Sick of searching for poetry memorization

[RosieCotton]

Ok I'm stuck and need a push.

 

I need a resource for poems for grammar stage (or, ok K-12 in one whole great book with complete analysis built right in -- and hey did you see that pig just fly past my window! He was really up there!) that doesn't include me looking every single one up on the web or searching blogs and wherever else.

 

I read a ton of poetry to them weekly, they really enjoy it mostly from the Random House Book of Poetry for Children or links I've saved on the web.

We have done a few from that book but some are so long more like full stories and not dev approp.

 

I almost bought The Harp and Laurel but then read in a few places it's not a good selection. Library didn't have it nor did ILL which was odd. So made me stop.

 

Read a little about Andrew Pudela but don't know enough about the program or what verses are included. Not sure I want to pay for it. I always buy stuff like that and then don't use it. Really like the library or Abebooks or other cheaper avenues.

 

I tagged a few poems in The Book of Virtues by Bennett, like A Child's Prayer and looking for similar. Plus humor. !

 

Just grabbed a DL of A Childs Garden of Verse from the library-- we had this before I forgot to mark it to get again when I returned it due to another hold. This is a good start but would like to add other authors as well.

 

What/who else?

 

Using FLL so have those and love them.

 

I feel I'm missing the mark and failing them, the boys are just sponges here so please give me your thoughts. I'd like to organize our poetry memory work binders for next year, and burn them onto CD's, and NOT be up late trying to figure this out anymore.  :cursing:

 

Hey I'd love to organize it for the next few years if anyone can be so bold as to say - hey - here it is! All of it! Ya IDIOT! (And duck that pig is coming back this way !)

 

(I'll be better tomorrow I promise.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[skeeterbug]

Living Memory? No analysis though. Can be purchased as an ebook through lulu or a hardcopy (i got mine from RR). Very thorough.

[kiwik]

I have a copy of the Harp and Laurel Wreath. It seems to have a similar range as other compilations of poems I have seen. There are a lot of US poems (more than other books) and a lot of recognisable poems. If you can get it cheap I would look at it (I can't speak for the analysis but that goes for all analysis). Maybe some more modern stuff as well though.

[TheAutumnOak]

What about Memoria Press poetry books?...There is one that lasts a few years and then a couple more for seventh grade and up...I would link to it but can't figure out how to do that on this Nook :-)...

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Ambleside Online has a poem-a-day book for each grade level I believe.  No analysis, but I don't think you reeeeally need to analyze each poem, either.  :-)  

[asmall]

My kids have enjoyed the series Poetry for Young People. Each book is based on a different poet. We like them because each book starts out with an introduction that is all about the poet. They also have comments on most of the poems and also what some of the words mean. Right now my kids have been reading the William Shakespeare Poetry for Young People. The book starts out with about five pages about Shakespeare. Then it has a mix of his works. Before each poem it tells a little background, so they will understand what is going on. After the poem it explains some of the harder words. All the different books in the series are set up the same basic way. We have acquired a collection of them, but you also should be able to get these through your library.

AL

[julie4]

We use Harp & Laurel Wreath too. It has some analysis, which are called "study question" for the rhetorical stage poems. She has the poems divided into Early years/grammar stage/dialectical stage/rhetorical stage. But I use many of the rhetorical stage poems with my 9 & 10 yo. There is Christian content, some of the Psalms & Hymns. I'm not trying to talk you into it, but I think it has wonderful selections: Aquinas, Benet, E. Browning, R. Browning, Byron, Chesterton, Carroll, Dickenson, Emerson, Frost, Holmes, Lear, Longellow, Melville, Milton, Poe, Shakespeare(lots of shakespeare) Stevenson (lots) Tennyson, Thoreau, Whitman, Wordsworth, Yeats and many more those are just the more recognizable authors that I am familiar with. I agree with above poster, maybe try to find a cheap used copy.

 

Other than that we mainly use the library for poetry books.

[dauphin]

I have a copy of Pudewas Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization. I haven't used it yet but if you want me to flip through it and tell you more about what's in it, please send me a PM.

[Critterfixer]

I use the above resource for our poetry memorization. The bad thing about having a resource that tells you when and what to memorize is that you get poems you don't care for. The good thing about having that resource is that you get poems you would never pick that your kids love. Including some huge long things that I would swear they could never memorize that they actually seem to enjoy. I understand his philosophy of constant memory recitations, but that just about killed my love of the process, so I ended up moving to a more random review method that I like and that the boys enjoy. I certainly didn't pay for the CD. I wanted to read the poems!

 

I don't discuss beyond unfamiliar vocabulary at this point. I'm doing some poetry work for myself this fall so that I may be able to add more to the discussions as we go along. Mostly we read, memorize and sip our tea and eat our small treat that the boys pick out each week for tea and poetry. 

I pick up poetry anthologies for reading, and some I buy if the pictures are beautiful so that we can read them together. Sometimes we might focus on a single poet that comes up in the course of history, or when a poem just resonates (The Bells did this some months back!) and then I will pick up a book on that poet with more poems to read. We got a heavily illustrated book of poems by Edgar Allen Poe after The Bells was a huge hit, and talked a lot about Poe, just curled up on the couch around the book.

 

If you enjoy researching your own poetry, I'd say you could put together a great list all on your own. Depending on the level of analysis you want you could make your copy of poems and note and analyse for yourself, and then decide how much of that you want your kids to do based on age, and on level of interest and so forth.

[SilverMoon]

I've been content with The Harp and Laurel Wreath.*shrug* We have other random collections too, whatever I happened on at thrift stores or Half Priced Books. Robert Louis Stevenson, Sea to Shining Sea (by Kohn, American collection), and such.

 

If you want a motherlode of poetry loosely sorted by year check out the Ambleside Online site. There's a learning curve to understanding that website, but once you figure it out it's a tremendous resource.

[mom31257]

I agree with Memoria Press's Poetry for Grammar Stage. I wish I had looked at it earlier, but I still plan on using it with ds over the next couple of years. You get several great poems. The student book has room for illustrating the poem and copy work. The various questions include quite a bit of figurative language such as alliteration, metaphor, personification, and more, summarizing, vocabulary, etc. I am not having ds do the illustrating (he hates to draw) or copy work, so I only bought the teacher's guide and plan to do it orally. 

 

 

[Mrs. A]

Favorite Poems Old and New is a great resource. No analysis, but I'm another that doesn't feel like every poem needs it. My plan is to save that for the older years.

[Karen in CO]

You don't really need more suggestions, but I'll give you two anyway.  When I was stuck because of too many choices, I used the Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization.  I just did as it said, and the kids amazed me.  After that I was more confident in our abilities.  Now, I am using How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare.  It is fabulous and includes the "how" instead of just the "what"  that fill a lot of other resources.

[Walking-Iris]

I use the ideas in Bravewriter Poetry Arrow guide, and Jot it Down and Partnership Writing.

 

My 6 year old has enjoyed some of the FLL poems.

 

My dd memorizes some Mother Goose and fingerplays.

 

Couldn't you just let the kids pick one of their favorites to memorize? I'm not entirely convinced that poetry memorization needs to be a constant thing. Maybe just read and enjoy, and occasionally pick a few to work with. The What Your _Need to Know books have great poetry sections.

 

About analysis (interpretation or mechanics) I don't make a big deal about that. The Poetry Arrow guide (and not a few WWE lessons) have been enough for us to build on, and I just share the basics of interpretation with my kiddos. 

[TheAutumnOak]

Here is the link for the MP Poetry I referenced above...Finally on a real computer :)

[RosieCotton]

Wow great thanks to all who posted.

I'll research these suggestions and see what I can get at the library.

 

I have Living Memory and need to revisit it for the poetry section.

 

Thanks for getting me off the ledge! :hurray:

[RosieCotton]

I'll be at a book fair this weekend and hope to check out MP in person. :)

[crazyforlatin]

You don't really need more suggestions, but I'll give you two anyway. When I was stuck because of too many choices, I used the Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization. I just did as it said, and the kids amazed me. After that I was more confident in our abilities. Now, I am using How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare. It is fabulous and includes the "how" instead of just the "what" that fill a lot of other resources.

I'm trying to do a Shakespeare summer with DD and bought How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare. I like the author's method and teaches me to how to teach. I will be choosing some of my own passages as DD is 8. Interestingly after I googled the book for reviews, the first one to pop up is our very own SWB, http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323623304579059253562750162. I don't read her blog, so didn't realize she had done a review of the book, and probably many of you already read the article.

[TheAutumnOak]

I'm trying to do a Shakespeare summer with DD and bought How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare. I like the author's method and teaches me to how to teach. I will be choosing some of my own passages as DD is 8. Interestingly after I googled the book for reviews, the first one to pop up is our very own SWB, http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323623304579059253562750162. I don't read her blog, so didn't realize she had done a review of the book, and probably many of you already read the article.

 

The link didn't work for me...It sent me to a page without the info on it...

[crazyforlatin]

Hmmm, I googled the title of the book and Susan Bauer, and the full article came up. WSJ is a restricted site, but I'm not a subscriber. I'm hesitant about copying the article and posting it here. This is from her blog, http://www.susanwisebauer.com/blog/what-ive-been-reading/ken-ludwigs-how-to-teach-your-children-shakespeare/

[Coco_Clark]

I can't read you siggy (I have a hard time with cursive on screens) so I don't know the ages of your kiddos. And I'm at a loss for analysis, I'm another wait for it person. BUT we love our poetry study. Really really love it. So Ill share what we read/do.

 

Age 4- Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes

Age 5-When we Were Very Young (A.A. Milne), A Childs Garden of Verses (Robert Louise Stevenson)

Age 6- Now We Are 6 (A.A. Milne), The Barefoot Book of Poetry (various and not necessarily children's poets)

Planned Age 7- Poetry for young people series

 

We read one poem (the same poem) every morning M-F. It means we work through the book slowly but it also means my kids have time to really let it sink in. They often don't "get it" until day three. Sometimes by day 5 its partially memorized :). Sometimes ill ask what they think the poem is about, or have they ever felt that way, ect. Sometimes ill point out alliteration or metaphor or another devise I enjoyed. A lot of times I just let it be.

 

Once a month we have poetry "tea". They pick their favorite poem from that month to illustrate and I copy it over the illustration in calligraphy pen. Sooner or later they can copy for themselves. These go in our family binder of favorite poems. Then we spend a while reading from our poetry collection, remembering old favs. They all memorize 1-3 poems a year as well. Even the 4 yr old memorizes a nursery rhyme. I let them choose which.

[skeeterbug]

We read one poem (the same poem) every morning M-F. It means we work through the book slowly but it also means my kids have time to really let it sink in. They often don't "get it" until day three. Sometimes by day 5 its partially memorized :). Sometimes ill ask what they think the poem is about, or have they ever felt that way, ect. Sometimes ill point out alliteration or metaphor or another devise I enjoyed. A lot of times I just let it be.

 

Once a month we have poetry "tea". They pick their favorite poem from that month to illustrate and I copy it over the illustration in calligraphy pen. Sooner or later they can copy for themselves. These go in our family binder of favorite poems. Then we spend a while reading from our poetry collection, remembering old favs. They all memorize 1-3 poems a year as well. Even the 4 yr old memorizes a nursery rhyme. I let them choose which.

 

Love this!!!!

[Mrs. A]

I can't read you siggy (I have a hard time with cursive on screens) so I don't know the ages of your kiddos. And I'm at a loss for analysis, I'm another wait for it person. BUT we love our poetry study. Really really love it. So Ill share what we read/do.

 

Age 4- Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes

Age 5-When we Were Very Young (A.A. Milne), A Childs Garden of Verses (Robert Louise Stevenson)

Age 6- Now We Are 6 (A.A. Milne), The Barefoot Book of Poetry (various and not necessarily children's poets)

Planned Age 7- Poetry for young people series

 

We read one poem (the same poem) every morning M-F. It means we work through the book slowly but it also means my kids have time to really let it sink in. They often don't "get it" until day three. Sometimes by day 5 its partially memorized :). Sometimes ill ask what they think the poem is about, or have they ever felt that way, ect. Sometimes ill point out alliteration or metaphor or another devise I enjoyed. A lot of times I just let it be.

 

Once a month we have poetry "tea". They pick their favorite poem from that month to illustrate and I copy it over the illustration in calligraphy pen. Sooner or later they can copy for themselves. These go in our family binder of favorite poems. Then we spend a while reading from our poetry collection, remembering old favs. They all memorize 1-3 poems a year as well. Even the 4 yr old memorizes a nursery rhyme. I let them choose which.

 

We do a poetry tea every so often too, but I love your idea of illustrating favorites and keeping them in a special notebook!

[Coco_Clark]

I dont know where the notebook idea came from, this is the first year we've added that element.  But just a year later with 25 or so pages, I can already tell what a family heirloom it will be.  Right now it's all in a 3 ring binder but I think sooner or later I will bind it in some fashion.  Maybe even photocopy and make a true book.    

[Mrs Twain]

I am no expert on poetry, but I love IEW's Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization.  Easy peasy, No thinking required.  All the poetry is chosen for you.

 

I bet you could find the book cheaply used if you don't care about having the CD.

[duckens]

We also like IEW's poetry.

 

[RosieCotton]

I can't read you siggy (I have a hard time with cursive on screens) so I don't know the ages of your kiddos. And I'm at a loss for analysis, I'm another wait for it person. BUT we love our poetry study. Really really love it. So Ill share what we read/do.

 

Age 4- Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes

Age 5-When we Were Very Young (A.A. Milne), A Childs Garden of Verses (Robert Louise Stevenson)

Age 6- Now We Are 6 (A.A. Milne), The Barefoot Book of Poetry (various and not necessarily children's poets)

Planned Age 7- Poetry for young people series

 

We read one poem (the same poem) every morning M-F. It means we work through the book slowly but it also means my kids have time to really let it sink in. They often don't "get it" until day three. Sometimes by day 5 its partially memorized :). Sometimes ill ask what they think the poem is about, or have they ever felt that way, ect. Sometimes ill point out alliteration or metaphor or another devise I enjoyed. A lot of times I just let it be.

 

Once a month we have poetry "tea". They pick their favorite poem from that month to illustrate and I copy it over the illustration in calligraphy pen. Sooner or later they can copy for themselves. These go in our family binder of favorite poems. Then we spend a while reading from our poetry collection, remembering old favs. They all memorize 1-3 poems a year as well. Even the 4 yr old memorizes a nursery rhyme. I let them choose which.

 

This is so nice. Thank you for sharing it! :)

 

[ScoutTN]

You can actually see the IEW lists if you google for them. We use those as a base and add to them or skip some as we please. We have several nice poetry books and discover new poems in our reading. Sometimes the kids choose one and sometimes I do. I keep the ones we memorize in a large 3 ring notebook, printed in a large and in page protectors. One notebook for the whole family. When we have mastered one we move on. No stress. I put several in the notebook at a time so there is always another ready when my oldest is ready to move on.

 

My kids are almost 9 and almost 7. We don't do any analysis, we just enjoy. Saving the academic approach for logic stage.

 

We enjoy Andrew Pudewa so I bought the IEW set (booklet and audio CDs and a DVD of the

"Nurturing Competent Communicators" lecture.) For us totally worth the $, but YMMV.

[Guest sakielcz]

Just popping in to say thank you as well!! I'm looking forward to memorizing poetry with my boys (4 and 6) this fall, so thank you for all of these suggestions!