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How To Teach Your Homeschooled Children Shakespeare

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I have a fun book how to teach children Shakespeare.

When we had our Renaissance co-op, I was excited to teach about anything from that time period, except Shakespeare.

Thankfully, I didn’t plan the co-op alone and our group brought in a local bard fill-in to teach us about Shakespeare.

It was a huge hit with our high school kids. And until recently, I didn’t think I could repeat the same experience for my younger son.

So I was over the top excited when I received from Ken Ludwig the book How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare.

Psssst! Before I go on too, I wanted to give you a heads up about the giveaway at the bottom so you don’t miss it.

I was compensated for my time reviewing this product, writing this review, and hosting the giveaway. However, paid for my time does not mean paid off.  ALL opinions are my own and for sure I will always tell you what is on my mind. When I do accept a product it’s because I’m giddy to tell you about it. Read my full disclosure here. Now on to the fun stuff!

How To Teach Your Homeschooled Children Shakespeare (The Easy Way) @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare is like that bard fill-in we had at our co-op, who translated English from ancient to modern in an animated way to move us and to make sense of the beautiful words painted by Shakespeare.

How Well Do You Know William Shakespeare?

Isn’t that why so many kids and adults can’t stand Shakespeare to this day? I’ll admit it, I was one of them.

No, it’s not Shakespeare’s stirring poetry, which lights a fire in my emotions or feelings that I don’t like. It’s losing the meaning of the words along the way that makes me want to go the other way.

Too, I tend to get harder about my expectations in teaching tools the longer I homeschool and though I had heard about How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare before, I admit I was skeptical.

Free and helpful quotation page in How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

However, How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare didn’t disappoint and it especially didn’t give me another huge set of useless Shakespearean passages to memorize, but gave me a mighty homeschool tool in my pocket.

Fonts in easy to read format on How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Look at some of the things that struck a chord with me.

No time is wasted in the outset at explaining why people have a hard time memorizing poems or understanding them. Text needs to be read in an easy format.

When we were memorizing these passages, it’s like you can picture the words on the page because they are broken into chunks. And no this method doesn’t just work for children, but for adults too.

After memorizing passages like this, Tiny won’t read it any other way now.

Not only does Ken Ludwig give you tips on how to teach it, but he created free quotation pages at his website, How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare.

Words matter to our kids.

I love Ken Ludwig’s gentle reminders about why I should be teaching Shakespeare in my homeschool day.

Though I would love to shield my kids as long as I can from the world’s woes, the truth of it is that children can relate to the stress of every day life and poetry gives them a way to connect with those feelings.

Look below at the words by Macbeth that Tiny has been mouthing because they opened the way to a conversation about why people get to this point in their life or why they feel life may be that way now.

It was deeper than I wanted to go, but it reminded me of the power of words. Also, it resonated with me because I homeschool to have personal moments with each one of my boys.

Life’s but a walking shadow, . . . It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

Hard to understand terms are explained right in the book.

One of my very favorite parts, which is what made me fall in love with How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare is that terms and words that we don’t use everyday are easily explained right with the passage.

No hunting and pecking on the internet for the meaning of the word which interrupts the flow of thought and the moment is gone.

Do You Know the Difference Between Poetry And Prose

Useful background information.

Also, background information is given about passages that made learning Shakespeare with Tiny not only enjoyable by him, but by myself also. It is hard to not be moved by words from passages that talk about love and rejection.

Too, it’s not a secret that we love history in our family and history is alive and makes sense through the words of Shakespeare.

For example, in one passage we were reading from Twelfth Night, Cesario says,

“Make me a willow cabin at your gate
And call upon my soul within the house.”

The quick explanation about the willow cabin was that in Greek and Roman mythology the willow tree was a symbol of grief for unrequited love.

The passage and message then becomes full of meaning because it helps to understand the feelings when love or affection is not reciprocated. Fascinating tidbits like this just fill the pages of this book.

Appendix How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Extra help = Enrichment as if the study of Shakespeare is not rich enough.

There are 25 passages that are put in order in the book so that the guesswork is taking out of which passages to begin memorizing. In addition, as you can see above the Appendix is full of added enrichment.

One book stand alone curriculum.

Another very favorite part of using this book is that it is a one book stand alone curriculum.

It can easily be used by a precocious middle school kid or high school teen because it is laid out in a specific order so that you don’t have to guess and like I mentioned, explanations are given. If you are teaching younger children, you’ll love the teaching tips and teacher help.

Also, I have read many tips on the differences between prose and poetry and the teacher in me loved the insightful tips and detailed ways of telling the difference between the two.

Multi-age timeless curriculum keeper.

It is what I call a curriculum keeper, which means it spans multiple ages and can be used over and over again each year.

You won’t regret purchasing this handy, one book stand alone compact curriculum.

Tiny and I have plans to read the rest of the passages in How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare and that just might lead us to some hands-on activities or lapbook.

Also, check out my other posts:

Hugs and love ya,

Signature T

 

 

Lewis and Clark Louisiana Purchase Edible Map

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

We decided to make this Lewis and Clark Louisiana Purchase edible map for a hands-on activity for our Lewis and Clark Fun Homeschool Unit Study and Lapbook.

Seriously though, I decided to have Tiny make this map because it is hard to picture the immense landmass.

Or just how big that purchase was as we have been reading about it in our Lewis and Clark Unit Study and (revisited.)

Lewis and Clark Louisiana Purchase Edible Map

Acres and acreages sounded like blah, blah and blah.

Not only was the Louisiana Purchase a huge hallmark in American history, but it just about doubled the size of America.

That is a significant benchmark to remember.

The best way to see that is to make a visual of it.

Hands-on History to Learning about Lewis and Clark

Since Tiny has been hankering for some sweets, we sat down to make this fun project.

Lewis and Clark Louisiana Purchase Edible Map. A great visual to understand how vast it was. Grab the directions here @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Look at this list of supplies we used and of course, I’m a believer in using what you have on hand to make this delicious learning activity.

  • edible peanut butter dough – (peanut butter, honey and boxed dried milk. recipe below.)
  • platter or clean mat
  • black sharpie
  • icing, we used cream cheese and had some green too
  • atlas and a few websites showing the boundary of the Louisiana Purchase
  • crushed oreos (the real reason we had to do this map)
  • plastic knife or butter knife for shaping “states” and “river”
  • Hershey’s Kisses
Lewis and Clark Louisiana Purchase Edible Map
Lewis and Clark Louisiana Purchase Edible Map

We pulled out a clean table place mat that we had, which we only had one of. How did we do that?

Anyway, it was the perfect clean palate to start with.

Using a black sharpie and our atlas, the first thing Tiny did was to trace the outline of the U.S. It doesn’t have to be perfect because it will be covered up.

So Tiny drew the boundaries free hand on the mat.

The next thing we used was edible peanut butter dough.

I am really glad we used peanut butter dough instead of the salt dough recipe that we normally use because it was easy to work with because it stayed moist the whole time.

Salt dough is good too but we use that when we want to paint, but edible peanut butter dough is not only great tasting, but pliable.

Since this kid has loved this recipe since I introduced it to him when he was in grade school, it makes for a great project now that he is older.

Edible Louisiana Purchase Map

Look at this recipe at how to make edible peanut butter dough.

  • 1 cup of dried instant milk
  • 1/2 cup of peanut butter
  • 1/3 cup of honey

As you can see above, we just added it together and mixed.

Lewis and Clark Louisiana Purchase Edible Map
Lewis and Clark Louisiana Purchase Edible Map

You’re looking for the consistency pictured above, so you may need to add a bit more dry milk to get your dough not so sticky, but that is pretty close to what we used.

Then he started to add the blobs of peanut butter onto the map.

Lewis and Clark Map 5Lewis and Clark Map 6
Even if you stopped here for the little kids, it’s a fun map to illustrate the United States because it is so easy to work with.

Then next, we located the might Mississippi River.

Okay real quick here, I have to tell you something of a fond childhood memory I think of every time I hear the word Mississippi.

My extended family is from Mississippi. And every year as a little girl when I visited them, I can hear my sweet little cousins voice who were in grade school singing to remind me how to spell Mississippi.

” M – i -, crooked letter, crooked letter,- i-, crooked letter, crooked letter, -i-, humpback, humpback -i-.”  My boys were not so impressed, but they will remember it now as I have been singing that to them.

Edible Lewis and Clark Map

Anyway, back to the map, take a butter knife or plastic knife and carve out the Mississippi River.

Lewis and Clark Louisiana Purchase Edible Map
Lewis and Clark Louisiana Purchase Edible Map

Tiny had to think at this point how he wanted the river to show up. He added cream cheese frosting to it and sprinkled it with blue sugar.

I think it made this geographical feature pop, which is what I wanted to impress on him. Plus it was easier than spreading icing in it.

Also though it helps to picture the vastness of the mighty Mississippi River.

Lewis and Clark Map 9 Lewis and Clark Map 10
Then, next he decided to carve out the states on the West coast because it helps to show the route that Lewis and Clark took.

Again, that is why I used edible peanut butter dough because it easy to carve in, change if you make a mistake and does not dry out.

After spreading some icing on the part of the Louisiana Purchase, he crushed up some oreos on the icing.

It really was a fun way to help emphasize how vast the area was that Lewis and Clark explored too. That area stands out.

Lewis and Clark hands-on history. Make a fun edible map @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Adding cream cheese sprinkled with the rest of the blue sugar on it on the west and east coasts solidified the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans as boundaries.

Then placing the Rocky Mountains on the left that Lewis and Clark would have viewed helped to prepare Tiny for his reading so he knows they had to cross the Rockies to reach the Pacific.

The green icing helped to show the route taken to the Pacific.

You could use a different color to show the return trip, but that is all the icing we had unless we dyed some, but I think we were done by this time.

He added in the Appalachian Mountains on the east too just for good measure.

More Lewis and Clark Hands-on History Activities

Lewis and Clark Louisiana Purchase Edible Map
Lewis and Clark Louisiana Purchase Edible Map
Lewis and Clark Louisiana Purchase Edible Map
Lewis and Clark Louisiana Purchase Edible Map
Lewis and Clark Louisiana Purchase Edible Map
Lewis and Clark Louisiana Purchase Edible Map
Lewis and Clark Louisiana Purchase Edible Map
Lewis and Clark Louisiana Purchase Edible Map

What do you think? Easy enough to remember how vast the Louisiana Purchase was?

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for more AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.


Visit Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s profile on Pinterest.

5 Year Holidays List (2016 to 2020) Homeschool Planner Page

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

5 Year Holiday List @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Today, I’m updating the 5 year holidays list to include the years 2016 to 2020. The permanent page for the 5 year holiday list is kept on Step. 2. Choose Calendars/Appointment Keepers.

Curriculum Page for Planner

This has been one of the most handy reference sheets I have used in my 7 step homeschool planner, blog planner, unit study planner and my free student planner.

Basically, this one page (or two if you want both color choices) fits in any planner.

I created this handy reference page because everybody plans differently and having a heads up notice of holidays and observances helps you plan not only your homeschool day, but to plan your year.

In addition, another way I use it is to plan my long-term homeschool schedule. Having one page to look at 5 years worth of holidays and observances keeps the pages and calendars I need in my planner to a minimum.

Also, some people like to write their own dates on their calendars, like I do.

The bottom line is that this one page holiday page is streamlined and can be used for planning short-term or long-term.

Grab your free copies below!

Download Passion Pink and Turquoise Gem.

 

Hugs and love ya,

Signature T
Did you grab my other recent free planner updates?

Free Homeschool Academic Year Calendar – 2016 to 2017
Free Homeschool High School Planning Sheet (and pssst help for high school too)
Free Scope and Sequence Divider Page – Free 7 Step Homeschool Planner

Begin build your FREE and UNIQUE 7 Step Homeschool Planner!

7 Easy Steps – “Tons of Options & Pretty Color”

Step 1. Choose a Pretty Front/Back Cover

Step. 2. Choose Calendars/Appointment Keepers

Step 3. Choose Goals/Objectives

Step 4. Choose Lesson Planning Pages Right For You!

Step 5a. Choose Unique forms JUST for You! Not a kazillion other people

Step 5b. Choose MORE Unique Forms JUST for You!

Step 5c. Choose MORE MORE Unique Forms Just for You!

Step 6. Personalize It

Step 7. Bind it! Love it!

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for more AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.


Visit Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s profile on Pinterest.

How to Homeschool If You Don’t Have Time

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

How to Homeschool If You Don't Have Time @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool PlusLiving in a society that is more connected than ever before with smart phones, tablets, and computers, those devices have made life easier than it did for our parents. Unlike our parent’s time though, demands on our time have not lessened. Life now is more frantic and fast-moving than ever before.

When Time Gets Slipping Away

In the beginning of my homeschool journey, we didn’t have as many time saving devices as we do now.

Now, in the latter part of my journey, we have many conveniences at our fingertips, but I still find it hard to make time to homeschool. Can you relate?

Today, in sharing how to homeschool if you don’t have time, I want to share a few sanity-saving tips that have helped me to have forward momentum.

Remain schedule focused.

Come what may in terms of apps, planners and devices, my schedule is the only thing I have control over. And in the spirit of keeping it real, I’m not talking about controlling those moments in life that just happen. I do mean that success happens when your schedule becomes a habit.

Hard is an understatement for training wiggly, active and low attention span boys to learn study habits. But as S L O W as my progress was some days, I cut out time from other things to maintain our schedule.

If I am on the computer, on the phone or still cleaning when it was time to start school, I am not modeling the right study skills for my boys when they are young.

It’s a SWEET payoff now that I am down to the last kid and he starts school on his own while I enjoy extra coffee time, extra time on a walk or on the phone.

My boys have been trained to get started for the day by me modeling what I wanted from them. All I can think of now is back to the time when I started homeschooling and seasoned homeschoolers would say the time goes by fast. It does!

By taking time to model what you want first in the morning, you are freeing up thousands of sweet moments later. It’s been worth every effort of sticking to my schedule!

I demanded chores to be done.

In this world of don’t-require-anything-of-me-because-you-might-break-my-free-spirit attitude, I rejected that thinking and stuck to my guns when it was time to do chores both for the family and individually.

The home is a place shared by many individuals and doing a few chores every morning has been one key to maintaining sanity. The important tip though has been accepting a kid cleaned house and getting started for the day.

Not so easy to do when you want to go behind your kids and do it again yourself to be sure it’s done right. That is the difference between success and failure.

Consistency is the key to homeschooling and parenting (you know the two concepts are inextricably linked) and I want my sons to be the kind of people that other people want to be around and have as friends and marriage mates later.

Considerate, clean and being conscientious are skills learned when chores are required.

Counting the Cost of Trivial Time Pursuits

Did I mention the feel good moment when your adult son’s room mate says your son is one of the best room mates he has had? This gives me a good glimpse into how he is around others when I’m not around. You respect others when you keep your surroundings clean.

Don’t be always ready to share your time with others in trivial things.

It may sound harsh, but like any long term career there is a cost to homeschooling that goes beyond dollars.

Some, not all, homeschoolers are the social kind that needs interaction with friends on a daily basis.

While homeschooling is not asking you to make a choice between your kids sand your friends, it is about making your kids priorities. Especially if friends are non-homeschooling friends, they may not understand why you may decide to not exercise your homeschool freedom right then by visiting or running errands with them.

Be willing to limit your time on devices too.

I don’t ask my boys to do something that I am not willing to do.

Many times throughout the years, I have been tempted to slip away to check email or texts while my boys are busy writing. When they were young, it was more important that I did not do that. Now that my baby is in high school, I have more time to do things like that.

By limiting my internet time in the beginning, my sons learned to do what is important first.

Not getting caught up in the hype of frantic living takes effort nowadays.

Turning off the TV and sitting down in the floor like we still do to play a family board game is a battle, but once we get started, it’s hard to stop our family time. Homeschooling is no different and requires just as much effort today.

Don’t get caught up in the fast-paced, more is better attitude that can saturate our lives right now. Knowing that you made each morning a priority in learning brings sweet peace and progress.

How do you shove back when your life becomes hectic?

Hugs and love ya,

Signature T

Also, grab some tips from these articles:

Stop the Homeschool Time Drain
Divide And Conquer The Ever Growing List of Homeschool Subjects
The Sticking Power of a Homeschool Schedule
3 Easy Fixes to Recharge Your Homeschool Routine

Don’t forget to follow BOTH of my Pinterest accounts for more AWESOME pins.

Visit Tina Robertson’s profile on Pinterest.


Visit Tinas Dynamic Homeschool ‘s profile on Pinterest.

Linking up @ these places:

Shakespeare Unit Study Starters

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I have a few ideas and Shakespeare Unit Study Starters. Also, look at my post Shakespeare Unit Study.

Stepping back from our routine of how we normally do language arts, I wanted to teach Shakespeare differently than I had with my older boys.

I have been using the book How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare with Tiny and we have been loving it. I have a post coming up soon about how easy this book has made it to teach about Shakespeare.

Shakespeare Unit Study Starters @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

How to Teach Your Children About Shakespeare

Today though, I have rounded up some Shakespeare unit study starters that will spark some ideas to make learning about Shakespeare fun and interactive.

tempest

teacher guide

Then of course, if you tie in history with learning about Shakespeare, then it makes total sense to us.

So grab this free teacher guide on Julius Caesar, which has some super helpful teaching tips.

This next idea is plain hilarious, but typical of what interests our kids. From the site Ye Olde Official Shakespearean Insult Kit: “With this handy-dandy SHAKESPEAREAN INSULT KIT,you can have the spleen of The Bard at your disposal! The next time someone cuts you off in traffic, or a clerk behaves rudely, stun them with your lexicographical command of vituperation.” Just click on a pull down menu and a few of these expressions will at least evoke a conversation with your teen about The Bard.

This next site has an online handy reference for learning, which is a good resource for learning about the theatre. The Globe Theatre: A Study Guide.

Also, grab this free 18 page lesson planning guide for scenes from Romeo and Juliet as a way to introduce kids to Shakespeare.
This Did Shakespeare Write His Plays video makes another great unit study starter or at least a debate.

Also, I have this free huge Renaissance Lapbook and Unit Study.

Grab this free Renaissance Lapbook at Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Then you have to scoot by and check out this huge page about music.

Hopefully, a few of these links will help you to make a great start to studying Shakespeare.

Hugs and love ya,

Signature T