...haiku. Somehow (maybe it was a Magic Treehouse book), Josiah got intrigued by haiku today. We talked about it for a few minutes, I told him what I knew about it (which wasn't much), we looked at dictionary.com and wikipedia.org to see what we could learn there, and then he started writing. Can you tell how proud he was after he wrote his first one? :)
My Mittens are Warm
I am very cold.
My mittens are very warm.
Here's my first haiku.
Amazing, isn't it? ;-)
Well, then Josiah wanted to make a book to record his poems. So I got out some construction paper, and he chose the colors and arranged them in the order he desired for his pages. He's optimistically titled his book, 101 Poems by Josiah Fisher. So far, he's up to five. Only 96 more to go! :)
The second one in his collection was contributed by his grandpa, who entered the house in the middle of the haiku-writing and was inadvertently swept up in the process. Here is his offering:
Grandpa's Back
I have a backache.
I use a very good cane
So I don't have pain.
Next Josiah wrote this little piece:
I Forget Stuff
I oft forget stuff,
Stuff that's really close to me.
I do not like that.
Tonight he wrote my personal favorite:
The Moon and Stars
It is very dark.
The only thing that is bright
Is the moon and stars.
And one more before bedtime, motivated by our "middle" dog Jasper who has turned into a little Houdini and keeps getting out of the pasture:
Jasper
Jasper is middle.
Jasper is very clever.
He escapes quickly.
The thing that I absolutely love about all of this is that it totally, completely, 100% came from Josiah's brain and initiative. If I had sat him down and said, "Today we're going to learn about haiku, and I want you to write four examples for me," do you think it would have been as much fun? Not at all. But here he is, not only learning about this particular form of Japanese poetry, but also practicing spelling, capitalization, punctuation, syllabification, etc. Plus, he's noticing things about his world and learning how to express that clearly and creatively.
You know, I am not an unschooler, but I am treading much closer to that free-spirited "non-method" of education than I ever thought I would!!! ;-)
We love the book Zen Ties by Jon Muth. It is a little panda in it named Koo (who is greeted by saying "Hi, Koo"--say it outloud) and he only speaks in haiku. You should preview it in the library and see if it is something you would like Josiah to read. The story is about treating others with kindness and not to go off of first impressions. It's a sweet story and great intro to more traditional Japanese haiku as well.
ReplyDeleteMelani, thanks so much for the suggestion! I just checked online, and our library does not have that. Maybe they'll get it someday?
ReplyDeleteI do want to see what resources I can find at the library and online to help Josiah with this and to give him some other examples to learn from. Which reminds me...I'm going to do a search on children's haiku right now.
Thanks! :)
Great haiku's he wrote!! I wonder if he would like acrostic poems they were my favorite :-) It's amazing what they will do when it interests them.. today Sammy read some words.. I wasn't teaching him that at all but he sounded out a ton of -at words and -ap words!
ReplyDeleteI'm not an unschooler either, not having the confidence in my own imagination or stick-ability, but I see myself being drawn more and more towards it as time goes on. If I live to be able to have an input into my grandchildren's education, I'll try and give my children so much confidence to 'just go for it' and not to worry.... the kids *will* learn... and how!
ReplyDeleteIt is so wonderful that he has found joy in writing poetry. I think I discovered it at his age too.
ReplyDeleteThanks, friends, for sharing your thoughts!
ReplyDeleteThere was a term I was trying to think of last night but couldn't. (Don'tcha hate when that happens?) :) Delight-directed study. That's a term one of my homeschooling heroes, Valerie, introduced me to, and that describes the kind of teaching/learning that we've been doing a lot of recently.
that is so neat! & i love those pictures...he is so proud of himself :)
ReplyDelete