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IEW poetry what age to start?


iona
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We started when my kids were 7 & 8 and we're still using it. You can just take it slow and easy. There's no pace you have to follow. We've spent 3 years doing the first 2 levels. Now that they're a bit older we're picking up the pace and trying to finish one level each year. I figure there's no time line we're under so we just take it easy. My kids have now memorized over 40 poems. Get the audio CD's too. They make it so much better!

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I think you can start pretty young with this. We're almost done with Level 1 and my oldest is 6. My not-quite 4 year old is on poem 8 or so. Just from hearing the repetition. 6.5 and almost 5 would be perfect for a lot of the humor in the first level.

 

The final level has ideas for famous speeches and orations, but as far as I can tell the other levels are all poetry. It does come with Mr. Pudewa's rationale for memorizing poetry and mine came with a DVD of one of his lectures (I don't remember which one, it has been a while ...)

 

We love, love, love this curriculum.

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My daughter started it when she was 7 and went through 2 levels withing 2 months. Then we did some other memorization so we are going back this summer to reinforce what she has learned and continue with level 3.

My son was almost 3 when he memorized famous "Ooey Gooey" poem. He just loves train. If your child likes trains, there is another short one for a young child to memorize.

Toot! Toot!

A peanut sat on a railroad track,

His heart was all a-flutter;

The five-fifteen came rushing by-

Toot!toot! peanut butter!

 

I haven't used CDs myself, but actually thinking of transferring audio CDs into MP3 and let kids listen before they fall asleep. When I was a child I listen to some poetry on old vinyl records and memorized a lot. I still remember all poetry and prose from school years.

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We started when my kids were 7 & 8 and we're still using it. You can just take it slow and easy. There's no pace you have to follow. We've spent 3 years doing the first 2 levels. Now that they're a bit older we're picking up the pace and trying to finish one level each year. I figure there's no time line we're under so we just take it easy. My kids have now memorized over 40 poems. Get the audio CD's too. They make it so much better!

 

:iagree: This is what we've done. If my kids memorize all the IEW poems, it will be plenty so we have lots of time and I'm not in a rush. They are both beginning level 3 and we are just taking our time. I'm happy if they memorize one poem a month at this point since many of the poems at this level are long and we also spend time reviewing levels 1 and 2 each week. We'd never review the poems as often as we need to if we didn't have the audio cd, so that is a must for us.

 

Lisa

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We are using it this year, too, and love it!! The first few poems, especially, are perfect for younger ones! :) we mix it up with scripture memory, so that stretches it out a bit for us. Also, my girls have been memorizing complete chapters of Psalms for years now, so memorization definitely happens and is probably easier, for younger ones!!

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It sounds great for young ones, but how old would be too old for this program?

 

It seems to me that it works its way from easier (Ooey Gooey and Celery) to much more difficult in vocabulary and theme. I'm not sure any of us are "too old" for some of the memory work in the later Levels. And, frankly, *I've* enjoyed the Level One poems (except Rosetti's My Gift, which is not one of my favorites, so we substituted Clouds for it).

 

We're almost done with Level 1 though, so maybe I'll give you a :lurk5: and someone further along can answer.

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I like the program, but I hold off on using it with my kids until they are in about 3rd or 4th grade. Although the first few (2-3) poems are fun, the rest are definitely for the older crowd. There are sooooo many wonderful poems out there for younger children to memorize. I like to check out a bunch of poetry books from the library in the summer and then pick the ones I think my little ones would love for the following year. This thread from last fall has some really fun ones for the younger kids: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=202107

 

I also wanted to mention that although I love the ease of the IEW program, I'm a little disappointed with the poems he chose (and left out - like Rudyard Kipling's IF). Someone told me he took them all from public domain so he wouldn't have to ask permission to use them. Several poems are good, but there are quite a few that I don't like. I would have paid more $ for a program that included poems because they were beautiful and worth memorizing instead of just hassle-free... KWIM?

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We started using it when my youngest was five. My sixteen year old is still memorizing poems from it.

You would be surprised how much a young child can memorize. When my now 8 yo was six, she memorized My shadow. The kids will still break out into poems when a reference calls for it. And, some she didn't memorize word perfect but now that she is going back to listen to the poems, they are very familiar to her and she is memorizing them easily. For instance, both the 8 and 11 yo memorized "Battle fo the Light Brigade" this year for history. It was one they'd heard but not committed to memory a couple of years ago. It was a piece of cake for them to "own" it this year. We take the "onion" approach to learning. Layer upon layer!

And I agree with CreekMom, there will be poems you won't like and poems that you wish were in there. But among the 80 poems included there will be many that will work for your family!

It is a GREAT program. I highly recommend getting the CD to go with.

The intro by Pudewa at the beginning of the booklet is fantastic, there is a CM type chart as well. It's great teacher training along with a poetry memorization program for kids.

A must have!

Edited by laughing lioness
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