Books with title AmblesideOnline Poetry, Year 3 Term Three, Longfellow

Charlotte Mason said that poetry is an instructor of the conscience, and that children "must grow up upon the best. There must never be a period in their lives when they are allowed to read or listen to twaddle or reading-made-easy. There is never a time when they are unequal to worthy thoughts, well put; inspiring tales, well told. Let Blake's 'songs of Innocence' represent their standard in poetry..." and the result will be readers who demand the best, "the fit and beautiful expression of inspiring ideas and pictures of life."Isn't it interesting that modern research supports her in this. Research is showing that reading poetry provides a ‘rocket-boost’ to the brain that cannot be matched by straightforward, simple paraphrases. The research also found poetry, in particular, "increased activity in the right hemisphere of the brain, an area concerned with 'autobiographical memory', which helped the reader to reflect on and reappraise their own experiences in light of what they had read." AO students read the poems of Longfellow, Blake, Conkling and Teasdale in the 3rd year, a variety of poems which will give the young readers word pictures and ideas to reflect on and apply to and interpret their own experiences. The poems are also just lovely and worth reading for themselves. We hope you will enjoy reading them with your children as much as we enjoy sharing them with you. A word: Please don't analyze and dissect these poems. There is time for that later in your young scholar's life. Just as there is a time to simply feed your young ones delicious, nourishing food, and a time later in their lives to teach them the analytical details of health, nutrition, and all about the vitamins and minerals in their food, there is a time to just read poetry and learn to enjoy it. Year 3 students are still in the stage of simply enjoying the feast. Later they can learn about the analytical details. Don't spoil their appetites for poems by analyzing too young.

This Kindle book contains all three terms of poetry for year 3 of AmblesideOnline, including our selections for William Blake, Sara Teasdale, Hilda Conkling, and William Wadsworth Longfellow. The table of contents is activated for Kindle for ease of use.We have included short biographies of each of the poets, as well as brief information on how to use the poetry selections with your three students, and Charlotte Mason's approach to poetry.

The poetry selections for AmblesideOnline (AO), year two, term two. The poems of Eugene Field and James Whitcomb Riley are hyperlinked- there's an active TOC for Kindle. Each poem is on its own page. Also included: how to use the poems for an AO or Charlotte Mason education, and some excerpts about poetry from Charlotte Mason's writings and the Parents' Review.

In 1920 the popular children's magazine St Nicholas said a book of Longfellow's poems was among the top 25 books which should be in every child's library. In 1922, the Children’s Book Week Committee and a publication called 'The Bookman' declared that Longfellow was the poet most commonly read by American children. They felt the American child should branch out.Today's child hardly reads poetry at all, at least not on purpose. Children themselves are natural poets, so I do not believe this objection to poetry comes from within, but rather, is caused by our approach to poetry as a school subject. But if we approached poetry naturally, just as another of life's joys to share, and simply read good poems together, how different it might be. Longfellow was once known as 'the children's poet.' Let him be a poet for your children as well.