Live and Learn
Oct. 5, 2006
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Exploring a poet or two per semester. We jumped into poetry last year - reading from several collections during teatime and also following the weekly assignments in the Sonlight schedule. We really enjoyed ourselves and expanded our knowledge and appreciation of poetry. Desirous to build on that foundation, I decided to try the Ambleside Online schedule for poetry study (in addition to Sonlight scheduled poems). The schedule for year 1 is Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson, Now We Are Six and When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne and Oxford Book of Children's Verse by Iona and Peter Opie. Year 5 is Rudyard Kipling, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier and Paul Lawrence Dunbar. We started with Milne and When We Were Very Young with middle one using this book:  Image from Amazon.com We love this book. It is a delightful collection of Winnie-the-Pooh, The House on Pooh Corner, When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six with charming illustrations by Ernest H. Shepard. Middle and I (and often oldest and little one too) have had a great time reading these poems together. We usually read 2-3 poems on Wednesdays and 4-5 on Fridays. We're just a few poems away from finishing When We Were Very Young and will probably start on Now We Are Six next week. Here are a few of our favorites: Puppy and I I met a man as I went walking; We got talking, Man and I. "Where are you going to, Man?" I said (I said to the Man as he went by). "Down to the village, to get some bread. Will you come with me?" "No, not I." I met a Horse as I went walking; We got talking, Horse and I. "Where are you going to, Horse, today?" (I said to the Horse as he went by). "Down to the village to get some hay. Will you come with me?" "No, not I." I met a Woman as I went walking; We got talking, Woman and I. "Where are you going to, Woman, so early?" (I said to the Woman as she went by). "Down to the village to get some barley. Will you come with me?" "No, not I." I met some Rabbits as I went walking; We got talking, Rabbits and I. "Where are you going in your brown fur coats?" (I said to the Rabbits as they went by). "Down to the village to get some oats. Will you come with us?" "No, not I." I met a Puppy as I went walking; We got talking, Puppy and I. "Where are you going this nice fine day?" (I said to the Puppy as he went by). "Up in the hills to roll and play." "I'll come with you, Puppy," said I. Jonathan Jo Jonathan Jo Has a mouth like an "O" And a wheelbarrow full of surprises; If you ask for a bat, Or for something like that, He has got it, whatever the size is. If you're wanting a ball, It's not trouble at all; Why, the more that you ask for, the merrier-- Like a hoop and a top, And a watch that won't stop, And some sweets, and an Aberdeen terrier. Jonathan Jo Has a mouth like an "O" But this is what makes him so funny: If you give him a smile, Only once in a while, Then he never expects any money! One day after reading poetry, middle asked if we could read Winnie the Pooh as well. We finished it a week or so ago and went right on to The House on Pooh Corner. I was able to get it on cd from the library and we've been enjoying listening to it. Besides, my Pooh, Piglet, Owl and Eeyore voices just weren't that great --- Jim Broadbent does a *much* better job! Oldest has read several poetry collections by both Longfellow and Kipling so far and definitely preferred Longfellow (remember the "Let's skip the Kip" poem?). I shared one of our favorite Longfellow poems in another post (The Blacksmith). We'll probably move on the Whittier or Dunbar in the coming weeks. |
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