Learning, Rules, Fun

Learning, Rules, Fun

 I tend to look back sometimes, and, lately I’ve been thinking about a little one-room school my brother and I attended in northern Oklahoma– wheat, alfalfa, and cattle country. I close my eyes and see it plainly in memory. The school’s name was Valley Center. The teacher was Miss Virginia. The school was her life […]

A Staying Kind of Barn

One spring day many years ago, a farmer decided to build a fine log barn. First, he gathered large stones. He chipped and fitted them together for a firm foundation. The farmer cut many trees, chopped off limbs, and smoothed the trunks. Notch and groove, groove and notch, the logs rose straight and true atop […]

Tough Tom

Tough Tom

Tough Tom the Barn Cat             Tough Tom was a barn cat. He really didn’t start out to be a barn cat. And, the Day family who lived on the farm didn’t think they needed a cat, but there he was. It all began on a cold, windy, sleety winter day. When Chris went to […]

A Leprechaun Comes to Kindergarten

A Leprechaun Comes to Kindergarten

“God needed laughter in the world, So he made the Irish race, For they can meet life with a smile And turn a happy face.” –from The Book of Irish Blessings, author unknown. A green mist seemed to shimmer in the sunlight that streamed through the window as I walked into my kindergarten classroom on […]

The Canebrake

The Canebrake

This is a reprint from a few years back. I remember when I read it to my Cozy Critters and they were wondering what sort of animal would begin with the letter Y. Canebrake ABC’s Red ants, black ants marching all together, through a canebrake by the river in the lovely summer weather. Many-colored butterflies drift or dream […]

The Not So Nice Mice

A Fable By Blanche Day Manos The hundred year-old barn was home to a cow, a rooster, some hens, and a mule who pulled a plow. The days they spent in working; each one did its best, and when the sun sank from the sky, the animals wanted rest. But, when evening fell across the […]