May Flowers: The Daffodil

Literacy comes with knowing words – having seen them, read about them, talked about them, felt them.

Literacy comes with having frames of reference – having words that make sense in the references presented.

Literacy comes with being comfortable with words – the feeling of I know this or I can figure this out.

A great gift you can give to your kids is surrounding them with WORDS.  Letting words in, softly.  Letting words grow and bloom, like flowers.

Literature blooms with FLOWERS, from lovely little nursery rhymes to sophisticated epic poetry.  Knowing the names of flowers, the references to flowers, the symbols of flowers, the language of flowers gives kids a blooming head start in understanding literature and enhancing literacy.

Each day in May, a FLOWER will be presented here at 31 Days.  31 Flowers – 31 Ways to engage your kids in both literature, literacy and life in just a few minutes a day.  Enjoy!

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May 1st. Today’s FLOWER: The DAFFODIL, sometimes called the daffodilly

The word daffodil derives from the word affodill (meaning new-comer), but the beginning “d” has not been linguistically agreed upon;  an interesting tidbit, but it does not diminish the loveliness of the daffodil and how it figures into literature and literacy.  There are written references to the daffodil as early as the 16th century, but 19th century English poet William Wordsworth immortalized the daffodil in his poem:

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

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Read Wordsworth’s poem today with your children.  Even very young children will love the flow of the words and the dance of the daffodils.  Celebrate the 1st of May with the lovely daffodil and look for it wherever you go.  Bring some into your home.  Photograph it.  Draw it.  Talk about it.  Dance with it.  Feel it.  The daffodil is said to symbolize great regard and chivalry. Bring this flower and these references into your home and into your lives and share your great regard for WORDS!

Your kids will undoubtedly read this Wordsworth poem at some time during their schooling.  Give them the blooming head start of their lives.  Begin today with 31 Days. 31 Flowers.