A Verse Here, A Poem There

One of our new passions is poetry. Camille has blossomed by bounds since I started poetry memorization with her. She is very diligent about memorizing and just burst with pride when she's able to say a poem without prompt or help.

After reading about poetry and exploring it a little more, I made the decision to incorporate it into our day as much as possible. What most people don't realize is that poetry covers many types of verse. Most children's book are rhymed, and songs are considered poetry as well. In fact, a lot of times instead of singing a hymn, I'll read it as a poem.

Here's a few resources that you can look at to include poetry into your day.

Overall Memorization:
The Harp and Laurel Wreath by Laura M. Berquist
I really cannot recommend this highly enough, this book covers Grammar through Rhetoric stages and is filled with wonderful scripture and poems to memorize by increasing degrees.

The Book of Virtues by William J. Bennett
This book's primary purpose is to provide moral stories but within it's volume are countless poems that you can use.

A Child's Introduction to Poetry: Listen While You Learn About the Magic Words That Have Moved Mountains, Won Battles, and Made Us Laugh and Cry by Michael Driscoll
This book comes with a CD and although I'm not one for books that look too busy, Camille loves it. The poems are fun and simple.

Classic Poems to Read Aloud by James Berry
This book is nice but I only have it because I bought it at Goodwill. There are other books you can buy that have the same poems, such as The Oxford Book of Children's Verse in America by Donald Hall.

A treasury of great poems, English and American with the Lives of the Poets selected and integrated by Louis Untermeyer
This book is wonderful it contains wonderful poems as well as a little biography about the poet, and has both American and English poets.

If you like Rudyard Kipling, you'll love Rudyard Kipling's Verse: Definitive Edition
There are many poems that you can incorporate into history studies with this book.

A New Treasury of Poetry Compiled by Neil Philip
This is a wonderful book and we love the black and white illustrations throughout.

Of course there are many compliation poetry books but once you obtain a few you find that a lot of poems are repeated throughout them. I think I have Jabberwocky in most of them! Lol. These are books I've picked up from Goodwill, thrift stores and antique stores, with the exception of The Harp and Laurel Wreath (which I bought new), I don't think I paid more than $6 for any of these.

For particular subjects:
These are a few books I've found that I feel are gems. I've found that I tend to like any book by Jack Prelutsky, Lee Bennett Hopkins and William Cole.

History:
Susan Altman has done some wonderful books that fit perfectly with our history studies.
Modern Rhymes About Ancient Times Ancient Greece (Ancient Africa, Ancient Egypt and Ancient Rome are other titles).

Dancing in the Wind: Poetry and Art of the British Isles by Charles Sullivan
An amazing book that can carry you from the Middle Ages to present times.

U.S. History:
A Star-spangled Birthday: A Celebration in Song, Poetry, Facts, and Trivia
My America: A Poetry Atlas of the United States by Lee Bennett Hopkins
Heroes and She-roes: Poems of Amazing and Everyday Heroes by J. Patrick Lewis (also has world figures as well)

The Book of Virtues, The Harp and Laurel Wreath and other books I mentioned as overall poetry books also have wonderful historical poems.

Science:
Dinosaurs Forever by William Wise
A fun book published by Scholastic, mixes fun with science facts about the dinosaurs. The illustrations are very kid-friendly and the poems themselves are fanciful.

An Arkful of Animals by William Cole
This is a wonderful book to have as you study animals, we are incorporating this in with ours.

Earthshake: Poems from the Ground Up by Lisa Peters
Footprints on the Roof: Poems About the Earth by Marilyn Singer
A Pocketful of Starts: Poems about the Night
Talking Like the Rain: A Read-to-Me Book of Poems by X.J. Kennedy

These books are great for adding poems to your nature journal or in helping discuss a topic. I've found it's best to find a poem and photocopy it or type/print it out and just stick in your child's science notebook. That way, when you come to that topic you won't be looking the poem up in a book, it'll be right there to enjoy. Plus, if you do a little work beforehand, you'll tend to not forget about it altogether.

Pass the Poetry, Please! by Lee Bennett Hopkins is worth looking at, there is information about poets and the different books they have written. It is a wonderful resource about how to use poetry with children and book suggestions. There are also activities and games to bring poetry alive with your students and how to teach poetry to older students. (It was written for classroom but it is just as valuable to the homeschool parent.)

There are many other poetry books worth mentioning but I don't have time. I have many other books on my wishlist for purchasing that are geared toward particular subjects in science, math and history.