How do you use poetry with your kids?

[gandpsmommy]

Do you choose poems to memorize? If so, how often do you memorize a new one? If you just read poetry together, how often and how many at a time? Do you introduce new ones each time, or repeat the same ones for awhile? Do you go through a poetry book one page at a time, choose poems randomly from throughout the book, or deliberately choose poems to fit the season/event? Thanks for any input.

[Debra in CO]

When my oldest was about the age of your dd, we went through A Child's Garden of Verses, doing two poems a week. I'd choose one of them to memorize, many weeks anyway. It was a really good year, but I wasn't as consistent with the memory work as I'd like.

Then I purchased the IEW poetry memorization thing, with the CD. Now we just work through that for memory work, and it is actually getting done. I needed something that didn't require me to think.

We also read through some other poetry books, but I don't do any memorization from it.

I think that it is really a lot easier to get started if you go by someone else's lists instead of having to figure it out for yourself... at least, for this poetry-inept mom, having something figured out for me has made all the difference in the world.

Now that I've been using this, I think I could branch out and do it on my own, even without audio readily available.

Debra
Mom of five, ages 1-10

[susie in tx]

I read a couple of pages out of a poetry anthology every day. I don't require memorization.

[Verena]

We read poetry for pure enjoyment only. I pick up whatever book looks great from the library :-), but I also have some poetry books on my shelf, so whenever we feel like it, I grab a book and we start reading.

Right now, we are reading through some limmericks.

One ds is going through FLL right now, so there are some poems we memorize- other than that I don't do any poem memorization.

[Canada_Mom]

We memorize a new poem every 2 weeks. Every second Friday she stands up and recites her poem for the family and anyone else who happens to be over that evening.

I mostly use A Child's Garden of Verses but I have used poems from other sources as they come up- Horizons Math 1 actually has the kids memorize the Months Poem by Mother Goose! We've also memorized a few poems from her Relgion classes as they came up in the TM. I do try to make the poems fit into the season or holiday that's coming up. Other times, we've sat down together and selected which poem she would like to memorize.

I had a goal of sitting to read poetry together once or twice a week but that seems to have fallen by the wayside. She really enjoys the memorization and takes great pride in reciting her poems aloud. Even my dd3 wants to do the same so I have her memorize simple Mother Goose rhymes and she recites on the Fridays with her big sister.

[Jenny in Florida]

. . . here's what we're doing this year.

I don't have him memorize. Instead, we fold reading poetry into his history/literature studies. I have a book of 100 classic poems from which I'm drawing most of his poetry for this year. I just went through it and found all the poems that fit into the appropriate historical period and scheduled them to read. We read each one aloud together and discuss it just like everything else.

I also went through a middle school literature text I happened to have on the shelf and looked at what terms and concepts might traditionally be taught at this level. Then I look for opportunities in the poems we're reading to teach those. So far, we've covered rhyme, rhythm, meter, stanzas, couplets, onomateopoeia, alliteration, metaphors and similes . . .

We're having a really good time with it this year.

--Jenny

[Jeanne in MN]

We are doing a few neat things here. I have a book from Scholastic on how to write poetry. It's very simple, covers various types of poetry (which is a lesson in itself as to what qualifies as poetry and the different styles), and has examples of the different styles. We've slowly been working through it and really enjoying it.

Another great resource is a Poetry Speaks To Children

http://http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1402203292/ref=wl_it_dp?ie=UTF8&coliid=I37S8GXNL002NJ&colid=1VU0Z7EQWQAHG

It's a book of poetry with a cd that plays authors reading their own poetry or that of poets who are dead. It's really neat to hear them. I loved Stopping By The Woods One Snowy Evening read by Robert Frost himself and one called Brown Girl Josie Ok. Lot of neat ones. And some dopey ones. :)

There is a series of books each representing one famous poet and their work. I will have to check what the name of the series was, but I love them. The last one we read was Emily Dickinson. The books have a couple pages in the front of the book with a biography of the author. and the rest of the book is their poetry. We are picking up Carl Sandburg from ILL today!

I can look up titles or series, etc. if anyone is interested.

[Lux Et Veritas Academy]

My kids don't have great rote memory skills, so I don't do a lot of memory work because they can memorize and two weeks later that short term memory piece is missing. I use poetry books for copy work and dictation. I am also going to download poetry to listen to on the iPod.

[Daisy]

We read poety for enjoyment. I started with Mother Goose rhymes and now I read to the children all types of poetry. I look for poetry books that go along with our various science and history themes as well as just good poetry.

DD has poetry writing sprinkled in with her R&S English. And she enjoys making up her own poems for fun. I think this is simply because of all the informal exposure she has had to it.

We do memorize poems but not too often, because we do Awanas and that takes a ton of our time. I pick poems for memory based on character. I don't see much point in memorizing anything that doesn't make me a better person. My selections for memory mostly come from Rod and Staff's Poems for Memorization.

[nutmeg]

We read poety for enjoyment....
We do memorize poems but not too often, because we do Awanas and that takes a ton of our time.

Is there a :i agree: smilie? This is our feelings at this point, too.

We have numerous books of poetry around the house. The girls enjoy the silly stuff, along with the more serious.

Along with 'just reading to enjoy', right now we are working thorugh A Child's Introduction to Poetry:
http://www.amazon.com/Childs-Introduction-Poetry-Mountains-Battles/dp/1579122825

[allearia]

We started doing poetry with the IEW poetry memorization program and CD. After completing the first two levels and finding that ds6 was pretty good at it and enjoyed it, I made my own level similar to those. I just recently picked up A Child's Introduction to Poetry, which we will start when he finishes this batch. The first section is about forms of poems, and the second section talks about different poets. It also comes with a CD which ds has liked so far. We will probably try to memorize all the poems in the book, though there are a few like Jabberwock which he already knows. We might also start trying to write some poems when we study the types, I have the Evan moore poetry writing book as well.

Here is the link to A Child's Introduction to Poetry:
http://www.amazon.com/Childs-Introduction-Poetry-Mountains-Battles/dp/1579122825/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201111097&sr=8-1

[Kathy in MD]

His memory may never be as good as mine, but it's improving. I also am able to get the memory work into long term memory by requiring him to recite each item correctly 5 days in a row, then once a week for 3 weeks and then once a month for 3 months. If he messes up at any point, it goes back to day one. :eek:

He's also learning how to memorize on his own. I just wish I'd started doing memory work years ago. :o

[KIN]

We memorize a new poem once or twice a month. I have an old, old book that has a poem for each month of the school year for grades 1, 2 and 3. The book also has extra poems for the grades if you memorize the selection before the month is over. :) I love it! All the chore of trying to find just the right poem, etc, etc is done. We read the poem three times every day until the child can say it. We review old poetry on a rotating basis.

I also read poems at lunch just for fun. Although, this school year with the baby I've been kind of lax in that!

[gandpsmommy]

I would love to know the name of the series. Thanks.

[gandpsmommy]

What is IEW?

[profmom]

Ds memorizes the poems as they come up in FLL3 -- I love that poem memorization is part of the program!

Dd in 5th grade has memorized two poems this year and now we're using CW-Poetry to study/analyze one poem a week. (I'm not asking her to memorize them right now.)

I'm reading lots of Mother Goose with my nearly 3 yo!

We focus our memorization on scripture passages, but I still try to work in some poems too. We love Beautiful Soup by Lewis Carroll (from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) -- the rhythm and humor! The kids memorized this together this year and made it into a production that included dh getting pelted with toy food (unexpectedly, as he watched the performance)! :D

[Debra in CO]

ummm, yeah, I know it...

Institute for Excellence in Writing (I'm close!)

The program is called something like Developing Linguistic Patterns through Poetry Memorization

If I could get my hands on the book, I could get both of those actually correct.

Debra

[angela in ohio]

We study poets and types of poetry one at a time. We also read poems out of anthologies (Favorite poems Old and New, R&S's poetry books, etc.) twice a week in addition to the poets we are studying (we do this for reading aloud skills and also to cover poets and/or poems we may not want to study more in-depth.) We use the Children's Introduction to Poetry book, some Evan-Moor poetry resources, and library books (especially picture books of single poems by the poet we are studying!) We also check out poetry books fro the library and leave plenty lying around for dc to enjoy.

We also memorize poetry, working off of a master list that I created a few years ago.

Next year I hope to use the Logos School materials to really study the way poetry works more in depth. I've been eyeing it for a few years, but never seem to have time for it...

Some poetry types we cover:
ABC poetry
couplet
triplet and quatrain
cinquain
limericks
shape poems
acrostic poems
diamonte
seven poetry
color poetry
ballad
haiku
clerihew

Some poets - for elementary grades - on our list (we haven't covered them all yet):
Emily Dickinson
William Cowper
Robert Browning
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Edward Lear
Walt Whitman
Christina Rossetti
Lewis Carroll
Kate Greenaway
Robert Louis Stevenson
Leslie Brooke
Robert Frost
Carl Sandburg
Sarah Teasdale
Elizabeth Madox Roberts
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Elizabeth Coatsworth
Lois Lenski
Rachel Field
Ogden Nash
Shel Silverstein
Jack Prelutsky

My poetry memorization list, with links to each poem, is at: http://www.wallsofbooks.com/2007/02/poetry-memorization.html

[Rhesa]

We enjoy poetry both for pleasure and for memory. Like others here, it started with Mother Goose. When they were little, I would read them several times. Then I would read them but leave "blanks" to see if they could fill in the word. This would help them recognize the pattern, as well as rhyming.

Now we have a notebook of our favorite poems. They have chosen to memorize some of them, with my encouragement. ("Hey kids, when this is memorized, I'll video you and send it to Grandma!")

If you need a good go-to book, I just picked up The Random House Book of Poetry for Children. They are divided in many different categories, so you can easily find something that piques your interest. (Holidays, animals, silly poems, etc.)

I mostly just love pulling the book out, snuggling up, and enjoying it together! If you enjoy it, it's likely your kids will sense that and enjoy it, too!

[Jeanne in MN]

I would love to know the name of the series. Thanks.

The series is Poetry for Young People with the poet's name underneath the series name. One we have is Carl Sandburg edited by Frances Schoonmaker Bolin, the other is Walt Whitman edited by Jonathan Levin. These two are Scholastic books, but the one we had on Emily Dickinson wasn't, so if you do a search that might matter.

We are *just* starting the Civil War in history and it was neat to see that Walt Whitman's book has quite a bit of poetry about slavery, the Civil War, Abe Lincoln, etc.

[Hannah]

We have a selection of poems that dd has already memorized and the new poem that she is memorizing up on the wall. We read through the new poem twice a day until it has been memorized (however long that takes) and then put it up with the other poems - two of which we review daily. It's a really low stress method that works well.

Our poetry selections come mostly from this Grammar Stage Memorization (http://www.lulu.com/content/596907) file.

We are now working a bit more on the delivery aspect.