Title: The Random House Book of Poetry for Children
Author: Jack Prelutsky
Illustrator: Arnold Lobel
Publication Year: 1983
Website: jackprelutsky.com
Age Group: Kindergarten, Early Elementary
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Recommended By:
- 100 Best Books for Children
- The Read-Aloud Handbook
- The New York Times Parent’s Guide to the Best Books for Children
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Michelle has a PhD in Engineering from Stanford University and a Bachelor's Degree from the California Institute of Technology. 
Michelle,
I was wondering if you have your children to actually memorize poems? I saw that was mentioned in one of the homeschooling books as it benefits children but it did not provide any details. Where do I even start and what are the realistic expectations at each age? Just wonder if you can share some experience as I have not seen you mentioning it so I wonder if this is part of your homeschool routine as well except of having Thursday tea time poetry you mentioned in the past.
Hi Alexandra! In the past, I have not had my kids memorize poems. We just read them to enjoy them. However, about a year ago I purchased the book How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig. In that book, he step-by-step explains how to help your children memorize short passages from Shakespeare. Honestly, we only ever worked on 3 passages since I kind of forgot about it, but I was impressed by how much my kids were able to remember. My 8 and 10 year olds both memorized passages that were fairly long over the course of a few days. My 6 year old needed a little prompting, but he memorized most of them too. Even my 4 year old would spontaneously start reciting lines here and there from what we were learning. I definitely plan to work through more of that book in the future with my kids. You might also be able to use the techniques in that book to help your kids memorize poetry if you chose.