Everyday Educator - Road to Wonder - Summer Book Club
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Welcome friends to this episode
00:00:06.040 | of the "Everyday Educator" podcast.
00:00:09.000 | I'm your host, Lisa Bailey,
00:00:10.800 | and I'm excited to spend some time with you today
00:00:14.280 | as we encourage one another, learn together,
00:00:17.680 | and ponder the delights and challenges
00:00:20.660 | that make homeschooling the adventure of a lifetime.
00:00:24.240 | Whether you're just considering
00:00:26.420 | this homeschooling possibility
00:00:28.640 | or deep into the daily delight of family learning,
00:00:32.620 | I believe you'll enjoy thinking along with us.
00:00:36.620 | But don't forget,
00:00:37.940 | although this online community is awesome,
00:00:41.540 | you'll find even closer support in a local CC community.
00:00:46.540 | So go to classicalconversations.com
00:00:51.460 | and find a community near you today.
00:00:55.400 | Well, I have a question for you.
00:00:58.540 | Does your family like to travel?
00:01:03.180 | What makes travel enjoyable for you?
00:01:07.500 | Are you explorers, people who like to try new things,
00:01:12.220 | embracing the habits and the culture
00:01:14.740 | of the place you're visiting?
00:01:17.140 | Or are you experiencers,
00:01:19.860 | loving to soak in the atmosphere of a new spot,
00:01:23.620 | living like the natives?
00:01:26.060 | Are you documenters, people who like to observe and record
00:01:31.060 | and take lots of pictures of what you see
00:01:34.900 | as the similarities and differences
00:01:38.220 | between home and the travel location?
00:01:42.500 | Most of us, even self-proclaimed homebodies,
00:01:47.260 | like to see new places and try some new things.
00:01:52.020 | Many of us are able to travel with our families
00:01:55.220 | to some extent, but lots of us have bucket lists
00:01:59.780 | of places to go, some so long or so ambitious
00:02:04.780 | we might actually never go to all of them.
00:02:10.300 | Reading is a way to go farther without leaving home.
00:02:15.300 | When I was young, and actually even now that I'm not young,
00:02:20.780 | I love visiting places, strange places sometimes
00:02:25.780 | through the books I read.
00:02:28.500 | When I was little, I went to London and Paris and China
00:02:32.780 | and Jamaica and Russia.
00:02:35.780 | And most of the time, these locations
00:02:39.060 | were maybe not the point of the story I was reading,
00:02:42.460 | just the setting, but I learned about the places anyway
00:02:47.460 | and the people that lived there.
00:02:49.740 | And I felt like my world got bigger.
00:02:54.180 | Why not use reading aloud together
00:02:57.620 | as a way to travel the world this summer?
00:03:01.060 | Today, I want to read to you some stories from Africa
00:03:07.140 | from our Copper Lodge Library Edition, Ancient World Echoes.
00:03:12.140 | Foundations families are gonna be learning about Africa
00:03:16.980 | this fall during cycle one.
00:03:20.320 | So today I want to read you three stories
00:03:25.320 | how we got the name spider tales,
00:03:31.100 | how wisdom became the property of the human race
00:03:35.900 | and an Aesop's fable, the shepherd boy and the wolf.
00:03:40.900 | So you sit back and get ready to enjoy some stories.
00:03:44.820 | And afterwards, I'm gonna give you a few suggestions,
00:03:48.620 | some tips for conversation and activities from our stories.
00:03:53.620 | First of all, from Ancient World Echoes,
00:04:00.820 | how we got the name spider tales.
00:04:06.780 | In the olden days, all the stories which men told
00:04:13.420 | were stories of Onyankapon, the chief of the gods.
00:04:18.420 | Spider, who was very conceited,
00:04:22.340 | wanted the stories to be told about him.
00:04:26.440 | Accordingly, one day he went to Onyankapon
00:04:32.500 | and asked that in the future,
00:04:35.180 | all tales told by men might be Anansi stories
00:04:41.820 | instead of Onyankapon stories.
00:04:44.720 | Onyankapon agreed on one condition.
00:04:49.300 | He told spider or Anansi
00:04:53.680 | that he must bring him three things.
00:04:56.980 | The first was a jar full of live bees.
00:05:01.980 | The second was a boa constrictor and the third, a tiger.
00:05:09.900 | Spider gave his promise.
00:05:12.320 | He took an earthen vessel and set out for a place
00:05:17.620 | where he knew were numbers of bees.
00:05:22.460 | When he came inside of the bees,
00:05:24.360 | he began saying to himself,
00:05:26.680 | "They will not be able to fill this jar."
00:05:31.720 | "Yes, they will be able."
00:05:34.960 | "No, they will not be able."
00:05:38.580 | Until the bees came up to him and said,
00:05:41.520 | "What are you talking about, Mr. Anansi?"
00:05:45.500 | He thereupon explained to them what Onyankapon
00:05:49.260 | and he had had a great dispute.
00:05:53.020 | Onyankapon had said the bees could not fly into the jar.
00:05:57.940 | Anansi had said that they could.
00:06:01.300 | The bees immediately declared
00:06:04.680 | that of course they could fly into the jar,
00:06:09.040 | which they did at once.
00:06:10.840 | As soon as they were safely inside,
00:06:15.000 | Anansi sealed up the jar and sent it off to Onyankapon.
00:06:20.000 | Next day, he took a long stick
00:06:26.000 | and set out in search of a boa constrictor.
00:06:29.720 | When he arrived at the place where one lived,
00:06:33.480 | he began speaking to himself again.
00:06:37.640 | "He will be just as long as this stick."
00:06:42.300 | "No, he will not be as long as this."
00:06:44.460 | "Yes, he will be as long as this."
00:06:48.840 | These words he repeated several times
00:06:51.580 | till the boa came out and asked him,
00:06:54.820 | "What was the matter?"
00:06:56.660 | "Oh, we've been having a dispute
00:07:00.000 | in Onyankapon's town about you."
00:07:03.260 | "Onyankapon's people say that you are not
00:07:05.900 | as long as this stick."
00:07:07.980 | "I say you are."
00:07:10.620 | "Please, let me measure you by it."
00:07:14.640 | The boa innocently laid himself out straight
00:07:18.660 | and Spider lost no time in tying him onto the stick
00:07:23.660 | from end to end.
00:07:25.940 | He then sent him to Onyankapon.
00:07:32.140 | The third day, he took a needle and thread
00:07:34.980 | and sewed up his eye.
00:07:38.260 | He then set out for a den where he knew a tiger lived.
00:07:43.260 | As he approached the place,
00:07:45.720 | he began to shout and sing so loudly
00:07:49.740 | that the tiger came out to see what was the matter.
00:07:53.720 | "Can you not see?"
00:07:55.780 | said Spider.
00:07:57.020 | "My eye is sewn up and now I can see."
00:08:00.940 | "Oh, such wonderful things that I must sing about them."
00:08:05.940 | "Sew up my eyes," said the tiger.
00:08:10.060 | "Then I too can see these surprising sights."
00:08:14.420 | Spider immediately did so.
00:08:16.780 | Having thus made the tiger helpless,
00:08:19.580 | he led him straight to Onyankapon's house.
00:08:23.780 | Onyankapon was amazed at Spider's cleverness
00:08:27.540 | in fulfilling the three conditions.
00:08:30.180 | He immediately gave him permission for the future
00:08:34.580 | to call all the old tales Anansi tales.
00:08:39.580 | Also, from "Ancient World Echoes,"
00:08:45.660 | how wisdom became the property of the human race,
00:08:50.020 | an African folk tale.
00:08:52.540 | There once lived in Fontyland a man named Father Anansi.
00:08:59.980 | He possessed all the wisdom in the world.
00:09:04.440 | People came to him daily for advice and help.
00:09:08.900 | One day, the men of the country were unfortunate enough
00:09:12.960 | to offend Father Anansi,
00:09:15.740 | who immediately resolved to punish them.
00:09:20.100 | After much thought,
00:09:21.180 | he decided that the severest penalty he could inflict
00:09:25.260 | would be to hide all his wisdom from them.
00:09:30.260 | He set to work at once to gather again
00:09:33.340 | all that he had already given.
00:09:36.980 | When he had succeeded, as he thought, in collecting it,
00:09:41.940 | he placed all in one great pot.
00:09:45.940 | This he carefully sealed
00:09:50.180 | and determined to put it in a spot
00:09:52.860 | where no human being could possibly reach it.
00:09:57.860 | Now, Father Anansi had a son whose name was Kwai Kwetsien.
00:10:04.840 | This boy began to suspect his father of some secret design,
00:10:11.580 | so he made up his mind to watch carefully.
00:10:16.020 | Next day, he saw his father quietly slip out of the house
00:10:20.900 | with his precious pot hung around his neck.
00:10:24.460 | Kwai Kwetsien followed.
00:10:27.900 | Father Anansi went through the forest
00:10:31.140 | till he had left the village far behind.
00:10:34.460 | Then, selecting the highest
00:10:36.740 | and most inaccessible-looking tree, he began to climb.
00:10:41.740 | The heavy pot hanging in front of him
00:10:45.980 | made his ascent almost impossible.
00:10:50.020 | Again and again, he tried to reach the top of the tree
00:10:54.580 | where he intended to hang the pot.
00:10:57.380 | There, he thought, wisdom would indeed
00:10:59.900 | be beyond the reach of everyone but himself.
00:11:04.760 | He was unable, however, to carry out his desire.
00:11:08.860 | At each trial, the pot swung in his way.
00:11:15.780 | For some time, Kwai Kwetsien watched
00:11:20.540 | his father's vain attempts.
00:11:23.460 | At last, unable to contain himself any longer,
00:11:26.660 | he cried out, "Father, why do you not hang the pot
00:11:30.940 | "on your back?
00:11:32.540 | "Then you could easily climb the tree."
00:11:36.140 | Father Anansi turned and said,
00:11:39.720 | "I thought I had all the world's wisdom in this pot.
00:11:45.560 | "But I find you possess more than I do.
00:11:49.400 | "All my wisdom was insufficient to show me what to do.
00:11:53.760 | "Yet, you have been able to tell me."
00:11:57.860 | In his anger, he threw the pot down.
00:12:01.960 | It struck on a great rock and broke.
00:12:05.360 | The wisdom contained in it escaped
00:12:09.280 | and spread throughout the world.
00:12:14.580 | And now, from "Ancient World Echoes,"
00:12:18.580 | an Aesop's fable, "The Shepherd Boy and the Wolf."
00:12:23.580 | A shepherd boy tended his master's sheep
00:12:27.580 | near a dark forest, not far from the village.
00:12:32.020 | Soon, he found life in the pasture very dull.
00:12:37.020 | All he could do to amuse himself was talk to his dog
00:12:40.460 | or play on his shepherd's pipe.
00:12:44.100 | One day, as he sat watching the sheep in the quiet forest
00:12:48.420 | and thinking what he would do should he see a wolf,
00:12:52.700 | he thought of a plan to amuse himself.
00:12:57.100 | His master had told him to call for help
00:13:01.180 | should a wolf attack the flock
00:13:03.300 | and the villagers would drive it away.
00:13:06.260 | So now, though he had not seen anything
00:13:10.900 | that even looked like a wolf,
00:13:13.380 | he ran toward the village shouting
00:13:16.100 | at the top of his voice, "Wolf! Wolf!"
00:13:20.680 | As he expected, the villagers who heard the cry
00:13:23.460 | dropped their work and ran
00:13:25.780 | in great excitement to the pasture.
00:13:27.960 | But when they got there, they found the boy doubled up
00:13:33.700 | with laughter at the trick he had played on them.
00:13:36.940 | A few days later, the shepherd boy again shouted,
00:13:41.460 | "Wolf! Wolf!"
00:13:44.060 | Again, the villagers ran to help him
00:13:46.700 | only to be laughed at again.
00:13:49.900 | Then, one evening, as the sun was setting behind the forest
00:13:55.100 | and the shadows were creeping out over the pasture,
00:13:58.820 | a wolf really did spring from the underbrush
00:14:03.580 | and fall upon the sheep.
00:14:06.160 | In terror, the boy ran toward the village shouting,
00:14:10.180 | "Wolf! Wolf!"
00:14:12.940 | But though the villagers heard the cry,
00:14:15.620 | they did not run to help him as they had before.
00:14:19.220 | "Pfft, he cannot fool us again," they said.
00:14:23.300 | The wolf killed a great many of the boy's sheep
00:14:27.420 | and then slipped away into the forest.
00:14:33.260 | Liars are not believed
00:14:37.340 | even when they speak the truth.
00:14:41.100 | All right, some good lessons to learn,
00:14:48.540 | some great conversations that could be had.
00:14:51.820 | And I've got a few suggestions for you.
00:14:56.820 | If you want to get some good conversations started at home
00:15:01.820 | as you snuggle up reading aloud,
00:15:04.780 | you might ask about some of the words in the story
00:15:09.460 | that your children might or might not know.
00:15:13.380 | What does conceited mean?
00:15:16.900 | Ask your children, go back and read where it is
00:15:19.740 | in the story.
00:15:21.140 | Ask your children, can you figure out
00:15:23.820 | what it means from the story?
00:15:26.620 | And then from the description of Spider's actions?
00:15:32.180 | Is it good to be conceited?
00:15:35.500 | Ooh, why not?
00:15:38.980 | And then think, in our first story,
00:15:42.340 | what were Spider's three quests?
00:15:47.140 | Did they look like hard tasks?
00:15:51.220 | Would you want to have to do those things,
00:15:54.340 | fill a jar with bees and catch a boa constrictor
00:15:57.900 | and a tiger?
00:15:59.740 | How in the world did Spider accomplish his tasks?
00:16:04.740 | What do you think he needed most?
00:16:07.780 | Did he need to be strong?
00:16:11.020 | Did he need to be brave?
00:16:13.900 | Or did he need to be clever?
00:16:16.540 | Or was it a combination of all of these?
00:16:21.500 | Now, what do you know about bees?
00:16:24.940 | Maybe you have bees in your backyard.
00:16:28.660 | Maybe you know someone who raises honeybees.
00:16:33.460 | Maybe you have even seen a wild beehive.
00:16:38.460 | What do you know about bees?
00:16:40.860 | What do you know about boa constrictors?
00:16:45.180 | Most of us do not live in a place
00:16:48.900 | where boa constrictors live in the wild.
00:16:52.540 | And I'm glad about that.
00:16:54.380 | But maybe you have seen a boa constrictor
00:16:57.980 | at a science center or a herpetarium or a zoo.
00:17:02.980 | What about a tiger?
00:17:07.140 | I myself love to see tigers,
00:17:10.540 | but I wouldn't want to meet one in the forest.
00:17:13.660 | Have you ever seen a tiger?
00:17:15.580 | What did your tiger act like?
00:17:19.780 | What did he look like?
00:17:21.700 | What is your favorite part of tigers?
00:17:25.260 | How would you conquer a bee?
00:17:29.580 | How would you conquer a boa constrictor?
00:17:33.460 | How would you conquer a tiger?
00:17:36.980 | You might have some fun moving around.
00:17:43.060 | How would you move like a bee or sound like a bee?
00:17:48.060 | What about a boa constrictor?
00:17:50.740 | How does a boa constrictor move and does he make a sound?
00:17:55.740 | What about a tiger?
00:17:57.980 | Can you slink through the grass like a tiger?
00:18:02.340 | Can you pounce like a tiger?
00:18:05.100 | What sounds do tigers make?
00:18:07.980 | You might want to consider as a family, what is wisdom?
00:18:14.540 | What is wisdom?
00:18:19.820 | And why do people want it?
00:18:23.540 | Also, how do you think we get to be wise?
00:18:29.900 | Now, in our next story,
00:18:37.020 | one of the main characters, Father Anansi,
00:18:41.380 | had to carry something very heavy.
00:18:44.940 | It was a pot full of wisdom.
00:18:47.300 | Now, you could spend some time talking about
00:18:50.220 | whether or not you think wisdom would fit in a pot,
00:18:54.300 | but you could also talk about a time
00:18:57.380 | when you have been asked to carry something heavy.
00:19:01.060 | What was it?
00:19:03.700 | What was the best way you found to carry your heavy burden?
00:19:08.700 | In the story, what allowed the son to follow his father?
00:19:16.900 | To find the best way to carry the pot.
00:19:21.500 | How did he figure it out when his father could not?
00:19:26.340 | And maybe you would like to talk with your family
00:19:30.940 | about what is a fable?
00:19:33.180 | We read one today.
00:19:35.380 | We read an Aesop's fable.
00:19:38.100 | What is a fable?
00:19:39.460 | What other fables have you heard before?
00:19:44.340 | What lesson does this fable teach us?
00:19:49.340 | And here are some fun activities
00:19:53.300 | that you might do together as a family
00:19:56.340 | to make your reading come alive.
00:19:59.300 | Look at the cover.
00:20:01.020 | If you have a copy of "Ancient World Echoes,"
00:20:04.380 | go dig up your copy and look at the cover.
00:20:08.500 | What animals and people do you see
00:20:12.780 | on the cover of "Ancient World Echoes?"
00:20:16.620 | If you have read some of the other stories,
00:20:19.940 | you might have ideas about the characters
00:20:23.700 | that you would put on the front cover.
00:20:27.300 | And if you've not read many of the stories,
00:20:29.780 | look in the table of contents
00:20:32.460 | and see what characters or stories catch your eye
00:20:37.460 | and think about how you would draw those.
00:20:41.300 | What are some of your favorite stories from this great book?
00:20:45.820 | Now, look for stuff.
00:20:48.680 | You guys all have stuff around your house.
00:20:52.300 | What is stuff?
00:20:53.540 | They are things that you can use to make other things.
00:20:59.380 | Look for stuff around your house
00:21:01.480 | that you can use to make a spider or a snake or a tiger.
00:21:07.340 | Listen, look for paper plates,
00:21:10.260 | lengths of rope or yarn or plastic tubing.
00:21:15.260 | Look for some pipe cleaners, some string,
00:21:19.260 | some old wrapping paper, some drinking straws.
00:21:24.260 | Look for stuff that you could use
00:21:28.400 | to make a spider or a snake or a tiger.
00:21:32.100 | You know what else you could do?
00:21:35.540 | You could take some paper and cut it all to the same size,
00:21:40.020 | staple it together on one side
00:21:42.100 | and make a flip book of one of the stories
00:21:45.780 | that we shared today.
00:21:48.780 | One of the stories from one of the African folk tales
00:21:52.660 | that we shared.
00:21:54.340 | Draw pictures that show the action of the story.
00:21:59.340 | You could even draw a cartoon
00:22:03.540 | of one of the stories that we shared.
00:22:06.660 | You could use paper and pen and draw your cartoon inside,
00:22:11.660 | or you could go outside and divide the sidewalk
00:22:16.940 | or your back patio into cartoon panels
00:22:22.500 | and draw the cartoon frames in chalk outside.
00:22:29.500 | Lots of the folk tales that we read together,
00:22:34.500 | especially in "Ancient World Echoes,"
00:22:38.180 | are stories that try to explain how things came to be.
00:22:43.180 | How things came to be.
00:22:48.900 | Explaining the world, like how wisdom is found everywhere,
00:22:55.300 | or how the African stories in many storybooks
00:23:00.300 | are called Anansi stories.
00:23:04.260 | Folk tales often try to explain the world
00:23:08.500 | that we see and live in.
00:23:10.620 | What could you make a story to explain?
00:23:15.540 | Think about the life you live at home with your family,
00:23:18.620 | what you see happening in your community or in your state,
00:23:22.940 | or even in your country.
00:23:26.300 | How could you make a story
00:23:28.860 | that explains how things are to someone else?
00:23:33.860 | Here's what I want you to remember.
00:23:36.500 | Reading is fun, and reading together is even more fun,
00:23:41.500 | but doing something with what you read
00:23:46.380 | might be the most fun of all.
00:23:50.860 | I hope that you will read more stories
00:23:54.620 | from the Copper Lodge Library series this year.
00:23:58.860 | And I wanna tell you,
00:24:00.100 | there are more than just "Ancient World Echoes"
00:24:04.180 | and "Old World Echoes" and "New World Echoes" storybooks.
00:24:09.180 | The Copper Lodge Library is a whole series of books
00:24:14.220 | that preserve and present timeless stories from the past
00:24:19.140 | to help families celebrate
00:24:22.340 | and cultivate stories and virtues today.
00:24:27.340 | The reason that Classical Conversations
00:24:32.540 | created the Copper Lodge Library
00:24:35.180 | is that we really wanted to offer families
00:24:37.620 | collections of stories
00:24:39.340 | that have built community throughout history,
00:24:44.700 | stories that have brought people together.
00:24:46.980 | So we collected fairy tales and fables
00:24:51.100 | and how-to stories and why stories
00:24:55.220 | and stories from all over the world
00:24:58.420 | as well as stories from right here at home.
00:25:02.380 | And we put them into a beautiful collection
00:25:04.940 | that families can collect and enjoy together.
00:25:09.380 | And these are stories that do teach good lessons
00:25:13.180 | and give us great things to talk about as a family.
00:25:18.100 | The deal is we want to preserve excellent stories
00:25:21.820 | from the past for today.
00:25:24.740 | So I encourage you to find out
00:25:27.980 | what Copper Lodge Library edition you might be missing.
00:25:32.940 | We have three brand new books
00:25:34.940 | that I'd love for you to go look for,
00:25:37.260 | "Pride and Prejudice," "The Secret Garden,"
00:25:41.140 | and "English Epic Poetry."
00:25:44.100 | Those are the three newest titles
00:25:46.420 | and more will be coming.
00:25:49.260 | So you go and look for those
00:25:50.700 | and we hope that you enjoyed the Copper Lodge Library
00:25:54.540 | as much as we enjoyed putting it together.
00:25:57.340 | But even more than that,
00:25:58.900 | we hope that you enjoy reading aloud together as a family.
00:26:03.740 | See you next time.
00:26:05.580 | (gentle music)
00:26:08.180 | you
00:26:10.240 | you