Music of the Hemispheres

[Paige]

How are you all using this book? I'm about halfway through and still not sure how to get the most out of it. DS is 9 and we have finished Grammar Island, we are doing one practice sentence a day from Practice Island, Music of the Hemispheres now, plan to do Building languages next, followed by Sentence Island. So far, we both are enjoying it, but we are only reading for a while, then doing whatever the "Let's Have Some Fun," exercise is for that section. Occasionally I will ask him the discussion questions for the section we are on but I'll admit I forget about them a lot! I didn't give him the pretest because at his age I knew he wouldn't know anything. I had planned on doing the test at the end but now I'm thinking he may bomb that too. It's not that he isn't learning- he just finds all the technical terms confusing and hard to remember.

 

I am trying to decide if I should force him to learn the vocabulary words in the back of the book in a more structured way- like flash cards or something- or if we should continue with the book as we are doing and work on practice poems for the rest of the year- analyzing them for their rhyme/meter/and type sort of like we do with sentences in practice island. I was thinking of buying a cheap classic poetry anthology for us to go through when we finish Music of the Hemispheres. He loves the poetry unit right now and I don't want him to hate it by adding in the seat work but I do want him to retain what he is learning. I guess I could do both and be sure he retains the info, so what I'm really asking is- Do you think going through one poem a day and analyzing its structure would be enough to solidify what isn't sinking in right now? My DS would enjoy that and I could avoid some fights and stress.

Edited September 9, 2010 by Paige

[StephanieZ]

I think that doing exactly what you are doing is perfect!

 

Memorization of terms/flashcards is totally unneccessary, IMHO. When you are done with the book, then read the sample poems together, looking for the things you've learned about. After you've read all those, then spend 20-30 min a couple times a week reading poetry you choose together. . . For one or two poems each sitting (not all of them, as you don't want poetry to always be left-brain/work), spend a few minutes noticing the various techniques you learned about. . . You can also spend some time once a week or so playing with "poem recipes" and *writing* poetry in general, if that is at all appealing. (I kind of agree with SWB's idea about not forcing creating writing.)

 

That's all. It *is* easy!

 

Frankly, I suspect that the best use of extra poetry time would be in reading and enjoying more good quality poetry!

 

Each poetry book reinforces what came before, reteaches much of it at a higher level, and adds even more details. So, mastery will come naturally over time through reinforcement.

[Paige]

Each poetry book reinforces what came before, reteaches much of it at a higher level, and adds even more details. So, mastery will come naturally over time through reinforcement.

 

Thanks for that! I was stressing that he had to learn it all now or he'd never get it again but I forgot all about the next levels. We are loving this set so I am sure we will stick with it for a long time. It feels too easy to be real school. :)

[StephanieZ]

Thanks for that! I was stressing that he had to learn it all now or he'd never get it again but I forgot all about the next levels. We are loving this set so I am sure we will stick with it for a long time. It feels too easy to be real school. :)

 

:party:

 

We love it, too!