Not many kids today enjoy reading poetry. When I was in school, I had a passion for poetry, but it was because of my 11th grade English teacher. She made learning about poetry so much fun. I think that teaching kids poetry from a young age is very important. Children who are introduced to things like poetry and music when they're young develop better social skills and can focus better in school. So that's why Cottage Press Classics Poetry Reader, Volume 1 from Cottage Press has become a part of our home-school.

Cottage Press Classics Poetry Reader, Volume 1 is a softcover book that also includes a selection of poems from four famous poets. Inside the book, you'll learn how to effectively use the book in teaching poetry. For each poet, it suggests spending six to nine weeks studying them. Normally it says to choose a poem for each week and read it aloud each day. Cottage Press Classics Poetry Reader, Volume 1 is based on Charlotte Mason's model of poetry learning.

The main point of the book is to make poetry part of your daily routine. You're also supposed to delight in reading the poems each day.

For each of the four poets, there is a short biography included on each of them before their selected works. It is best to read this before starting to read their poems because sometimes you can understand their poems better just based on their lifestyle.

Using the Cottage Press Classics Poetry Reader, Volume 1 is easy. Normally each poem can be read fairly quickly and then after reading, we normally discuss what we think the poem means to us.

You can also use this book to memorize the poems and do copywork on them as well. There is also a section in the book with additional resources online where you can find more selections from the featured poets in the book. You can purchase the poetry reader for $12.00 on the website.

We used the poetry reader in our fourth-grade home-school. I think this book is best suited for elementary age students and middle school students up to eighth grade. We actually used this product daily alongside our regular reading curriculum. There are a total of 49 poems in the entire book. We have been reading one poem per day, but you can also do one poem per week for a slower pace. The poetry reader is perfect for homeschoolers.

My daughter really is enjoying Cottage Press Classics Poetry Reader, Volume 1, and she is loving the poems. Each day she gets excited for poetry reading and cuddling with me while we read together. She has grown very fond of poetry and I love that she has shown interest due to this book.

The format of the poetry reader also flowed easily as well. It required no planning on my part other than just reading the selected poem that day.

-Product review by Katherine Bartlett, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, March, 2018