5 Reasons Why You Should Teach Your Child Poetry Memorization
Have you ever thought back over your years of homeschooling, evaluated what you have taught your children and realized that you have missed something? If your answer is yes, then you have found yourself in the right company. It happens to us all. You plan, you do your research, but still you find out that there was something important you never thought of. The good news is: It’s never too late to start!
When my son finished 8th grade, I realized that high school was a different ball game and therefore I decided to educate myself. I dived into Google search and discovered how to prepare a four year plan, how to write a transcript, and how to study both high school and college at the same time. However, in the midst of all these practical matters, I pondered one more thought:
“There are only four more years this child will be under my tutelage. What is left for me to teach him so that he would turn out to be a wholesome individual?”
I laid out the qualities and skills that I would like to see in the finished product of a young man and began to search for ways how to bring them about. The list was simple but quite comprehensive. One of the items stated: “To be able to communicate well both orally and in writing.” Upon further research how to achieve this goal I realized that I had completely omitted memorization during his elementary years, and specifically memorization of poetry and speeches. Let us look shortly into why these are important and then I will tell you the rest of our story.
Why is it SO important for your child to memorize poems and famous speeches?
Even though memorization and recitation used to be part of basic education in the past, it has become a rapidly disappearing skill. It has been concluded that because all the information is now available at our fingertips, we can free our brain for more important things, like creativity. However, nothing could be further from the truth. As someone once said,
“A human brain is a muscle that profits by exercise, not a canning jar that can hold only so much.”
Following are just a few reasons why it has been proven that memorization, and especially poems and speeches, should continue to be an essential life skill:
- Memorization increases the neurological flexibility of the brain, which allows the brain to grow and change throughout the lifetime.
- Memorization exercises your brain thus giving it more ability to retain information in general.
- Memorization in early age enhances the capacity to focus.
- Rhyming words help build phonetic awareness, which strengthens spelling and pronunciation (for example, pill/mill, bond/pond).
- Memorization of poems teaches children rhythmic patterns, improves vocabulary, and enhances language patterns and complexity.
As you can see, there is much to be said about a mind that has been exercised by memorizing poetry and speeches. The point that struck me most was the enhancement of mastering language patterns and complexities as both of these are foundational for excellency in communication skills.
Now the question was:
How to “sell” memorizing poetry to a teenager?
As it is with other skills, poetry cannot be learned from the middle. The memorization skills build upon each other step by step, and therefore the beginning is right where it needs to be – with children’s poems. But how do you make your teenager understand the importance of what looks like a “childish” game? Well, I decided to call upon a higher authority – Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW). We (both my son and I) have been learning English composition with IEW since the fourth grade and Mr. Pudewa, the IEW founder and teacher, who comes to our home via DVDs on a weekly basis, is the most amazing tutor you may long for your child to learn from. To his students, he is the ultimate authority on English language. So I purchased IEW’s Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization and “sold” it to my son. Did it work? Yes, it did!
In the 9th grade we memorized with a smile:
Celery raw
Develops the jaw,
But celery stewed
Is more quietly chewed.
After we had crossed the first week, I didn’t hear any more complaints. Within about two months, I begin to notice that my son’s brain started to sharpen. Not only was he able to memorize much faster, but also a certain stylishness of language structure made its way both into his speaking and writing. The good news is he noticed it too! I decided to reward him by letting him memorize a couple of more advanced speeches more appropriate for his age. What a joy to hear him portray Winston Churchill and his memorable “We Shall Fight on the Beaches.” Thank you, Mr. Pudewa, for your inspiration!
I trust our poetry journey will encourage you to start (or, continue) your own. Rest assured that with the right system in place, your child’s language patterns and complexity as well as the ability to retain information will increase significantly. You will be pleased to see the fast progress your child will reward you with and enjoy spending time together memorizing.
