I thouroughly enjoyed the musical. The performers did a fantastic job. In fact, I couldn't imagine that the Broadway performance was much better. Being an owner of two cats, one who is almost 18 years old and one who is almost 14, I was moved to tears and laughter while watching and listening to the poetry.
If you are reading this, at this point you may be wondering how this pertains to our homeschool. Thanks for being patient through this long introduction but I felt that it necessary to explain what we are doing.
The day after watching Cats, I went to the bookstore and purchased T.S. Eliot's book "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats". Initially I purchased it with the interest of reading it myself. My daughter loves music and cats so I showed her one of the songs on you tube. She was hooked.
Today, I introduced the book to her. We read "The Naming of Cats", "The Old Gumbie Cat" and "The Rum Tum Tugger". We analyzed each poem and compared our cats to the cats in the poems. Lucy decided that she wanted to write her own poem about our Gumbie Cats. My plan was to read one or two poems and talk about them. So when Lucy said that she wanted to write her own poem I was thrilled. I wanted to share her poem with whoever is sharing in our story.
Our Gumbie Cats
by Lucy Waterbury
inspired by T.S. Eliot’s “The Old Gumbie Cat”
We have two gumbie cats.
They sit and sit and sit and sit.
And that’s what makes a gumbie cat.
They sit and sit and sit and sit.
And that’s what makes a gumbie cat.
Jakey sleeps in the little house
And he drinks water and meows really loudly for food.
He sits and sits and sits all day.
That’s what makes a Gumbie Cat.
And he drinks water and meows really loudly for food.
He sits and sits and sits all day.
That’s what makes a Gumbie Cat.
But when it’s night time,
He sneaks out
And teaches the guinea pigs to behave.
He teachers Bear to be the boss.
That’s what makes a gumbie cat.
He sneaks out
And teaches the guinea pigs to behave.
He teachers Bear to be the boss.
That’s what makes a gumbie cat.
Eddie sleeps in the computer room and
sewing room on top of the desk.
He sits upon the windowsill
and sits and sits and sits and sits
And that’s what makes a gumbie cat.
sewing room on top of the desk.
He sits upon the windowsill
and sits and sits and sits and sits
And that’s what makes a gumbie cat.
When we’re asleep
Eddie will creep out into the living room
He chases bugs and teacher the baby bugs to fly.
That’s what makes a gumbie cat.
Eddie will creep out into the living room
He chases bugs and teacher the baby bugs to fly.
That’s what makes a gumbie cat.
In the morning he creeps back into the computer room and
That’s what makes a gumbie cat.
That’s what makes a gumbie cat.
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If you haven't read this book, we highly recommend it. We will read more poems tomorrow. When we are done we plan on watching a production of Cats on dvd. We'll see what more inspiration comes to us.
