Shakespeare: Great Middle School Resources

We are finally finishing up our history curriculum on the Middle Ages (The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: The Middle Ages: (Vol. 2)). History is a subject I really enjoy, so I tend to add lots of supplementals. I was excited when we finally got to the Elizabethan Age and Shakespeare so that we could utilize all the wonderful resources out there on the subject.

The Graphic Version

There are two great books, both can be found at the library, that I really like and recommend:  Shakespeare: His Work and His World and Tales From Shakespeare Student Edition Complete And Unabridged by Charles and Mary Lamb. There is also a graphic version that is particularly good as a first introduction for younger kids also called Tales from Shakespeare and is pictured above.

In our curriculum, the story of Macbeth was used as the introduction to Shakespeare. I chose to also focus on Hamlet as we are fortunate to live in an area with a Shakespeare Theater where Hamlet was performed this last season.  My 10 and 12 year old enjoyed the slightly abridged version of Hamlet at Orlando Shakes though they still thought it was long. (They were not wrong.)

In addition to these book materials, I found several videos that were entertaining and insightful for all of us. I have mentioned videos by Crash Course in the past for history topics, but they also have both a Literature and Theatre video series that include information about Shakespeare and his works. The literature video series has episodes that give an overview and literary importance of Hamlet, The Sonnets, and Romeo and Juliet. The theatre video series includes several episodes expressly about Shakespearean Theatre in a historical context. (Since every parent has different filters for their children, I suggest parents watch these first.)

The English Renaissance and NOT Shakespeare: Crash Course Theater #13

Straight Outta Stratford-Upon-Avon - Shakespeare's Early Days: Crash Course Theater #14

Shakespeare's Tragedies and an Acting Lesson: Crash Course Theater #15

Comedies, Romances, and Shakespeare's Heroines: Crash Course Theater #16

TedEd has some great educational content in general as well as this little gem on Shakespeare's Macbeth:

As you learn about Shakespeare and his works, one can't help but discover the controversy surrounding the identity of the man himself. There is another TedEd talk on that subject called, "Did Shakespeare write his plays? - Natalya St. Clair and Aaron Williams" and a documentary that I personally found fascinating entitled "Last Will & Testament." (Last Will & Testament is currently available on Amazon Prime and I believe PBS Passport.) 

I was already convinced of the importance of Shakespeare's works when at a recent homeschool convention I learned that the works of Shakespeare are considered Honorary Classics. There is The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer, The Aeneid by Virgil, The Divine Comedy by Dante, The King James Bible and then the works of Shakespeare, considered by many to be the "Western Canon." I look forward to delving more into the works of Shakespeare in the coming months and years. Once again, I find myself learning along side my children and finding new interests and amazement in things that I would have never before imagined and I am grateful.

Related Posts:

• Resources that Make History Fun and Easy
• The Story of the World: Ancient Egypt & Early Writing

Shrinky Dink Stained Glass

Using a printout template from our Story of the World curriculum, the kids made "stained-glass" Out of Shrinky Dink Paper. Once again, my art-loving daughter embraced the assignment whole-heartedly. This was a nice supplemental exercise for learning about the Protestant Reformation and Counter Reformation in our history curriculum.

Related Links

Renaissance: Classical Architecture (shannafern.com)

Resources that Make History Fun and Easy (shannafern.com)

Renaissance: Classical Architecture

Elisabeths clay reproduction of a Doric Column and drawing of an Ionic column.

While studying the Renaissance as part of our Story of the World history curriculum, we watched several videos on Greek and Roman columns including this one by Khan Academy on The Classical Orders. 

After studying the different column types especially Doric, Ionic and Corinthian, we reviewed photos of places we have visited such as the British Museum and the National Portrait Gallery in London to practice identifying the different column types. When asked to draw or sculpt an example, Elisabeth fully embraced the idea (pictured above), while Jonah's sculpture of a column quickly morphed into a an unrelated, worm-like creature. He did, at least, enjoy the identification phase of our study. I was glad to find activities that allow both kids with their differing interests to engage with the curriculum. In this case, the art component added interest to the subject matter for Elisabeth, who generally speaking does not get quite as excited about learning history as Jonah does.  

Resources that Make History Fun and Easy

Inca Wall replica and Soapstone Llama from Peru (2003)

Learning about history when I was a kid was so disjointed and hard. It was all about memorizing random names of people, places and dates, or so it seemed to me at the time. Thanks to modern day resources like The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, my children are learning a much more cohesive world history than I did and are quite entertained in the process.

We are currently working our way through Volume 2 of The Story of the World on The Middle Ages. Most recently, we learned about early American peoples - the Maya, Aztecs and Inca in particular. The biggest reasons I love “teaching” history is all the additional resources that are out there both in book and video form. In this instance, I had the added joy of sharing photos and trinkets from a pre-motherhood trip to Macchu Picchu.

Here are some great history resources that I have found invaluable:

• The kids and I started watching the Horrible Histories series a couple of years ago browsing through online streaming options. We have watched all of the episodes available to us and still go back to it just for fun (some of the music is really great!). I recently discovered a wiki page for the series where I can search specific subjects to find out what episodes contain relevant material. For instance, Episodes 1, 4, 5, 9 & 12 from Series 2 and 1, 6, 9, 10 & 12 from Series 3 all have references to the Inca and Aztecs, respectively.  So we viewed those specific episodes as an accompaniment to our curriculum.

• Kid's Animated History with Pipo: The Time Compass is another awesome history resource. My only problem with this series is that there aren't enough of them! Fortunately, they do have two part videos on The Maya, Aztecs and the Inca currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
• We've also watched several Crash Course History episodes on YouTube. They are geared to a more mature audience but the cynical humor goes over well in my house. Not all episodes fit neatly along with my curriculum but that is actually more reason for me to include it. Mr. Greene and his crew do a great job of teaching the relationships and interconnectedness of historic events across time and space. The Spanish Empire and The Columbian Exchange episodes in the World History I are prime examples. Water and Classical Civilizations in World History 2 also has a good Mayan tie in.

Thanks to all these resources as well as some good quality books, I have found, as an adult, a love and appreciation for history that I never knew as a child.  I thoroughly enjoy teaching history to my kids primarily because I am learning so much right along with them.

Related Links:

• Story of the World: Ancient Egypt & Early Writing (shannafern.com)
• Story of the World: Cave Art (shannafern.com)

Homemade Heraldry

Elisabeth's Design

We are studying the Middle Ages and a recent focus was knights, castles and chivalry. The kids each made their own shield designs. Elisabeth chose a Christian symbol to pair with a design for our surname. Jonah made a design for my maiden name (purple) and to pair with our surname. I thought it was interesting that they chose similar color schemes.

Jonah's Design

Story of the World: Superbly Illustrated Literature Suggestions

We continue to work through The Story of the World curriculum when we can. Each Chapter lists corresponding literature suggestions, but often times I can't find those books at our library. So I look for others. It just so happens that I ran across a couple of books that are the perfect complement to Chapter 14: The Israelites Leave Egypt. You might think any old bible story books would do, but given that this chapter comes after studying the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms of Egypt, it is nice to have illustrations true to the culture. The Moses Basket by Jenny Koralek with illustrations by Pauline Baynes and Exodus which is written and illustrated by Brian Wildsmith are great examples. Both illustrators have won awards for their work. Take a look inside the books at Amazon for a glimpse of their work.

 

Related articles

• The Story of the World: Ancient Egypt and Early Writing (shannamama.blogspot.com)
• The Story of the World: Cave Art (shannafern.com)

The Story of the World: Ancient Egypt & Early Writing

We are on Chapter 4 in The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Volume 1: Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor, Revised Edition. The kids really enjoy the hands-on activities that reinforce what they are learning.

Last week, we learned about the first civilizations and the origins of writing. We watched several documentaries and Youtube videos on cuneiform and heiro-glyphs. Afterwards, they wrote messages in modeling clay as a representation of ancient cuneiform tablets.

{Did you know ancient Sumerians wrapped the clay tablets in clay envelopes?! Find out how scientists are now reading these ancient documents without destroying the outer envelope.}

This week we are continuing to learn about ancient Egypt, in particular, mummies and pyramids. We supplement the material in The Story of the World with books from the library. Here is a short list of some of the related books that we are reading.

• You Wouldn't Want to Be an Egyptian Mummy!: Disgusting Things You'd Rather Not Know
• Cat Mummies
• Ms. Frizzle's Adventures: Ancient Egypt
• Flat Stanley's Worldwide Adventures #2: The Great Egyptian Grave Robbery
• Mummy Riddles (Easy-to-Read, Puffin)

While I read from some of the books above, the kids made their own pyramids. Elisabeth chose clay as her medium while Jonah chose LEGO. (Be sure to note the mummy and artifacts that Elisabeth put inside Jonah's pyramid.)

Related articles

• The Story of the World: Cave Art (shannafern.com)

The Story of the World: Cave Art

Cover via Amazon

During the Florida Parent Educators Association Homeschool Conference in May, we went to a session by Jim Weiss on the importance of story. My husband and I both liked what he had to say on the topic and the pointers he gave for telling a good story. We found out he was the reader for one of the versions of the audiobook, The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child. I had been considering this curriculum for our kids and this clenched it for me.

We have just started getting into The Story of the World, Activity Book 1: Ancient Times - From the Earliest Nomad to the Last Roman Emperor. Chapter 1 is on "The Earliest People." None of the additional reading suggestions in the activity book were available at our library, but I found some others that went well with our topic.

• Prehistory: Art and Civilization
• History News: The Stone Age News
• The Secret Cave: Discovering Lascaux
• Me Hungry! 

The Secret Cave is a fictional representation based on true events surrounding the discovery of the Lascaux Cave in France during WWII. The book was the perfect preparation for our activity today - making cave art! We used paper bags and some acrylic paints in the limited hues that prehistoric peoples would have had.

Cave art by Elisabeth

Cave art by Jonah

Seeing all that left over paint, I decided to try my hand at a little cave art as well - a newly discovered prehistoric species. Ha!

Saber-toothed chipmunk badger

Homeschool is Cool!

Related articles

• French town probes 'second' Lascaux cave
• LIFE at Lascaux: The First Color Photos From Another World