Reading Poetry to Young Ones

[carriede]

So I've been reading A Child's Garden of Verses to my 5 year old at the suggestion of many curriculua. He says he enjoys it and does seem to listen, but he cannot tell me anything about what has happened in the poem. I don't think he even understands them internally. He's not making the jump from abstract/creative diction to concrete ideas/events.

 

Is this okay? Am I wasting our time and should just pick it up later? He can narrate a bit of normal picture books and can recite nonfiction almost word for word, so I'm not worried about him in general.

 

Is it just too soon for poetry? Is there any benefit to reading it this early?

[Rosie_0801]

I don't think reading poetry to a child who is enjoying it can be a waste of time, but he's too young to be studying it. Let him enjoy the rhythm. Reading poetry aloud is a good exercise for you too. I'm not familiar with that volume, but are the poems obviously about anything? I've been reading flower fairy poems to dd, many of which I don't think are very good, but hey, she likes them and the pictures are pretty. We also have this great one about an Ogre in a Toga and Pardon my Garden. That one is funny.

[dragonflyer]

I don't know that poetry can really be told back well at 5.  Can you ask questions more like: did you hear any rhyming words?  did you hear any words you did not understand? did you hear any words that started with the same sound?  I really liked when the poem said XXX, was there any phrase you thought sounded neat?

There are also some great illustrated picture books that use the text from RLS that we have enjoyed.  We bounced a bouncy ball and played with shadow puppets when we talked about "My Shadow."  We built with blocks when we listened to "Block City."

The fun part of A Child's Garden of Verses is that kids should be able to connect with the imagery of the poems.

Enjoy them, memorize them, but don't worry too much about understanding without discussion until you reach an older age.

[Mergath]

Poetry shouldn't have to be narrated back to someone until college. ;) Just let him enjoy it.

[HelenNotOfTroy]

My son loves poetry, but all we have ever done is read it aloud, memorize some, and talk about rhyme and whatever he wants to talk about.

[carriede]

Very well!! We'll keep on reading. I do discuss the pictures with him before hand to "set the stage". I hadn't though of drawing activities to do from the poem; that's a good idea.

 

Thanks for the support. :)

[wintermom]

We've read a lot of different children's poetry books as a family. There are so many good ones to choose from. Llamas in Pyjamas is one my dc love in particular. They enjoy listening to the poems, and will often repeat the really fun ones. We'll sometimes learn the poems and make up actions to go with them. Sometimes we'll use a poem as a model and make up our own poem using a similar style. 

 

Maybe this particular book isn't capturing you and your ds's imagination. Sometimes the poems can just go over your head and the meaning isn't really clear. I know we had some trouble really connecting with the poems in A Child's Garden of Verses, by Robert Louis Stevenson. Many of his poems are very abstract, there are no pictures (which can be really important for young children), and the style of the poems are all very similar, which would make sense since they are all by the same poet.

 

We really enjoyed A Child's Introduction to Poetry because it introduced the children to a large variety of styles, lengths, topics, visual presentation and poets. There is also a CD, so that you don't have to do all the reading if you want to hear how others present various poems. The illustrations are also cute and provide some additional interest.

 

 

[Coco_Clark]

One "trick" that really helps my young ones in understanding poetry is reading the same poem every day for a week. The first reading I'm not sure if they are "getting" it. By the 5th reading they are often reciting sections with me, have a favorite part, say "I feel like that sometimes!", ect.

 

I definitely don't think he is too young. I read poetry (nursery rhymes and AA Milne) to my 2 yr old. And I think A Child's Garden is great for that age, but my copy DOES have pictures, and I agree that's important.

[kristin0713]

Get some simpler poetry books and vary them. We did a lot of Mother Goose when they were younger. We also have enjoyed a book called Read-Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young.

[carriede]

Thanks for the book suggestions! I do think something more relatable would be better.