This post relates to my literature class for children at Homeschool Out of the Box co-op in Norfolk, VA. This semester we are reading The Aeneid, using Penelope Lively's book In Search of a Homeland, and other supplemental materials. For other lessons, please click the Aeneid tag at the bottom of this post.

Welcome: Today's quiz was about Carthage and Dido, and we sang all our songs in their entirety. We had a successful memorization of Mark Antony's speech, and a very close call with Arma Virumque Cano -- next week for sure! Encourage your children to work on these poems at home, and recite them for friends, relatives, whoever will listen. Nothing builds confidence like repetition and also applause from Grandma.

Memory Work: Today we practiced "Horatio at the Bridge" as a dramatic reading. Horatios are Sarah R and Stephen K. I know they are hard at work memorizing their lines! The consuls and other brave Romans with speaking parts are encouraged to memorize their parts too, and EVERYONE should be memorizing the last bit, from "Romans in Rome's quarrel" to the end. The children are doing a magnificent job delivering their lines with feeling and ferocity! Great job, all.

The Underworld:

Today's project for the academic track classes is a travel guide to the underworld. I gave them the title page and chapter list, which we pasted into their scrapbooks near the end. Their assignment, which they worked on in class, was to complete the travel guide, one chapter per page, in their books. They can do it however they want to do it -- as a comic book, all text, all pictures, etc. They can do it humorously, seriously, standing on their heads, whatever. Next week I'm going to have a look at them, and the students who have fulfilled the assignment will receive a citizenship coin!



The enrichment track kids are creating a bestiary. They also received a title page and chapter list, and they also should complete the pages of their bestiary (including harpies, gorgons, a chimaera, Cerberus, and the Furies) to receive a citizenship coin. If you have lost your scrapbook, you can do this on separate pages stapled together.



Chariot Races Preparation:

Next week we are going to turn Grace Street into the Circus Maximus and hold our own chariot races. We have already arranged wagons to be chariots, but we need many more volunteers and items. The chariots will be run two at a time, from the end of the street by the apartment buildings down to the intersection at Yarmouth. We will have the green team (supported by the emperor and the Roman people), the blue team (supported by the Senate) and the red team, (supported by the political resistance). Please dress your children in one of these colors, if possible.

The children will play three roles -- horn blowers, horses, and charioteers. If your child is going to be a charioteer, he or she must MUST must have a bike helmet. Any horses that spill out their charioteers are going to be disqualified, but we still want to be ridiculously safe. If you want, you can also bring along elbow and knee pads -- that would be completely appropriate. We also need dog leashes, two per horse. Please label everything that you bring. We will need volunteers to stand at the ends of the Circus Maximus and hold traffic when necessary. We will also need a first aid kit with bandaids and bactine in case anyone falls over and gets scraped up. So please let me know if you can:

___ Be a traffic guard
___ Bring bandaids and bactine and be the first aid station
___ Bring dog leashes -- the basic kind with a snap on one end and a loop on the other.
___ Bring helmets and knee pads and elbow pads
___ Be an official

If you do not want your child to participate, that is totally fine. He or she can be a horn blower and still have fun. Please email me with any questions you have, to volunteer to help, or with any issues you want me to address.

If you like, you can watch the video of the chariot race from Ben Hur! If you have trouble with the embedded video, here is the link. Be warned: it is violent -- people get run over by horses, for example. But it is a bit of classic movie history and still after all these years a very exciting scene.

Labels: aeneid, classical literature, hsobx, lesson plans

This post relates to my literature class for children at Homeschool Out of the Box co-op in Norfolk, VA. This semester we are reading The Aeneid, using Penelope Lively's book In Search of a Homeland, and other supplemental materials. For other lessons, please click the Aeneid tag at the bottom of this post.

Welcome: Our quiz today covered the Law of the Twelve Tables, so we had twelve questions in the quiz. I experimented today with letting one of the children make up the quiz, and it was fun! All you have to do is read some of the fast facts as they are, for true answers, and mess up some of them in amusing ways, for false answers. After a few halts and restarts, we got the hang of it and had a great quiz. So, this is yet another way of reviewing the facts -- make them wrong on purpose. If you are working on this curriculum with one child at home, I encourage you to let them quiz *you* by creating some false answers to trip you up. Always entertaining. I was relieved to find that one of the kids making a false answer included laundry detergent among the incorrect details. Hehehe.

Memory Work: Today we sang our "Arma Virumque Cano" song all the way to the end, and also our "Friends, Romans, Countrymen" song all the way to the end. Children are memorizing! Citizenship coins are being earned! Congratulations to all of you moms for following up at home and making this happen. The kids will have a chance to show off their oratorial skills at the Rostra on May 11.

Dido's Trick:

We used scissors and a piece of paper to recreate the legendary trick that Dido supposedly played on a local king, when trying to get land on which to build her city of Carthage. Keep in mind, this trick has also been attributed to Alexander the Great and probably other historical figures as well, but it makes a great parlor trick so we learned it anyway! Thanks to Miranda and Louis' dad for pointing me to a place online where we could print out a template to use for this -- it made the project so much easier.

The idea is that you can cut a hole in a small piece of paper that you can walk through standing up. Here is the template from themathlab.com. As long as you never cut through a T, and stay on the lines, you will end up with a huge circle of paper that you can, indeed, step through. I would love to see some enterprising young person try this trick with an even smaller piece of paper and even smaller strips -- it would be neat to see how close we could get to encompassing Carthage!

Assignment:

The fast facts for this week are about Carthage, and we talked a lot about its geography and history of animosity to Rome. Did it all start with a failed romance between Dido and Aeneas? Who knows?

Labels: aeneid, classical literature, hsobx, lesson plans

This post relates to my literature class for children at Homeschool Out of the Box co-op in Norfolk, VA. This semester we are reading The Aeneid, using Penelope Lively's book In Search of a Homeland, and other supplemental materials. For other lessons, please click the Aeneid tag at the bottom of this post.

Welcome: We had so much to do today, it was ridiculous! We took our quiz on the gladiator material and sang our songs. We added two new verses of Mark Antony's speech, and that was exciting. Next week we'll be adding the "Musa Mihi" portion of the Aeneid memorization, so we previewed that a little bit in our best Jar Jar Binks voices.

Memory Work: Last week the students got the poem "Horatio at the Bridge." Today we read it for the first time. This poem was written by Thomas Babington Macaulay, a British poet and politician during Victorian times. The Brits of this time romanticized the Romans because they too were forming an empire, taking over the world, and believed they were helping people by spreading their culture and civilization. The same values and beliefs that led the Romans to subdue and assimilate barbarians greatly appealed to the movers and shakers in the 19th century empire building nations. Here is a link to the whole poem, Horatius. We are reading and studying verses 24-33, but it would be great for the kids to read the whole thing. Next week we'll be reading it dramatically, taking parts for the Consul, and Horatio, and the other speakers.

Gladiatorial Games:

There were several key elements we adopted, to making this experience work.

1. No weapons, not even fake ones. I removed this rule in the enrichment class, because the younger children actually seemed way more capable of safely using them without incident.
2. Clear explanation of the concept of pantomime. As in... no touching.
3. Clear explanation of the concept of creating tableaux. As in... freeze.

Your job as teacheris to create and narrate a story including all the characters the children have chosen. You want to include all the important elements in the lesson. Make sure your wealthy sponsors are acknowledged. Make sure your gladiators holler at the emperor, "We who are about to die salute you!" Incorporate your wild animals, your condemned criminals, and give the crowd a chance to decide the fate of a doomed man. The kids' job is to not decapitate each other.

Here's how it works so no one gets hurt and everyone has fun: The children pause while you narrate the story, and freeze when you say "Pose!" So, you tell a little bit of the story, yell "Pose!" and then the children move into their next position and freeze. Yes, we did have some jumping on tables and there were some tense moments when a lion escaped. But there were no actual decapitations, and everyone got to play the part they wanted, including the guard who saved the emperor from an assassination plot. Here are some pictures:







For more pictures, visit the Aeneid set on my Flickr account.

Assignment: This week's fast facts sheet covers the Law of the Twelve Tables. The point of reading these is to take another look at the ways in which our ideas are the same as the Romans, and the ways they're different. We have only excerpts, but you can find a bit more about the Twelve Tables here. Some of these laws seem very reasonable to us, and some seem completely nuts. Next week we're going to talk about which laws are most important to our contemporary world, and what twelve things we'd write down if we had twelve ivory tablets to engrave, and an empire to build. Should be interesting!

Labels: aeneid, classical literature, hsobx, lesson plans

Celia and Martina preparing to act out constantia.

This was great fun. We even got to try out some Roman Virtue Pictionary, and I encourage you to try this with your kids at home. Take your list of 15 virtues and try and draw each of them. You draw and have your kids guess, then guess your kids' drawings. Maybe afterward you can turn it into a comic!

Enrichment Track: In the enrichment track we acted these words out together, and we chose four words on which to focus: furor, pietas, dignitas, and gravitas. First I wrote them on the white board and we sounded them out, then I acted them out myself and let the kids guess which one I was going for. After I'd done them each a bunch of times, I let the kids take turns coming up to stand in front of the board and do a virtue. Here are a couple of pictures:

Miranda doing "gravitas."

Katie doing "furor."

I can't resist sharing -- here's a video of the whole class together doing charades:

Assignment: Next week we're going to act out our gladiator games. Today the kids picked their roles. In the academic classes, we had some very interesting choices: assassin, guard, condemned criminal, emperor, etc. In the enrichment class, we also had interesting choices: gladiators, emperor, archers, and also a unicorn, pony, shark, and pet kitten. It's important to let the kids feel happy and comfortable with their roles, and look forward to the event. If you have to stretch to prepare a narrative for them that includes three emperors or a unicorn posse or a rainbow sparkle fairy or whatever, you can do that! Asking the kids to act out something violent is a sketchy business -- make sure it's a learning experience but also fun. Dressing up is great but not mandatory! Make sure for next week they have read the Funeral Games chapter of the book, and have read and understood the "Gladiator Games Fast Facts" sheet.

Labels: aeneid, classical literature, hsobx, lesson plans

Project:

We made mosaics using sticky cardstock and tiny tiles. I forgot my camera, but here are pictures of the materials and where to get them.



We also used some other stuff as mosaic tiles... sparkly jewels, sequins, and other things. These no-glue collage boards are awesome. You peel them like a sticker and the sticky surface is very sticky. Some kids did geometric designs, some did pictures, some just enjoyed the materials in random and pleasing ways.

Assignment: For next week please read the chapter "Funeral Games." We're coming up to our gladiator games event, so we'll be planning that in class next week. The children will get to choose roles -- lions, gladiators, emperor, spectators, guards, etc. If you own the movie "Gladiator" and you've watched it enough to be able to choose scenes strategically so the kids won't see anything awful (and there are plenty of awful things in the movie) it would be great if they could see at least some of the coliseum scene, to get an idea of the scope of it. I don't recommend it for the younger kids, of course, but some of the older ones will benefit from certain scenes. We will be mixing gladiator fun with versions of the funeral games that the Trojans engaged in to honor Anchises, so look forward to that too! Volunteers are welcome, and let's hope for a sunny day so we can go outside.

Labels: aeneid, classical literature, hsobx, lesson plans

This post relates to my literature class for children at Homeschool Out of the Box co-op in Norfolk, VA. This semester we are reading The Aeneid, using Penelope Lively's book In Search of a Homeland, and other supplemental materials. For other lessons, please click the Aeneid tag at the bottom of this post.

Quiz: We took our quiz on the Roman clothing fast facts and remembered that different colored togas were worn in different situations: purple for emperors, white for those running for political office, and black for mourning. The challenge for this week is to look out for togas or toga-like garments being worn around town. Hint: Those people in Statue of Liberty costumes dancing around outside all the tax preparation offices might be one example.

Songs: We sang our songs, still working on memorizing the first eight lines of the Shakespeare soliloquy and the first four lines of the Virgil invocation. The children's favorite song is definitely "Let's Get the Heck Out of Troy," no doubt because of the mildly transgressive "heck" which I would apologize for if I didn't so intensely enjoy seeing them get a big bang out of singing it.

Memory Work: We were very excited to hear our first successful recitation of the Mark Antony's speech at Julius Caesar's funeral by William Shakespeare! Richard F. is the first Roman to possess two citizenship coins and got himself a set of knucklebones for his trouble. Congratulations and well done!!! Amazing work!

Fast Facts: This week we are learning about Roman games and toys. We learned the rules for Tali (the Latin name for Knucklebones), Odds and Evens, and introduced Latrunculi. We talked about how a lot of the simple toys that children use today and a lot of the familiar games we play were already around in Ancient Rome. It's important for them to recognize, in the midst of learning about all the differences in Roman culture, that there are many similarities.

Knucklebones: Tali is an ancient game played with four four-sided dice. You roll all the dice, calculate your score, and then the other guy rolls, for a predetermined number of rounds. Scores are not cummulative: whoever wins each round gets a point, and you play to a certain number of points. Click on this page to read all about knucklebones. Here is a picture of a real set of knucklebones, made from the actual bones of a sheep or goat:

The little one in the picture above is actually made from bronze, to minic the shape of the real bone. Here is a picture of a set of knucklebones that I made:

You can make knucklebones by making a little rectangular box out of Sculpey, then scratching a number into each side. The small ends should be a little rounded to ensure the die doesn't end with a small end up. The numbers on the dice are 6, 4, 3, and 1 with opposite sides adding up to 7. I made enough sets that each pair of kids could have a set to play with. One package of Sculpey makes two sets.

Scoring Tali is complicated, and there are lots of different ways to do it. We learned a method of scoring that requires the kids to add up the values of the dice in their heads, which I think is good practice, and also involves some of the "special" rolls, like the Venus (6, 4, 3, 1) the Vulture (all dice the same) and the Dogs (all dice 1).

(6,4,3,1) :Venus -- all four tali with different sides.
(6,x,x,x) : Senio -- a single six and anything
(6,6,6,6) : Vultures -- all four tali the same
(4,4,4,4) : Vultures -- all four tali the same
(3,3,3,3) : Vultures -- all four tali the same
(6,6,6,4) : Total = 22
(6,6,6,3) : Total = 21
(6,6,4,4) : Total = 20
(6,6,6,1) : Total = 19 (high)
(6,6,4,3) : Total = 19
(6,6,3,3) : Total = 18
(6,6,4,1) : Total = 17
(6,6,3,1) : Total = 16
(4,4,4,3) : Total = 15
(6,6,1,1) : Total = 14 (high)
(4,4,3,3) : Total = 14
(4,4,4,1) : Total = 13
(4,4,3,1) : Total = 12
(4,3,3,1) : Total = 11
(4,4,1,1) : Total = 10 (high)
(3,3,3,1) : Total = 10
(4,3,1,1) : Total = 9
(3,3,1,1) : Total = 8
(4,1,1,1) : Total = 7
(3,1,1,1) : Total = 6
(1,1,1,1) : Dogs -- lowest of the Vultures

Here are some pictures of the kids playing Tali:

Odds and Evens: This is a very simple game that relies more on instinct than skill. To play, you need several small objects: buttons, coins, stones, etc. They should be small enough that the players can hide them in their hands. We used little buttons. The game is played between two people, a holder and a guesser. The holder puts a number of the objects in his hand and holds it out. The guesser tries to guess whether the number of objects is odd or even. If the guesser is right, he gets a point. If the guesser is wrong, the holder gets a point. Very easy, and yet when you start playing it, very complicated psychologically! But this one was really fun -- we had some kids that were really great at intuiting what their opponent would do with those buttons!

The educational value of Odds and Evens was mostly for the enrichment class -- learning which numbers were odd and which were even. The older kids could pretty much do that already. All the kids learned to make a score-keeping chart and keep tick marks to tally a score. It is also very important to practice your "I AM INSCRUTABLE" face and also your "I AM READING YOUR MIND" face while playing Odds and Evens.











For more pictures, see our Flickr set.

Latrunculi: I gave the children an optional project to earn an additional citizenship coin. They can make a Latrunculi board and demonstrate that they know how to play. This is not an assignment! Moms, do not slay yourself over this one. If the kid is on fire to research it and make it, great. If not, no harm. Here is a link to get you started on the wonders of Latrunculi.

Next week is our Roman dinner party. Here is a little info about that:

CLOTHING:Please dress up in whatever way you like! Want to be a gladiator? An emperor? Afine lady? A humble slave? A senator? Do it. Gender roles to not have to limit you. Historical accuracy is not necessary but it would be great if the kids knew about their outfits to explain them to the class. Remember that among the ladies, elaborate up-do hairstyles and flamboyant jewelry items were popular!

MUSIC:We are going to be listening to the music of Synaulia, an Italian ensemble that replicates the music of Ancient Rome with authentic instrumentation. Here is a little sample:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0IpxYUi2Dk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnDjFXRZLVo

FOOD:Our meal will be eaten as we recline around low tables. We will be using our fingers to eat from communal plates. There will be three courses: an appetizer course of eggs and radishes, a main course of meat, olives, and cabbage, and a dessert course of fruit and honey.We will be drinking "wine." The Romans watered down their wine and added honey. Rich Romans who could afford the luxury kept ice in deep pits. We will be drinking white grape juice over crushed ice.

ENTERTAINMENT:Romans entertained at dinner parties by reciting poetry, singing, and dancing.Fortunately we can do all these for ourselves! If your child is ready to recite any part of (or all of) any of the poems or songs, they will get a chance toperform at the dinner party, as we all digest.We will also be playing Evens and Odds, Knucklebones (Tali), and Latrunculi.

RITUAL: As host of the party, I will start off the meal with a toast. We will also pause between "prima mensa" and "secunda mensa" (dinner and dessert) to observe amoment of silence and make an offering to our household gods.

VOLUNTEERS: How can you help?

Prepare food: If you can help with any of the above items (like bringing a dozen peeled boiled eggs, or a dish of olives, or a plate of chopped cabbage orgrapes), please email me and let me know what you'd like to bring.

Come be a slave: We will need a couple of slaves during each class, to serve thefood, crush the ice, fix loose togas, press play and pause on our musicians, help with Knucklebones, and obey our every whim. Slaves do not need to wear costumes, but they can! Slaves can also bring their cameras.

Lend something: If you have an earthenware or pottery dish that looks oldy-timey-ancienty-romany, I would love to borrow it for serving. If you have a statuette of some kind that looks oldy-timey-ancienty-romany, I would love to borrow it to join our collection of household gods to receive our sacrifice.

If you are interested in participating in one of these three ways, please email me and let me know specifically what you would like to do. This is going to be awesome!

NOTE: Students must possess a citizenship coin to participate in the Roman dinner party! No invitees unless they are the children of slaves who are slaving away at the party.

Assignments: Carry on with the book. Carry on with the memory work. Consider making a Latrunculi board. And get your costume on for next week's party!

Labels: aeneid, classical literature, hsobx, lesson plans

Text: The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, unabdridged edition.

Reading Assignments:

Week 1: Rikki Tikki Tavi
Week 2: Toomai of the Elephants
Week 3: The White Seal
Week 4: Quiquem
Week 5: The Undertakers
Week 6: The Miracle of Purun Bhagat
Week 7: Mowgli’s Brothers
Week 8: Kaa’s Hunting
Week 9: Tiger! Tiger!
Week 10: How Fear Came
Week 11: Letting in the Jungle
Week 12: The King’s Ankus
Week 13: Red Dog
Week 14: The Spring Running
Week 15: Last Class, No Assignment

Special Events:

We will be hosting guests from the community to teach us about Bhangra dancing and meditation. We will also be making samosas and saris. Stay tuned!

The following elements of the class apply only to the academic track. The enrichment track will be paperless. No need to carry a binder.

Quizzes:

Every week you will receive ten Fast Facts, and every following week you will take a ten question true/false quiz on these facts. Quizzes are not graded and collaboration is allowed.

Memory Work:

“If” by Rudyard Kipling
“Mandalay” by Rudyard Kipling

Presentation:

Each student will prepare a five minute presentation for the class about any one of the animals in the Jungle Book. Here are some ideas for animals you might pick: wolf, bear, panther, crocodile, tiger, elephant, seal, wild dog, mongoose, monkey, etc. You can do anything you like in your presentation. You can prepare a handout, give a talk, ask questions, show pictures, play a game, or whatever you like! It’s your five minutes! Use it!

Presentations will take place in weeks 5-14. Sign up for your preferred date soon.

Labels: hsobx, junglebook, lesson plans, literature