This year I was lucky enough to obtain First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind, Levels 3 & 4 at a fantastic price.  So I bought them to give it a try!  I guess I should not be surprised by how much I LOVE them!  We are on lesson 20 in book 3 and I am so pleased with how methodical they are about adding new material and reviewing old material.  We tend to follow the principles of a classical education and The Well-Trained Mind – A Guide to Classical Education at Home, is one of my night stand must haves.  I really believe in memorization work, narration, and dictation, all of which is covered in this book, along with all the grammar rules.  Chloe (11) and Jayden (7) are both doing book 3 together.  It tends to be easy in many places for Chloe because we have done language arts workbooks, but I really wanted a thorough grammar program so I am having her do this along with Jayden to make sure we have covered all our bases.  They are both so proud of their memorization skills.

The first poem they memorized was:

The Land of Nod

by  Robert Louis Stevenson

From breakfast on through all the day

At home among my friends I stay;

But every night I go abroad

Afar into the land of Nod.

~

All by myself I have to go,

With none to tell me what to do

All alone beside the streams

And up the mountainsides of dreams.

~

The strangest things are there for me,

Both things to eat and things to see,

and many frightening sights abroad

Til morning in the land of Nod.

~

Try as I like to find the way,

I never can get back by day,

Nor can remember plain and clear

The curious music that I hear.

We just started our second poetry memorization:

A Tragic Story

by William Makepeace Thackeray

There lived a sage in days of yore,

And he a handsome pigtail wore;

But wondered much and sorrowed more,

Because it hung behind him.

~

He mused upon the curious case,

And swore he’d change the pigtail’s place,

And have it hanging at his face,

Not  dangling there behind him.

~

Says he, “The mystery I’ve found-

I’ll turn me round”- he turned him round;

But still it hung behind him.

~

Then round and round, and out and in,

All day the puzzled sage did spin;

In vain – it mattered not a pin-

The pigtail hung behind him.

~

And right and left, and round about,

And up and down, and in and out,

He turned; but still the pigtail stout

Hung steadily behind him.

~

And though his efforts never slack,

And though he twist, and twirl, and tack,

Alas!  still faithful to his back,

The pigtail hangs behind him.

It is so much fun to see how excited they are to stand up in front of myself, our friends or family, and show off what they have memorized.  (Not only these poems but things like The 50 States Song, The 44 Presidents Song, and The Spanish Alphabet)  They have such a feeling of accomplishment and pride in what they have learned and are able to share.