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conulyTwo couplets at a time. She memorized The Eagle over the summer (and despite her groaning I think she really likes that poem) and believe it or not, I think this one might be simpler. Longer, but simpler to learn when she does it.
However, 60 lines is ambitious, so I had her write out the first eight tonight, explaining that the very act of writing helps most people to memorize things. The first eight lines are ever one of them scene-setting, so then we talked a lot about the scene that it set, the peaceful town with the rebel horde approaching. I don't know if it'll help her memory, but it shouldn't hurt.
I haven't picked a poem for Eva yet, though! It's not that memorizing poetry is so crucial, I just think it's good practice for learning to remember things in general. You could practice by memorizing baseball stats or license plate numbers, but when you use poems you sound ever so much more cultured and erudite. I could just tell her no new poem until she has her times tables cold, but that's mean, she likes poems. So I have to think fast.
I just want something short, neither horribly grown-up or depressing nor childish and cutesy. Available online is a plus. That shouldn't be too much to ask. Maybe I'll set her on Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Day, Ana must have been about that age when she learned it.
However, 60 lines is ambitious, so I had her write out the first eight tonight, explaining that the very act of writing helps most people to memorize things. The first eight lines are ever one of them scene-setting, so then we talked a lot about the scene that it set, the peaceful town with the rebel horde approaching. I don't know if it'll help her memory, but it shouldn't hurt.
I haven't picked a poem for Eva yet, though! It's not that memorizing poetry is so crucial, I just think it's good practice for learning to remember things in general. You could practice by memorizing baseball stats or license plate numbers, but when you use poems you sound ever so much more cultured and erudite. I could just tell her no new poem until she has her times tables cold, but that's mean, she likes poems. So I have to think fast.
I just want something short, neither horribly grown-up or depressing nor childish and cutesy. Available online is a plus. That shouldn't be too much to ask. Maybe I'll set her on Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Day, Ana must have been about that age when she learned it.
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Date: 2013-09-13 06:24 pm (UTC)("Two Tramps in Mud Time" is also brilliant, but more complicated, both for memorizing and for a child's understanding.)
For Eva, maybe something by Stevenson? I've loved "Bed In Summer" approximately forever, but I don't know if she'd consider it babyish.
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Date: 2013-09-13 10:21 pm (UTC)Frost said he thought of the poem after stepping outside one winter sunrise. At least, that's what wikipedia says.
I'm not convinced.