Do you consider poetry to be a staple of your homeschool?
Oftentimes when the subject of poetry comes up with other parents, even the most enthusiastic homeschoolers will admit that they shy away from this subject. When I press to understand why that is, the answer is usually that they themselves are not excited about poetry. They consider it either intimidating or boring or they have had such a bad experience with poetry that they loathe it entirely.
But poetry matters.
Poetry
Goal: to enjoy (and recite) poetry
By reading anthologies (particularly those organized by season which help create a “mood”), you are familiarizing your child with many poets and styles of poetry. By focusing on a particular poet for a period of time, you come to understand his/her style and learn a bit about the poet as a person. I encourage you to do both.
The goal is not to teach your child all the different types of poetry. This is not about form; it’s about falling in love. It’s okay to mention the form of the poem if it’s obvious (oh, this looks like a sonnet…or a haiku, or a limerick, etc.) but please do not suck the joy out of this by turning it into a lesson on form. There is one book I like that organizes its poetry by form and that is a gentle introduction and all that is really necessary, especially for younger students.
Please do not turn poetry into a class and assign your kids to write their own poems. Just enjoy the poetry together and they may decide to start writing some of their own. If you really want your students to learn a bit of form in the high school years, you can incorporate that when exam time comes around. For instance, you could ask your student to “tell about the fall of Macbeth in the form of a poem.” But they have to enjoy poetry and have an ear for it before they can do that.
The most important thing is that children are regularly hearing great poetry. Poetry, after all, is meant to be read aloud. Miss Mason would often select one poet to focus on for the whole year but you are certainly not limited to this; you could read a beautiful anthology for Terms 1 & 2 and focus on a poet study for Term 3, for example. You could also choose a poet to study each term and read an anthology alongside of the poet. I like to do this with seasonal poems.
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I appreciate how you always take the time to explain things so clearly.