I hadn't forgotten, but we are still easing into our school routines. I mean it is only Day 6. But my young word-lover won't have this waiting. She loves to memorize scripture, poetry, quotes, lists of presidents, historical documents... it boggles my mind how easily it comes to her. I am quite jealous.
Then today, I see Simple Home School's most recent post: The Case for Memorization. Stefani said it all so well. Love it. A must read!
I was sure to grab The Harp and Laurel Wreath and my old copy of A Child's Garden of Verses before we headed out to Will's soccer practice late this afternoon. It's decided that tomorrow we will start memorizing My Shadow.
And as a strong and steady wind blew across the soccer field, words tucked away come back ...
And all around I heard you pass,
Like ladies' skirts across the grass -
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!
I'm a lurker coming out of hiding to ask a possibly ignorant question. Do you think it is important to memorize poetry, in particular? I read of homeschooling families memorizing poetry and think maybe I will add that in to our day. But, then I wonder if I shouldn't be using that memorization time for strictly Scripture. Not that I think there is anything wrong with memorizing poetry. At all. I have just wondered if it was worth the time and the push that it would take with my boys or if Scripture would be far more useful in the years to come. The verses I learned as a child have been of great help to me as an adult. Huge. I want to give that gift to my children. Of course a person could do both. I just wondered if you would care to share why poetry in and of itself is important, if you have time. Thanks! I really enjoy reading your blog. Hope your day is a lovely one!
ReplyDeleteSounds like CC would be a great fit for Hannah- Regan (and the others) are really enjoying it and R has asked both weeks why we can't do it every day!
ReplyDeleteWe need to get out our poetry books- Maybe we will look up My Shadow- I'm sure R would be tickled to memorize something that Hannah is memorizing too!
And Laura if you read this- memorizing poetry and sections of liturature, historical documents etc is great for ones language (writing and speaking) skills.
Laura, I have my children read and memorize poetry for many reasons. Mainly because it exposes them to beautiful language. Poetry was once a great part of a child's education - read as literature. Sadly, children are barely exposed to more than Mother Goose, if that. In The Well-Trained Mind Susan Wise Bauer states, "Memorization and recitation of poetry is an important part of the reading process; it exercises the child's memory, store beautiful language in his mind, and gives him practice in speaking aloud." In short, I want my children to love words, well-written ones.
ReplyDeleteAs far as scripture memorization - I believe it to be very important! We do our scripture memory time separate from poetry. We use Simply Charlotte Mason's scripture memory system and love it.
http://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/memorysys/
Hope this helps. Nice to "meet" you.