the child).

We've been enjoying some time outdoors. We even have been blessed by some shamrocks of our own!

May your blessings outnumber
The shamrocks that grow,
And may trouble avoid you
Wherever you go.
~Irish Blessing

And today, inspired by some other bloggers out there, my Irish lasses and I decided it was time to hang some of our own wool outside on the trees for the little birdies to build their nests...


And our beautiful Plum Tree is in full bloom...It's going to be an amazing spring! The bees are very busy (can you spot the beautiful one in this picture)?

I also found an old blog post about our Irish celebrations and the Spring Equinox celebration last year here. Time to start spring planting! Happy early St. Patty's Day to everyone...I have a lovely story I'm so excited to be able to share tomorrow ;D

The Leprechaun Invasion/Spring Equinox

Near a misty stream in Ireland in the hollow of a tree

Live mystical, magical leprechauns who are clever as can be

With their pointed ears, and turned up toes and little coats of green

The leprechauns busily make their shoes and try hard not to be seen.

Only those who really believe have seen these little elves

And if we are all believers we can surely see for ourselves.

- Unknown

The morning of St. Patrick's Day, the girls awoke to find that a *leprechaun* had left them little barrettes on their nature table under some green wool felt, as a thank you for the beautiful naturescape *he* is enjoying.

They were very excited and we had to learn all about the legend of the leprechaun. They couldn't stop talking about the little fellas all day.

After, we read the story of St. Patrick by Tomie dePaola and then sat down to do some wet on wet painting. We decided in honor of St. Patrick's Day and our little green friends, to make rainbows.

This was our first exposure to wet on wet painting and what a marvelous experience. We worked from the three basic colors (red, yellow and blue)and marveled as the colors just came alive and flowed into each other, creating our orange, green and purple. The girls each designed their own rainbows. And then we set them outside to dry.

Look at how vibrant those colors are!

Now, I am actually going to combine two posts because they are tied into each other. In honor of spring, I made some snowdrop flower fairies with guidance from "All Year Round" by Ann Druitt, Christine Fynes-Clinton and Marije Rowling. They are very easy to make, but took me a bit longer because it was my first time :)

I used wool, cotton batting and fleece.

Funny how an odd little shape can turn from something like this...

to this...

I decided to add the silk flowers since I don't have any real snowdrops and I wanted to get them on the nature table. The girls thought they were darling.

On the night of the Spring Equinox, we selected a poem about spring and my husband read it while the girls and I lit a candle on the nature table.

And set our flower fairies near it.

The girls were enchanted and listened intently as they watched the dancing flame.

They blew out the candle and went to bed. To their surprise, the next morning, they woke to find three more snowdrop flower fairies on the nature table and insisted that the leprechaun came back in the night and made them for us...

All I could do was smile that weee little smile ;)