Poetry

[Meghann]

Tell me how you incorporate poetry into your homeschool (or if you don't, why not?). Do you require your kids to memorize poems - if so, what age did you start (we are officially starting K this fall)? Any recommendations for great poetry anthologies for young children (secular ones, please)?

[Miss Tick]

We used some as copywriter for early handwriting practice, then, in the last half of K we started FLL1. I replaced a few of her poems with others I liked better, but followed her approach to memorization.

 

There are so many good anthologies, and it is so dependant on your tastes. We like the Random House anthology edited by Jack Prelutsky, Poetry Speaks to Children, and A Kick in the Head.

[angelmama1209]

we memorize the poems in fll and i read them poetry on thursdays. i read from a child's garden of verse, shel silverstein, and the christian mother goose treasury. i just got a scholastic book ($1 deal) with fun projects for writing poetry and am ordering even moor's poetry writing book to use next year.

[Aurelia]

DD has been memorizing poetry for the last couple of years, starting with the suggestions in the IEW poetry book. For awhile, I was also reading her a couple of poems a day, but stopped because we have had so many other things going on recently that I felt were more important. We're about to start a poetry unit I've been putting together using MBtP's 9-11 poetry unit and MCT's Music of the Hemispheres (we didn't do it last year when DD did MCT Island because it seemed way over her head). For anthologies we have Favorite Poems Old and New (a few poems are religious, but the majority are not). We also have The Nonsense Poems of Edward Lear, Be Glad Your Nose is on Your Face (Prelutsky), R is for Rhyme, and My America. 

[Woodland Mist Academy]

Poetry ebbs and flows in our home. There are times we memorize, times we write, times we read, and times we sing.  Singing poems might be my favorite. . .

We most often memorize when something grabs hold, not because it's required.

[ccolopy]

Poems to Read to the Very Young (Eloise Wilkin) was one of my kids' favorite books when they were little. By the time they were 3 or so, they'd memorized many of the poems, just because I'd read them so many times. As they got a little older (5 or 6), they really enjoyed The Children's Classic Poetry Collection, A Child's Garden of Verses, and anything by Shel Silverstein. I didn't worry about incorporating poetry into "school" until they were a bit older (9 for Dd and 11 for Ds). When they were younger, we just read poetry because it was fun. :)

[Tanikit]

We started with poetry almost at birth (traditional nursery rhymes). My DD6 has this year used some of the poetry in Easy Peasy 2nd grade Language Arts as a supplement - and this has expected her to try to write some rhyming lines too - and then we have a number of poetry books around the house that we read when we feel like (so poetry also ebbs and flows in our house). 

 

We have never specifically memorised poetry - naturally my children know a huge number of nursery rhymes and songs (also a form of poetry) off by heart and when the children used to swing outside a lot I would push them on the swing reciting The Swing by Robert Louis Stevenson so I suspect they know that one quite well too.

 

My youngest is now using a phonics anthology of poems (I have no idea where this came from - was given it as a hand me down) so for young ages you can find poems everywhere. You could even just google good poems for children and find a few you like - my children hear both good classic poetry and some that might be considered rubbish but usually serves another purpose and is fun.

[Mrs. A]

We do official memorizing during our morning basket time, but most of the time we just read it together. They are just as likely to choose a book of poems as a story book for a read aloud. Everyone really loves having a poetry tea day (I think that's a Bravewriter idea?) where we have tea and cookies and everyone gets to choose their favorite poems to be read aloud. 

 

A couple anthologies that we have and like are The Harp and the Laurel Wreath and Favorite Poems Old and New. 

[freeindeed]

We follow Ambleside Online's poetry rotation. We read the poems aloud together, but we don't memorize them. For my little one, we have a Circle Time and use verses from Wynstone's Kindergarten Series and A Child's Seasonal Treasury.

[ladydusk]

We do the poetry in FLL.  We do IEW poetry memorization.  We read poems from anthologies - like  Mother Goose and A Child's Book of Poems - and I love the Poetry for Young People series. 

[Plagefille]

We have tried many different ways to incorporate poetry and nothing worked until a friend told me about Tea Time.  We set the table, including a table cloth, set out some sort of snack, make some "tea" (we do hot chocolate), and read poetry.  The kids love it.  They beg for Tea Time each week.  One day we will do more, but for 9,6, and 5, this works great.

 

[Coco_Clark]

We started poetry in pre-k with mother goose rhymes.

 

We moved onto Sing Song (Christina Rosetti), A Childs Garden of Verses (Stevenson) and When We Where Very Young (Milne) in Kinder.

 

We've read Now We Are 6 (Milne) and The Barefoot Book of Classic Poems this year (in 1st). The Barefoot book is our first anthology and our first foray into poetry not necessarily written for children and I can't gush about it enough. I've looked at dozens of anthologys before purchasing this one and I love the selections and love love the illustrations.

 

I don't explicitly teach memorization, but because of the way we read poems my children have memorized several. I pick one poem to read each week and then read that one twice every morning. Then on Fridays we read it "one last time" and go back and read several others from the past the boys request or that I remember them particularly enjoying. The repitition is key, I think. I often find that on the first reading they don't "get it", but by the sixth they sure do, and by the tenth they can finish each line. After several weeks or months they are reciting it with me.