Cambridge School Shakespeare

Weaknesses plague most student editions of Shakespeare. They spend too much space dissecting the language and interpreting what Shakespeare means instead of helping students find meaning themselves. In addition, perhaps because this is the type of learning typical in schools, they make studying Shakespeare a dry exercise completed in a chair. The Cambridge School Series avoids these traps, however, and is the best tool I have encountered to help me teach Shakespeare. Each play in the series begins with a letter by editor Rex Gibson explaining the purpose of these editions. He writes:

This Julius Caesar aims to be different from other editions of the play. It invites you to bring the play to life in your classroom, hall or drama studio through enjoyable activities that will increase your understanding. Actors have created their different interpretations of the play over the centuries. Similarly, you are encouraged to make up your own mind about Julius Caesar, rather than having someone else's interpretation handed down to you.

Gibson actually does enable students to make up their own individual minds about what each play means instead of handing down an "expert" opinion. He does at times explain different ways people have viewed the play, but only as an opening for a discussion where readers can decide on their own interpretation. The activities also do "bring the play to life" by making the study of a play an active enterprise, helping students experience Shakespeare as Elizabethans originally did. In Renaissance England no one read Shakespeare's plays. Well, the actors might have, but it was en route to memorizing and performing them. The audience heard and saw. To fully experience Shakespeare today, I think it is necessary to watch movies or plays, read them aloud, memorize and perform selections from them, and do a variety of activities designed to help you contemplate them. The Cambridge School editions have made it easy for me and my students to get better acquainted with Shakespeare. Last year I taught 13 students As You Like It, Macbeth, and King Henry V, and I'm currently teaching Julius Caesar to my two daughters and niece. The series has been invaluable for me, reducing my preparation and research time as I have prepared to teach each play.

Some features of the editions I like are:

• Extensive photographs of real productions of the plays in both color and black and white. This enables students to see that every director has interpreted the play differently, so of course every reader can.
• Brief summaries of the action on each page to help the student understand the action. Plays with longer summaries tend to interpret the play in the process, in my opinion, leading the student to think only one interpretation is correct.
• Essays in the back that provide background information and discuss characters, imagery, Shakespeare's language, major themes, critics' reactions to the play, and performances of the play from Elizabethan times to the present.
• An unobtrusive glossary of difficult words. This way students can look for the meanings if they want, but it doesn't interrupt the flow of reading if they choose not to. I find that sometimes I understand less of the action if nearly every word is prominently defined and displayed.
• Activities to go along with the action of the play on the left-hand side of every page. These include discussing, acting, writing, drawing, designing sets or costumes, miming, and pretending you are a director making decisions about how to stage the play.
• Writing assignments that go beyond literary criticism. Some of the writing topics seem like traditional English class assignments, but others involve other types of writing: for example, writing additional scenes, promotional material for a "production" of the play, a letter from one of the characters to another, a poem to accompany part of it, and a scene recast as a chapter in a novel. Students can gain experience with creative writing, summarizing the action of the play, letter writing, and imitating Shakespeare's style in addition to structured expository writing.
• I habitually spend time on a never-ending quest for the perfect curriculum for every subject. When I do find something ideal, I feel like broadcasting it to everyone I know. Cambridge School, my best discovery in years, should be on everyone's homeschool high school essential list.

Leonard Law

"A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent" (Boy Scout Law).

 When my son Tommy had to memorize the Boy Scout Law and explain what it means, I found myself thinking about the advantages of a list of positive character traits to aspire for. I have always felt uninspired to craft a mission statement for our family, no matter how many times I have thought about or read Steven Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families; for some reason it never seemed like something my family would naturally come up with together, and I like family life to feel natural and authentic. "Wouldn't it be fun, though, to come up with our own "Leonard Law" of character traits instead of a mission statement?" I asked myself, and when I proposed it to the family, they all said yes.

At our family gathering to write the law, we began with each individual suggesting a few traits. We decided to whittle the list down to 12, just like the Scout Law. Multipurpose words won out over more specific ones as the debate over which traits to include continued. We decided "strong" could include both physical and moral strength, and "clean" could mean purity as well as personal hygiene and housekeeping. I was sad when "studious" lost out, but everyone convinced me that "curious" and "diligent" both overlapped with it. Making the final cuts took over an hour, and "fun" snuck in as our final choice because we didn't want to seem too serious all the time.

Until we see fit to come out with a new version, the "Leonard Law" says:

"A Leonard is faithful, obedient, curious, diligent, helpful, patient, honest, clean, strong, courteous, kind, and fun."

We have been discussing each of these traits in turn one night a week, deciding what they mean to us and how we can develop these qualities. One grumpy night I used the discussion to tell my children how they really aren't very obedient. My oldest daughter reminded me that these are qualities we want to have, not ones we are already stellar examples of. Since I want these to be times my children anticipate rather than dread, I have decided not to mention something specific my children have done unless it is positive. This week during our conversation I mentioned how each of my children had been helpful.

What do these traits mean to me? I have tried to summarize each in a sentence to give me focus as our family strives to build our character.

• Faithful: We are full of faith in our Savior Jesus Christ and dedicate our lives to emulating Him.
• Obedient: We obey our parents with love and respect, and we obey our God.
• Curious: We eagerly desire to learn about anything that is good and uplifting; nothing is boring.
• Diligent: We work hard with persistence and no procrastination.
• Helpful: We help each other and try to notice and meet the needs of others.
• Patient: We keep an even temperament, and we realize that the most valuable things in life take time.
• Honest: We love truth and represent this in our thoughts, words, and deeds.
• Clean: We cleanse both the inner and outer vessels, practicing good hygiene, good housekeeping, and personal purity.
• Strong: We exercise and face physical challenges to strengthen our bodies. We exercise faith and follow Christ to strengthen our spirits.
• Courteous: We understand that etiquette primarily means being aware of others and the effect of our actions on them.
• Kind: We treat others generously and gently.
• Fun: We believe enjoyment improves everything.

Our Leonard Law is a work in progress because our family and each of us as individuals are good people in progress. As we memorize it and bring its meaning to action in our lives, I think it will help us grow and give us a stronger family identity. Most of all, though, coming up with it was fun, and I want my children to remember it fondly some day when they are adults who have developed good habits of character.

Found Nouns

As much as possible, I try to avoid traditional curricula (textbooks and workbooks) in favor of living books, a concept originated by the educator Charlotte Mason. To me, a book is a living book if it is:

1. Well-written in a literary style
2. By a single author who cares about the subject

For our elementary school grammar studies this year, we are studying one of the parts of speech each month through books and activities. We began September with nouns, using the following three books:


Our final "test" on nouns was to name as many nouns as possible from the picture above. The same object could be named more than once; for example, the dice could also be a cube or a square. My family, my sister's family, and my mom and niece competed against each other. The family who found the most nouns that none of the other families found would win. Next time I try an activity like this, I think I will forego the competition because it made my boys a little too intense. It works just as well to find out how many nouns we could all find together. When I pooled our answers, I found that between the three families, we identified 176 unique nouns in the picture.

Afterwards we discussed how learning about nouns, and that multiple nouns can name the same object, could help us in writing. We decided that it can help us select the best words to represent something and avoid repetition by substituting other appropriate nouns when we can.

I selected the picture I did because it seemed to fit the season. I found it at the following link, where there were some other good pictures that could be used as well. http://www.theotherpages.org/spy/spy012.jpg
The I Spy book series would be another resource for pictures of nouns to name.

"Jack's Shoes. . .

are here."

This email grabbed me when I went to the computer this morning. Our piano teacher wrote it brilliantly. The subject line of "Jack's shoes. . ." made me eager to read on, even though I anticipated the conclusion with embarassment. I admire her tact and brevity. One of the advantages and challenges of taking Suzuki piano is that the teacher gets to know the students, parents and any parenting issues very well. Yesterday when Jack began his lesson she reminded him to take his shoes home with him, wondering how many shoes we need to buy since he has left them several times before. As I pulled out of her driveway, she chased me with one of Luke's shoes. I thanked her and drove off, then had to stop again as she caught up with me to pass the other one through the window to Karina. In a matter of minutes I discovered that Jack had once again left his shoes behind, so I expected and dreaded the email.

How does a mother who seems to be meeting her children's higher needs by homeschooling them, practicing instruments with them, directing them in plays, and all the other things I try to do fail to keep shoes on their feet? The truth: my feet are the bare ones. I appear to have it all together if you don't look at the ground when you see me, where my feet fight against the heat, the cold, the slivers, and the shards of glass. I can't do it all, even with constant effort, and my children grow up with part of the education and part of the clothing I think they should have. Next time you see my family, look above the ankles if you want to see perfection, but don't forget that bare feet are lurking beneath.

Try It

Yesterday morning I made sweet lemon risotto for breakfast, a creamy porridge with rice that I served with a dollop of Greek-style yogurt on top. My children all enthusiastically said they liked it, then ate what they were served in confirmation. For my part, I thought the recipe, styled so well in the cookbook with steam rising off the surface and lemon peel garnish,  tasted fine, so I emptied my bowl, but the texture had me struggling not to gag. Afterwards I asked, "Who would like me to make this again some time?"

Dead silence.

Finally, my son said, "This is the kind of thing you like but you don't really want to eat again," and everyone else nodded in agreement.

I felt grateful: grateful that my children eat without grumbling, grateful that they care enough about my feelings to pretend to like something I prepare that is hard to swallow, but most of all grateful that they are willing to try new things. My prayer is that this trait will be present with everything new I offer them, whether it be experiences, challenges or knowledge. Life offers many beautiful, uplifting things, not all of which appeal to every person. As long as they reject anything immoral or degrading, I want them to accept new things, trying more than a token taste. They need to chew and swallow, consuming the chunks of rice even if they're difficult to get down. Many academic challenges may be like that rice, incomprehensible and difficult to appreciate. Over time, with an honest attempt, that can change and their appreciation may grow.

I may never make sweet lemon risotto again, but I probably will eventually. I've found that I can learn to appreciate the good in anything through a positive attitude and repeated exposure. I pray this school year my family will face every new thing with an open mouth.

Two Favorite Things in One

Two of my favorite things:

• Dividing time into 15-minute segments
• Mechanical devices

An hour, sometimes even just a half-hour, seems daunting. But fifteen is brief and undecided: at age fifteen I faced life boldly, eager to assume the responsibilities of adulthood, then drop them next to the front door like my school backpack and resume the role of unburdened childhood. Fifteen minutes also hovers in the balance between grim work and carefree play: it's the time I optimistically tell my family (and myself) it will take to do the dinner dishes but also the time to read a few choice picture books aloud, the time to fold and put away laundry, the time to mix up a batch of cookies, then that again for them to bake and cool enough to eat, the time for a grueling abdominal workout, the time for a stroll down the street to get the mail and examine it  briefly, the time to pay the bills, the time for a phone call with my mother or sisters. It is also, in Charlotte Mason's view, an appropriate length for a lesson with a young child.

Now to mechanical devices. Electronics dominate my life: phones, computer, email, pesky things that break all the time and have mysterious chips inside that somehow make them work. I prefer something I can hold in my hand, manipulate and watch in action: a lemon squeezer, an egg beater, a garlic press, a metronome with a pendulum.

So I coveted at first sight the 15-minute sand timer in the Chinaberry catalog. It's a physical object with heft, 7.75" tall and 3" in diameter. I want to chronicle my days in fifteen minute portions I can see flowing by in sand instead of hearing the electronic buzz of my kitchen timer. Seeing it I am transported to my childhood, watching The Wizard of Oz, with Dorothy's life visually sliding away until her heroics conquer the witch, and along with her, the relentless flow of sand in the timer. Perhaps if I turn it over carefully and repeatedly I can tame time, turning it backwards like Hermione in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. With a sand timer of my own, I hope to master time rather than have it master me.

I have to go. My next 15 minutes are set aside to make a purchase at Chinaberry.

Six Hopeful Habits

A new school year approaches. I love new beginnings because it always gives me an opportunity to try to improve. Not having been born perfect and still nowhere near approaching perfection, I sometimes feel on the verge of giving up, but a change of season, a change of emphasis, and I find renewed purpose and motivation. On another blog I found a homeschooling mom's list of six things that should be a part of her children's daily lives. Since my two favorite educational philosophers, Shinichi Suzuki and Charlotte Mason, both emphasize the importance of good habits, I have come up with the six habits I want my family to develop. These are not the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Instead, I offer the "6 Hopeful Habits of Highly Persistent but Inconsistent People." Each is followed by my brief definition.

1. Devotion: the regular practice of prayer and studying the Word of God.
2. Cleanliness: carefully neat and clean, both in my person and my surroundings.
3. Practice/Study: a concerted effort to learn a skill or gain knowledge in an efficient manner.
4. Exercise: daily activity that requires physical exertion.
5. Family Togetherness: daily positive family time.
6. Contemplation: a quiet time so that "with all [my] getting [I can] get understanding" (Proverbs 4:7).

What habits would you like to develop?