Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization with FLL

[kalusignan]

I'm seeking information about IEW's Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization. I think it looks like an amazing resource, and DD7 really enjoys memorizing scripture and the poetry memorization in FLL. My worry is that together with FLL, the amount of poetry memorization would be overkill. Is anybody using this alongside FLL? Should I wait until we are done with FLL?

 

Also, how much time do you spend on this per day? I would be adding this to our morning time. I don't want something that is going to be long and involved, but rather something fun and quick (about 15 minutes per day).

 

Also, has anybody done this for awhile, taken a break (for a few weeks or months), and come back to it? Is that possible?

[Haiku]

My kids have memorized poetry since my dd was in 1st and my son was in K. We don't use a formal program. I bought the book A Family of Poems by Caroline Kennedy, and we just started memorizing. We spend about 15 minutes a day. The kids have memorized over 100 poems. Poetry memorization is the best thing we have done in our homeschool. (We've now added Kennedy's second volume, Poems to Learn By Heart.) Honestly, I wouldn't bother with a curriculum. Just memorize poems you and your dd like.

[aaplank]

We were doing FLL when we started The IEW poetry book. I just replaced the new poems in FFL with the beginning poems in IEW, but kept the FLL poems in the review rotation. We memorized all the poems in the first section of IEW, but then bounced around the next two sections picking longer poems that appealed to us. We only spend a few minutes each day learning a new poem, but we regularly run through old poems to keep them in the memory bank. It's amazing how quickly they are forgotten without regular review.

[Rosie_0801]

I thought IEW's poetry book was full of dreadfully dull poems and would recommend trawling through the poetry shelf at your local second hand bookshop instead. You might find something inspiring like 'Ogre in a Toga.' Brilliant stuff, if only the illustrator knew a toga wasn't a tunica.

[kalusignan]

We memorized all the poems in the first section of IEW, but then bounced around the next two sections picking longer poems that appealed to us. 

 

I know every child and their ability to memorize is going to vary, but how long did it take your kids to get through the level 1 poems? At what age?

 

Assuming after completing level 1, we could naturally take a break. We do a lot of memorization, not just poetry, so sometimes we are focused on other things like Shakespeare, scripture, and other items in science and history.

[aaplank]

My kids were in the 5-8 range when we did the level one poems. I don't remember how long it took them. Maybe a year? They memorize new info pretty quickly. We also memorize other things as well like a timeline, Scripture, history facts, etc.

 

My advice would be to just keep doing what you're doing with your other memory work and use the IEW book as a poetry resource. I think the real gem of the book is the beginning where it talks about how to do a systematic review of poems already learned.

[NancyNellen]

We absolutely adore IEWs poetry and have been using it for about 10 years. We just skipped the poetry in FLL (unless my kids really wanted to do it.) Generally speaking, it took about one year per level, although we did stretch the last level out a bit.

[Upennmama]

We use the program and it's great. Yes, you can do the same without the book, but it's easier to have poems picked and ready. We do it in Morning Time. It takes 10 minutes or less, and we also do the poems from FLL separately. The FLL poems are different for each level but the IEW poems I do with all the kids, all ages (4-14).