Poetry in Motion

"How do you like to go up in a swing,

Up in the air so blue?

Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing

Ever a child can do!"

1st verse of "The Swing" by Robert Louis Stevenson

Memorizing poetry has been part of our homeschooling life from the very beginning. We don't always proceed with vigor, but we've never quit, either.

Poetry adds richness to our days--the cadence of language, beautiful images, history, hidden meanings, and more. And the shared experience of reciter and listeners is valuable in itself. We've heard and learned favorite works over and over again through the years. Anyone in our house can recite the six succinct lines of RLS's "At the Seaside", for example.

We begin memorization even before officially starting kindergarten. Almost all our early poems are from a beautifully illustrated copy of A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson. The older children move on to selections from The Harp and Laurel Wreath and Favorite Poems Old and New.

Rebecca just finished learning one of my favorites by RLS, "Foreign Lands."

"Up into the cherry tree

Who should climb but little me?

I held the trunk with both my hands

And looked abroad on foreign lands."

(1st of five verses)

BTW, that's her in our own cherry tree a few days ago. Can you see how high Becca climbed? Probably not--she is a full story up, level with me on the deck! (Can you see the yellow-green fruit?)

This year the 4th and 6th graders have memorized several classic ("The Village Blacksmith") and historical ("Pocahontas", "The Gettysburg Address") works. Right now Joseph is enchanted by the whimsy of Lewis Carroll.

Explaining the context of historic poems can bring those older times to life, as well as making the facts memorable. When we toured the National Portrait Gallery, our guide was impressed that Marianna already knew so much about Pocahontas (her Christian name, her husband, her son, where she died, etc.). Here's a windy video of Marianna reciting "Pocahontas" at Jamestown last fall.

A final note: Last year Lauren made elaborate jewelry from paper for one of her art classes. Her teacher wanted the project to be personally meaningful, and that happened in an unexpected way. Lauren found an old book in the park, liked the paper, and proceeded to use it. As she looked more closely, it turned out to be the works of Robert Louis Stevenson. Leafing through, Lauren discovered words and cadences remembered from her childhood poetry sessions. She still knew the work. How cool is that?

Explain This

To a four-year-old:

To get rid of bangs, you actually do NOT cut them. No, we haven't had a scissor incident, but it's taken many tries to convince Becca that bangs go away when you GROW THEM OUT. I'm just saying...

Let the Goo Times Roll

Is it science or recess? Monday we made cornstarch goo.

To one box of cornstarch (I keep an extra on hand now), add 1 1/2 cups of water. The official recipe calls for 15 drops of food coloring, but we don't use it.
Mix, squish, scrape, squeeze. Bury things. The goo is solid then liquid then solid then liquid then...

Even the teens had fun!

I forgot that I usually set this up on newspapers for easier cleanup--just roll and throw. I'm leery of putting all this down the drain, so I scraped most of it into the trash then rinsed everything outside. The floor splashes were vacuumed then wiped with a damp rag. Even a scary looking mess like this isn't hard to clean up.

And in the category of "great minds think alike", yesterday while visiting one of my favorite blogs, I found Margaret's post (2-26-08) about the same fun mess!

Preschool is in the Bag

Preschool in a homeschooling family is full of tagalong experiences: "writing" like the big kids, playing with the math manipulatives, or watching science videos. But sometimes it's nice to have something that's just for the little one.

Rebecca keeps herself busy; she's not "in the way" of the work of the higher grades. She has an hour of "Sesame Street", and enjoys looking at books, working puzzles, and coloring/painting (It amazes me how she fills the WHOLE PAGE with color!). Although she's fairly independent, Becca will happily play games or work with anyone who makes time for her.

I've read over the years about preschool activity bags, and finally made a few. The idea is to fill a large (easy) zipper bag with one specific activity. Train your toddler, and the bag becomes a fun, independent, and educational project. There are ideas all over the internet, but here is a link to one idea-filled page. It includes links to more ideas.

Here are some samples of lacing bags that I've made.

I had some traditional sewing cards, but the holes were too small for Rebecca, so I made simpler ones with thin cardboard and a hole punch.

She decorated them herself, and caught on pretty quickly to the lacing technique.

This plastic needle is so thick that Becca can't really pull it through the plastic canvas herself. Maybe next year...

Here's what a single project bag looks like: easy zipper, see-through bag, all the supplies ready to go.

I'll try to get some pictures soon of other preschool ideas. Enjoy your toddler if you have one!