MSI Press Blog

  Today's tip for parents from two talented teachers comes from  365 Teacher Secrets for Parents  by Cindy McKinley Alder and Patti Trombly.                                                        #132 Specific Poetry Starters   Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words. ~ Robert Frost Try reading some fun poems by Jack Prelutsky or Shel Silverstein to get started. But don’t forget to also read aloud poetry by such great poets as Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, Ogden Nash (and others that you may enjoy) to expose your child to other types of poetry as well.   Another fun and motivational way to get involved with poetry is to begin with a specific “frame” on which your child can fill in her own words. On the website, you will find frames for three favorites: haiku, limericks, and ...

  Today's tip for parents from two talented teachers comes from  365 Teacher Secrets for Parents  by Cindy McKinley Alder and Patti Trombly.                                                         #131 Poetry   Too many of us strive for new abilities instead of striving to develop abilities we already have lying dormant within us. ~Alfred A. Montapert   There is a poet inside all of us in one way or another. We tend to think of poetry in the traditional way of exquisite verse that rhymes perfectly. Many of us think we could never write like that, but poetry is so much more than that—and so much less. It is simply someone’s view of the world put in such a way that may have not been done before; it’s seeing something extraordinary in something someone else has not; it’s the art of finding and interpreting ideas by...

   The e-book edition of  Lamentations of the Heart  by Marti Wells-Smith is on Kindle countdown discount, beginning at 99 cents, from April 4 through April 11. Marti Wells-Smith's  Lamentations of the Heart Mingled with Peace and Joy  combines prose and poetry in a comforting missive for bereaved parents. Through its pages, one finds not only the resilience of the author but sources for anyone to develop needed resilience in the face of devastating life circumstances. When it came out, it quickly became one of Amazon's "hot, new releases." Description Lamentations of the Heart  soulfully combines contemporary free verse poetry and nonfictional prose to tell the story of one mother's grief following the death of her only child. The author interweaves scriptural passages with the inevitable struggles to accept and make sense of her new reality. All of it reveals the unending love for family that remains. Written to reach out to others who have experienc...