Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization - secular?

[Just Robyn]

This product is listed as "contains distinctly Christian content" on the IEW website, but is there so much there that it couldn't be used as a secular program? Has anyone tried this?

[ladydusk]

We're not super far through it, so I flipped through and counted fewer than 20 poems (and probably closer to 15 of the 80) as having the word "God" in them (and a couple of clear analogy poems by Rosetti that you would probably find objectionable). Some of the pieces referencing "God" are Shakespeare, Yeats, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, the Desiderata, etc. so I'm not sure if you would have a problem with them or no?

 

On the plus side, IEW has (if purchased from them) a lifetime return guarantee, so it could easily be returned for a full refund if you do have a problem with it.

[Mom-ninja.]

My ds loves poems....I must look into this.

[Just Robyn]

We're not super far through it, so I flipped through and counted fewer than 20 poems (and probably closer to 15 of the 80) as having the word "God" in them (and a couple of clear analogy poems by Rosetti that you would probably find objectionable). Some of the pieces referencing "God" are Shakespeare, Yeats, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, the Desiderata, etc. so I'm not sure if you would have a problem with them or no?

 

On the plus side, IEW has (if purchased from them) a lifetime return guarantee, so it could easily be returned for a full refund if you do have a problem with it.

 

Thank you for the information! I'm putting it on my after-the-necessities-have-all-been-purchased list.

[Paintedlady]

Thank you for the information! I'm putting it on my after-the-necessities-have-all-been-purchased list.

 

 

Oh don't wait. For us, it's a necessity. It's our favorite curriculum, hands down, :thumbup: (or thumbs up).

[Mom0012]

Whenever anyone asks my daughter what her favorite subject is, she always says, "Poetry!" She has memorized all of the level 1 poems and most of the level 2 and I don't consider it a religious program at all. So far, there is one poem called "God and the Soldier", but even that is just about an observation about people's reaction to God depending on whether there are good times or bad. I'm sure you could google it to see what I mean.

 

Lisa

[Mom-ninja.]

I really should not be adding to my "To Buy" list!

[patchfire]

I would say there's more "moralizing" than actual Christian content. We skipped one poem in level two because it seemed to be scolding children for some perceived shortcoming. Dd and I listened to it once, looked at each other, and shook our heads. "God and the Soldier" has been the overt one so far, and dd and I had a nice conversation about the pessimist outlook of it. ;)

[sleepymommy]

I've had my eye on this curric too. I've been trying to just put together my own collection of poetry.

 

Do you all recommend the cd's along with the book?

[Mom-ninja.]

so with or without cd?

[Paintedlady]

I've had my eye on this curric too. I've been trying to just put together my own collection of poetry.

 

Do you all recommend the cd's along with the book?

 

so with or without cd?

 

 

We love the cds! Mr. Pudewa has a very unique voice and it bothers some people, but I adore him and his voice doesn't bother me at all. Hearing the meter of the poem really helps us b/c I'm not that familiar with poetry. Mr. Pudewa makes it fun & interesting, and $65 for 3-4 years worth of material was well worth it for me. Get the cds! :001_smile:

[romeacademy]

so with or without cd?

 

I bought it with the CD because I'm not good with poetry and wanted to hear someone reading it with correct meter. Unfortunately my dc found it irritating. It wasn't worth quibbling over, so I quit using it.

[Mom0012]

For us, the cds are a must. This is what helps us continue to review the old poems we have learned. We say the poems along with the cd on our way to swimming twice a week and this has been enough review that my kids still remember all the poems they learned last year.

 

I know there is a whole system for how often you are supposed to review the poems, but I skip that and just using the cds a couple of times a week has been good enough.

 

I also think that while the cds are nothing phenomenal as far as the reading goes, it is nice to have a decent model of how the poem should be said. One of my kids tends to just say the poems as quickly as he can and I think the cd is a good reminder of the proper way to recite them.

 

Lisa

[silliness7]

If you don't buy the CD's you could just pick poems out of a library book and have a super cheap poetry program. I don't think there is anything super special about these particular poems. The book does not offer any teaching helps although I did enjoy reading the introduction, immensely.

 

That said, I LOVE the CD's!!!! We used to do poetry memory all together. But it was getting incredibly time consuming and some children just memorize faster and with less effort than others. And when we did it all together we would do it til the last one memorized it. :tongue_smilie:

 

Now I assign each student his/her own poem to memorize. The first time through I will read it out loud and we will discuss vocabulary, phrases, meaning and reactions to the poem. This is nothing deep at. all.

 

Then I instruct my student to listen to the poem (or stanza(s) if it's a long poem) ten times each day. They are to say it along with the CD. I'll hear it from memory after a week. Sometimes they can get it much quicker than I week. I still require the repetition in order to move it from the short term memory to the long term memory. We keep adding stanzas til the poem is completed. This puts poetry almost totally in their lap which is good because my lap is full. :D And this is why I LOVE the CD's!!

 

Also, I instruct my dc to listen through the old poems before beginning work on the current poem. There is a checklist in the guide that you can photocopy to keep track of your long term review. The plan is to do every poem every day until you move to the next level, I think. Then the plan is to do every poem every other day from the previous level and every poem every day from the current level. We don't do it exactly as spelled out.