Recitation and Memorization Pieces 2017-2018

This year I feel like our recitation and memorization practice finally found solid footing. I had long wanted my children to have some regular practice with memorizing worthy things but hadn't figured out how to make it happen. Over the last year, I toyed with some different habits and practices and I wanted to share both what has been working for us as well as some examples of what we are choosing to recite or memorize.

I plan our homeschool into roughly 6-week chunks of daily lessons with a 1-week (or more) break within each chunk. Basically, I break every term into 2 parts (I call them term 1:1, 1:2, 2:1, 2:2, 3:1, 3:2). Maybe with older children, I might like doing all 12 weeks in a row, but I relish those 1-week breaks, which allow me to work on some home projects, schedule doctor appointments, and include special meet-ups with friends.

During our break weeks, I also schedule our special poetry teas. Our poetry teas are something the whole family looks forward to! We always plan it for a night that we are all home together. I serve a snack-like dinner with things like hummus, vegetables, hard-boiled eggs, fruit, nuts, popcorn, and cheese. We also have a little tea. During the meal, each member of our family recites the pieces they have prepared, either from memory (with or without help from mom or dad) or by reading it beautifully.

This event gives the kids a purpose for their preparations and mom and dad enjoy sharing some of our favorite poems, even if they are too long for our normal morning-time poetry reading.

The kids prepare in different ways depending on their ages. The 2nd grader has 3 10-minute slots in his weekly schedule for working on the recitation pieces chosen for that part of the term. I choose one poem and one passage, and he chooses another poem that I approve. I print each piece and put it in a slip sheet in a 3-ring folder. During each 10-minute recitation slot, he takes one piece and reads it silently or aloud many times. For most pieces, this enables him to memorize it by the poetry tea.

After each poetry tea, the kindergartner chooses a new poem to work on memorizing. Sometimes he has something in mind, or else we read him a few to choose from. My husband reads his poem to him every night when he is putting him to bed and occasionally has him try to recite it back from memory. Sometimes, I will also choose to put this poem into our morning-time poetry reading for the week, giving us all some more exposure to it.

The 3-year-old also likes to participate in her own way. She recites from memory a few nursery rhymes or songs. Mostly she recites Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater, Humpty Dumpty, and the song, Here is the Sea, the Wavy Sea. She really enjoys getting up and performing each piece, sometimes more than once.

For the adults, we do not memorize anything. It might be nice, but it hasn't been something we have made time for. Instead, we select a poem and read it beautifully, with feeling.

Although we are all performing, we keep things light and positive. We take turns doing our recitations and there is no shame if you forget a few words and need prompting from a parent holding the text or if you choose to read it aloud instead of reciting from memory. After each reading, we clap for each other. Sometimes Daddy makes a video of the reading.

We love enjoying our beautiful poems and passages together as a family. It is truly a highlight of each break week.

This year, here are the poems and passages we recited:

2nd Grade Poetry and Passages Recitation Pieces

Term 1:
Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day by William Shakespeare (My choice --Shakespeare was our poet this term.)
The Pledge of Allegiance (My choice)
The Tyger by William Blake (Peter's choice)

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlow (My choice)
Speech: “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears” by William Shakespeare (My choice --Shakespeare was our poet this term.)
Habits of the Hippopotamus by Arthur Gutterman (Peter's choice)

Term 2:
Introduction to Songs of Innocence/ Piping Down the Valleys Wild by William Blake (My choice--William Blake was our poet this term.)
Excerpt from Speech: John F. Kennedy, “The Decision to Go to the Moon” found on Art of Manliness (My choice)
Antonio by Laura E. Richards (Peter's choice)

The Lamb by William Blake (My choice--William Blake was our poet this term.)
Amendments I-V of the U.S. Constitution (My choice)
My Heart's in the Highlands by Robert Burns (Peter's choice)

Term 3:
She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways by William Wordsworth (My choice--William Wordsworth was our poet this term.)
Amendments VI-X of the U.S. Constitution (My choice)
The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes (Peter's choice)

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by Williams Wordsworth (My choice--William Wordsworth was our poet this term.)
I Know a Bank Where the Wild Thyme Blows Monologue Spoken by Oberon, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 2, Scene 1 (My choice--as we are preparing to see this play at a local Shakespeare in the Park)
A Poem (Peter's Choice, to be determined)

Kindergarten Poetry Recitation Pieces (all chosen by the kindergartner)

Dinosaur Diets by Jane Yolen
Escape at Bedtime by Robert Lewis Stevenson
About the Teeth of Sharks by John Ciardi
The Folk Who Live in Backward Town by Mary Ann Hoberman
Daddy Fell Into the Pond by Alfred Noyes
Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll

My choices

Brave Boy Rap by Tony Mitten
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot
The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert W. Service
The Fish by Elisabeth Bishop
Song of the Rabbits Outside the Tavern by Elizabeth Coatsworth

Daddy's choices

The Children's Hour by William Wadsworth Longfellow
The Village Blacksmith by William Wadsworth Longfellow
The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe
A Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement C. Moore
Every Land by Ursula K. Le Guin