Saturday, December 13, 2008

a -- vowels, part 5

Then with all its might and main,
The blaze rose high in raging flame.
It raged and blazed until the day
And then the flames did fade away.

-from "The True Name of the King", Enki Education Grade 1 Academic Story


A fire fairy provided some assistance to the poor girl in the 5th segment of the story, leading her to believe briefly that the King's true name might be "Fire". But, alas, she was incorrect. The "red A" has a different sound and feeling than the "golden A", or "ah", that we were introduced to during the first segment.


My story painting, setting the fiery red mood for our "A"s. Zoo Boy was pretty critical, telling me that is NOT what fire looks like. Oh well! A mom can only try!






J's paintings.












Zoo Boy's impression of what fire REALLY looks like.

Today we read the final segment of the story, where the true name of the King ("I") is revealed. Zoo Boy was MOST displeased with the ending. He said "I? I? I? What kind of a name is THAT for a King!! I've never heard of a King named I!" I just shrugged my shoulders. "Eye? Or Aye? Or I? WHAT 'I' are you talking about?" I could see his confusion, so I took a piece of paper and wrote a nice bold "I" on it, and stuck it on our nature table. "I?!?!?" he sputtered, "A King can't be named a letter!" He eyed me with suspicion, and mustering his most accusatory voice, asked, "Did YOU write this story?" The tone of disgust in his voice clearly showed his opinion -- only I could come up with such a ridiculous story. Nope, I assured him, I most certainly did not write this story. He continued to mutter his discontent as I left the room, trying to give him the space he needed to process this apparently disappointing twist of fate. Behind me I heard J start to work with the concept via play, setting up some figures and silks and announcing "The true name of the King is 'I'!" to the rejoicing of the crowd, gladly crowning their new ruler.

Tomorrow we wrap the story up with one final recall and painting, then put the whole thing to the "rest" until sometime in the new year.

1 comment:

Stacey said...

My girls (and husband) had the same reaction as Zoo Boy. They were irritated by the ending, but they loved the story up to that point. Hmmm. My husband continutes to insist it didn't make sense. Personally I thought it was clever.