How to Build a Love for Poetry with Sonlight

Would you like to include poetry in your homeschool?

Do you wish someone would provide you with a guide on how to build a love for poetry in your homeschool?

Sonlight has you covered! With Sonlight poetry is incorporated in a robust, literature rich program. Since they’ve been listening to poetry alongside melodic biblical passages from the very beginning, my children are comfortable enjoying elaborate and descriptive language. My children look forward to reading poetry together. It’s become tradition to gather each week around a sweet treat in what many homeschoolers call “Poetry Tea Time” and read the entire weeks selections all at once.

Sonlight Poetry Selections

Sonlight’s poetry selections are enjoyable! I don’t feel like I’m forcing unwanted additions to our homeschool. The collections of poems chosen are very age appropriate and accompanied by engaging illustrations and beautiful photographs. Let me show you!

Selected Sonlight Poetry Selections from Preschool through Elementary

• A Children’s Treasury of Nursery Rhymes
• Eric Carle’s Animals Animals
• The Llama Who Had No Pajama
• National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry
• Cornstalks: A Bushel of Poems
• Child’s Introduction to Poetry
• Oxford Illustrated Book of American Children’s Poems

Mother Goose and other nursery rhymes are a delightful start to enjoying poetry. Liberal use of other books that incorporate rhyme including selections from Dr. Seuss highlight how well Sonlight knows how children learn. Horton Hatches the Egg and The Berenstain Bears’ Big Book of Science and Nature are just two of my favorite examples.

This amazing dedication to poetry continues throughout the Sonlight experience! I am so excited to carry my children’s love of poetry all the way through junior high and high school with selections like the National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry and Robert Frost’s Poems. What a gift!

6 Benefits of Sonlight Poetry

My oldest two are now seven and six and I’m already beginning to see some of the rewards promised by those that taut the advantages of poetry integration in curriculum.  Their love for the poems provided by Sonlight has spurred an ongoing love affair with poetry that has introduced us to an ever expanding and eclectic selection of prose. The humor, beauty, and connection our family has found in poetry is a gift from Sonlight.

1. Great Introduction to Memorization

My children have favorite poems just as they have favorite stories. Some of the most popular selections, such as “The Llama Who Had No Pajama” after which an entire book of poetry is named, have been read so often that the children recite it with me. As an opening to poetry tea time, we all recite a selection from our very first book of poems from Sonlight. This collection has now been discontinued and a new book taken it’s place. Yet, it will always hold a special place in our hearts as we recite:

“GOD, we thank you for this food,
For rest and home and all things good,
For wind and rain and sun above,
But most of all for those we love. Amen”
-Maryleona Frost

This selection is from Poems and Prayers For the Very Young, which has been discontinued and replaced with A Children’s Treasury of Nursery Rhymes.

2. Useful Self-Calming Tool

When having to wait for long periods of time it’s common for my kids to start reciting a well-liked poem. The local DMV was treated to a rousing rendition of “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod,” by Eugene Field just last week. Sonlight taught us early that poetry could be a reprieve and a safety net for rough days and weeks.

3. Vocabulary Builder

We encounter tons of new vocabulary in Sonlight poetry selections. Not only do we all benefit from hearing these words used in context, but there is great fun in debating an author’s word choice. We have often treated poetry like a code game and the kids get to decipher what they think the words and overall poem may mean.

Sonlight provides discussion questions and highlights notable vocabulary. The result of all this new vocabulary includes:

• an increase in words they can and do use
• a strong willingness to encounter new vocabulary
• a lack of fear when trying new words in their own writing
• an ability to utilize context clues
• a love for discovering new words

4. Increased Comfort with New Language

Encountering an unknown word is not a novelty unique to childhood. Playing with words through poetry has lessened my children’s fear of the unknown. They are primed to enjoy solving the game of language! Thus, poetry makes language arts easier to teach and more enjoyable for all of us.

5. Public Speaking

Sonlight doesn’t require a child to publicly recite any poetry in order to benefit from its inclusion, but my children have gained so much from using poetry for this purpose. During our weekly poetry tea times the children select a poem they wish to memorize. When they are ready I videotape the recitation on my phone and we watch the performance together. The kids love this and I love that they are getting the chance to practice recorded and pubic performances.

Of course speaking engagements aren’t limited to just poetry tea time, other opportunities we have taken advantage of include:

• talent shows
• entertainment at nursing homes
• personalized messages to family for birthdays and holidays
• family gatherings

6. Building Connection 

One of my greatest and unexpected discoveries from using poetry in our homeschool is that my children have begun to respect a difference in opinion about writing. Emerging first as discussions about “my favorite poem is different from your favorite poem” my children have used poetry as a starting point to respect differences. My children are gaining an understanding that reading is a unique experience to every person based on their own background and experience.

Shared experience builds connection within families. Sharing a poem is a concrete way of strengthening bonds within a family. Through poetry our family strings together connections, supports one another, and injects lots of sweet memories into our homeschool. Thanks Sonlight!

Sonlight’s Poetic Advantage

If you want to experience the joy of poetry in your homeschool, here are a few great reasons to consider Sonlight.

• Sonlight gets you started with entertaining age appropriate selections!
• Sonlight offers discussion questions and prompts!
• Sonlight provides the perfect jumping off point for families to learn to love poetry!

Sonlight is available as a complete curriculum and includes poetry as part of their language arts and read aloud components.

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Interested in learning more about our experience with Sonlight?

• Check out our Sonlight Curriculum Page!
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Wishing you joy, peace, and most of all faith in your homeschool!