How long to work on poem retention?

[ExcitedMama]

While doing a review of poems yesterday I realized that I haven't been consistent enough with reviewing previously memorized poems. Like When We We Were Six, DS loved that poem when he learned it at six, but obviously now that he is seven it's not as fun for him. Should I drop it? How long should a poem be retained for? I'm not sure if I should remind him of older poems that were obviously simpler than the ones he can do now.

[OneStepAtATime]

What would be your goal? I think I would only keep reviewing past poems that now hold no interest if there were a specific goal in mind, not just reviewing previous poems just to have a bunch of poems memorized.

 

What is your goal?

[regentrude]

What is your goal for having him memorize poems?

 

I have retained quite a number of the poems I memorized as a child, without review, and can still recite them in middle age. And I have also completely forgotten many others.

He will remember the ones that still speak to him, and a smattering of the ones where he has no idea why he still knows them. And he'll forget others.

 

I would not make a child review previously memorized poems unless I had a clear reason for it.

Edited June 14, 2017 by regentrude

[RootAnn]

I do keep poems in rotation - some being recited only once per month if they are very old. My younger kids eventually learn them and I let them drop out of rotation for the olders if they don't want to keep doing them. Usually, the older kids like to keep the poems in rotation because the older ones are short & easy (vs. newer longer ones that they still struggle with). The older kids hear the younger kids doing them anyway, so they are getting some review of them anyway.

 

It really depends on your goal. I find having some really good words/phrases in your head is helpful. Some silly poems we retain because they are light-hearted & help in tough times. Other poems & speeches are useful to have in your head for easy-to-access quotes for papers. (DD#1 used quite a few song lyrics as 'hooks' in her essays this year. To each their own.)

[Syllieann]

I have our memory work in anki. Some of our cards aren't due until 2020 but they aren't dropped. You should only review the poems you want them to remember long term.

[Miss Tick]

I do keep poems in rotation - some being recited only once per month if they are very old. My younger kids eventually learn them and I let them drop out of rotation for the olders if they don't want to keep doing them. Usually, the older kids like to keep the poems in rotation because the older ones are short & easy (vs. newer longer ones that they still struggle with). The older kids hear the younger kids doing them anyway, so they are getting some review of them anyway.

 

I like this. We have a few, Ozymandius and Horatius at the Bridge and the Thirty Days Hath September one for example, that we like enough that we keep reviewing spontaneously. Every once in a while I go back through what they have learned in the past and we brush up on a few.

 

(Hey, medusa is back!)

[ExcitedMama]

Very good questions...I have no idea of any long term goal! I hated memorization in school and never would have made DS memorize anything if I hadn't read about all of the benefits in TWTM. He's finishing up FLL and there are reminders about reviewing older poems in there. Does FLL2 say anything about reviewing older poems? It does seem silly to work on reviewing When I Was Six now but he loved Mr. Nobody the first time he heard it so that could makes sense for longer retention. Honestly those are probably the only ones he's actually liked. He hears a lot of poems from ELTL and MP Enrichment and doesn't care for most of them. I substituted some of the FLL ones like The Caterpillar for ones we liked better from ELTL. it will be a couple of years before he hears DD doing the poems he's already learned. Can you share your goals to help me figure out mine? Thanks!

[fralala]

Well, I gave up asking my kids to memorize poems because they didn't enjoy it, but I really enjoy it, so I keep on memorizing and reciting poems. I've found they stick best when I make myself try to recite them just when I am at the point of, "Hmm, I think I could remember that poem, but just barely." For little kids, those are the things I can give them at bedtime when they don't want to go to sleep (replacing our old Mother Goose, which we'll never forget!) and for older kids I ask them to check me to make sure I'm getting the words right, or I just annoy them by reciting a line dramatically here or there when it seems pertinent.

 

Most people are normal and have normal reasons for memorizing poetry, but I always think about worst-case scenarios, so they are the gifts I give to myself to sustain me in a worst-case scenario: if I had nothing else, I would have the things stored in my mind. And then there are just the ordinary sorrows that we all must pass through, when having Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night stored somewhere deep down from when I first memorized it 20 years ago is like an embrace. These are not reasons I would speak about with my children, but one day they will (hopefully) remember me pushing them on a swing and reciting The Swing, and it will connect them with me (wherever I am) and with their swinging selves and those who have gone before us and will go after us. (But yeah, what I don't want is for them to have the memory, "Ugh, Mom made us recite that poem over and over and barked, 'Enunciate! Look me in the eye! Wrong word!" which is why I've given up on assigning memorization, at least for now.)

[nixpix5]

My kids love poem memorization. We have once a month poetry tea parties. First we make some homemade treat together (where we practice some math skills using measuring) and then we get out our tea set for the event. We introduce one or two new poems. What we usually do is read through a number of poems until we find one or two we all love and want to memorize. We then write it on the dry erase board and practice it daily, or use it for copy work or what not. Last month we did Ogden Nash's "Hippopotamus" and they loved that one so much! They still constantly recite it. I think setting the scene for making it memorable and letting them have poetry options gives buy in. We also like to count the syllables in each line to find rhythm and patterns (they are young so I haven't taught them types of poetry yet) I am trying to prime their interest in how verse works. We just have fun with it :)

[Hobbes]

We are always memorising a poem as part of our morning time. It's just a thing we do, so it doesn't seem to have occurred to them to complain about it (yet!), and they have a good level of pride in accomplishment once they've finished one. We are always working on a new one and then review one old one each day. It's so quick. They remember poems from four years ago, as do I, which is lovely.

 

I like keeping the poems fresh because I don't like losing what we've learned. I also like giving them a deeply rooted stock of rich language. And I personally love having poems in my mind to stay and want to provide that for my kids. So we review for years, which is painless when done regularly. Some of the old ones are only repeated every couple of months, but they are in there solidly now.

Edited June 16, 2017 by indigoellen@gmail.com