How to Improve Kids’ Reading & Vocabulary Skills AND teach Poetry in 2 Minutes a Day…

Jean-Paul Satre wrote, “To read a poem in January is as lovely as to go for a walk in June.”

With that in mind, let’s focus on lovely poems that will let us take lovely walks, lovely journeys, lovely adventures with our kids… all the while filling their heads with words and ideas and the very essence of life.

Poems stir our senses.

Poems spark our imaginations and our emotions.

Poetry makes every single word count.

Today’s little poem (and I do mean little!) was written by Issa, an 18th century Japanese poet regarded as one of the masters of haiku.

This is a poem that a very young child can memorize and master and create meaning from… and an older child can examine and make connections between nature and him or herself.

Read this poem and go for the walk of your life with your children today…

WILD GOOSE, WILD GOOSE by Issa

Wild goose, wild goose,
At what age
Did you make your first journey?

(I told you the poem was little!)

Now talk with your children about journeys… perhaps their first journeys.

Were the journeys to meet grandparents? Or a family vacation? Or a move from one home to another?

At what age were the children? Do you have photographs of this journey?

Talk about your first journey… the first one you remember. At what age did you make this journey? Do you have photographs?

Talk about the first journey of the Wild Goose. Where did the Wild Goose go? With whom did the Wild Goose travel? How old was the Wild Goose?

The seemingly unrelated journey of the Wild Goose from Japan in the 18th century will come to have meaning in the lives of your children today.

THIS IS LITERACY. Images, sounds, senses… the music of words coming alive and comparisons being made.

WORDS. Even simple, simple words make such a difference in the lives of our kids.

It’s all in the sharing. It’s all in the remembering. It’s all in the words… and the lovely flight you’ll take today with the Wild Goose and with your own kids.

Your kids will remember this little poem for a very, very long time.

Reading begins with words… Spoken. Written. Felt.