English & Language Arts: The Beauty of Poetry
Home school provides the opportunity for reading and writing poetry, and for sharing our thoughts with our family. Home school students interested in writing poetry may consider organizing a small group of their own to meet in each other's homes. Each home school student might bring one or two poems he or she has written for others to hear and critique. Many communities have poetry associations and workshops, where well known poets read and guide you in writing poetry.
There are five things to consider in writing poetry in home school: attention, concentration, originality, experimentation, and form. We can devote our attention and concentration in the home school environment far better than anywhere else. We have the freedom in home school, where there is no undue pressure or unfair criticism, to be original and experiment with form, meter, and rhyme.
There will be time in your home school schedule that you can set aside for writing; perhaps outside in the garden, in the evening as the sun goes down, or in the early morning hours as the world awakens. Keeping a notebook or diary of some sort in your room for writing down thoughts as they occur is a good idea. Something you talked about in home school-something you and your home school family shared, an evening prayer, a dream, no matter how small, may soon become a poem. Think about putting a sentence of prose into an image of beauty, using adjectives, metaphors, and flowing language. Allow your creativity to flourish in home school as you write and rewrite poetry until you are pleased with the final product.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling parent, author, children's rights advocate, and Founder and C.E.O. of Learning by Grace, Inc. She and her husband of almost 3 decades reside with their 8 children in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Rothschild co-founded Learning By Grace, Inc. because "our current system of education has broken its promise..." Learning By Grace, Inc. delivers Internet-based multimedia education to PreK-12 children in the United States and throughout the world.
Rothschild has authored a number of books about education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Daily Education News Blog contains feature stories on alternatives in education.