Rhymes and Reasons: The Many Benefits of Poetry for Kids

Listen to the podcast version:

Apple Podcasts Spotify

From Language Skills to Emotional Intelligence: The Advantages of Poetry for Kids

So many people hear “poetry” and get a bad taste in their mouths.
Poetry is more than syllables and rhyming.
When taught to children, they can learn a deeper understand of themselves, develop a better understanding of language skills, and expand their critical thinking skills.
The benefits of teaching poetry to children are well worth the effort!

How does poetry help children with language skills?

When children learn poetry, they are introduced to a variety of writing styles, structures, rhythms, and voice.
Children are able to identify sounds within words, which can be helpful with spelling.
Their vocabulary increases as they encounter familiar words that are used in different context, as well as unfamiliar words that they can determine reading within the text.
Children also expand their knowledge of figurative language like smilies, metaphors, and idioms with further enriches their vocabulary.

All of this: the learning of different styles and structures, paying attention to voice and sounds, and enhancing vocabulary and figurative language are the foundations to helping your child grow in their reading comprehension skills.

Writing can be formal with sentences, paragraphs, and punctuation.
Poetry shows children a fun in writing.
There are different types with varying structures, stanzas, verses, and line breaks.
Poetry also, often, has a rhythm to it that regular writing does not have.

As children understand and learn these language skills, they become better communicators with the ability to express their thoughts and ideas.

Does poetry help children become more creative?

Not only does writing poetry expand a child’s creativity, reading poetry can do this as well.
The exploration of imaginative language, metaphorical concepts, and fantastical imagery inspires young minds to think outside of the box.
Children see that written language can be a tool, not just for communication, but for creative expression.

There are many types of poetry that allow children to express themselves and add their own creativity to the way the poem flows.
One that I love is two voice poetry.
This has two people tell different parts of the poem.
Here is a site that lists different poems that are for all ages:

I also like Joyful Noise, a book of two person poetry that is about insects.

When children create their own poetry, they play with words, sounds, and ideas.
They experiment with language, form, and structure to express their ideas and emotions.
This expression, in its very nature is creative, and is not “the norm.”

How can poetry help children grow emotionally?

Poetry is a great tool for Social Emotional Learning. 
The first step in SEL is to identify your emotions.
The second is to manage them.
Poetry is a great tool for this.
It offers a therapeutic outlet for any emotion your child feels.
Even if your child needs to work out exactly what it is they are feeling though the words they write.

Imagine teaching your child the Nonet.
This is a type of poem that has a specific structure.
There are 10 lines.
The last line ends in a one syllable word.

There are a few other structural rules, but what I love, is that your child would spend 9 lines describing the emotions that are happening in them.
They could talk about how what they are feeling is physically manifesting.
Then the last line could be a simple word: mad, joy, sad, blue, fear, fab, etc.

Growth mindset.

I think this is a “buzz word” these days.
You hear about it all of the time and how it is important for you to have a growth mindset and how you should be instilling this in your children.

Poetry gives your child several opportunities to develop a growth mindset:

1. The emphasis on imagination and creativity means there is no “right answer,” your child must take risks.
2. Poetry is often unstructured.
   This leads your child to write in a way that challenges the established norms.
3. Your child may be stepping out of their comfort zone-the shells immensely towards developing a growth mindset.

*I just want to point out-poetry is great to teach your children.
However, all of these benefits are the same for anyone.
If you want to work on your growth mindset and have no idea where to start-poetry-it is a beautiful thing!

How does poetry help my child develop critical thinking skills?

I am on the fence on this one.
Not about whether or not your child will develop critical thinking skills-they will.
It is the process and purpose of analyzing poetry I am not a mainstream thinker about.

I think many adults dislike poetry or find it boring because they once had a teacher that had them analyze a poem and find the author’s meaning behind the words.
They picked apart the poem, word by word.

The very nature of the poem is to be enjoyed in its totality-there is a flow and beauty to it.
I would say it is an art form, but only in its wholeness.
I do believe the author worked very hard to give you that finished piece so that it seems easy.
And many poems the author may have struggled over each and every word or line.
But you, as a consumer of the words and person appreciating the beauty of the sounds are not supposed to dissect that poem once it is made whole.

In my opinion.

I also believe  we cannot possibly know what Poe, Hughes, or Dickerson were personally communicating behind their words.
Many think that a child learns critical thinking skills in the analysis of a poem.

Allow your child to find a poem that fascinates them.
Have them tell you what the poem says to them.
Do they think that what they feel from the poem is the same as what the author was saying to others or what others may feel from the poem?

What lines in the poem particularly “grab” them? Why?
Is there any language that they find abrupt? beautiful? descriptive? vague? etc.

If you don’t tell your child to think a certain way, or that a poem is designed to tell a certain message, but instead allow them to tell you and then give you reasons….

You are hitting the proverbial jackpot on critical thinking skills, problem solving skills, and subtle messages.

All of these are essential life skills.

Poetry can help your child feel on a different level.

It can be difficult to teach empathy.
Some would say you either are or not empathetic.

Children see the world as right/wrong or black/white during the Pre-operational Stage which is typically between ages 2-7.
Then the enter the Cognitive Operational Stage between ages 7 and 12.

As children are growing in these stages, it is easier for them to understand an experience or journey of another if is told through a story, song, or poetry.

Poetry provides a safe place to view, understand, and express experiences that may be different from their own.

Does poetry help with memory retention?

Can you think of anything more awful than having to find a poem, memorize it, and then recite it in front of others?
I am hard pressed to find something more tedious in the world than this.
However, remember the adages: “practice makes perfect” or “use it or lose it” ?

Regular exposure to memorization tasks improves the brain’s ability to retain information.
This means that if children memorize poems and recite them they are improving their memory retention.

For my researchers out there, I am curious-do we have more Alzheimer/Dementia cases per population now than we did in the 1960’s?
If we do, is it because we simply live longer?
Or is it because we have so much information at our fingertips, we do not have to actually remember anything.

I don’t have the answers, I am just a curious cat by nature.

Think of how many times you were trying to retrieve some piece of information, a group who sang a song, for example.
Rather than give your brain a “workout” and try to recall that information, did you just “google” it?

Poetry offers a unique window into the human experience.
By engaging with the rhythm, emotion, and vivid imagery of poetry, children can explore their feelings, enhance their language skills, and sharpen their critical thinking abilities.
Join me next week to learn how to actually teach poetry in your homeschool classroom!

Kid’s movie quote:

Will you join me in a little recitation? A poem, I should say.”

It’s a charming invitation in the story!

Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland