Poetry memorization v. scripture memorization

[Joy at Home]

I've been looking at IEW's poetry memorization program, and think it might be a nice addition to our homeschool. We have not been working on memorizing poetry. We have a scripture verse weekly and other memorywork for history, science, etc., and the idea of memorizing poetry appeals to me, and he seems to build a powerful case for doing so.

 

But looking at the selections of long poetry, I'm wondering if memorizing long passages of scripture is the route we should go. I like the idea of a program with built in review and charts, and he explains how using poetry develops linguistic patterns, but can scripture be as beneficial, linguistically speaking? Has anyone chose longer passages to memorize?Would doing both be too much?

 

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks!!

lisa

[Trivium Academy]

There are some that do both, of course they value the scripture memorization more than the poetry. A friend has her children memorize the catechism Q&A and long poems when her kids are older. They are two separate focuses though.

 

If memory work is bogging your learning experience down, why not see if it is all needed? We were very heavy with our memorization until this past year when I just let it go due to the amount of time it was taking. Of course we still work on math and poetry has been wonderful for us but we also have French and soon Latin that we'll be memorizing, add that to the Presdients, states & capitals, and we have a full plate.

 

We have scripture and Bible memorization still but it isn't as heavy as it was, this coming year my dd8 will memorize Psalm 100, the Books of the New Testament (she memorized the Old Testament books last year) and review what she has already memorized.

 

As for poetry memorization, a lot of people like Pudewa's program, I've never seen it so I cannot comment on it but dd8 keeps a poetry notebook. I've typed her poems up and provided handwriting paper, she illustrates the poem, copies it and memorizes it. She reviews all of the previous memorized poems for that year before working on a new poem and once a month she reviews all of the poem previously memorized last year. She will be working on 20 poems for 3rd grade, the longest is 5 stanzas long. She started in first grade with one stanza poems.

[St. Theophan Academy]

to me the two have totally different purposes - we memorize scripture for moral and spiritual reasons. We memorize poetry for linguistic reasons. If you use King James version for memory, you can get some of the linguistic benefits, but for a young child, memorizing a poem is much easier, and will benefit in the long term in my opinion. So I say do both! We are planning to use IEW poetry plan, but I will continue with scripture memory too. The more they memorize, the greater the capacity they have to memorize more :)

[NancyNellen]

We manage to do both without any issues. We are on level 3 of IEW's poetry mem. program and have also memorized some longer Scriptures (Isaiah 53, Sermon on the Mount, Psalm 8). I think it is very possible and beneficial to do both.

[sweetbaby]

I like the idea of a program with built in review and charts, and he explains how using poetry develops linguistic patterns, but can scripture be as beneficial, linguistically speaking? Has anyone chose longer passages to memorize?Would doing both be too much?

 

 

I don't think doing both would be too much. We do scripture and poetry memorization. My dc have to memorize scripture weekly or biweekly depending on the length because I want it to really sink in and not just be recalled. They memorize poetry once a month. I get a selection based on each child's capabilities or age. Sometimes they have both, scripture and poetry memorization, wrapped into one when we use the Bible. Psalms and the Songs of Solomon are true poetry in their own rights.

[Joy at Home]

so much for taking the time to answer. We've decided to add poetry memory and continue with longer scripture passages. It seems others have no problem doing both.

 

thanks again!

lisa