I desperately wanted my children to be able to experience the same feelings I was having while reading this great book. My first thought was to begin reading it aloud to them. I decided against that idea because the themes in the book were a little too "grown-up."

One night I tried an experiment with my children. I got out my wonderful book called Children’s Book of Verse, a collection of poems by various authors. (I would like to add that I would not put this book into the hands of my children as it does have many poems that are against some of our beliefs. I will, however, select poems myself to read to them.) The kids were all wound up, bouncing off the walls, and crawling all around the room. I told the children (to get their reaction) that I was going to read them some poetry. "Oh, Mom, do you have to?"

The first poem I selected was a poem about a hippopotamus. It was aptly called "The Hippopotamus" by Jack Prelutsky. They loved it. They were fairly attentive as I read through the poem, but they were still wound up.

I read another poem, at their request. My children all love animals, so I chose another poem about animals. This one was called, "The Tiger" by William Blake. This time the poem was profound. I asked them to explain the poem to me. They said, "Read it again." I read the poem and asked the question again. Again they said, "Read it one more time." This time, they were able to answer the question the author was asking in the poem.

I closed the book and said, "Time for bed."

They responded with, "Oh, Mom, can’t you read one more?" (You may be thinking that my children were just practicing the fine art of "bedtime-stalling-tactics," but at this moment I could tell that they honestly desired to hear more poetry.)
This time I chose a poem that was definitely a quiet-down poem. I told them they had to be very quiet while I read. The poem I chose was called, "Bedtime" by Thomas Hood. It was a marvelous poem. I read the poem gradually, making my voice softer and softer. When I got to the last line, "It’s Time for Little Children to Go to Bed," I was speaking just barely over a whisper. When I looked up from the book, all the children were content and quiet.

If anyone had walked into my home at that moment they would not have believed eight children were sitting in the living room. You could barely hear more than their breathing. In a few short minutes, reading poetry had turned my bouncy, wound-up kids into quiet and calm children who were prepared to go to bed.

The first time I told Ashley I wanted her to read a classic, she looked at me with a sideways look as if to say, "Are you crazy?" Of course, she would never really say that, but she does on occasion think it. Now when she asks me what the book is about and I respond with"It’s a classic!" - she no longer looks at me sideways, but looks at me thankfully - sometimes.

In addition to devoting herself to her husband and the eight children she home schools, Terri also enjoys writing and speaking to offer encouragement to women in an effervescent, humorous way. Visit her Web site at www.ignitethefire.com or e-mail her at terri@ignitethefire.com .