We will without a doubt continue our Teatime Tuesday Poetry throughout the summer. It is just so well suited to lunches under the Old Oak, or on the screen porch. We have said goodbye to our last Poet, Emily Dickinson, and I have chosen some fun, summer, kid-spirited books for enjoying together. The first selection is Give Yourself to the Rain by Margaret Wise Brown, authoress of the classic Goodnight Moon. I had to include this one because I really enjoy Margaret Wise Brown and this seemed the perfect choice for including poetry at Charlie's level.
The other two books, The Great Frog Race and Toasting marshmallows have selections that Ben and Will can really relate to, although Charlie enjoys listening in just as well. Both are filled with wonderful illustrations, too, adding extra interest for us.
The Great Frog Race has poetry for all seasons, all focused on childhood outdoor adventures such as horseback riding, watching waterbugs, Sunday drives, water balloon fights and of course, frog races.
Toasting Marshmallows focuses on camping poems. I love the description on the book flap...
"Award winning poet Kristine O'Connell George turns a flashlight beam on the moments that make up a family camping trip and records them in a humorous, evocative, vividly imagined verse redolent of the scent of pine needles and the sound of bees...."Yeah, baby! There is a lot of great stuff in this one and I can't wait to read through it with the boys. Not to mention actually being able to point back to a particular poem when we are ourselves enjoying classic camping moments together. For instance, here was our favorite from our first summer Teatime reading:
Toasting Marshmallows
I am a careful marshmallow toaster,
A patient marshmallow roaster,
turning my stick oh-so-slowly,
taking my time,
checking often.
This is art-
a time of serious reflection
as my pillowed confection
slowly reaches golden perfection.
My brother
grabs 'em with grubby hands
shoves 'em on the stick
burns 'em to a crisp
cools 'em off
flicks soot
eats quick.
I'm still turning my stick.
He's already eaten six.
And this is why it was their favorite....
The evening before this poetry reading, we had a campfire in our yard and Steve and I teased the boys about their wildly different marshmallow roasting techniques. Almost surprisingly, William was the patient one, roasting complete masterpieces in light toasty brown. Ben, on the other hand, was having to extinguish balls of flaming sugar every 30 seconds. He seemed to enjoy the carnage, though. How perfectly they matched the kids in the poem, how universal sticky campfire fun is! No wonder this was their favorite poem from our reading. They could relate. So, who are you? The Roast-to-Perfectionist, or the Soot Flicker?
3 comments:
Oh, there's nothing like a little char on the mallow. I really like to burn, baby, burn them.
I love the poetry selections. I LOVE MWB. "Big Red Barn" is Beatrice's favorite right now. What a great poem.
You might check out the anthology "Poems for Little Ears." It is quite old, but they might have it at your library. I must hunt down Give Yourself to the Rain. I think we'd love it! Thanks for the suggestions... good poetry has fallen off around here lately.
Really? You're a char woman?
I would sit for hours slowly turning a marshmallow to get that golden glow. Then I would give it away to some dazzled spectator,throw away the graham cracker and eat the chocolate bar.
You know, I think I remember looking for that poetry book when I started schooling Ben. It was one of your recommendations to me for poetry memorization. I'll have to look again for it!
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