Shakspeare For First-Timers

Bo is almost finished with the first twelve week rotation in Ambleside Year 1.  Included in his schedule this twelve weeks were two readings from Shakespeare.  A Mid-Summer Nights Dream and The Tempest.  I had purchased Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare, but after previewing the two stories, I wasn't sure if we were ready to read them.  I had a hard time keeping the characters straight in my mind as I previewed the stories.  So after putting the stories off for a couple of weeks, I decided to read them to Bo.  We started with the The Tempest.

Before reading I made sure to have a large piece of paper and pencil handy.  I had read somewhere before to draw the characters along with the plot as the story is read.  I was so surprised at how much easier the story was to understand when we drew things as we read them.  We narrated paragraph by paragraph as we read by drawing on our paper.

Bo loved the story!  He even took the piece of paper and retold the story using the drawings to his dad and brother later that day.