Part Thirty-eight--Once Upon a Time: Sons and Daughters of a King 2006-2007 part 3

At the end of our first component Giselle told me she thought Shakespeare was boring. I was calm on the outside, but on the inside I was thinking, "Yikes!" Then I calmed down and decided to do something about this. My daughter couldn't leave this school year hating Shakespeare. That would not happen!

First, I evaluated the situation. The first two plays we studied were Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra. These were both fascinating to me. But two tragedies probably weren't the best thing to start with, especially for a young girl. 

We were on to the Italian plays next. I cut back my expectations for getting through everything. For the rest of the year our family focused more on The Merchant of Venice to represent the Italian plays, and Macbeth and Henry V to represent Great Britain.  

I spent many, many hours after Christmas searching for some really exciting field trips. I was determined that the last several months would be even more engaging.

ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME: Italian Plays

The Merchant of Venice

Othello

Romeo and Juliet

Taming of the Shrew

Our first field trip of the year was a visit to a bank. The bank manager took us into a board room and taught some valuable lessons on interest and finance management. We were also allowed inside the vault. This was perfect for our study of The Merchant of Venice.

After the bank we all went to Suzanne's home for an Italian lunch and students' research project presentations.

Chase took rapier lessons for two months from this fellow that we met during a family trip to Oak Glen. Chase and a friend from park day took classes together. It was a good experience. 

Autumn directed our family in a scene from Much Ado About Nothing,

which takes place in Messina.

Giselle put together a farce combining bits of Shakespeare's plays, mostly Romeo and Juliet.

She used this pop-up Globe Theatre...

and these characters that come with it ...

to act out her play on the stage

She wrote the play, moved the paper characters, and spoke their parts while I filmed 

it. She called it A Comedy of Errors. This was another fun day!

Our field trip to the Old Globe Theater in San Diego was called, "Follow the Bard" tour. 

Our tour guide taught us about the theater, acting, directing, and Shakespeare. 

He also showed us various props from Shakespeare plays.

Autumn is holding a prop from Hamlet.

Afterwards we ate lunch in Balboa Park, and stopped at 

Shakespeare's Corner Shoppe and Afternoon Tea in San Diego.

Two days later would be Valentine's day, so at the last minute I decided to do something fun for the day, since Shakespeare is the poet of love. I planned this for my kids, and then called Suzanne and asked if she wanted to come. Bringing in even one other student to our home adds a more important air to our learning. Suzanne brought the treat too. And this was one of my favorite days of the school year!

The day began with a treasure hunt on pink strips of paper--

I found lines from Shakespeare's love sonnets and turned them into a treasure hunt. 

The treasure at the end was the Valentine chocolates that Suzanne brought. 

I made these tags to add to each bag of chocolates. "Sweet to the sweet" from Hamlet.

After the treasure hunt I set up a whiteboard in the living room to help us learn about Shakespeare's sonnets and iambic pentameter. It was so fun! You can see Juliet there too.

An "iamb" is a foot of poetry. It is a "short, long" foot. Many of Shakespeare's plays are written in Iambic pentameter--which means each sentence has five iambs. 

Shakespeare's sonnets each contain

• 14 iambic pentameter lines in
• ABAB CDCD EFEF GG rhyme scheme in 
• three-quatrain-and-couplet architecture

IAMB

To teach iambic pentameter I shared Dracula's declaration, which contains 3 iambs:

"I vant 

to suck 

your blood!' 

You can hear the 

Short long, 

short long, 

short long! 

We clapped it out the unstressed and stressed syllable in the iamb. It's very musical. 

We read a sonnet together, noting the iambic pentameter and the rhyming scheme and architecture.

I told the kids that we were going to write a love sonnet, but I didn't tell them I wasn't sure if we could really do. We started writing from a girl's perspective, and Chase went to another room to write his. This is the girls' sonnet to their future "Knight in shining armor"

The knight in shining armor of my dreams,

Is handsome and he's loyal, kind, and true.

A fearless leader, who is all he seems

He loves me and he loves our children too.

An Eagle Scout who really loves his Mom, 

But I’m the only one that he desires.

And though he’s kind, he’s also very strong.

His music is what sets my heart of fire

A missionary, handsome, tall, and wise;

Obedient in his duties from his youth

The world is right when I look in his eyes

Ambitious, humbly wheels, the sort of truth. 

It started with a “Once upon a time…”

It’s ending with an “Ever After” rhyme.

Chase's sonnet was so beautiful. I loved them both!

The lady who has lit my heart’s desire

Is all I see when it is late at night

When Satan threatens with his burning fire

Will stand beside me as we win the fight

Her learning will my kids always inspireBut first priority will be the Lord

I know she’ll have them sing like any choir

But still to learn the power of the word

The Temple will always be in our home

As we go down all the roads of life

Through treacherous paths and stormy seas we roam

That’s who I want to have with me as wife

And when we reach our last and great reward

We’ll be the perfect team as shield and sword

This took much a shorter time than I imagined it would. Poetry is hard work for me, so I was overly impressed with their process and results. When we finished, the girls shared their sonnet with Chase, then Chase shared his with us. It was such a fun, creative day together!

I gave each a tiny booklet of some of Shakespeare's love sonnets.

I don't remember why I gave everyone this. But it was another favor for them, 

with a sweet sonnet line. We printed more of these later for our open house. 

Our final outing for All Roads Lead to Rome. During my many hours searching for great field trips, I found this gondola ride near Long Beach, and it was memorable!

A gondolier taught us about the history and structure of a gondola

These girls are excited!

Autumn and Giselle and the other teen girls went for ride in their own gondola. When we heard their gondolier belt out a song from Phantom of the Opera, we knew these girls were in heaven! Autumn is waving at us!

It was a fabulous end to our study of Italy and the Italian plays.