The term poetry might possibly conjure up numerous stuffy feelings for you and your kids, and perhaps vague feelings of confusion. What do those lines mean, anyway? Renewed interest in the value of poetry in the lives of children is stepping forth by several individuals and groups, among them a new group, Poetry at Play. This organization is energized about and focused on bringing poetry back to the literary forefront of children’s education and lives. They aren’t the only ones who are struggling to bring attention to the need for and positive response to the rhythm of poetry for young people. Are you fostering your children’s exposure to poetry, or running from its stuffy name and giving up the idea of raising a new generation of Shakespeares?
Why does poetry matter?
According to Morag Styles, a Professor of Children’s Poetry at Cambridge University, “Children’s responses to poetry are innate, instinctive, natural – maybe it starts in the womb, with the mother’s heartbeat?” Styles and other proponents of poetry for youth often refer to the natural rhythm of the verses that draws children into the language, even if we are unaware that it is poetry. You can see it in the line at the grocery store, singing a hymn at church, or in a pediatrician’s waiting room. Mothers sway. Even if they aren’t even holding babies, their bodies sway to the sometimes unheard patterns of language. Perhaps we are singing songs somewhere deep within our subconscious, but there is a rhythm there.
Children respond to those rhythms, and often seem to crave them. It might be a silly song we make up to sing to our infant to calm a middle of the night crying session, or the goofy story we make up about the mashed banana flying into our baby’s tiny mouth. Whatever it is, we create rhythms for our kids and
