May 3 - Poetry for Prizes

HYPOTHESIS: forced memorization is tough for kids but worth it, since it teaches them discipline 

PROCEDURE: Today we got back on learning La Di Da Di, as I'm looking to get that into a place where we can shoot a video for it pretty soon. It should be noted the kids did not want to do it... Despite the potential prize, Poetry For Prizes is not their favorite activity. I'm not surprised by that though. It's certainly frustrating. They both put up resistance, but the torturous knowledge that a toy was just a few words away got them back trying. 

We're really close to finishing the song... Zephyr asked me to write it out for him and I could almost fit the rest on one page: 

Admittedly a very full page, but still. The green section is Lyric's, the black is all Zephyr. 

The good news is that they can do the first part (which they did at the Talent Show in February) pretty flawlessly. Zephyr kind of knew the rest, but it was clear there were lots of gaps he needed to fill in. He kept asking me if that was good enough for a prize, but today I didn't give him (or his brother) one. we might return to try again later today, but as for now they still have to give me a good take to get the prize. Delay of gratification is in itself gratification. 

Zephyr has said that next Poetry For Prizes he's going to test me on a poem. It's probably "Nothing gold can stay" by Robert Frost, which his mother taught him a few years ago. I'm excited for that, we'll see how it goes. These "Saturnalia experiments" (where students get to become the teacher) seem to be really good for the kids... 

April 22 - Poetry for Prizes

HYPOTHESIS: Poetry recitation is a memory challenge young kids can accomplish if they try hard

PROCEDURE: we kept working on La Di Da Di this morning... Last time, Lyric opted out, but this time I focused on him, trying to get him to learn the "hypnotize" singing verse. We sang it together a bunch, and then:

For Zephyr, since tomorrow is Passover at my Grandma's house, we went over the first of the four questions. This is probably his last year doing it (as next year Lyric, as the youngest, gets the call) so I thought it'd be pretty cool if this year Z just pushed aside the transliteration and was like "nah". But learning a poem in another language is hard! I remember the festival of pain that was me trying to memorize my haftorah. Ugh. However, Zephyr stepped up to the challenge.

For prizes this time I gave them some old Power Lord action figures I had... Two really cool ones, Disguyzor and Drrench. I'm a little tempted to see what they're going for on eBay, but I strongly believe if you're collecting toys and you don't give them to your children when they're old enough to play with them, you're doing it wrong.

The cool thing about these guys is that they really feel alien. I think they were designed by Wayne Barlow, but I'm not sure.

RESULTS: pretty smashing success! Maybe we'll film La Di Da Di next week instead of our Spring Break romp...