Mr. Plumbottom's Harp

One day Sarah was bored, so she decided to play her guitar. So Mr. Plumbottom listened. He decided that he wanted to play a musical instrument too. After a minute he finally decided that he wanted to take   harp lessons. So he signed up. They were very expensive, but
Mr. Plumbottom thought that they were worth it. Plus which, he had a pirate ship filled with gold. After his first lesson, though, he realized that the songs he was assigned to play were all too hard and the teacher was too strict. So he quit lessons. Suddenly, he remembered his friend Macy. She was only a tiny girl at the age of five, but she was amazingly good at playing the harp. She could even teach Mr. Plumbottom how. "Why didn't I think of that before?!" he exclaimed out loud to himself. So as soon as he called Macy (the answer was yes), he ran to her house as fast as his fat little legs could carry him. He had a great time, and after he had taken ten long but fun lessons, he was as good as a nautral!!!!!!! On his sixty-first birthday, Macy gave him his VERY OWN HARP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sarah's Baby

Good news! Mr. Plumbottom is back! But there is also good news for Mr. Plumbottom. His daughter Sarah is going to have a baby! If it is a girl, Sarah wants to name it Isabelle after her mother, Mrs. Plumbottom. If it is a boy, Sarah wants to name it Michael, after her father, Mr. Plumbottom, who you all know, of course. But her husband, George, wants to name it Karen or Farley. So Sarah says, "If it is a boy, we will name it after my father.  A girl, your mother." George reluctantly agrees. Now I know we all hope that it will be a boy so that it will be named after our favorite character, Mr. Plumbottom. But we will just have to wait and see.  Sarah got her ultra-sound  and it was a... Can you guess what comes next? BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! George was mad, but he got over it and loved the baby just the same as he would have if it were named Karen.






THE END

Past & Present Poem

In the past people ate bread and milk and eggs.
Now we eat pizza and elephant ears, but not elephant legs.

In the past people used wagons to get from place to place.
Now we use cars or planes or have a marathon (a race).

In the past people celebrated Christmas and the Fourth of July too.
Now we celebrate a lot of the same things we used to do.

In the past people believed that women should cook and clean.
Now we believe that women have their rights. Back then they were mean.

In the past people did lots of things like doctors for jobs.
Now we do even more like selling junk like old doorknobs.

In the past people lived in strawbale huts.
Now we live in houses so big sometimes that we have spare room to sit on our butts.

In the past people watched plays for fun.
Now we have t.v. and popcorn- BEEP! The popcorn's done.

In the past people had a school with one teacher, maybe Miss Sue.
Now we have big schools with kids numbering two thousand two.

The Truth About Fairies

Eliza's mom here with a first-time post & introduction to a videoblog.

Many of you wonder how homeschooling works & sometimes so do I.  But, days like today are my favorite - when Eliza is her own teacher and creates wonderful masterpieces!  We visited a storytelling arts performance this morning and saw stories by Bob Sanders and Clare Muireann Murphy.  VERY entertaining storytellers.  We noticed how they used vocal sound effects when they told their stories but Eliza thought that this would embarrass her so she decided against this method.  Her "assignment" was to write a story with a beginning, a middle, and an ending.  So, she spent about an hour and came up with this.
A very easy almost 8 year old child to "teach" she is!  :)

Anseliesio

Once upon a time, about nineteen ninety, there lived a young couple, and they were from China. But they had moved to the united states about a year ago because they wanted to check out the foods they ate there, like peanut butter and hamburgers. They had two daughters, Jingyu, who was twelve, and Chun, who was ten. I chose those names because I learned  Chinese names, but I made up the name Anseliesio, who you will meet in a minute. The couple loved Jingyu and Chun dearly, but they always longed for a little boy. Finally, they tried one more time and they had a beautiful baby boy. They named him Anseliesio.He could speak really good English. One day, Chun tried peanut butter and apples.  She liked it fine, but she thought peanut butter and hamburger was better.
Years passed and Anseliesio was soon six years old. The woman and the man and Jingyu and Chun and Anseliesio moved back to China because they were done checking out the foods and they began to really miss their friends.

One day, a week later,  his friend George (who was from the united states and had come to visit), went out for a walk with Anseliesio and Anseliesio spotted a beautiful girl.  He and George said hi and it turned out that her name was Kilu. She could speak really good English. Kilu tossed Anseliesio and George peppermint sticks.  Anseliesio was quiet at dinner that night because he was embarrassed because she was such a beautiful girl.

At the store the next day, Anseliesio sees Kilu shopping with her mother. Kilu says, ''Anseli, Anseli, Anseli, Anseliesio!'' ''How did you know my name?''Anseliesio asked. ''Ansel, dear, you see, I've met Kilu before. She is a magical fairy. She spies on you,"said Mom. Anseliesio's mouth dropped open but no words came out. Suddenly, Anseliesio saw a dark figure with a wand. Just then, Ansel said, ''SHUT UP!'' ''That's the dark princess,'' said Kilu. "She casts spells that make people say bad words. You should aviod her, or else you'll say much worse words.

When they got home, Anselisio's mom told his dad about the dark princess because she didn't want him to be surprised when he said a bad word. Mom said, ''She wears a dark blue gown and has long black hair and            lavender skin and a dark purple wand with dark green sparkles on the end. She looks about fourteen and three quarters.''

That night, when Ansel was in bed, Kilu appeared. ''Anseliesio, I spy on you because I want to load you with good wishes.''''How do I avoid the dark princess?''asked Anseliesio. ''Oh, I completely forgot about that. Well, you have to be brave and when she appears, say,'Piggie farts,''' said Kilu. The next morning, the dark princess appeared. Ansel was eating breakfast. He said, ''Piggie farts.'' The dark princess vanished.

That afternoon, Ansel's mom got sick. She had eaten poop to see what it tasted like. Her science teacher told her to. Ansel's mom didn't know anything about how poop can make you sick.  She was so sick that she couldn't go to class so her husband went for her. He told her when he got back that her science teacher had taken off a costume and it turned out she was really the dark princess dressed up!

Ansel's dad called the police. They couldn't do anything about the dark princess. Then Kilu appeared. She used some powers to shut the dark princess' mouth. She knew it could only stay closed for two days, but she could zap it closed again.

The next day Anseliesio's mom got better. She learned that poop can really hurt you.  It could even kill you if you eat it so she never ate poop again.

Ansel thought it was really funny that something as simple as saying "piggie farts" could make the princess vanish. So that was how Anseliesio learned that inappropriate stuff is really funny.

Mr. Plumbottom turns sixty

Years passed. Soon Mr. Plumbottom turned sixty. Mr. Plumbottom looked out the window of the ship. He recognized Denis out in his canoe. He was fifteen or sixteen now. Mr. Plumbottom ran out on deck to meet him. He thought it would be nice if Denis could be here on his birthday. They had a conversation about how Denis was so excited to get a new dolphin. Soon Mr. Plumbottom was called in for his birthday apple pie. Denis came too. Mr. Plumbottom realized that even eighty- four, like his mom, was not so bad.

Junkyard Frenzy

Junkyard Frenzy

This is a true story about when I visited the junkyard in Bloomington. So, one morning, my dad, his friend Mike and I went to a junkyard in Bloomington. It took us about an hour and a half since we live in Indianapolis. When we got there, there was junk everywhere. We saw cranes. I got a load of stuff, so my dad helped me carry it.  I did not use my own money. My dad bought my stuff for me. My favorite things I got were a little green tank, a gear, a saw blade, and a piece of stamped sheet metal. And when I say my favorite stuff, I mean my favorite. I had much more stuff. That was just my favorite stuff. Mike got two surprisingly big chunks of aluminum and some cast iron benches. My dad got metal springs and some were yellow and some were blue and one was orange.  It was twenty-five cents a pound. All of me and my dad’s things put together were fifteen dollars. I think I heard Mike say his stuff was forty-five dollars! A few days later, my mom and I did some math on that and it was 180 pounds! He carried it all at once. I found real treasure the day of the Junkyard Frenzy.

A LINKTON SECRET

This is a story I've been working on for a week.  I like to make stories because then I get to make up different characters and their ages.  I tried to be specific and make lots of details like a real author, although I'm not going to be a writer when I grow up.  I am going to be a witch.  

A LINKTON SECRET

About two years ago, in a little gray house by a quiet stream, there lived four children: Nigel, nineteen years old, Elizabeth, thirteen years old, Jeffrey, five years old, and their three year old brother Ian.  They set off for an adventure because their fairy friend Jennifer had an important task for them to complete. 

There were three things Elizabeth had to do before she could be whisked to the secret palace underground.  #1:Brush her teeth. #2:Wash her clothes. #3:Wash the dishes. She had to do these things all in a row and in order, so she did.

The three things Nigel had to do were #1:Eat fruit. #2:Make his bed. #3:Spill milk on the floor and then clean it up. The younger children were free to get to the palace. Seven and up had to do these chores. Elizabeth’s chores were the girls’ chores and Nigel’s were the boys’. It was a lot like paying money.

There was a flash of light and they realized they were being whisked to the Linkton Palace.  The next thing they knew they were standing outside of the beautiful palace made out of pure gold. 

Fortunately, Nigel had his magic key with him because the door was locked.  As soon as they got inside, they walked down the long, bronze corridors with the satin couches and chairs and beds.  They entered the potion room.  There was the wizard making potions.  They had come to the potions room because they wanted to ask the wizard what the task was.  Jennifer, the fairy, had disappeared before they could ask her what the task was.  (She was very, very busy because she was talking to her mother on the phone.) 

The wizard replied, “You have to find the silver cup that is lost in the palace gardens.  We need it because it has pure magic in it.  If we don’t have it, the really old four hundred year old fairy will die.  She is queen and we have nobody to take her place.  You have to be really ugly in order to be the queen and no young girl in this palace is really ugly.  The cup got lost when Jennifer was drinking from it.  (All of the other cups were in the dishwasher because there was a big party the night before.  The silver cup was the only one left in the cabinet and Jennifer was very, very thirsty.)  She was walking out in the palace gardens and she was also using a watering can to water plants.  When her friend, John, came out, he surprised her so much that she dropped the cup and she ran inside.  An ugly witch told us that a squirrel buried the cup when Jennifer went inside and she will not tell us where to find it because she is bad and mean and she does not want us to find it.  Come on.  I will show you the way.  The ugly witch told us that it could only be found by humans.  We picked you because you are our only human friends.” 

“We’ll have to split up,” said Nigel.  “You know that the mean palace ghosts in the gardens kill three year olds.  Elizabeth, you stay inside with Ian. Jeffrey, you come with me and we can look for the cup.” 

The palace gardens were full of ghosts and Jeffrey and Nigel had to do a huge race and finish first before the ghosts let them into the palace garden.  The ghosts wanted to go inside and kill Ian, but they remembered the rule they made themselves that said they could only kill three year olds if they came into the palace gardens. (Fortunately, they had never killed any three-year- olds because three-year-olds never came into the palace gardens.)                  

Finally, after about eight hours, when they were very, very tired, and it was past even Nigel’s bedtime, Jeffrey and Nigel had found the cup.  Elizabeth and Ian were sleeping in some of the satin beds.  The wizard allowed them to.  But, they had forgotten how to get back home! Just then, Jennifer appeared in the misty gray night sky. “Say ‘Oinka’,” she said. Then she vanished. Fairies are like that. They know when humans have a problem, even if they are not with the human when they are having the problem. So Nigel, Elizabeth, Jeffrey, and Ian all took a deep breath, closed their eyes, and said ‘Oinka’. In a flash, they were home and they climbed into bed.

The Sugar Plum Princess

THE SUGAR PLUM PRINCESS

There once was a girl called Sanna Broccolichips. When she started her second grade class, all the kids laughed at her. “Sanna Banana! She eats broccoli chips! We eat potato chips!” Her best friend, the only one not making fun of her, was Clara, from the nutcracker. The sugar plum fairy had turned Sanna and Clara into sugar plum princesses.

The rats were back, and the one that died had not really died. The horrible creatures kicked so hard, they broke Clara’s leg!!! Now Sanna was alone with the rats. The rats drank spoiled milk and puked all over Mom’s new carpet.

Mr. Plumbottom and the bratty kids

Mr. Plumbottom was fine for three days after he turned fifty.   He finally decided enough is enough and fifty is not old. But his ear hurt.  He went to the doctor.  It turned out he did not have an infection.  It was just the bratty kids, who always played at the beach. Their names were Emily and Riley.  They were three -year -old twins, and Riley was older by three seconds.  They kicked and hit and bit and screamed.  It was so loud they hurt Mr. Plummbottom’s ears all the way from the beach to the pirate ship. 

SNOW WHITE

You know those stories about Snow White that say she died and came back alive?  Well, those are fake stories.  In real life, she fainted. 

Now she is twenty-five and the prince is twenty-three.  They have two baby daughters, Rosaline and Emily.  They live in the palace and have a cradle for the babies. 

THE REAL STORY

There once was a girl called Patricia.  Her mom called her Snow White because she was born when the snow was fluffy white.  When she was four, an evil witch invaded her house.  She was jealous of Patricia’s beauty, so she pretended to be a nice lady at the park and played volleyball with her.  The witch hit Patricia so hard on the head with the volleyball that she fainted for TEN YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Her parents were so worried about her that they fainted too.  The witch left after 7 years because she thought they were all dead and that her work was done. When Patricia was fourteen, a boy named Aiden, about twelve years old, who was a prince fell in love with her because he thought she was really pretty while she was sleeping.  Aiden had some lemonade with him, and he poured it on her accidently, which woke her up.  Her parents woke up too when he poured lemonade on them on purpose.  They were so happy to see her, and she and Aiden were friends for years, and eventually got married. 

Picture

Sarah's Homemade Lemonade

Recipe For Sarah’s Homemade Lemonade

However many lemons you would like

3 mint leaves

Add sugar until it tastes sweet

 Add water until the glass is full

Squeeze lemons into juicer and try to get out as much as you can.

Put everything into a glass and drink cold and fresh.