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Chari
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| Posted: May 07 2006 at 7:01pm | IP Logged
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Anne plans to arrive here at some point to thank all of you for contributing to her essay....in the meantime, here it is........
and, the comment from her teacher, on this 100 out of 100 perfect paper  :
"Articulate & polished description is a fine compliment to this well researched essay. Very sweet work.....You are a very gifted writer whose talent delights my soul."
Her professor is great, and is a kindred-spirit.....Anne just loves her......and it is mutual. She even has a PhD in English........and she knows her stuff! This is Anne's third perfect essay score, out of three. Her next one is due next week, on a subject dear to our hearts....living books. She is teaching her teacher about CM and living books....and about homeschoolers 
Her next essay reads like another perfect score.
Most of the thanks go to all of you, who have nurtured her through your writings, thoughts and stories, etc.
Well............God most certainly gave her some special talent......so, I guess He gets most of the credit
but...........a CM education has molded her well.
I will post another essay soon she wrote about "success in college"......it is a good one!
here's the lullaby essay (I love the title!):
&nbs p; Golden Slumbers
I sat in the rocking chair late one night; wearily my head leaned against the cushion, and finally my eyes closed. In half dream state, my mind meandered back through time…one year…two…three…four…and suddenly I was not rocking alone. Cradled in my arms was the wee frame of my brother, his plush blue sleeper, and his downy hair rubbing gently against my shoulder. From touch, to the smell of baby shampoo, all my senses were pleased, and my sense of sound was the most content. A lullaby trilled out of the stereo: “Golden Slumbers kiss your eyes….” The music infused the air with melody, enveloping us like a blanket, warm and familiar – sleep enticing. As we sat there in the twilight, my thoughts traveled back through the babyhoods of each of my siblings, and back even further to my own small years. Music accompanied the memory of each face and name, and the recollection of long-ago-heard lullabies heightened my feelings and vivified the images.
As my mind pondered this, I realized how potent a part lullabies played in my family, especially during the bedtime “ritual;” they have been part of my life as long as I can remember. Now, I am not merely speaking of “Rock-a Bye”, “Hush Little”, and “Sleep Soundly, Baby”! The lullabies that I speak of are as varied as the colors in a quilt - the crooning of Sacred Scriptures, to mom’s favorite lyrics of the ‘60’s and ‘70’s put to guitar strumming, from Moonshine Lullaby, to Elvis’ slow songs, and one mustn’t forget the wonderful classical composers. Consequently, while the actual lullaby style is subject entirely to the listener, it is the use of the music that classifies it as a lullaby, the use of the music for its calm and sleep-conducive qualities. So having established what lullabies are, and how meaningful they are to my family, I began to wonder how they affect other families, and if they hold a special place in family life. The answers were obvious with a little investigation, and I came to this conclusion: Lullabies, with their many functions and benefits, have the ability to occupy an integral role in family life.
Perhaps the thought closest associated to the word lullaby is bedtime. Indeed, music plays a key part in nightly routines. A verse from Madge Morris’ “Rocking the Baby,” captures the classic image very well:
I hear her rocking the baby
Each day when the twilight comes,
And I know there’s a world of blessings and love
In the ‘baby-by’ she hums. (121)
In our family, bedtime would not be the same without music. Each night, after teeth are brushed, jammies scrambled into, prayers said, and wee ones tucked into bed, we play a lullaby CD. Soon the children are sleeping, with their slow breaths corresponding rhythmically. When I was small, it was of so much comfort to hear my mother’s voice singing along as she straightened the house in the dusky hours, stopping every now and again to peer into our room, hoping the affect of the music had taken place. We all had special songs that calmed, comforted, and carried us to the hazy land of dreams. Other families employ this useful strategy as well. Tammy Gonzalez, a mother of eight from Virginia, says their current favorite lullaby music is Junior’s Bedtime Songs, from Veggie Tales: “I start it right after prayers for my three youngest boys and it definitely lulls them to sleep. My husband starts it over again when he goes to bed, as it relaxes him, too.” Yes, the entire family, babies, adults, and those in between, benefit from soothing, quiet music played or sung at night.
While lullabies are most frequently attributed to bedtime, they do more than merely coax children to sleep. Professor of child development at Syracuse University, Alice Sterling Honig, feels that music can be a very useful tool. “Transitions will go easier for your child,” she explains, “if you sing your way through them.” Transitions! Whether mundane or terrifying, there are many transitions to experience while growing up, and lullabies, as a dear and familiar presence, can soften these changes. The biggest significance Angie Macintyre, an Arizona mother of four, sees in using lullabies as part of the bedtime routine, is during the transition between nursing her babies to sleep and weaning. “When the bedtime nursings are shortened, then finally finished, the lullabies continue.” And by continuing, they provide a sound of soothing peace -- of security. Lullabies can comfort the child graduating from tiny bed to large, advancing from room to room, or even through a move from one state to another. They provide a musical bridge to assist listeners through their adjustments.
Yet another use for versatile lullabies is relieving pain, or at least, distracting those in anguish. “The time I most often sing is when my little ones have gotten hurt!” says Janette, a mother of four boys. “There is a little rhyme in Spanish which speaks of healing ‘today and tomorrow.’ I put it to music and sing it to my littles whenever they get hurt and run to me for comfort.” Soothing those in need of consolation is one of the most beautiful, and necessary, privileges of motherhood; music is one of the tools mothers
utilize. When my sister Sarah, born with a congenital heart defect, was six years old, she underwent surgery to replace a valve. She and my mother listened to Pachelbel’s Canon in D with ocean sounds, constantly, for their three week stay at the hospital. “It’s amazing what that music does to me,” Sarah grins, now a vigorous thirteen-year-old. “I’m never more relaxed than when it’s playing.” The music was so remarkably soothing and comforting to them at the time that, even now, when they hear the familiar strains, peace enters their souls and appears on their faces. In addition, there is another relationship between music, discomfort, children and mothers, which deserves mention. To quote Dr. Sears, “Music fills your mind with pleasant sensations that compete with the painful ones.” He was speaking of listening to music during labor. In his birthing book, he declares “studies on the pain-relieving value of music (called audionamalgesia) have shown that mothers using music during labor required less pain-relieving medication.” In further explanation, he says researchers “believe that the rhythm of sound may affect the rhythm of the body by stimulating release of those feel-good hormones – endorphins.” My mother, an OB nurse, teaches clients in her childbirth classes the benefits of music –mellow classical or lullabies – for relaxation. Nearly every mother I know has employed this calming effect during birth, and it seems to suggest a nice circle; lullabies are played, or sung, while babies are in the womb, during the actual labor, and throughout the children’s lives.
Yes, the relationship between mother and child is so close, so beautiful. I think relationship is what lullabies are most importantly about. Elizabeth Foss, the author of Real Learning, claims to be a “lullaby-er” for certain, and she shared a sweet anecdote. She was going through chemotherapy when her oldest was a baby and did not have enough breath to sing because of medications. When she shared this problem with her doctor, he asked if she was a professional singer. “No,” she replied. “I am just a mother whose little boy needs nighttime songs!” The doctor changed her medications, and her little one got his nighttime songs. Lullabies are about relationship, about bonding. Rachel, a mother from Maryland who sings to her children, says most of her songs involve touch – stroking heads, toes, fingers and faces. It is the touching that seems most important to her children, and the lullaby she sings to them provides a context in which this bonding can take place. Touch, quality time, personal attention, verbalized affection, all these can benefit from a musical mediator. However, involvement might be the most powerful way lullabies are used for bonding. Singing together is one example of involvement, as is personalizing lyrics so they are about the listeners. Countless mothers and children of my acquaintance have mentioned the latter, and it corresponds superbly with my own memories. In addition to my mother singing to us, my dad held after-bedtime sing-a-longs. Using familiar tunes, he would change the words beyond recognition, and they would always be about my siblings and me. The results were more giggle-inspiring than lulling, but we loved them and hold the memory with pleasure. So it is clear that lullabies encourage bonding, bonding in turn creates memories, and loving memories are one of the most cherished facets of life.
In summary, lullabies play an important part in bedtime, assist children through transitions, and comfort those in pain. Furthermore, the sharing of music presents a perfect opportunity for bonding. Thus, having the nurturing role of lullabies in family life
affirmed, I have only one more thought to share. Lullabies are not something belonging wholly to a certain place, time, or feeling. They are much larger than that and encompass generations’ worth of love, and tradition. While I would not limit the come-around times to three, Michael Card, whose lullaby music we play frequently at our house, captures the long lasting charm of lullabies very sweetly:
Lullabies come around three times in the course of a lifetime. When we are babies, if we are fortunate, we hear them sung to us by our parents. When we are parents, if we are wise, we sing them to our babies. Then when we are grandparents, if we are especially blessed, we have that last wonderful chance to sing them again as we gaze into a little face, bits and pieces of which remind us of all our loved ones.
Works Cited
Bryan, Sarah. Personal interview. April 1, 2006.
Card, Michael. Sleep Sound in Jesus. CD Cover. Phil Naish Nineteenth Street
Productions, 1989.
Foss, Elizabeth. “Lullaby Information for Teen’s Essay.” Online Posting. 30 March. 2006
<http//4real.thenetsmith.com/forum –posts.asp?TID=3841&PN=2>
“Golden Slumbers.” Lullaby Magic. Discovery Music, 1985
Gonzalez, Tammy. “Lullaby Information for Teen’s Essay.” Online Posting. 30 March.
2006 <http//4real.thenetsmith.com/forum –posts.asp?TID=3841&PN=2>
Honig, Alice Sterling. “A letter to Families.” Early Childhood Today. Mar. 2004.
MasterFile Premier. EBSCO Publishing. College of the Siskiyous Lib., Weed, CA. 29 March 2006. <http//search.epnet.com>.
Janette. “Lullaby Information for Teen’s Essay.” Online Posting. 30 March. 2006
<http//4real.thenetsmith.com/forum –posts.asp?TID=3841&PN=2
McIntyre, Angie. “Lullaby Information for Teen’s Essay.” Online Posting. 30 March.
2006 <http//4real.thenetsmith.com/forum –posts.asp?TID=3841&PN=2>
Morris, Madge. Book of Baby Verse. New York: George Sully & Company, 1923
Sears, Dr. William., and Martha Sears. The Birth Book: Everything You Need to Know
to Have a Safe and Satisfying Birth. Boston: Little Brown, 1994
__________________
Chari...Take Up & Read
Dh Marty 27yrs...3 lovely maidens: Anne 24, Sarah 20 & Maddelyn 17 and 3 chivalrous sons: Matthew 22, Garrett 16 & Malachy 11
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Elizabeth
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| Posted: May 08 2006 at 5:59am | IP Logged
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That's beautiful Anne! ! I was reading Love You Forever to my children a couple of nights ago and it occurred to me then that there is a fourth time in our lives that we might hear a familiar song. We've set the song in Love You Forever to music and Katie sings it Mike over the phone every night at bedtime when he travels. In the book, when the mother is very old and frail, the grown son comes and holds her and sings the song to her. I look forward to hearing our bedtime songs sung to me by my children when I am elderly.
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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LisaD
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Chari, you must be so proud! What a beautiful piece of work. Thanks for sharing it 
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~Lisa
Mama to dd(99), ds(01), ds(03) and ds(06)
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JennGM
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Wonderful job, Anne! Everything your wrote is echoed in our home. You have put it just beautifully!
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to  & ds1  '03 & ds2  '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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Meredith
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Incredible!!! Superb job, please pass on our well wishes for a job well done!!
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Meredith
Mom of 4 Sweeties
Sweetness and Light
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ShawnaB
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Absolutely beautiful Anne! I also give it a perfect score! 
You truly have a gift...and you have worked very hard to develop it. I look forward to reading more and more of your work. I believe it will be a blessing to so many. What a joy for a "teacher" to put aside her teacherly critique, and just enjoy and savor good writing for the pure pleasure of reading! Love you dear!
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Shawna, wife of Jacob, mom to Abraham 8 Amelia 5 and Jillian & Jonathan age 3 years http://www.psalm121family.com
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Chari
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| Posted: May 08 2006 at 7:24pm | IP Logged
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Aha, I forgot Shawna was on here 
I can give Shawna some direct thanks, as she so sweetly tutored Anne in writing for a year or two......gratis
and, Anne's professor, was once Shawna's, too
always a small world
Many thanks to you Shawna!
We love you, too! 
__________________
Chari...Take Up & Read
Dh Marty 27yrs...3 lovely maidens: Anne 24, Sarah 20 & Maddelyn 17 and 3 chivalrous sons: Matthew 22, Garrett 16 & Malachy 11
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cathhomeschool
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Beautiful and inspirational, Anne! You worked hard and certainly earned your perfect score. You truly have a gift for writing.
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: Anne’s Lullaby Essay
