Teaching children poetry

For our first month of school, we focused primarily on poetry. Resources we used:
"A kick in the head" by Paul B. Janeczko
"Figuratively Speaking" by Delana Heidrich
"In the Middle" by Nancie Atwell


Clerihew Poems are simple poems usually teasing someone. They start with a person's name in the first line of a couplet followed by another couplet.

Sarah, age 13, read "The Giver" series this month and wrote a clerihew poem about Jonas, the main character in the first book.


           The dam
Jonas the Giver

Is a dam in the river

Memories flow through his mind

While others around him are blind

Hyrum, age 10, wrote a clerihew poem about a former teacher he really enjoyed.

Jordan Herzog

taught recycling, gravity, fog

Ideas on golf, bouncing balls

On ceilings, desks, and walls

We also wrote some couplets and tried our hand with haiku. I even wrote one! Here are two haiku and a couplet.

If cows could fly

the moon would die

By: Hyrum

Winter

Cold winds howl small flakes

Against the hard crusty ground

Frost, angry winds quake

By: Sarah

 Moon Flower

Eyes closed, jealously

Waiting as the sun goes down

Cool darkness, eyes open

by Susan (mom)

Shape poems were our favorite, due to their simplicity and visual imagery. The kids just thought of a shape and wrote a descriptive poem about it. The first line is three adjectives, followed by two descriptive lines with lines 1 and 3 rhyming. Here are a few examples.

Jack-o-Lanterns

scary, funny, kind-of-grumpy

sitting on doorsteps

posted guard turning lumpy

by: Hyrum

Clouds

puffy, wispy, white

changing shapes

wondering from great heights

by Chloe, age 6

Witches

flying brooms, green skin, black

bubbling cauldrons

casting spells to attack

by: Chloe

Princess

fancy dresses, maids, crown

dancing at balls

smiling and never down

by: Chloe

In addition to the poems, Sarah wrote an essay she submitted to a scholarship competition and Hyrum wrote a narrative about a fictional trip to Mars. Sarah read the Giver series, "Number the Stars," and three Warrior cat books by Erin Hunter. Hyrum read two books and Chloe started on the Sam books. I am very pleased with their progress.  

We read lots of poetry and novels together, then we write with their interests as a guide. This month we finished the first book of Narnia: the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe plus abridged versions of Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Bleak House, and A Tale of Two Cities. They also listened while Dad read "White Fang" to them at night. He is currently reading "The Call of the Wild" (original versions).

We are in the process of reading a book series about Joseph Smith during our devotional time. For history we are studying "The World of Abraham Lincoln" and for science we have been studying oceans. On our table is a world map for easy reference and on the kitchen wall is a United States map.

Hyrum is studying Chinese and Sarah is studying German. We are hosting a German foreign exchange student for two weeks in October, which is wonderful. This month we cooked an Egyptian meal (yummy) and attempted Egyptian caricatures.

We learned about the rule of So What? and the importance of skipping lines. We discussed what good poets do and what good readers do. We took several notes and memorized eight different figures of speech.

I have home schooled in the past, given up and sent my kids to school, and tried all over again. We are not perfect. We are not the best. But we have found success and I can easily say that this is our best year yet!

Barefoot Education Home School

Barefoot Education is home school at running speed.

To give an analogy: when you walk along the waves of a beach, you choose your style. You can walk in sneakers, clogging the sand on your shoes. Each steps collects more wet sand attached to your shoes creating heavy, slow steps. As waves hit, the sand temporarily washes away but your soaking shoes and socks still weigh your feet down. Running is pretty much out of the question. Another option is to put on flip-flops. Your steps are much smoother with less sand collection, but you still have limited mobility. The final solution is to go barefoot. The cool, wet sand squishes between your toes and then waves wash you clean, soothing and relaxing your tired feet. Running is a pleasure.

As home educators, we want our children to find academic running a pleasure. We put a lot of hard work into planning home school lessons and days. Yet, halfway through the year we often start to feel the wet shoes and socks with the sand clinging to them, and think we just can't take another step. There is just too much cementing us down.

The solution is to go barefoot. Strip off the shoes of set curriculum and worksheets. Pull down the socks of grade level materials. Long lessons, grammar worksheets, and even extravagant craft projects detract from the real goals of education. Figure out your goals, then cut through the clutter and focus on them.

My goals for home school are to help my children become great readers and great writers. How do you become great at reading and writing? The same way you become great at anything else: Practice. If you want to learn to play the violin, you don't pull out a bunch of worksheets and give a long lecture. No, that almost seems ridiculous. Instead, you hand them a violin and they practice, practice, practice. They listen to other great violin players and have a relatively short lesson with a teacher once a week. Then they practice, practice, practice on the violin playing over and over again until they get it right.

The same approach works with anything. If you want to pitch a perfect pitch, you throw that ball a million times until you get it right. A short demonstration from another good pitcher makes a big difference too. You might study a book or draws diagrams of it, if you really feel like it, but that won't make you a good pitcher. You have to get the ball out and throw.

There are some awesome curricula available for home schoolers. I have a few favorites myself. The problem is time. I don't have enough time in the day to follow the curriculum schedules and still give sufficient practice time to my kids. Something has to go. Is it sneakers or barefoot?

In "The Reading Zone," Nancie Atwell explains that grammar exercises have never been proven to increase writing or reading ability. They just take up precious time.

A better approach, the barefoot approach, is to give a short (maximum of 30 minutes) lesson on writing and reading skills. Then give lots of practice time. My kids are expected to read and write on topics that are interesting to them, something important or significant to them every day. They are encouraged to read a variety of genres and write a variety of styles. By the end of the year, they will have written 20-30 different pieces and read 30-40 different books. They are also expected to enter contests or attempt publication in some form. Barefoot does not mean they are slacking. Barefoot means they are taking off the clogged shoes, so they can run.

I also eliminate the grade levels. We are a family, not a school. History, science, and projects can usually be done together and are a lot of fun. For the mini-lessons on writing and reading, I group the skill levels together. There is the "littles" group, the "middles" group, and the "graduates" group (plus the babe-in-arms). My littles focus most of their time on phonics, while the middles are deciphering poems and learning about different writing tips, and the graduates are preparing for college. Then they all write and read their individual choices.

When they complete a writing piece, I edit and review with them. This provides wonderful opportunities to teach punctuation, grammar, and diction skills. They edit at least three times, using a two-day-walk-away approach before the final edit. Then publication. There is no curriculum check-list hovering over us to complete or other stress-inducing constraints. No assignments, just personal goals of our own choosing. We read and write, edit and publish. Simple. Effective.

The best part is how fun the process is and how rewarding the outcome. The children enjoy reading and writing about their interests. They also enjoy the praise and rewards (sometimes monetary) that come from publication. By the time college comes, they have a stack of written pieces worthy of submission and a list of accomplishments. Doors open. Opportunities come.

Next time you go to the beach, take off your shoes and socks. Feel the refreshing water as you run and jump the waves. Barefoot is always better.  Try it.