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Summer camps have begun. This week Clare is spending mornings at dance camp, which allows me a little prep time for any activities we want to do in the afternoon. Today, during camp, we went to Walmart to collect supplies for making slime and World Market to buy provisions for a Shakespeare tea party.
Meg has been asking to make slime all summer. We never seem to have all the ingredients we need, so I promised her we would buy the needed ingredients (which includes Borax?!?!) so we could make it. I decided to use the recipe for fluffy slime. Here are some pictures of our results.
Summer camps have begun. This week Clare is spending mornings at dance camp, which allows me a little prep time for any activities we want to do in the afternoon. Today, during camp, we went to Walmart to collect supplies for making slime and World Market to buy provisions for a Shakespeare tea party.
Meg has been asking to make slime all summer. We never seem to have all the ingredients we need, so I promised her we would buy the needed ingredients (which includes Borax?!?!) so we could make it. I decided to use the recipe for fluffy slime. Here are some pictures of our results.
Following our slime experiment, we had our first Shakespeare tea party. Just before school was out, I purchased How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare. This book, written by Ken Ludwig, provides step-by-step guidance to help your children memorize carefully chosen passages from Shakespeare. I was skeptical as to whether I could convince my kids to go along with this plan. I decided also to purchase the beautiful Usborne Illustrated Stories from Shakespeare. I simply placed this book out where Meg and Clare would find it and before I knew it, they were both engrossed in Shakespeare stories. Clare said to me, "What I really like are the parts in the book that are quotes from Shakespeare's plays." She put on her Renaissance princess costume and began memorizing the quoted sections from Romeo and Juliet entirely on her own. This experience convinced me we could memorize a few passages from Shakespeare together.
I decided to combine our Shakespeare experience with the increasingly popular trend of Poetry Teatime. Poetry teatime is what it sounds like. A family prepares a lovely tea and reads poetry. My kids love tea parties, so I thought this was a great way to introduce a Shakespeare passage.
We prepared chamomile and lavender tea that we bought at the lavender farm. The girls set out McVitie's Milk Chocolate Digestives and Walker's Scottie Dog Shortbread cookies. We then began working on the first passage, which is from A Midsummer Night's Dream. The passage begins, "I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, [w]here oxlips and the nodding violet grows, [q]uite overcanopied with luscious woodbine, [w]ith sweet muskroses, and with eglantine."
This passage paints a beautiful picture of where Titania, queen of the fairies, is sleeping. I, however, knew the girls would not be able to automatically visualize each of the flowers referenced in the quote. So, I put together pictures of each of the flowers so the girls could imagine the scene for themselves. Meg and Clare loved the visualization that Shakespeare himself provided, such as the wild thyme blowing and the violets nodding.
Meg began the memorization with us, but eventually decided to return to her slime. That is fine. This was totally a no pressure project. Clare stuck with it and memorized the passage quite well. Four-year-old Anne was enjoying the tea party with us. At first, I didn't think the passage was resonating with her at all. But then, as Clare struggled with a line, Anne jumped in with the words. Clearly she was listening the whole time and absorbing it in her own way.
We have a few scone mixes put away for future tea parties. I've told the girls they are welcome to dress in any Shakespearean-type costume they would like for our tea parties. Clare suggested we make masks for certain characters. Anne made quite a creative Puck costume today during our tea and I regret not getting a picture of it. She cut it out of purple bags and had rather crazy pieces all over her. Our first Shakespeare tea was a success and I see quite a few similar teas in our future.
I decided to combine our Shakespeare experience with the increasingly popular trend of Poetry Teatime. Poetry teatime is what it sounds like. A family prepares a lovely tea and reads poetry. My kids love tea parties, so I thought this was a great way to introduce a Shakespeare passage.
We prepared chamomile and lavender tea that we bought at the lavender farm. The girls set out McVitie's Milk Chocolate Digestives and Walker's Scottie Dog Shortbread cookies. We then began working on the first passage, which is from A Midsummer Night's Dream. The passage begins, "I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, [w]here oxlips and the nodding violet grows, [q]uite overcanopied with luscious woodbine, [w]ith sweet muskroses, and with eglantine."
This passage paints a beautiful picture of where Titania, queen of the fairies, is sleeping. I, however, knew the girls would not be able to automatically visualize each of the flowers referenced in the quote. So, I put together pictures of each of the flowers so the girls could imagine the scene for themselves. Meg and Clare loved the visualization that Shakespeare himself provided, such as the wild thyme blowing and the violets nodding.
Meg began the memorization with us, but eventually decided to return to her slime. That is fine. This was totally a no pressure project. Clare stuck with it and memorized the passage quite well. Four-year-old Anne was enjoying the tea party with us. At first, I didn't think the passage was resonating with her at all. But then, as Clare struggled with a line, Anne jumped in with the words. Clearly she was listening the whole time and absorbing it in her own way.
We have a few scone mixes put away for future tea parties. I've told the girls they are welcome to dress in any Shakespearean-type costume they would like for our tea parties. Clare suggested we make masks for certain characters. Anne made quite a creative Puck costume today during our tea and I regret not getting a picture of it. She cut it out of purple bags and had rather crazy pieces all over her. Our first Shakespeare tea was a success and I see quite a few similar teas in our future.
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