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Poetry With Children

Poetry has always played a large role in our home. We have enjoyed it in various forms over the year & now it is very much a part of who we are.

We used to have 'Poetry Tea' usually once every couple of weeks, sitting around the table, sharing tea & cake.
We have now graduated to 'Poetry Supper'. This is a much anticipated event & we make time for it every week. We settle down on my bed, (tea & cake still play an important part of course!)
Everyone choses a book from which they wish to read & selects a poem or three.

I usually try to read the girls poem's for them first; then we read together, then they read alone. This is a tip I read in The Well Trained Mind & is useful for improving both fluency & the lyrical tone a child puts into their words. MY girls tend to want to dive straight into the poem, however. Everyone gets to have a turn, we read all sorts of poetry, by many authors (our current favourite is Edward Lear)

Children adore poetry. It is so natural to them, to play with words. Reading poetry aloud allows them to hear wonderful & rich language that may be above their own reading level. The language & rhythms can be exciting, comforting, silly, beautiful - many, many things. And this exposure is precious for developing life long readers.

Allow me to share with you our most favourite poetry books & the very simple recipe we use for Fairy Cakes:

The Oxford Book Of Children's verse

Favourite Poems Old & New

Poems To Read To The Very Young

A Journey Through Time In Verse & Rhyme

For our Fairy Cakes, we use the 'all in one sponge cake' recipe from Delia Smith. This is quick, easy & utterly delicious! Instead of making one big cake, we spoon it out into paper cases & make individual fairy cakes instead, baking for around 25-30 minutes.

Chef hat optional :)