The Ninth Annual Homeschool Recitation Night

Every fall for the past nine years, our homeschool group has held an event that encourages children to memorize and recite either a passage of scripture, a poem, or both in front of their parents and the rest of the group. This year, Friday, November 18th was the designated date for our Ninth Annual Homeschool Recitation Night! 38 students from 17 homeschool families recited 50 poems or scripture passages. Many more attended to applaud and enjoy the wonderful recitations.

Mr. Jonathan Crocker was the announcer for the evening and started us off with a review of how great speeches have changed the course of nations. The recitations were divided into groups: Patriotic, Lighthearted and Thoughtful, Scripture, Serious, Historic and Dramatic. Each of the Sauve children quoted a passage of scripture.

Grace quoted the shortest chapter, Psalm 117, but made up for the shortness by quoting it in four different languages: English, Spanish, French and Hausa (African language from Northern Nigeria and Niger). Josiah recited Psalm 15, Christianna- a number of verses from Psalm 119, Joshua- selections of Job 38 & 39, John dramatically recited Paul's speech to King Agrippa from Acts 26:1-29, Faith- Nicodemus' interview with Jesus in John 3:1-21, and Charity quoted Psalm 33.

In the Patriotic section, Faith recited two versions of "America the Beautiful": the original stanzas by Katherine Lee Bates, and a modern adaptation by the former Chief Justice of Alabama, Roy Moore who gives a clear, but sad picture of the state of our country since we have forgotten God.
Josiah quoted a thoughtful poem called "If Jesus Came to Your House"causing us to evaluate whether the clothes we wear, books we read, and things we do are pleasing to a Holy God.





Charity recited, "Teach us to Pray".
Here is a sample of this excellent poem:
Lord, teach us how to pray aright,
With reverence and with fear;
Though dust and ashes in Thy sight,
We may, we must draw near.


Christianna recited two poems showing the stark difference between a sinful world view and a Christian world view, called "Invictus" by William Henley, and "My Captain" by Dorothea Day.


John quoted "Ivry" by Thomas Babbington, a poem about the protestant king Henry of Navarre's victory at Ivry, France, over the Catholic forces in the late 15oo's.



Joshua's poem, "Music in Camp" by John R. Thompson was about the role of music in the civil war.





Other memorable recitations were: "My Little Brother," by Noah Crocker while holding his 3 month old brother Ezra( He found out that it wasn't easy to remember your lines when your brother is smiling up at you); Noah & Levi Kinne each reciting the Apostle's Creed and the explanation of it; and 4 year old Candace Fox reciting Psalm 1:1&2 with hand motions. There were many other wonderful pieces of literature and scripture recited and we can't mention them all, but we all feel that it was one of the best recitation nights.


After all the reciting was done, we went upstairs for refreshments and a chance to look at all the arts and crafts that were made during the year. There were wonderful drawings, carvings, knitted and crocheted items and a pneumatic truck built by Noah Crocker. The Lord has given the children many skills that we pray will be used for His glory.