One of the things I decided to add to our homeschool this year is a study of one of Shakespeare's plays. I was a little trepidatious to start with the kids, but over the last few weeks we have really gotten into it, and I wanted to share what we've been doing!
First, why study Shakespeare? There are a few reasons to consider studying Shakespeare in your homeschool, and these are some of mine.
Why Study Shakespeare With Elementary Kids
Rich Language. The language of Shakespeare is challenging and rich. It’s so good for kids to hear and see that kind of complicated language and feel comfortable with it. This will help them later with reading comprehension, writing skills, vocabulary, etc.
Familiarity With Idioms, Etc. Shakespeare added so much to our vernacular in the form of idioms, cliches, figures of speech, etc. Knowing the background enriches our understanding of English, and will allow them to use these sayings with confidence in their future writing as well! A good Shakespeare quote can't help but elevate an essay, right?
Character Elements. There are interesting character, moral, and "social norm" elements that are presented by the characters in Shakespeare’s plays. For instance, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, we are learning a bit about the foolishness of braggerts from the character of Bottom.
Historical Tie-Ins. There are alot of interesting historical tie-ins in Shakespeare plays that give you a richer understanding of Shakespeare/The Middle Age - from both directions.
Knowing Shakespeare Literary References. There are a ton of references to Shakespeare and his plays in literature, and even just in pop culture, and being acquainted with Shakespeare will allow them to be "in the know" when they encounter those references elsewhere.
Avoid Intimidation. If kids familiarize themselves with Shakespeare's plays when they are young, they won't be intimidated to dive in if or when they study the Bard in high school or college courses.
What We're Doing
In the past we have memorized Shakespeare passage from the book How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig, and I still think that book introduces a really great rhythm method for memorizing some lines of Shakespeare! One benefit is that it is really easy and fun to do even with younger kids.
However, I wanted to get into the plays a little more, and I was getting hung up by our memorization work - should we finish memorizing the passages, and then get into the play? Or should we do both at the same time?
I decided to just dive right in with these resources:
Simply Charlotte Mason: Shakespeare In Three Steps
This is a series of guides to various Shakespeare plays, and I love the method used in the guides. We are currently working through the guide for A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is a great play to start with for elementary kids, I think.
First we read a short version of the story to get an idea of what is going to happen, which is included in the guide.
Then we listen to a dramatization of the play with a transcript in hand. This guide gives summaries of each scene, so the kids know ahead of time what is going to happen when we listen to the actual play. We are in this stage now, and I have to say, it's been a delight! I gave them highlighters and told them to keep an eye out for certain key lines from each passage, as mentioned in the guide - but I also told them to highlight whatever lines stand out to them or lines that they particularly like. It's so fun to see what lines my kids choose to highlight! It's also been gratifying to watch Shakespeare's humor click with them, which is a huge benefit of listening to gifted actors perform the actual play, as opposed to just reading a short story version. My oldest even declared he thought his cousin should listen to A Midsummer Night's Dream because it's so funny!
The final step is to watch the play, which we will do when we finish listening to/reading it. I love that this guide also includes summaries of the different movie versions out there, so you can pick one with no objectionable content for your child's age group.
Arkangel Shakespeare Productions
I followed the guide's suggestion, and purchased the Archangel audio production of A Midsummer's Night Dream, and I can vouch that it is excellent! These audio versions are also on Audible, which is convenient.
How To Teach Your Children Shakespeare
As we have been reading about and then listening to A Midsummer Night's Dream, it's been fun to see the lines my kids remember from our memory work using Ludwig's book, and I think after we finish the play we will continue to memorize some of the lines using his method!
I did want to note that I think Simply Charlotte Mason's method is really easy to do, but I do think kids will get more out of it in 4th grade and up, when their reading skills are really strong. I you are anxious to jump in with younger kids, I think Ken Ludwig's book and some good picture books are a better place to start.
Shakespeare Picture Books and Stories
As I said, I think there is a huge benefit of listening to Shakespeare's actual words, instead of just reading a storybook version of his plays. The humor that is in his actual writing just doesn't translate to a storybook the same way, in my experience. However, we have used storybooks to familiarize ourselves with the play before we listened to it, and these are the ones we've used so far. Please note, I haven't read through all the play stories in these books, just a couple, so screen your chosen story before reading it to your kids!
A Stage Full Of Shakespeare Stories - Really cute, whimsical illustrations in this one.
Shakespeare Retold by E. Nesbit - These are good, quick retellings of seven Shakespeare plays, with more suggested resources in the back!
Shakespeare Stories by Leon Garfield - I really like this book for myself - it gives a really thorough telling of each play, with some of Shakespeare's actual words incorporated. As far as I can tell, these version tries to keep to Shakespeare's general scene order as well, which is nice. I'm going to use this version for myself to screen which plays I want to cover with my kids, since it seems pretty thorough.
Other Books
DK Eyewitness: Shakespeare - This book is full of info about Shakespeare's times, as well as information related to different aspects of theater, with lots of pictures to make it interesting.
Will's Words: How William Shakespeare Changed The Way You Talk by Jane Sutcliffe - This is a fun picture book about some of the phrases that Shakespeare introduced or popularized in the English language.
Before I close this post, I just wanted to say that if the idea of covering Shakespeare with your kids seems overwhelming - then don't do it! It's totally okay NOT to study Shakespeare. It doesn't have to be taught in elementary school, or even at all if you and your kids are not interested. Shakespeare is very much an extra. I think it's helpful to be somewhat familiar with Shakespeare, but you are the homeschool teacher of your own family, and you get to decide when or if you will study Shakespeare with your kids! But if you do decide to dabble into some Shakespeare together, I wanted to encourage you that it can be really fun if you want it to be, and not as hard as you think!
If you have any other good resources to add, I'd love to hear! Leave a comment below.
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