Irish Blessings Poetry Practice

Over the years I have collected several Irish Blessings on my hard drive. I like to use them both in poetry studies and Irish cultural studies. The above blessing is perhaps the most famous.

Full of thoughtful goodwill, Irish Blessings are a lovely way to practice poetry in a new way--with wishing the things you think nicest and best on others.

May there always be work for your hands to do.

May your purse always hold a coin or two.

May the sun always shine on your windowpane.

May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain.

May the hand of a friend always be near you.

May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.

May you be blessed with the strength of heaven

The light of the sun and the radiance of the moon

The splendor of the fire

The speed of lightning

The swiftness of wind

The depth of the sea

The stability of earth

And the firmness of rock

In addition to trying your hands at "regular" Irish Blessing poetry, you can also put twists on the topics. For example, this time of year is the beginning of baseball season and so my house is bustling with anticipation for that. Therefore, one year we wrote Irish Blessing-type poetry on the subject of baseball--blessings and best wishes for the game. 

For the first game of the season I wrote a silly little ditty of this type to go with some treats and handed them out on the bus.

My kids wrote some really great Baseball Irish Blessings, and I would share them with you if I could currently locate them, but I can't. The point is, though, you should give this poetry form a try.

Shamrock Appreciation

I'm not Irish. I'm not Catholic. I still feel traumatized by that whole "wear green or you'll get pinched" business from my childhood. For many years I just had no use for St. Patrick's Day (except for trying to remember to wear green, which was tough because I never had much in the way of green apparel). But one of the blessings of homeschooling, for me, is being able to pursue insatiable curiosity and expanding previous horizons for the benefit of my children. Thus learning more about the man Patrick and his life's work and coming to really appreciate who he was.

I admire Patrick's life of selfless service and his missionary heart, even after being liberated from his captors. I really like how he used the shamrock to teach the Holy Trinity. After all, Christ also used the common to teach the divine. 

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I don't believe in the Holy Trinity as Patrick would have explained it, but I do believe in the Godhead, which is similar, with a few distinct differences. I find the shamrock an excellent symbol for the Godhead, three distinct holy beings who are one in purpose.

With that in mind, I have in years past taught this to my kids and had them create something based on this. The goal was to find pictures representing members of the Godhead and incorporate those pictures with a shamrock. Here are some of the creations.

Sprinkles O'Shivers and the Other Leprechauns

Looking for a fun, festive nod at Saint Paddy's Day that's also pretty easy?

Walmart carries packages of 16-page blank books that are ready for creating stories. Kids love to write "real" books. I purchased a stack of these a while back and for this project gave each kid a blank book and a sheet of leprechaun stickers. The objective was to write/create a picture book using the stickers as inspiration and aid in illustration. 

Of course, you don't want to put things in official book form until the plot, grammar, spelling, and punctuation are perfect, so this project lends itself perfectly to learning to work through drafts and proofreading.

For extra fun, use something like this leprechaun name chart my son found while looking for "authentic" names for his story. 

Favorite Picture Books for St. Patrick's Day

Once upon a time there weren't many books for St. Patrick's Day. As our society has increased its marketing mayhem of anything and everything, there has been an increase in reading material, but much of it is just nonsense. These two books, however, are gems.