Everyday Educator - More Than A Story: Summer Reading Club, Kings of Rome
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Welcome friends to this episode
00:00:06.300 | of the "Everyday Educator" podcast.
00:00:08.980 | I'm your host, Lisa Bailey,
00:00:10.620 | and I'm excited to spend some time with you today
00:00:13.860 | as we encourage one another, learn together,
00:00:17.100 | and ponder the delights and challenges
00:00:20.180 | that make homeschooling the adventure of a lifetime.
00:00:23.420 | Whether you're just considering
00:00:25.300 | this homeschooling possibility
00:00:27.420 | or deep into the daily delight of family learning,
00:00:31.260 | I believe you'll enjoy thinking along with us.
00:00:34.980 | But don't forget, although this online community is awesome,
00:00:39.540 | you'll find even closer support in a local CC community.
00:00:44.460 | So go to classicalconversations.com
00:00:48.420 | and find a community near you today.
00:00:52.680 | Well, listeners, welcome to summer.
00:00:55.500 | As I record this podcast with you today,
00:01:00.180 | it is early June and many of our students
00:01:05.180 | have had enough time since community ended
00:01:10.340 | to begin maybe not being bored,
00:01:13.700 | but to start looking around for something to do.
00:01:16.700 | And maybe you, as moms and dads are thinking,
00:01:20.840 | "Hmm, I don't want us to lose all of the learning skills
00:01:25.840 | that we practice together and all of the routines
00:01:29.980 | that we enjoyed throughout the year.
00:01:33.180 | I want something for us to do together."
00:01:36.020 | And reading aloud together is a wonderful way
00:01:40.300 | to start the day or end the day
00:01:43.780 | or take a break during the day or all of the above.
00:01:48.020 | Reading aloud as a family has multiple benefits, right?
00:01:53.020 | You know this.
00:01:55.420 | It builds community, even community in your family.
00:01:59.260 | It builds closeness between you and all of your children
00:02:04.180 | of various ages.
00:02:05.980 | Many families have from preschoolers
00:02:08.820 | to challenge students in the same family.
00:02:11.780 | And a lot of families wonder,
00:02:13.000 | "What could I read that would interest everybody,
00:02:16.520 | that everybody could grab a hold of in some way?"
00:02:21.180 | So we wanna talk this summer
00:02:23.860 | over the course of the next month
00:02:26.380 | and even a little bit into July
00:02:29.000 | about ways that we can read together as a family.
00:02:35.340 | Having shared memories of stories that become beloved
00:02:41.220 | or poems that really resonate with your family,
00:02:45.140 | even songs that you learn together,
00:02:48.440 | Bible passages that you memorize together
00:02:51.280 | or study together become shared memories
00:02:55.880 | for you and your family that will last a lifetime,
00:03:00.700 | that will continue to draw your family close together,
00:03:04.640 | maybe even become touchstones for your family.
00:03:08.600 | Read aloud time becomes a really sweet time of connection
00:03:13.560 | where you can exchange ideas,
00:03:17.440 | wrestle with feelings, ask questions,
00:03:21.480 | like, "What does that word mean?"
00:03:23.240 | Or, "Is that what that word looks like
00:03:26.280 | when you write it down?"
00:03:28.080 | I can remember as a child, I read voraciously,
00:03:32.400 | but I read to myself.
00:03:34.480 | And my parents really didn't read to me
00:03:36.920 | after I learned to read on my own.
00:03:39.400 | So there were lots of words that I knew the meaning of
00:03:42.760 | because I had read them,
00:03:44.240 | but I'd never heard them said aloud.
00:03:47.400 | And boy, that cost me some degree of embarrassment
00:03:50.480 | several times.
00:03:51.680 | So reading together aloud as a family
00:03:55.200 | allows you to learn new things that you might not learn
00:03:58.740 | if you're reading by yourself.
00:04:01.160 | Reading as a family becomes heart time.
00:04:06.000 | I'd encourage you to find time.
00:04:08.360 | So reading as a family has multiple benefits
00:04:11.360 | and community is one of them.
00:04:14.680 | Context sharing is also one of them.
00:04:19.280 | There are lots of pieces of literature
00:04:22.480 | that you can share with your children,
00:04:24.880 | even when they're very young.
00:04:26.800 | Fables, myths, legends,
00:04:30.720 | historical stories, biographical sketches
00:04:36.880 | that will build context for your students
00:04:40.640 | as they read more advanced literature later on.
00:04:44.840 | Years ago, when I was still tutoring Challenge One,
00:04:51.000 | I had a student who would say,
00:04:55.360 | I bet he said it at least once a week
00:04:58.040 | during our community time.
00:04:59.480 | He would look up and he would say,
00:05:01.240 | "Oh, was that a reference?"
00:05:04.360 | And what he meant was we were always alluding
00:05:08.000 | to past stories, pieces of literature,
00:05:13.000 | myths, legends, quotes, people's lives.
00:05:16.860 | We were always alluding to something
00:05:19.080 | that the students had been exposed to earlier,
00:05:21.960 | maybe in foundations, maybe in an earlier challenge,
00:05:25.760 | maybe from Bible study at home or at church.
00:05:29.420 | When we read together with our families,
00:05:34.040 | we are able to build a context,
00:05:37.200 | a listening context for our children
00:05:41.240 | that will give them information
00:05:45.720 | they will be able to use
00:05:47.440 | as they continue strengthening their reading muscles.
00:05:52.440 | Allusions and references that will occur over and over
00:05:57.640 | for our children as they continue to read.
00:06:02.000 | So reading as a family has as a benefit,
00:06:05.360 | community, context, and a catalyst.
00:06:10.360 | Reading together as a family can really be a catalyst
00:06:17.080 | for sharing questions,
00:06:19.080 | mining your children's and your own curiosity.
00:06:26.000 | It can be a catalyst for shared learning
00:06:30.920 | and shared exploring.
00:06:33.140 | Reading together as a family lights the fire of wonder
00:06:39.120 | in everybody who participates.
00:06:43.000 | You can cultivate wonder
00:06:45.680 | as you read with your children this summer.
00:06:48.440 | Wonder about the world God has made.
00:06:51.480 | Wonder about the people He has used through history.
00:06:56.640 | Wonder about what God is leading your children
00:07:01.600 | and your family to do in His world.
00:07:05.320 | What has He called you to do?
00:07:08.200 | How has He shaped you?
00:07:09.600 | What are your kids interested in?
00:07:11.880 | What are they good at?
00:07:13.720 | You may discover all of that
00:07:16.760 | as you read together this summer.
00:07:19.560 | Now, today, I really wanna talk to you guys
00:07:23.480 | about our "Story of Rome" series.
00:07:27.760 | I know that some of you have been reading already
00:07:32.720 | the stories in "Stories of Rome,"
00:07:35.080 | "The Kings of Rome," "Emperors of Rome,"
00:07:37.600 | "Senators of Rome" series.
00:07:39.920 | You have found something to love in that.
00:07:42.840 | Some of you are still thinking,
00:07:44.400 | "Eh, the story of Rome, what does that have to do with me?
00:07:48.000 | "My kids are not gonna learn Latin for a long time.
00:07:50.520 | "My kids are little and they don't care about Rome.
00:07:54.120 | "They don't even know where Rome is.
00:07:55.840 | "I'm not even sure where in Italy Rome is."
00:07:58.760 | Okay, so I wanna give you some reasons
00:08:01.280 | why should you read "The Story of Rome."
00:08:05.000 | Well, here's one thing, one way to look at it.
00:08:07.280 | "The Story of Rome" is really
00:08:11.240 | the story of the Western world.
00:08:13.480 | It has tons of stories about men,
00:08:18.000 | about government, about struggles, about power.
00:08:22.680 | The story of Rome is the Western world
00:08:27.880 | that became the world we know today.
00:08:32.880 | We can see our roots in many of these stories
00:08:38.080 | and thus understand the fruit
00:08:40.760 | that we see around us today.
00:08:46.080 | That alone would provide huge catalyst
00:08:50.080 | for conversations with your older students
00:08:53.320 | who are beginning to study world governments
00:08:56.720 | and the struggles of men to govern themselves and others.
00:09:01.720 | So why else should we read "The Story of Rome?"
00:09:05.760 | This is a cool thing.
00:09:08.600 | We meet characters that will allow us
00:09:12.800 | to discuss virtue with our children,
00:09:16.920 | whether they are preschoolers
00:09:19.440 | or 11, 12-year-olds or teenagers.
00:09:24.160 | We meet characters in "The Story of Rome"
00:09:26.840 | that allow us to discuss virtue
00:09:29.360 | and can show us real people wrestling with the choices,
00:09:34.360 | some of those choices that we might recognize ourself.
00:09:42.440 | In "The Story of Rome," we meet good guys and bad guys,
00:09:47.440 | but here's the deal.
00:09:49.280 | Both good guys and bad guys give us chances to ask why.
00:09:54.280 | Why did they do that?
00:09:57.880 | What else could they have done?
00:10:00.920 | What did that guy's actions start?
00:10:11.840 | How was this situation turned for the better?
00:10:16.840 | How did this situation devolve into a worse situation?
00:10:22.200 | Here's the thing.
00:10:24.480 | Human nature doesn't change.
00:10:27.680 | And when you read stories that are set in the past,
00:10:30.360 | stories that come to us from antiquity,
00:10:33.160 | you'll see that although time changes,
00:10:36.000 | human nature doesn't.
00:10:38.120 | And so you will find good guys and bad guys
00:10:41.680 | in "Stories of Rome" that look amazingly like
00:10:45.520 | the good guys and bad guys of today.
00:10:48.640 | Another reason to read "Stories of Rome"
00:10:50.760 | is that you will find the story of the early church
00:10:55.260 | intertwined.
00:10:56.640 | Church history and Roman history is interwoven.
00:11:01.120 | And so we find connections as we go.
00:11:04.680 | For instance, when you hear about Caesar Augustus
00:11:07.980 | putting out attacks over the world, over the country,
00:11:12.980 | there's some connection.
00:11:14.440 | You know what might have been happening in the world
00:11:18.260 | that touches our Bible stories as well.
00:11:21.780 | Now it is true that studying, reading the "Stories of Rome"
00:11:27.140 | will give you some context for your Latin studies.
00:11:30.540 | And I wanna tell you guys that the stories
00:11:33.020 | in "The Kings of Rome" have a lot to do
00:11:37.260 | with timeline cards and our cycle work memory,
00:11:41.980 | our cycle one memory work.
00:11:44.220 | So as you prepare for the fall,
00:11:48.060 | hey, go ahead and start reading "Kings of Rome" this summer
00:11:53.020 | and you'll be amazed at the memory pegs
00:11:56.980 | you will begin to pound in for your children.
00:12:00.440 | Here's what I'd like to do today.
00:12:03.060 | I want to read you three short stories from "Kings of Rome."
00:12:08.060 | Now, listen, three stories,
00:12:13.100 | but the stories are like a page, two pages,
00:12:17.220 | a page and a half long.
00:12:18.900 | So I'm gonna read you three stories
00:12:21.780 | and then we are going to,
00:12:23.380 | I'm gonna offer you some ideas for discussion.
00:12:29.900 | So after you read this stories with your children,
00:12:34.500 | how could you elicit some conversation?
00:12:38.660 | What could you wrestle with?
00:12:41.500 | I think that you will enjoy it immensely.
00:12:45.140 | Now, if you want to use the three stories
00:12:49.540 | as a read aloud for your students,
00:12:52.380 | you can stop the podcast now
00:12:55.020 | and then you can call your kids in
00:12:58.140 | and you can use this, the next three stories
00:13:01.780 | as a read aloud time.
00:13:03.940 | It might make the perfect rest time after lunch
00:13:08.940 | or before you go to the swimming pool
00:13:11.780 | or when it's too hot outside to play.
00:13:15.700 | So you get ready, settle in,
00:13:18.780 | and I'm gonna read to you three of the stories
00:13:22.500 | from our Copper Lodge Library edition, "Kings of Rome."
00:13:28.380 | Story one, "The Lady Roma."
00:13:33.380 | Long, long years ago, Troy,
00:13:38.060 | one of the great cities in Asia Minor
00:13:41.460 | was taken by the Greeks.
00:13:44.300 | Many mighty Trojans had defended their city well
00:13:49.300 | and among them all,
00:13:51.380 | none had fought more bravely than the Prince of Rome.
00:13:56.380 | And the Prince, Aeneas.
00:13:58.580 | But when Aeneas saw that the Greeks had set fire
00:14:03.300 | to the city, he fled carrying, it is said,
00:14:07.660 | his father on his shoulders and grasping by the hand,
00:14:12.580 | his son, Ascanius.
00:14:15.780 | Moreover, so precious to him was the sacred image
00:14:19.740 | of the goddess palace that he saved it
00:14:23.340 | from the burning city.
00:14:25.380 | The gods, pleased with his reverence,
00:14:28.260 | helped him in his flight by building a ship.
00:14:32.140 | So when Aeneas reached the sea,
00:14:34.860 | he at once embarked in it with his followers
00:14:38.660 | and their wives and sailed away to seek for a new land
00:14:42.980 | in which to build a new city.
00:14:46.260 | As the Trojans sailed,
00:14:48.180 | they saw a bright star shining above them.
00:14:51.340 | Day and night, the star was always to be seen,
00:14:55.500 | showing the seafarers the direction in which to steer.
00:15:00.500 | At length, the Trojans reached the Western shore of Italy
00:15:05.340 | and here at a town called Latium, they disembarked.
00:15:10.340 | The women were weary of the sea
00:15:13.580 | and no sooner had they landed than they began to wonder
00:15:17.940 | how they could persuade their husbands to journey no farther
00:15:22.180 | but to settle in the pleasant country
00:15:24.340 | which they had reached.
00:15:26.220 | Among these women was a lady of noble birth
00:15:29.700 | who was as wise as she was good.
00:15:33.220 | Roma, for that was the lady's name,
00:15:36.460 | proposed that they should burn the ship
00:15:39.360 | in which they had sailed.
00:15:41.060 | Then it would be impossible for their husbands
00:15:44.380 | to go any farther in search of a new home.
00:15:48.340 | The other women agreed to Roma's daring plan
00:15:51.460 | and with mingled hope and fear, the ship was set on fire.
00:15:56.460 | When the men saw the flames devouring the vessel,
00:16:01.020 | they were troubled.
00:16:02.620 | But when they found out how it had been set on fire,
00:16:06.700 | they were angry.
00:16:08.340 | Yet as anger could not give them back their ship
00:16:13.460 | and as Italy was a pleasant land,
00:16:16.460 | the men did as the women wished.
00:16:19.300 | They settled near a hill called Mount Palatine
00:16:23.460 | and there they built a city.
00:16:26.340 | Some old stories tell that the city was called Rome
00:16:30.100 | after Roma, the noble lady who had first thought
00:16:33.900 | of setting the ship on fire.
00:16:36.180 | But other stories say that the country
00:16:39.780 | in which Anais landed belonged to a king
00:16:43.260 | named Latinus, who welcomed the Trojan
00:16:46.260 | and gave him ground on which to build.
00:16:49.420 | Anais married Lavinia, the daughter of the king,
00:16:53.860 | and called the city which he built after her, Lavinanum.
00:16:58.500 | Soon after this, King Latinus was killed in battle
00:17:03.340 | and then for three years, Anais ruled well and wisely,
00:17:08.340 | not only over his own Trojan followers,
00:17:12.620 | but also over the subjects of his royal father-in-law.
00:17:16.620 | His people he now called Latins in memory of King Latinus.
00:17:21.620 | When the three years were past,
00:17:24.820 | war broke out against the Etruscans,
00:17:27.620 | who were at that time the most powerful tribe in Italy.
00:17:32.340 | One day, a terrible storm overtook the armies
00:17:35.660 | on the battlefield.
00:17:37.060 | So dark grew the clouds that the soldiers
00:17:41.180 | could not see each other.
00:17:44.020 | When at length the sky cleared, Anais had disappeared
00:17:49.020 | and was seen no more on earth.
00:17:53.140 | "The gods have taken him away," said the Latins.
00:17:57.060 | So they built an altar and henceforth worshiped their king
00:18:01.340 | as the god Jupiter.
00:18:02.820 | Ascanius, who had escaped from Troy with his father,
00:18:07.820 | now ruled in Levinanum, but he soon found
00:18:11.820 | that the city was not large enough for all his people.
00:18:15.260 | So leaving Levinanum, he built a new city
00:18:18.580 | and called it Alba Longa, or the Long White City.
00:18:23.580 | Alba Longa stood in the midst of the Albin Hills,
00:18:29.380 | not far from the site on which Rome itself
00:18:33.160 | was soon to be built.
00:18:35.840 | Story two, The She-Wolf.
00:18:39.140 | After the death of Ascanius, nearly 300 years passed away
00:18:45.980 | and then a king named Proca died,
00:18:49.580 | leaving behind him two sons.
00:18:52.940 | The name of the elder was Numitor,
00:18:55.960 | the name of the younger, Amulius.
00:18:58.980 | The crown belonged by right to Numitor, the elder son,
00:19:03.780 | but Amulius, who was ambitious,
00:19:06.980 | was not willing that his brother should reign.
00:19:10.060 | So he said to Numitor, "One of us shall wear the crown
00:19:15.060 | "and to the other shall belong the gold and treasures
00:19:19.000 | "left by our father, Proca."
00:19:21.380 | The story does not tell if Numitor was indignant
00:19:26.660 | with his brother and said that the crown belonged to him.
00:19:31.420 | It only tells that Numitor chose to reign,
00:19:34.900 | as was indeed his right.
00:19:37.620 | Amulius then seized the gold and treasure
00:19:40.940 | and bribed his followers to drive Numitor from the throne
00:19:45.820 | and to make him king.
00:19:48.740 | This, in their greed, they were persuaded to do.
00:19:53.740 | Before long, Numitor was banished from the city
00:19:57.140 | and Amulius, to his great content, began to reign.
00:20:01.560 | But the king was soon surprised to find
00:20:05.340 | that the crown rested uneasily upon his head.
00:20:10.340 | It might be that the children of Numitor
00:20:13.980 | would someday wrench the crown from him,
00:20:17.880 | even as he had wrenched it from their father.
00:20:21.140 | That this might never be, Amulius,
00:20:24.660 | thinking to get rid of fear,
00:20:27.300 | ordered Numitor's son to be slain
00:20:30.860 | while his daughter, Sylvia, was kept
00:20:33.520 | by the command of the king
00:20:35.220 | in a temple sacred to the goddess Vesta.
00:20:38.620 | Here, the maiden tended the altar fire,
00:20:41.540 | which was never allowed to die.
00:20:45.060 | But the god Mars, angry it might well be
00:20:48.220 | with the cruelty of Amulius,
00:20:50.580 | took pity upon the maiden and sent twin sons
00:20:54.080 | to cheer her in her loneliness.
00:20:57.140 | Such strong, beautiful babes had never before been seen.
00:21:02.140 | As for the king, when he heard the births
00:21:05.540 | of these little boys, he was both angry and afraid,
00:21:09.220 | lest they should grow into strong men
00:21:12.500 | and wrest his kingdom from him.
00:21:15.740 | In his fear, Amulius ordered Sylvia
00:21:18.580 | to be shut up in a prison for the rest of her life,
00:21:22.180 | and her beautiful boys he commanded
00:21:25.120 | to be thrown into the river Tiber.
00:21:27.320 | Heavy rains had fallen of late,
00:21:30.280 | and as the king knew, the river had overflowed its banks.
00:21:35.280 | But of this, he reckoned not at all.
00:21:39.240 | Although, indeed, the flood was to be his undoing.
00:21:44.240 | Two servants, obeying the cruel order of Amulius,
00:21:50.000 | placed the baby boys in a basket,
00:21:52.020 | and going to the Tiber, flung their burden into the river.
00:21:57.020 | Like a boat, the basket floated hither and thither
00:22:00.700 | on the water until at length, carried onward by the flood,
00:22:05.000 | it was washed ashore at the foot of a hill
00:22:08.640 | called Mount Palatine.
00:22:11.920 | Here, under the shade of a wild fig tree,
00:22:14.520 | the basket was overturned, and the babes lay safe
00:22:18.320 | and sound upon the dry ground,
00:22:20.780 | while the river stole softly backward
00:22:23.840 | into its accustomed channel.
00:22:25.900 | Before long, the babes awoke hungry and began to cry.
00:22:31.400 | A she-wolf, coming to the edge of the river to drink,
00:22:35.320 | heard their cries, and carried them away to her cave,
00:22:39.520 | where she fed them with her milk,
00:22:42.040 | just as she would have fed her lost cubs.
00:22:45.400 | She washed them, too, as she was used
00:22:48.280 | to washing her own children by licking them with her tongue.
00:22:52.420 | Story three, the twin boys.
00:22:58.480 | The twin boys, it was said, were guarded by the god Mars.
00:23:04.060 | So it was not strange that as they grew older,
00:23:09.080 | the god should send his sacred birds, the woodpeckers,
00:23:12.340 | to feed the children.
00:23:14.260 | In and out of the cave, the birds flew each day,
00:23:18.260 | bringing with them food for the little boys.
00:23:21.420 | But neither the wolf nor the birds
00:23:23.620 | could do all that was needful.
00:23:26.100 | So before long, the god who watched over the children
00:23:30.020 | sent Faustulus to their aid.
00:23:32.720 | Faustulus was one of the herdsmen of King Amulius.
00:23:38.500 | He had often seen the wolf going in and out of the cave
00:23:41.580 | and had noticed, too, how the woodpeckers
00:23:44.260 | came and went each day.
00:23:46.340 | So when the wolf went off to prowl in the woods,
00:23:50.520 | Faustulus ventured into the cave,
00:23:53.320 | where to his amazement, he found two beautiful
00:23:57.020 | and well-fed children.
00:23:59.620 | He took them in his arms and carried them home to his wife.
00:24:03.380 | She gladly welcomed the little strangers,
00:24:06.260 | and naming them Romulus and Remus,
00:24:09.620 | brought them up as though they had been her own sons.
00:24:13.620 | As the years passed, the boys grew ever more beautiful.
00:24:17.160 | Stronger and braver, too, they became,
00:24:20.420 | until the rough herdsmen among whom they dwelt
00:24:23.100 | called them princes.
00:24:25.180 | The lads soon showed that they were fitted
00:24:28.940 | to lead the herdsmen.
00:24:31.020 | If wild beasts attacked the flocks
00:24:33.300 | or if robbers tried to steal them,
00:24:35.980 | Romulus and Remus were ever the first to attack
00:24:39.220 | and to drive away either the robbers or the wild beast.
00:24:43.860 | Faustulus lived on Mount Palatine,
00:24:46.500 | near the spot where the boys had been washed ashore
00:24:49.700 | when they were babes.
00:24:51.500 | This hill belonged to the cruel King Aemulius,
00:24:55.740 | and it was his sheep and cattle that the princes,
00:24:59.600 | unwitting of the evil the king had done to them,
00:25:03.440 | defended from danger.
00:25:06.180 | Not far from Mount Palatine was another hill
00:25:09.340 | named Mount Aventine,
00:25:11.380 | and here also were herdsmen guarding flocks,
00:25:15.080 | but these herdsmen belonged to the dethroned King Numitor.
00:25:20.080 | Numitor was living quietly in the city of Alba.
00:25:25.020 | Now, it chanced that the herdsmen of Aemulius
00:25:28.700 | began to quarrel with the herdsmen of Numitor.
00:25:32.700 | One evening, forgetting all about their enemies,
00:25:36.380 | the shepherds on Mount Palatine were merrymaking
00:25:39.540 | at a festival in honor of the god Pan.
00:25:42.680 | Then the herdsmen on Mount Aventine said one to the other,
00:25:47.020 | "See, here's our chance.
00:25:50.060 | We will lay an ambush for these unwary merrymakers."
00:25:55.060 | As the gods willed, they captured none other than Remus,
00:26:00.480 | and well-pleased with their prize,
00:26:04.320 | they carried the prince a prisoner to their master Numitor.
00:26:09.320 | Now guys, that probably seems like a cliffhanger.
00:26:17.300 | What about Romulus?
00:26:18.780 | And will Numitor discover who this kidnapped prince
00:26:23.780 | really is?
00:26:26.740 | If you want to know the answer to that question,
00:26:30.420 | and lots more I bet you have,
00:26:32.780 | you can get a copy of "The Kings of Rome" and keep reading.
00:26:37.700 | All right, moms and dads, I want to help you
00:26:43.020 | think about how you could ask some questions
00:26:48.020 | about your reading that would cultivate a few conversations,
00:26:54.080 | maybe get people talking and stoke the enthusiasm
00:26:59.100 | for the stories that you just read.
00:27:02.120 | Lots of you have heard about the five core habits,
00:27:04.820 | and I want you to know that they are natural to all of us,
00:27:09.080 | not just our little kids.
00:27:10.760 | And adding those habits naturally, intentionally,
00:27:16.560 | to your reading conversations,
00:27:18.980 | you will see how the fun grows.
00:27:21.760 | Our little children are really good at naming and attending
00:27:26.420 | and memorizing and expressing and storytelling,
00:27:30.540 | and you will have tons of fun picking their brains
00:27:34.980 | and letting their minds wonder and wander.
00:27:39.020 | So here's some ideas.
00:27:40.820 | You could begin asking them, who's in the story?
00:27:45.820 | You can ask them, when we read this story together,
00:27:50.700 | who did you hear about?
00:27:54.020 | So for instance, if you read "The She-Wolf Story,"
00:27:58.260 | that's the second story that we read,
00:28:00.960 | you could say, who are the characters?
00:28:03.740 | And your children might be able to tell you,
00:28:05.740 | well, the brothers, Numitor and Amulius,
00:28:10.740 | and their sister, do you remember, Sylvia, twin boys.
00:28:15.900 | The She-Wolf could even be a character.
00:28:20.700 | You could ask your children now, where did the story happen?
00:28:24.780 | One thing you could do is grab a map
00:28:27.500 | and look at present day Italy,
00:28:32.500 | and try to figure out where you and your children think
00:28:37.100 | Alba Longa, the long white city, could have been.
00:28:41.780 | And then go through the story, ask your children,
00:28:46.700 | are there any words that seemed new to you?
00:28:51.260 | Any words that you weren't quite sure what the word meant?
00:28:56.260 | The word wrench in there, the word wrench,
00:29:01.640 | when it talked about that Amulius was worried
00:29:04.540 | that someone might wrench the crown away from him,
00:29:09.540 | you might have to explain that wrench
00:29:12.380 | is a word that seems sort of mean,
00:29:17.020 | and it can mean a sudden tearing away or grabbing.
00:29:21.260 | Your children are gonna attend to words
00:29:25.420 | that they don't know, or words that are fun to say,
00:29:29.700 | or words that they hear repeated.
00:29:33.540 | A lot of times young children are even better than grownups
00:29:37.100 | at attending to the surface details, what the names were,
00:29:41.780 | what the people were described as looking like.
00:29:46.280 | You can really help them tap into this talent
00:29:51.280 | by appealing to their five senses.
00:29:54.420 | You could ask them, what do you think Numitor looked like?
00:29:59.420 | What do you think his voice might have sounded like?
00:30:04.100 | You could ask them, what does the wind sound like?
00:30:07.300 | What does a storm sound like?
00:30:11.580 | You could ask, what do you think the gold and treasure
00:30:16.580 | of Amulius looked like?
00:30:19.500 | How big do you think that the treasure was?
00:30:22.940 | Do you think it sparkled?
00:30:25.420 | What do you think the crowns looked like
00:30:28.020 | back in the kings of Rome days?
00:30:31.100 | Have you ever seen a fig tree?
00:30:33.460 | You could talk about things
00:30:36.140 | that your children absolutely know,
00:30:38.140 | even if they haven't seen a fig tree,
00:30:40.500 | they've seen a shade tree.
00:30:42.460 | What does it feel like in the shade?
00:30:45.040 | Maybe you want to go outside and stand in the sun
00:30:49.000 | for long enough to get hot and then stand in the shade
00:30:52.420 | and ask them, how is it different?
00:30:54.700 | How would you describe the difference?
00:30:57.860 | You could say, have you ever smelled a river?
00:31:03.380 | Now your kids might laugh at you
00:31:05.220 | because they've thought about what does a river feel like
00:31:08.660 | and maybe what does a river sound like as it rushes by,
00:31:13.180 | but what does it smell like?
00:31:15.740 | If you have a chance, take a trip to a river
00:31:19.100 | or to another body of water
00:31:21.020 | and encourage your children to close their eyes
00:31:24.460 | and sit very still and use their sense of smell
00:31:28.220 | and see what they can detect.
00:31:30.360 | You can ask your children, where does the story take place?
00:31:36.620 | And when does the story take place?
00:31:39.060 | So they will be able to say that the She-Wolf story
00:31:42.820 | takes place in ancient times, in Italy, in ancient times,
00:31:47.820 | even before Rome was founded and that was in the 700 BC.
00:31:53.020 | So you can ask them,
00:31:57.420 | is there more than one location in the story?
00:32:00.420 | Does some of the story happen in one place,
00:32:03.320 | like a king's courtyard?
00:32:07.460 | And does some of the story happen in another place,
00:32:10.620 | like in the forest?
00:32:12.700 | You can ask about all of the people in the story
00:32:16.580 | and what they were like.
00:32:18.260 | So what was Numitor like?
00:32:20.580 | He was the oldest and who was Amulius?
00:32:25.500 | He was the younger son.
00:32:28.820 | What was he like and how can you tell?
00:32:31.800 | So they might tell you that he was greedy or tricky
00:32:35.980 | and you can say, how do you know that?
00:32:38.640 | And they will talk to you about what he did
00:32:41.580 | and you might be able to talk to your children
00:32:44.540 | about the way others see you is based
00:32:48.540 | not on what you think about yourself, but on what you do.
00:32:52.180 | It is the face that you show to your friends and your family.
00:32:56.620 | That's who people think that you are.
00:33:01.420 | One of the best things to do with our little children
00:33:04.000 | is to get them to tell the story back to us.
00:33:06.960 | That's called narration.
00:33:08.880 | You can see how much of the plot they have picked up.
00:33:13.720 | Are they able to tell the story in order?
00:33:17.000 | Do they get the people, the main characters into the story?
00:33:23.280 | What can they tell you about the characters
00:33:27.500 | because of what happened in the story?
00:33:30.760 | You can get your children to tell you
00:33:32.360 | the conflict of the story.
00:33:34.100 | Now they might not know what conflict means,
00:33:37.940 | but you might ask them who had a struggle in the story.
00:33:42.940 | In the She-Wolf story, there are several conflicts.
00:33:46.740 | One of them is between Numitor and Amulius.
00:33:51.120 | They struggle to determine who's gonna rule the kingdom
00:33:55.620 | and they solve the issue by what?
00:33:59.060 | Well, by compromise, okay?
00:34:02.100 | Another struggle, Amulius struggles to feel secure
00:34:06.820 | after he has kind of muscled his brother
00:34:11.820 | out of the kingdom.
00:34:13.500 | He no longer feels secure.
00:34:15.100 | So his conflict is really within himself,
00:34:18.180 | how to feel secure in his crown.
00:34:21.700 | You can even talk to your children
00:34:23.660 | about the theme of the story.
00:34:25.940 | So what was the main idea of the story?
00:34:30.940 | How did they behave?
00:34:33.180 | How were the characters, were they wise or foolish?
00:34:36.660 | Your children are gonna memorize.
00:34:40.480 | If you read the story more than once,
00:34:43.060 | your children are gonna memorize it.
00:34:45.300 | That's the thing about repetition.
00:34:47.460 | As we repeat stories,
00:34:50.100 | we might think our children are getting bored,
00:34:53.540 | but children are not usually bored by repeated stories.
00:34:56.600 | They love it.
00:34:57.720 | And remember, repetition leads to memorization.
00:35:02.380 | So these names are gonna stick with your kids.
00:35:06.040 | These locations, these places,
00:35:08.860 | even these virtues that you want to talk about
00:35:11.640 | with your children, honor and honesty, kindness,
00:35:16.140 | they will stick with your children.
00:35:20.900 | One of the ways you can use the core habit of expressing
00:35:25.540 | is narration.
00:35:27.300 | You can ask your children to tell the story back to you.
00:35:31.180 | You can ask them to act out the story.
00:35:35.100 | You can even really get into it
00:35:36.580 | and provide props for costumes
00:35:39.420 | or a basket for riding down a river in.
00:35:44.060 | You can draw the characters.
00:35:47.340 | You can ask them,
00:35:48.180 | what do you think Numitor looked like?
00:35:50.100 | What do you think the she-wolf looked like?
00:35:52.940 | What do you think the shepherd looked like?
00:35:55.140 | What kind of clothes did he wear?
00:35:57.680 | You can draw the characters.
00:35:59.260 | You could draw scenes from the story.
00:36:03.020 | If you want to practice handwriting this summer,
00:36:05.660 | or if you have a child who's just learning to write in cursive
00:36:08.700 | and still thinks that is fun with a capital F,
00:36:12.020 | you could give them a sentence or a paragraph to copy.
00:36:16.820 | You can encourage them in their storytelling.
00:36:20.060 | You could encourage them to write a story
00:36:23.300 | about something that they know,
00:36:26.100 | or to write the story of what they think happens next.
00:36:31.100 | After the three stories that I just read for you,
00:36:35.660 | what do they think is the next step in the story
00:36:40.100 | and get them to write it.
00:36:42.980 | There are all kinds of things
00:36:45.060 | that you can do with your children
00:36:47.800 | that bring the story to life
00:36:50.480 | and is more than just sitting and retelling.
00:36:55.300 | Using the characters in the story
00:36:58.620 | to teach virtue, to teach honor,
00:37:02.720 | using the story to introduce new vocabulary words,
00:37:07.720 | using the story to stretch their imagination
00:37:12.180 | and to incite wonder.
00:37:15.420 | All of these are good ways to bolster the fun
00:37:20.220 | that you and your family can have together
00:37:23.780 | as you read this summer.
00:37:27.060 | I hope that you enjoyed some of our stories
00:37:30.360 | from Kings of Rome,
00:37:32.060 | and I am looking forward to sharing more stories with you
00:37:36.140 | next week from our Exploring the World with Uncle Paul.
00:37:42.140 | I'll see you guys next week.
00:37:44.100 | (gentle music)
00:37:46.680 | (gentle music)
00:37:49.260 | you
00:37:51.320 | [BLANK_AUDIO]