As a public schooled gal myself, I wasn't exposed to Shakespeare until I was in high school. But as a homeschooling mom, I get to expose my kids to all sorts of things! (Note: the pictures don't have anything to do with the post)
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| When Mark made us turn off Pictionary on the Wii U, we played real Pictionary and made him play too! |
We are reading Story of the World: The Middle Ages for history this year. When we got to the chapter on Shakespeare, I read the bite-sized version of Macbeth with my best reading skills and my kids were hooked. Shane sighed, "I wish I could have seen that!" Guess what Shane? People perform Shakespeare's plays all over the world every single year! And that started our journey...
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| Can't play video games? Draw pictures of playing video games! |
First, I went to my online library catalog. I found Shakespeare for children in picture books, graphic novels (AKA comic books), and even manga formats! (Although one should preview any manga before handing it off to young children) I requested popular Shakespeare-themed movies on DVD and Mark took it a step further and requested DVDs of live performances of Shakespeare plays. It took me about four years to figure out that I didn't need an
official list of books to go along with what we are studying, I just needed to check out
everything the library has to offer and look for gems. I love the library.
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| Photo Bomb! |
The kids really enjoyed a beautifully illustrated book based on A Midsummer Night's Dream by Bruce Coville (even Ian listened in although he was supposed to be doing his own history work). They laughed at Nick Bottom and gasped when I used the word "ass." Ian was the first to chuckle, "Bottom.... ass..." which started the joyous journey into the enjoyment of Shakespeare's wordplay. Ian is reading
Tales From Shakespeare which is a prose version of the plays first published in 1807, so he is getting a great exposure to the story lines and characters. He really enjoyed The Merchant of Venice and I don't even know what that is about!
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| Tutu high on that ladder! |
Next, we watched a movie version of A Midsummer Night's Dream produced in 1935. This was the only version our library had on DVD (I was looking for the one with Michelle Pfeiffer). I took a chance on the old black n white, and this movie turned out to be an awesome addition to our study! In 1935, there were no computer graphics, so we enjoyed the "trick photography" and other special effects. Mickey Rooney, who was 15 years old at the time, played Puck and had the most obnoxious laugh; my kids delight in imitating it! But the absolute best part for me was when Oberon spoke, "I know a place where the wild thyme blows..." and we all realized that we've heard that line before...like a million times just this winter...in a Baby Einstein movie. The movie happens to be World of Words, but it
used to be called Baby Shakespeare. Now it all makes sense!
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| I love squash! |
I have to interrupt this monologue of Shakespeare educational experience to relate a Twin Firs Adventure. While we were watching A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shane lost a tooth. A molar.
In the bowl of popcorn he and Ian were sharing. They had to eat that popcorn one kernel at a time until they found the tooth, about halfway down. Then, Shane dropped it again! They didn't find it until they reached the bottom of the bowl. Luckily they found it before either one ate it!
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| I can sit! |
So anyway, now we have a whole list of Shakespeare movies to watch, including a two-disc, four hour documentary and two less popular tragedies,
Titus Andronicus and
Coriolanus. We are planning a Shakespeare film festival this weekend, but I'm thinking it will last all summer long. The only thing missing is a summer stock production of Shakespeare....I love how homeschooling has enriched my life as well as my children's. I hope they look back on this time of their education and remember how much fun we had. And I hope they internalize that learning, and the enjoyment learning, is not confined to the time period between September and June, and that we don't learn because we need an A, but because this world is wonderful, exciting place with all sorts of things to discover...
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| ...maybe not that well! |
The End!
