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...my oldest DS's poem from today! He is doing Preparing and the assignment was to model after Robert Louis Stevenson's poem, Nest Eggs, with some other living thing in nature. This is after completing Bigger and we are almost at the end of Preparing. We have also done Dictation for Spelling from the time we started with HOD, as well as all the poetry assignments. I am blown away by the love of reading and writing poetry that HOD is helping me to cultivate in my son. I WISH I had had this kind of exposure at 9 years old!

Caterpillar to Butterfly

I came home from school a minute ago
And found that my mom was really low.
How I was acting, I don't know why,
But I saw a caterpillar passing by.

It grew bigger as the days passed,
It stopped growing, ah, at last!
I came the next morning to watch it go,
I noticed that it was getting slow.

The next day it spun a cocoon,
I feel something good is going to happen soon!
It stayed in there for the rest of the day,
I got bored and went away.

A week later it broke out,
I was surprised how it moved about.
It spread out its wings and flew away,
I hope I'll see it another day.

Awww! I love it! I'm so glad he likes the poetry! We are doing Beyond this year and this is my son's first exposure to poetry. He likes it too and asks all kinds of questions about it! He doesn't mind copying parts of it and he likes to read it out loud with me. Thanks for sharing your ds's poem!

That is wonderful!!! What a super job he did! We are enjoying the writing activities with poetry too. Like you, I wish I had been able to have this education when I was 9 (or any age for that matter)!

That is an excellent and creative poem! I know you are so proud! I would even consider typing that up and putting it on some fancy paper and keeping it in his notebook as a keepsake. Great job to your son! What a poet he is! It's a gift. He could use this talent for song writing as well. Blessings!

That is fantastic! You should definitely be a proud momma!

I also get what you are saying about HOD developing a love for these things in our kiddos. My oldest started HOD with Preparing as a 5th grader. She struggled with a lot of the parts that I see my younger kids (who started with Little Hearts/Beyond) picking so much easier. I don't think they will struggle with the things she did because they have been slowly introduced to it and are learning it all along.

GREAT JOB!
Angie

Love it! What a wonderful job!

What a neat poem! Your ds did such a great job of writing it. All of the years of poetry in HOD just start to seep in and dc are suddenly becoming poets themselves. It is pretty exciting to watch the "metamorphosis". Just like your ds's caterpillar, they crawl along, start to come out of their cocoon, and before you know it, they've spread their wings and learned how to fly! Your ds inspired me today.

In Christ,
Julie

Jessica,

You'll have to tell your son, "Great job!" We loved the poetry lessons in Preparing, too. Isn't it amazing to see how the little wheels in their minds start turning as they're allowed to be creative and given such worthy things to think about as we're using HOD? Love it!

Now, I have to ask, were you really low because you were a bit sad to see your son growing up and "flying away" like th butterfly? Or were you the one finding the caterpillar? Either way...I love the poem!

Kathleen

3sweeties,

Thanks so much for taking time to share so that we can enjoy your son's poetry right along with you. What a happy momma moment this must be. My boys have learned to love poetry through HOD too, and what's more they like to write it too. I have learned so much about poetry right along with my boys. My own poetry education was literally nonexistent! I am amazed at how much deep thinking goes on when reading classic poetry! Writing poetry is just a natural outpouring of all of that inspiration that comes from reading wonderfully rich poetry!

Blessings,
Carrie