Reading time: 1-2 minutes. Mr. S is AMAZING!!! Seriously, this kid is just a gifted speaker. We have speech club in a couple of days and I decided that he should recite a poem since he gets so frustrated with the current stage of his reading skills (has the heart to read War and Peace, but the skill level of Dick and Jane See Spot). He has practiced standard speeches and done a great job keeping the flow and pace of the story, as well as remembering the order of events (he includes a lot of information).
While cleaning the office (again…) I came across One Hundred and Ten Favorite Children’s Poems, a book given to me by my parents when I turned seven. Mr. S will be 7 in a couple of months. We were reading some of the poems here and there the last few weeks. He enjoys many of them, the cadence especially.
I was certain he would happily take on a single stanza poem, but I wanted to see what he was really capable of, so I suggested The House That Jack Built. Repetitive, but needs to go in a particular order, and would be significantly improved with gestures. He made a face about it, but didn’t balk, so we forged ahead.
We read through it a stanza at a time, allowing him to pick his hand motions and ask questions about the meaning of words (Mom, what does shaven and shorn mean?). And he got it. Their minds are like sponges. Blows me away!!
The funniest thing to me is the maiden. She shows up to milk the cow with the crumpled horn. Well, in S’s version, she is definitely a maiden, but that’s only until the priest shows up a few verses later to marry the maiden to the man all tattered and torn. Then he wants to call her a bride. After all, if she’s getting married, she’s a bride, right? But his brain knows she’s a maiden. But his heart contradicts, No, she’s as bride! So it ends up coming out as follows:
This is the priest, all shaven and shorn
that married the man all tattered and torn
that kissed the briden all forlorn…
When I think back a few years and recall my wedding day jitters, I believe it’s fair to say I felt like a briden myself!
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