A little bit o' the Bard

I am always trying to broaden our literary scope, encouraging the girls to branch out and read things besides fantasy.  I am a fantasy lover myself, but there are so many other things out there to read, especially the classics. They are always the best. I usually do this by reading to them the things they are hesitant to read themselve, but I haven't done much with Shakespeare. I have mentioned him a time or two and read a couple passages from different plays, but that's about it.

So on Thursday when the girls spontaneously pulled out The Complete Works of William Shakespeare and started reading Romeo and Juliet to each other, even though we were supposed to be working on something else, I was completely thrilled! They read almost 3 acts out loud to each other and I was pleased to see that they were able to follow along and understand what was going on. I decided to jump on the opportunity and found a version on netflix that seemed authentic and was available to watch instantly.  They thoroughly enjoyed it (minus the little nudity that we had to skip, on a PG movie too!) and are now talking about Shakespeare and how amazing he is.

This is one area that I have seen real growth in since we started homeschooling. A year ago I had a hard time getting them to listen to A Christmas Carol because "they talk funny" and "I can't understand what they are saying." Now they are reading Shakespeare and laughing at the little jokes and swooning at the gushy stuff.  I love it!