How to teach poetry with a child?

It’s great if a child can easily memorize the necessary verses first, and then retell them with pleasure. But it also happens that in a kindergarten or school they were asked to learn a poem, and for some reason the child opposes this. Let’s try to figure out what to do in such a situation.

The pretexts under which the child refuses to complete the task may be different, but, as practice shows, there is only one reason: it is difficult for him to remember such a large amount of new information, and he simply protects himself from overload.

There are several life hacks to help solve this problem:

First, if the child flatly refuses to learn a poem, tell him that you agree with his decision and just read him one line after another so that he repeats them. As you move forward one line at a time, you’ll see that it’s easy to repeat what you’ve heard, and it doesn’t feel like the brain is doing any unnecessarily complicated work.

Second, find out if there are unfamiliar words or phrases in the memorized poem. It is not difficult to do this: when the baby repeats the lines after you, he will confuse the word he does not understand or will not pronounce it at all. The logical solution to this problem is to explain to the child the meaning of expressions unfamiliar to him; it is even better to give a few additional examples of their use, so that knowledge is fixed for a long time.

The memorization process is extremely simple: repeat line after line, after making sure that the student remembers and tells the previous one without hesitation. You cannot move to the next line without fixing the previous one properly. Gradually repeat two or three lines until the child remembers them too. So, imperceptibly for himself, he will remember the entire poem.

If suddenly this method does not work, and the child does not want to repeat the lines after you, do not panic — there is a way out. And it is in the good old principle of advertising, which is designed to endlessly repeat the same slogans so that they are firmly planted in our memory. The mechanism here is as follows: repeat the poem completely three times, and then begin to methodically repeat some lines from it (the number depends on the total volume of the verse, optimally one or two lines). It is important here that the child sees that you yourself like this activity — do not forget about intonation and expression. You can connect toys here by arranging a performance for them: put a few toys in a circle, and then take one to the “stage” so that it reads a poem to the rest. Then each of the toys will repeat one or two lines from the poem just told, but at the same time — with its own special intonation. One way or another, the child will join the game and memorize the poem, because repeated repetition is a very powerful weapon, and something is remembered even if you don’t really want it.

In order not to overload the child’s psyche and memory, do not memorize more than a couple of lines a day with your child. A week is enough to calmly learn the required volume by the deadline.

By the way, the method described in the article has been known since antiquity and is called the “accumulation system”. It was he who was used by the peoples to convey their teachings to others. The key to successful memorization is still the same: start small, gradually build up the amount of memorization and do not forget about constant repetition. When repeating several lines, their “splicing” occurs, and it seems to the child that he has learned everything at the same time. Repetition, in addition to the obvious benefits for the brain, allows you to once again review the memorized material and deepen the initial impressions.

Additional Recommendations

1. In order for the memorization of poems not to be a kind of hard labor for a son or daughter, he must be accustomed from birth to information presented in this format. We are talking about tongue twisters, various riddles, nursery rhymes or little funny rhymes. If from a very early age the baby hears how the parents tell him something in poetic form, then it will be deposited in his head, and the memory will develop naturally, and the format itself will be remembered as something understandable and familiar. In this case, you will not have to force the child to learn something under duress, because he will want to do it himself.

2. Rhythm is important for successful memorization. Try walking, moving your arms, shaking your head or torso to the beat of the poem.

3. To teach a child to rhyme is quite simple: for this you just need to repeat funny rhymed phrases more often in everyday life. For example, “a gray cat is sitting by the window”, “bears love cones”, “porridge for Natasha”. It is very easy to invent and insert such rhymes into everyday speech, so you can constantly use them when communicating with a child, as if playing with him.