Memorization for 2010-2011

We are doing a lot more memorization this year than in previous ones. I want to fill their little heads with beautiful words.  It is amazing how they stick with you through the years.  I can still remember the little bits of poetry that I memorized as a child.

The older kids will obviously be memorizing much more than the little ones.  They will just do what they are able to.

I am hoping that the older three can memorize the following list:

1. List of 53 Prepositions (from Easy Grammar Plus)
2. Pronouns
3. Helping Verbs
4. State of Being Verbs
5. The Pledge of Allegiance
6. Girl Scout Law and Promise
7. Presidents
8. States and Capitals
9. Preamble to the Constitution
10. Gettysburg Address
11. The Lord’s Prayer
12. The books of the Bible

I would also like them to memorize poetry throughout the year.  I have decided to put the following poems on notecards and allow them to choose them from this list as they go.  They can go at their own pace and decide which ones they like.  I tried to include some shorter ones that Nick could memorize also.  He always wants to join in with whatever we’re doing.  I know that this looks like a lot, but there are 4 kids and they won’t all be doing the same poems.

1. Results or Roses, by Edgar Guest
2. The Goops, by Gelett Burgess
3. True Nobility, by Edgar Guest
4. All Things Bright and Beautiful (The Creation), by Cecil Alexander
5. The Land of Nod, by Robert Louis Stevenson
6. I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud, by William Wordsworth
7. Who Has Seen the Wind?, by Christina G. Rossetti
8. Dreams, by Langston Hughes
9. A Child’s Prayer, by M. Bentham-Edwards
10. Windy Nights, by Robert Louis Stevenson
11. Rain, by Robert Louis Stevenson
12. The Sin of Omission, by Margaret E. Sangster
13. If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking, by Emily Dickinson
14. Count That Day Lost, by George Eliot
15. Fog, by Carl Sandburg
16. The Violet, by Jane Taylor
17. If You Were (anonymous)
18. The Perfect Dinner Table, by Edgar Guest
19. Try, Try, Again, by T.H. Palmer
20. If-, by Rudyard Kipling
21. Mr. Meant-To
22. You Musn’t Quit
23. I Never Saw A Moor, by Emily Dickinson
24. The 23rd Psalm
25. Jabberwocky, by Lewis Carroll
26. Bed in Summer, by Robert Louis Stevenson
27. Once I Saw a Little Bird (nursery rhyme)
28. Solitude, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
29. Bear in There, by Shel Silverstein
30. My Gift, by Christina Rossetti
31. Purple Cow, by Gelett Burgess
32. Trees, by Joyce Kilmer
33. Mice, by Rose Fyleman
34. A Visit From St. Nicholas, by Clement Clarke Moore
35. Daffodils, by William Wordsworth
36. O Captain, My Captain, by Walt Whitman
37. The New Colossus, by Emma Lazarus
38. Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout, by Shel Silverstein
39. Sick, by Shel Silverstein
40. Mr. Nobody, Anonymous
41. We Thank Thee
42. Hearts Like Doors, Anonymous
43. The Land of Counterpane, by Robert Louis Stevenson
44. Whole Duty of Children, by Robert Louis Stevenson
45. Happy Thought, by Robert Louis Stevenson
46. Good Books, by Edgar Guest
47. Can’t, by Edgar Guest
48. The Things That Haven’t Been Done Before, by Edgar Guest

I’m also hoping that they’ll learn some Christmas carols this year – something besides Jingle Bells!!

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