Golden Acorn Homeschool

I am sure by now that anyone who reads this blog (or knows me in real life), knows how much I ADORE William Shakespeare.  I attribute this love of the bard to my high school AA English AND Shakespeare teacher, Mr. Heck.  In fact, I took his Shakespeare class twice because I loved it so much.  He loved Shakespeare and he was so funny and enthusiastic in teaching the topic that I embraced Will, too.

I really want my kids to be familiar with & love Shakespeare.  We have covered a number of plays over the last couple years, and we use paper dolls, toys, and Barbies to act out the scenes.  We have also done a rendition of “King Lear” by playing the parts ourselves.  Good times!

On the Ambleside Online mailing list, someone mentioned a set of great DVD’s called “Shakespeare: The Animated Tales.”  I looked it up on Netflix and I was hooked.  Now that we know about this great tool, we typically watch the play first (if available), and then read the play and act it out afterward (it’s a children’s version we read).  Shakespeare is performance art, so I feel that people – especially children – best learn to appreciate Will’s genius when they see it acted out.

I haven’t been able to justify the $72 price for buying the set when I can just get the disc I need from Netflix at any time, but I really, really want it.  Maybe some day soon.  I can see myself watching these 30 minutes animated tales over and over again.  They are well done, they pace nicely, and my kids can make out the major plot points.  What more can I ask for?

Someone has been putting them on youtube, so if you are interested in a little peek….enjoy!

(I especially enjoy the puppetry, so I chose Twelfth Night, one of my favorite plays!)

I am declaring summer 2009 as the official “Summer of Shakespeare” for the Golden Acorn Homeschool.  We have already moved to a more year round format with homeschooling (I think it’s beneficial), but at the same time,  I also think summer is the perfect time to lighten up a bit.  Even with a lighter load of academic work, I still want the kids to have a rich educational experience that doesn’t feel like an educational experience.

Granted, my kids do have some math to finish up from this year, and we will continue reading some great books, but I really want to focus on my main man, William Shakespeare.

I especially want to focus on these plays (which we were meant to do this year, but mostly skipped over for lack of time):

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Romeo & Juliet

All’s Well that Ends Well

Cymbeline

Macbeth

&

The Comedy of Errors

The plan is to read a biography of William Shakespeare by Diane Stanley.  Then, as we are reading about him, we will begin reading each play (from Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare), and acting it out in some fashion over the period of a week or two.  We like to do the acting ourselves if we can, but we have been known to use Barbie dolls, paper dolls, and Legos before.  We go where the creativity takes us.

I also plan to play many games at the Folger Shakespeare Library website, and plan a field trip there in July.

I am on the hunt for a live performance in the DC area, which really tops my list of things to do this summer.  But if we can’t find a real performance, I have a list of movies and animated shorts we can enjoy.  Shakespeare the Animated Tales is fabulous and I get it from Netflix whenever I need to.  I would love my own copy…maybe some day!

I am thinking we might do a few fun crafts and art activities to round out the summer, and a stage of some sort is definitely in order.  Even if it’s just fabric and a few curtain rods.  We have a perfect doorway that will work, and I am imagining how it will all come together now.  Some shower curtain rods and a two cheap shower curtains…

I am SO excited!

Here is the small conversation from this morning, as I walked upstairs to wake the kids-

Me: Good morning! Time to get up and get busy.

Diva: I am already up! I’m getting dressed now.

Monkey: Hi mommy!

Super-boy: *groan*

Me: Hi Monkey. Thank you Diva. C’mon Super-boy. We have Shakespeare today!

All: YAY!!!

And they come running downstairs for breakfast.

Seriously? It makes my heart practically burst open with happiness to have my kids come running downstairs excited about Shakespeare!!!! Amazing!

We are about to read “As You Like It” which is considered by some critics to be a bit of Shakespeare fluff. But, I think the kids will enjoy it. I always have.