I thought you might enjoy seeing/hearing my Ethan recite his poem. He learned the last 8 lines this morning and to celebrate, I recorded him up in his room (trying to get away from the noise downstairs!). Ethan is my sweetie, in fact, last night we snuggled in my bed together and watched TV until Rich, Jacob, and Grace got home from music lessons. It was cozy. It made me remember him as a 2 year old, he always got up early in the morning and got into bed with me to sleep some more. He’s my #1 cuddle-bug. Everyone loves E!!!! (his nickname)
“The Robin”
In the tall elm tree sat the robin bright,
Through the rainy April day,
And he caroled clear with a pure delight,
In the face of the sky so gray.
And the silver rain through the blossoms dropped,
And fell on the robin’s coat,
And his brave red breast, but he never stopped
Piping his cheerful note.
For oh, the fields were green and glad,
And the blissful life that stirred
In the earth’s wide breast, was full and warm
In the heart of that little bird.
The rain cloud lifted, the sunset light
Streamed wide over valley and hill;
As the plains of heaven the land grew bright,
And the warm south wind was still.
Then loud and clear called happy bird,
And rapturously he sang,
Till wood and meadow and riverside
With jubilant echoes rang.
But the sun dropped down in the quiet west,
And he hushed his song at last;
All nature softly sank to rest,
And the April day had passed. –Celia Thaxter
ETHAN GREGORY, age 9
“It makes me so nervous to be video-taped. That’s why I keep forgetting my lines.” —Ethan
While we were upstairs in their room, I took this picture:
See the tail???? It was all that was left from some little critter that the cats ate. It was actually MY idea for them to wash it with shampoo and keep it! The soldiers were found at a tag sale a few years ago. They are solid metal, were only a couple dollars, and are perfect for the boy’s room. They hung the artwork (and tail) without my help.
Well, I do enjoy my boys and watching them grow and develop their own interests! I hope you enjoyed hearing E’s poem. I’ve never showed a video of any of the kids before so I’ll be curious to read your comments. 
I wonder if you held your breath toward the end of his poem like I did?
Good to be Home 
I have tears in my eyes. What a dear dear boy. I cannot express how glad I am that you teach your children to memorize poetry. I have a dear older friend in England who has so much committed to memory that it shames me. If I had to do it again, I would have had my kids do as your E just did. How proud you must be, how blessed you are! Thank you and GOOD JOB E!!! love, granny m in sc
Good job Nathan. I enjoy your poem. Best of all, now that you’ve memoirized it, you will remember it the rest of your life and it will bring you joy. The poem I remember is called “Sea Fever” and on windy days by the sea it still fills my mind
LOL~excuse my spelling errors!
Thank you so much for always posting such good weblog entries first thing in the morning I always wake up and rush to the computer to see if you posted yet. You bless us all thank you!
David 🙂
Way to go Ethan! You did very well!!! :O)
I agree…your posts bless us all!!!
xoxoxo Cat
Very well done, Mr. Ethan! I think that I would have been nervous to be videotaped, too!:o)Enjoy this day, dear Shanda and family….
What a great job Ethan!!! I like how you could see that he was really concentrating on getting the poem right. He did such a great job, that is so nice that your kids do that. I love it when the kids like to cuddle, it’s not often in my house either:)
I think the boys room looks perfect with the artwork & tail:)
Thank you Ethan! Good job, it was a blessing to hear you. What a nice poem too. I like snuggly boys…..you will see they will still snuggle you when they are older. I sometimes think, “is this big man holding me actually that fat little baby I used to hold?” (with my older two, sniff…..) David and I are negotiating how to hug these days as he just passed me up in height….but at 14 he is still a boy Lord bless, Jenny
That was wonderful! I still remember learning poems as a child, and I can still remember them! It’s amazing! I can’t remember things that happened last week, but I can remember poems I learned by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow! One of my children was a cuddler, too. She will be married in January! WOW! It does seem like only a short time ago she was on my lap.
Great job, Ethan! I know sometimes it’s hard to memorize all of that now, but when you remember all of those verses and poems when you get older, you will thank your mom for making your do this. I promise! 🙂
Ethan, you did a great job! I am very impressed. 🙂 Let’s see if I can get Madison to memorize something.:) I enjoyed watching this Shanda and yes, I was holding my breath a the end.
Ethan did a great job. I love how he was smiling through the whole thing. Too cute. Memorizing things is very hard for me so I am REALLY impressed!
Great job, E ~ I love bird poems ~ of course!
Great job Ethan! I loved the poem! 🙂 His smile is so sweet! It makes listening to the poem even more enjoyable! Keep up the great work!!! So sweet! Thanks for sharing!
I loved it! Great job, Ethan, and I especially loved seeing you recite it – keep up the good work!
Lovely! It blesses me every time I hear children recite memory work.
Good Job E! I’m praying that we get a cuddly boy/gril like you! Thank you for sharing Shan!
Great job Ethan! You memorize very quickly and I enjoyed watching you on video. The tail on your wall reminded me of the time when our cat’s tail got caught in the bicycle spokes. As my sister tried to free it, the tail came off. Dad threw the tail into the woodpile and the dog ate it. Maybe we should have shampooed the dog and hung him up on the wall. : ) You have a great Mom!
Great job, Ethan! You are a great speaker! As an English teacher, I always love to hear children recite! Thanks for sharing, Shanda!!!
I can’t wait to watch the video ~ at the moment I can’t turn on the audio because my husband is watching something else and we live in a one-bedroom house. But I WILL go back and listen to Ethan later!I think it is wonderful that you have your kids memorize and recite poems. There are SO many benefits for them in doing that, as my classes in elementary ed. have reiterated. It improves their articulation, vocabulary, reading fluency, poise, communication skills, and more! Not to mention the little lessons that may be learned in the content of the memorized piece!Shanda, I am always impressed with how you take the time to just sit, snuggle, or otherwise ENJOY your children, as you mentioned doing with Ethan today. SO important! You are in the life-shaping business, and doing a fantastic job of it!
that is just priceless. i loved his little shy smile as he recited!! way too cute.looks like you’ve been one busy lady lately.. trip to NY. snow in the kitchen. birds to feed. Fun.Fun.Fun. enjoyed catching up.love your posts~
That was so precious, watching him recite that poem. I’m sure you’ve noticed I stop by every day to check in on your family. It was neat to see one of them “live.” His voice reminded me of Linus reading the Christmas story on A Charlie Brown Christmas. That melts my heart too. Precious boy. *Penny
well tell Ethan that he did an awesome job, and he did way better at that than I ever would have been able to at age 9…rock on Ethan!!!
Good job, Ethan!
Good Job “E”! I still remember most of the scripture passages that we had to learn in HCA. I remember having to learn whole chapters. Still my favorite is Isaiah 53…
Great Job, how impressive. –You should be very proud of yourself Ethan.-
Way to go, Ethan!! You get 5 stars for that one! I heard something just the other day about how good memorizing is for your “brain skills” It’s always interesting putting a voice to a face….=)
Oh I just found this post!
Yes I was nervous for him. Hw is so cute!