The Paradox of Shakespeare in My Home

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  • I’m not sure whether to share this here or under narration–it fits both! I had bought a children’s version of Shakespeare over a year ago. It has sat on my shelf with the best intentions! 😉 I had been feeling guilty about buying things I haven’t used. I’m not a huge Shakespeare fan, didn’t really study it in school or college. I did like to read some of the plays but I haven’t really pushed it with the children.

    Imagine my shock when my 14 yodd (who is not one to pick up stuff like this and only in the past 8 months has started loving to read!) asked to read it! I told her sure, but figured once she’d read a little, that would be that. Well, imagine my DOUBLE shock when she read FIVE plays and starts “narrating” them all to us! I chuckle at the fact that had I *assigned* a play and narration, it probably would have been met with some resistance and the narration would be a series of “I don’t know….” type statements!

    And now my 10 yodd wants to read them! Too funny! Such are the quirks and paradoxes of a homeschooling mama’s life!!! (Some of you Shakespeareans could come up with a more poetic way of saying that, I’m sure! 🙂 )

    Trisch

    CindyS
    Participant

    Cute, Trisch! You are right, some of the most eloquent narrations are unassigned. Often I’ll be listening, just wishing I had a tape recorder or knew shorthand!

    Blessings,

    Cindy

    Shanna
    Participant

    What a wonderful story!! Isnt it great when they do it on their own.

    Blessesmama, What is the name of the childrens’ Shakespeare book you refer to in your post? And author?

    The one I have is “Tales from Shakespeare” by Charles and Mary Lamb. My 10 yodd is begging to read it–I think I might use it as a “get your other schoolwork done first” motivator! 😉

    We’re still getting unsolicited narrations!

    Trisch

    CindyS
    Participant

    I second the recommendation!

    Jimmie
    Member

    What a great story! We’ve used E. Nesbit’s version. I was surprised at how much my daughter loved the stories. Did you know the Lamb version and Nesbit one are both at Librivox.org for free download as audio files? Oh, and we have the Jim Weiss storytelling CD too. That’s a great re-telling.

    cherylramirez
    Participant

    We have a beautiful hardback book from Usborne titled “Stories from Shakespeare” It has 10 of his most popular plays with beautiful illustrations. At the end of the book you learn a little about Shaekpeare’s life and works. In addition to that, there is a page dedicated to each of his plays (I think all, I’m not sure). The page contains the title of the play, a list of the main characters, a summary, and a famous quote from the play. We just finised “studying” A Midsummer Night’s Dream. My 9yodd read the Usborne version then I borrowed a cd from the library and she read along in a “parallel” text version of the play. On the left side of the book the play was in old english and the right side of the book was moderne english so it was easy to follow along while the play was being read. Now I’m going to look for a dvd so we can see it being acted out. I never studied Shakespeare in school either and it is a shame that I missed out on such wonderful literature. I read it on my own as a young adult (like our children are doing) and that’s how I became interested. Homeschooling is truly a blessing.

    4rzoo
    Member

    Love Lamb’s. We read all the plays from Lamb’s and now are actually reading the plays.

    Lamb’s gave just enough of a background of each play for my children to understand the actual plays.

    We are currently reading Measure by Measure. We split up the characters between my four children and they love it.

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