Come What May: Shakespeare in the Homeschool
Welcome to A Mother’s Thinking Love: Living Ideas, Lovingly Shared! In today’s blog post, I’m sharing about the first writer that captured my daughter’s attention. For nearly a decade, we’ve been reading this particular writer’s work every week. Amazing, but true! Join me for: “Come What May: Shakespeare in the Homeschool”.
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Favorite Shakespeare Resources
Once Upon a Time…
I’ve shared our story before, but our decision to homeschool came quite abruptly. In a February nearly a decade ago, we made the choice to educate at home. I was completely overwhelmed so when I found Charlotte Mason and Ambleside Online, I immediately bought all of the books on the Year One booklist, excluding free reads. I didn’t question any of the book choices, I just printed the Ambleside Online Year One schedule, and we started reading. Over time there was one choice I wondered about, but we kept reading.
Tales from the Bard
The book in question was “Tales From Shakespeare” by Charles and Mary Lamb. I often wondered why we were reading stories based on Shakespeare’s plays in the first grade when I wasn’t introduced to Shakespeare until high school. What’s the point of doing this now? But I trusted the Ambleside Advisory, and I knew they must have a good reason for including it in the Ambleside Online curriculum. Besides, my daughter had definitively declared that Shakespeare was her “favorite” so we kept him around.
The More Things Change
Fast forward almost a decade, and Shakespeare is still part of our weekly reading schedule. Instead of the tales, we’re now reading and listening to Shakespeare’s actual plays. You might think reading from the same writer every week for years would get old, but it’s been quite the opposite result. Continuing to read Shakespeare’s works has allowed us to delight in a deeper richness that I doubt we would have discovered otherwise. We’re even looking forward to four and a half more years with weekly Shakespeare too!
Shakespeare Considerations
In her “Volume 5: Formation of Character”, Charlotte Mason said:
And Shakespeare? He, indeed, is not to be classed, and timed, and treated as one amongst others,––he, who might well be the daily bread of the intellectual life; Shakespeare is not to be studied in a year; he is to be read continuously throughout life, from ten years old and onwards.
We started with tales of Shakespeare in the early days and began reading the full works later. Reading the tales first helped us to get acquainted with the general story of several plays. When a family switches from tales to plays can be a personal decision, I think. In the high school years, we will be reading but also studying the plays for the first time. Up until now, we’ve simply read, either tales or plays, and narrated.
I have several favorite resources for Shakespeare in the homeschool, for both children and mother-teachers.
Find the Shakespeare resources here.
Closing
Thank you for reading: “Come What May: Shakespeare in the Homeschool”! Does your family study Shakespeare? Do you have any concerns about doing so? Share your ideas and questions in the comments below!
