Note to Parents: Due to the young ages of grade school students, we expect that you will accompany your child at all times while he or she is online, which includes watching recorded classes alongside your student. This will also help you assist your student with homework where necessary or help your student contact the teacher with questions. Thank you for your support!

The ability to read A Child’s Garden of Verses (Copies are available online for free. If you’d like to check your student’s reading level, simply ask your student to read you a poem and observe their ability.). Students should also be able to write in full sentences.

Course Outline:

Class 1: What is a poem? (How to read and imagine a poem) Review Poem: “Time to Rise”

Class 2: Memorizing a poem (Introducing rhyme and rhythm) Review Poem: “The Swing”

Class 3: Learning from Poems (Introducing new words and ideas) Review Poem: “Pirate Story”

Class 4: Enjoying Poems (Performing and making poems) Review Poem: “Bed in Summer”

• Any copy of A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson. This is available in many places online free, but we recommend finding a physical copy with beautiful illustrations to help the student imagine the poems.

After each class, the student will need to complete a poem review and activity, likely with parent assistance. This should take about an hour after each class, but one class also asks students to memorize and perform a poem for their family, so this will likely take more time depending on the student’s memorization speed.