Frog Hollow Poetry Exhibit

The Seattle Frog Hollow class has the honor of having a poetry poster exhibit in the hallway gallery at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, alongside the work of other artists in the community. It is up right now, and if anyone is in the neighborhood feel free to check it out. I’m really proud of theContinue reading “Frog Hollow Poetry Exhibit”

Chinook Jargon

Continuing in our explorations of translation, my class has been playing around with Chinook Jargon. Chinook Jargon is the trade language of the Northwest, a pidgin of English, French, and several Salish languages. It was widely spoken through the 1800’s, and gave the English language words including “muckamuck” and “salt-chuck.” It has about 500 coreContinue reading “Chinook Jargon”

Food for an Eager Writer

My first year of my second stint of homeschooling, the year I was fourteen, I was given Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones for Christmas. I was also given a huge stack of Enviromints. If you aren’t versed on ’90’s health food store candy, Enviromints were squares of minty chocolate wrapped in gold foil. EachContinue reading “Food for an Eager Writer”

Why Is English Spelling So Weird?

English spelling is undeniably chaotic. There is an exception to pretty much every rule. However, while it doesn’t follow orderly rules, English spelling does have patterns. I think that learning a little background about how English spelling came to be is both fascinating and helpful.* There are about 44 phonemes (distinct sounds) in English, depending onContinue reading “Why Is English Spelling So Weird?”