Public Speaking...sort of

So my boys have been working on memorizing a poem to perform in front of an audience. This was our first attempt at this kind of memorization and public speaking, and they have been pretty nervous about it.

A few weeks back, they each picked a poem (or 2) to practice. We kind of have a thing for Shel Silverstein, so they all gravitated toward his books. They've got good taste. And very mature. Although I haven't quite sold them on the merits of Walt Whitman...yet.

Well, I told them they were going to have to stand up in front of an audience and recite.

And then I said it would happen "soon."

About a week later, they started to doubt that I was going to follow through on this one little bit of the lesson. Likely with good reason, seeing as how I had no real plan for finding said audience. Obviously this has not been my finest homeschool teacher moment. I'm sure there will be worse ones to come, though, so I'm not sweating it.

In order to salvage the lesson and not chalk it up as a complete mommy fail, I am counting the world wide web as the audience.

And so, without further ado, I present to you our poems:

Mr. N, reciting Shel Silverstein's "Hippopotamus Sandwich"

Mr. W, with both "Snap" and "Skating" (he liked the shorter ones, so had to pick 2)

Mr. L, performing "The Worst," also by Shel Silverstien

What he whispers at the end is "who is standing right behind you." He got a bit caught up in the drama of it all, I think.

Our main goal was NOT to sound like this:

It was actually much more difficult than you would imagine.