How to Teach Poetry in Your Homeschool (+ Free Resources!)

I am a homeschool mom of 9 kids and when we began our homeschooling journey over 13 years ago, something that was so important to my husband and I was to hopefully instill a love of learning in our kids.  We didn’t just want them to go through the motions of “doing schoolwork”, but we wanted them to be excited to learn! We wanted to light a fire in them. I knew if I could accomplish teaching them to read and inspiring them to learn, that they could learn anything! We had heard a video from a long-time homeschooler, say, “Why teach your kids about trees from a textbook when you can go outside and look at the trees?!” Right then and there, that set the standard for how we approach education with our kids. Basically, why make things boring when they can be real and fun! So, if you’re wondering how to teach poetry in your homeschool, that’s how!

Essentially, all education comes down to what we’ll actually remember. Fun memories and real life are what we remember most. Not what we learned for a test. Teaching poetry in your homeschool can be easy, it just requires you as the parent or educator to get excited about it! I would argue that this is important with anything you’re going to teach. Our enthusiasm as parents really rubs off on our kids. Or the lack thereof. You want to make poetry come alive for your kids. But how?

Our approach to teaching poetry in our homeschool came quite naturally as we had adopted homeschooling as a way of life. We were excited as a family to learn new things! When the idea of “Poetry Teatime” was introduced by Julie Bogart, it just made sense for us. We would set the table with teacups, bake some goodies, and read poetry aloud to our kids! There were spills, loud children, and often times babies crying! But it was still fun and made good memories!

how to make poetry come alive in your homeschool

Our kids crave time with us and more than that they want it to be fun! My biggest tip for making poetry fun and bringing it to life, is to make it a family event! Not a school subject. Don’t put pressure on yourself or your kids to perform or finish at a certain time. Plan a Sunday brunch as a family and set the table with a simple tablecloth. Go the extra mile, but not so far that it adds stress! Our kids appreciate some enchantment, though, so throw on a tablecloth and light a couple of candles! It’s like magic to our kids. This lights up the adventurous side of them! They will be ready to learn, and will remember these special occasions!

You’ll obviously need to have required some poetry books for the occasion, which I will forever recommend buying for a home library! I think kids should be surrounded by books! Choose any poems or nursery rhymes you like, and just read them aloud! Be silly and laugh with your kids. Use silly voices! Model to them the excitement they should be feeling! But don’t get upset with them if they don’t catch on. This will still be impactful and memorable for them!

how to incorporate poetry into your homeschool day?

Although poetry teatime can be fun, it’s not practical to pull off every day or even in every season of life. Having homeschooled with newborns and toddlers, I realize when you have young children, sometimes the magic of setting up for teatime can just be too much.

Instead, you could try scheduling “morning time” into your homeschool routine. This would be a great way to join together your younger children and older students as well.

During this time, you could choose some of your favorite poems and read them aloud or pick just 1 to use as memory work and work on it a little bit every day. This would introduce an appreciation of poetry to your children. Children of all ages can learn to appreciate poetry just by listening to it being read aloud. The more and more they hear poetry, it becomes more familiar to their ears. Enough so, that you may find them eventually writing their own poems! 2 year olds all the up to high school students can benefit greatly from this! It’s a fun way to introduce new words to little ones and new vocabulary words to your older students.

The simple beauty of poetry is that it’s meant to be enjoyed. Because of this, I encourage you to think outside the box a bit when it comes to homeschooling and poetry. You can definitely create lesson plans for a poetry study and think it must stay inside your school days, but it can be taught another way!

Just gather in your living room and cozy up with some poetry books and read aloud! Dim the lights or turn on just a lamp. Or a fireplace in winter if you have one! This can be done during your school day if you prefer, but there’s also something special about letting Dad join in during the evenings, if he’s usually gone during the day. When you try to make it part of your lifestyle rather than just a school subject, it takes on a different form for your kids. It becomes part of your family culture.

How to make poetry a part of your family culture

We have always tried to include my husband in poetry time, which has surprisingly resulted in some really great things. Aside from the quality time spent together, he has become someone that my kids know they can discuss poetry and writing with.

My husband has always written stories for our kids and so when we started doing poetry teatime, naturally, he started writing poetry for them. This inspired our kids to start writing poetry as well. It turned into a weekly challenge to come up with a new poem for poetry day! So, eventually I decided to purchase everyone special poetry journals to write their poems in & they would go on our poetry shelf with all the other poetry books. It was such a natural evolution that encouraged our kids to write.

He now shares in other short story challenges with my teens and has been a huge inspiration in their writing journey.

All this to say, include your spouse any chance you can and make it family fun! By making poetry a part of your family culture, it makes it real for your kids. Not just merely another subject to learn. This is when the real learning happens. This is how we help our kids understand why to even care about poetry. Once it’s already a part of their life, then they will naturally be curious about the harder parts of poetry. Learning about poetic devices and the structure of poetry only matters if the poetry itself matters to them.

It’s really quite simple, just read lots of poetry with your kids! Enjoy them and create memories with them.

My tips summed up:

• Make it fun
• Model enthusiasm
• Make it part of your family culture
• Try poetry teatime
• Try a “Morning Time” routine
• Cozy up and read in the evening with Dad
• Just read poetry.
• Prioritize a love of poetry before the academics of it.

Why Bother teaching poetry in your homeschool?

First of all, poetry is just simply fun! Poetry can be silly and witty and is great for young children especially because of this. It’s also different than any other form of writing because it displays much emotion in short form. We can be inspired greatly by this art form of writing that is used to evoke feelings and provoke deep thoughts to ponder all while using powerful language. 

Speaking of which, language is usually rich within poetry. Just simply reading it, will provide a wonderful opportunity to expose your kids to a variety of language that will enrich their own vocabulary. This is important for everyone to learn how to better express themselves when communicating in speech and in their writing. It also acts as a great therapeutic outlet for our kids to learn to write their emotions down on paper!

When reading great poetry to our children, it will inspire them in their own creative writing journeys.

The art of poetry is fascinating and there are so many different types of poetry as well. I recommend introducing a wide range of different forms of poetry to help your children grasp what good poetry truly is. Classic poems are a great place to start, but don’t dismiss new as well. 

Introducing poetry allows for a great opportunity to introduce famous poets as well. As a homeschooling parent, you can use this as a jumping off point to talk about where they lived and what else may have been going on in history during their lifetime. What can learn from them? 

Poetry can be used for enjoyment alone, but it is rich with a history and story of its own.

How to teach the structure of poetry?

After all that, I know you may be wanting something more and that’s ok! It’s important to prioritize the love of learning first, but then what about teaching the structure of poetry?

No worries, I completely get it! Stop here if you only have small children though. Just keep reading fun poems with them and enjoying them!

If you have older kids, especially at the high school level that are writing, and you want to teach them the nitty gritty stuff, I’ve created a new free resource just for that! I include definitions of different types of poetry along with some sample poem selections to use as examples. I recommend including these into a memory binder to go over daily in the mornings or whenever works for your family. Just choose 1 or 2 to work on at a time! Don’t overwhelm yourself or your kids!

Right now, I’m offering 5 different types from my poetry bundle for free for you to sample for your family. If you enjoy them, you can purchase the entire bundle in my shop.

This is a great introduction to the structural part of poetry and will help you to ease into that part of it.

If you have High Schoolers, I also highly recommend checking out this writing journal curriculum by Not Consumed! It’s amazing! My high schoolers are using it and they love it!