Poetry Lesson #1: Longfellow's "The Children's Hour"

"Between the dark and the daylight, | When the light is beginning to lower, | Comes a pause in the day's occupations | That is known as the Children's Hour."

If you only read this poem once to your children, I’d be thrilled. The lines, “I havev you fast in my fortress | And will not let you depart, | But put you down in the dungeon | In the round-tower of my heart” are lines that make my eyes glisten when I hear my kids read them aloud.

If your children are old enough, though, consider going beyond a mere reading using this lesson plan. This is the kind of work I do with my students in my current classical school and what I have done with Honors and AP students in conventional public high schools. It might feel like a bit much, but you can pick and choose. Here’s what I’ve included:

• The poem (with sidebar explanations of allusion)

• Link to a professional reading of the poem on YouTube

• Suggested works of art to view and connect to Longfellow’s words

• Practice exercises to help your children acquire new vocabulary from the poem, including a creative writing exercise

• Brief discussion questions to help your children understand the poem’s meaning

• A final discussion question/writing prompt at three levels of difficulty to further engage with the poem and practice analytical thinking.

The Children's Hour | Lesson Plan

1020KB ∙ PDF file

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Finally, you may want to ask your child(ren) to memorize this and recite it for an audience. After Sunday dinner with family is a great time, but FaceTime with grandpa and grandma works too. Your kids may not love this poem right away, but they will enjoy it; the meter is excellent. Still, my bet is that this piece by Longfellow will spring to mind again when your children have their own children; the memory of hearing mom or dad read it and talk it over with them will remind them to cherish the moment and, more than likely, think back on this time with new appreciation and deeper understanding.

Let me know if you found this useful or if it feels like overkill. This is close to what I do with my classes; I was hoping to scale it down some so it could be useful to parents educating their children at home, no matter what age.

I’ll put out more of these as summer rolls on. I certainly hope tonight that you enjoy the Children’s Hour.

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