My Picks for Poetry Memorization

Many of my newbie homeschooling friends are really daunted at the idea of having their kids regularly memorize poetry. That’s okay! In my early years of homeschooling, we didn’t do a ton of formal memorization beyond what was included in our First Language Lessons curriculum, but my kids internalized a lot of poetry because we had so many great collections of children’s poetry. A couple years ago, though, I decided we’d add poetry in as its own official subject in our homeschool. I picked up the IEW Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization guide and just started in with one poem a week. Each kid got their own poetry folder, which they decorated as they wished, and at the beginning of each week, we’d add our new poem into the folder, read it and illustrate it, and then every morning (usually over breakfast), the kids would read through or recite their new poem. Fridays we recited the whole thing for Dad. I always knew that children could easily memorize poetry (Do you remember rhyming commercial jingles from your childhood? I do!), but I was surprised at HOW easily they picked it up. And even our special needs toddler got in on the action after hearing her big siblings reciting. We had social workers coming in to ask about her development, and I’d have her recite, “Celery raw develops the jaw/ But celery stewed is more quietly chewed.” It was great! We’re still generally going through the selections in that IEW book, but this year I added in some new favorites from The Harp and the Laurel Wreath, an excellent compendium of beautiful poetry to learn and study. In her introduction, the author makes an eloquent case for studying poetry with young children, which echoes my perspective on surrounding our kids with quality literature:

…poetry appeals to the emotions, as does music, and, like music, beautiful and rightly ordered poetry can habituate or train the soul to the right kind of internal movement. Familiarity with truly good poetry will encourage children to love the good, to hope for its victory, and to feel sad at its demise. (The Harp and the Laurel Wreath, p. 9)

You certainly don’t have to use a formal poetry memorization curriculum with your kids, however. You can certainly just read and enjoy poetry like I did in the early years, or you can pull from favorites (my son decided on his own several years ago to memorize a bunch of the poems in A.A. Milne’s Now We Are Six because he thinks they’re hilarious). I went around our kids’ bedrooms and grabbed a few of our favorite illustrated poetry collections and highly recommend them all, not only for the beautiful/fun/delightful verse, but for the gorgeous illustrations, especially those by two of my favorite illustrators, Gyo Fujikawa and Tasha Tudor:

The Real Mother Goose, illustrated by Blanche Fisher Wright

Poetry for Young People: Edward Lear, illustrated by Laura Huliska-Beith

Songs of Childhood by Walter de la Mare, illustrated by Estrella Canziani

Mother Goose, illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa

A Child’s Book of Poems, illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa

A Child’s Garden of Verses, illustrated by Tasha Tudor

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