(upbeat music) - Welcome friends to this episode of the "Everyday Educator" podcast. I'm your host, Lisa Bailey, and I'm excited to spend some time with you today as we encourage one another, learn together, and ponder the delights and challenges that make homeschooling the adventure of a lifetime. Whether you're just considering this homeschooling possibility or deep into the daily delight of family learning, I believe you'll enjoy thinking along with us.

But don't forget, although this online community is awesome, you'll find even closer support in a local CC community. So go to classicalconversations.com and find a community near you today. Well, listeners, welcome to summer. As I record this podcast with you today, it is early June and many of our students have had enough time since community ended to begin maybe not being bored, but to start looking around for something to do.

And maybe you, as moms and dads are thinking, "Hmm, I don't want us to lose all of the learning skills that we practice together and all of the routines that we enjoyed throughout the year. I want something for us to do together." And reading aloud together is a wonderful way to start the day or end the day or take a break during the day or all of the above.

Reading aloud as a family has multiple benefits, right? You know this. It builds community, even community in your family. It builds closeness between you and all of your children of various ages. Many families have from preschoolers to challenge students in the same family. And a lot of families wonder, "What could I read that would interest everybody, that everybody could grab a hold of in some way?" So we wanna talk this summer over the course of the next month and even a little bit into July about ways that we can read together as a family.

Having shared memories of stories that become beloved or poems that really resonate with your family, even songs that you learn together, Bible passages that you memorize together or study together become shared memories for you and your family that will last a lifetime, that will continue to draw your family close together, maybe even become touchstones for your family.

Read aloud time becomes a really sweet time of connection where you can exchange ideas, wrestle with feelings, ask questions, like, "What does that word mean?" Or, "Is that what that word looks like when you write it down?" I can remember as a child, I read voraciously, but I read to myself.

And my parents really didn't read to me after I learned to read on my own. So there were lots of words that I knew the meaning of because I had read them, but I'd never heard them said aloud. And boy, that cost me some degree of embarrassment several times.

So reading together aloud as a family allows you to learn new things that you might not learn if you're reading by yourself. Reading as a family becomes heart time. I'd encourage you to find time. So reading as a family has multiple benefits and community is one of them. Context sharing is also one of them.

There are lots of pieces of literature that you can share with your children, even when they're very young. Fables, myths, legends, historical stories, biographical sketches that will build context for your students as they read more advanced literature later on. Years ago, when I was still tutoring Challenge One, I had a student who would say, I bet he said it at least once a week during our community time.

He would look up and he would say, "Oh, was that a reference?" And what he meant was we were always alluding to past stories, pieces of literature, myths, legends, quotes, people's lives. We were always alluding to something that the students had been exposed to earlier, maybe in foundations, maybe in an earlier challenge, maybe from Bible study at home or at church.

When we read together with our families, we are able to build a context, a listening context for our children that will give them information they will be able to use as they continue strengthening their reading muscles. Allusions and references that will occur over and over for our children as they continue to read.

So reading as a family has as a benefit, community, context, and a catalyst. Reading together as a family can really be a catalyst for sharing questions, mining your children's and your own curiosity. It can be a catalyst for shared learning and shared exploring. Reading together as a family lights the fire of wonder in everybody who participates.

You can cultivate wonder as you read with your children this summer. Wonder about the world God has made. Wonder about the people He has used through history. Wonder about what God is leading your children and your family to do in His world. What has He called you to do?

How has He shaped you? What are your kids interested in? What are they good at? You may discover all of that as you read together this summer. Now, today, I really wanna talk to you guys about our "Story of Rome" series. I know that some of you have been reading already the stories in "Stories of Rome," "The Kings of Rome," "Emperors of Rome," "Senators of Rome" series.

You have found something to love in that. Some of you are still thinking, "Eh, the story of Rome, what does that have to do with me? "My kids are not gonna learn Latin for a long time. "My kids are little and they don't care about Rome. "They don't even know where Rome is.

"I'm not even sure where in Italy Rome is." Okay, so I wanna give you some reasons why should you read "The Story of Rome." Well, here's one thing, one way to look at it. "The Story of Rome" is really the story of the Western world. It has tons of stories about men, about government, about struggles, about power.

The story of Rome is the Western world that became the world we know today. We can see our roots in many of these stories and thus understand the fruit that we see around us today. That alone would provide huge catalyst for conversations with your older students who are beginning to study world governments and the struggles of men to govern themselves and others.

So why else should we read "The Story of Rome?" This is a cool thing. We meet characters that will allow us to discuss virtue with our children, whether they are preschoolers or 11, 12-year-olds or teenagers. We meet characters in "The Story of Rome" that allow us to discuss virtue and can show us real people wrestling with the choices, some of those choices that we might recognize ourself.

In "The Story of Rome," we meet good guys and bad guys, but here's the deal. Both good guys and bad guys give us chances to ask why. Why did they do that? What else could they have done? What did that guy's actions start? How was this situation turned for the better?

How did this situation devolve into a worse situation? Here's the thing. Human nature doesn't change. And when you read stories that are set in the past, stories that come to us from antiquity, you'll see that although time changes, human nature doesn't. And so you will find good guys and bad guys in "Stories of Rome" that look amazingly like the good guys and bad guys of today.

Another reason to read "Stories of Rome" is that you will find the story of the early church intertwined. Church history and Roman history is interwoven. And so we find connections as we go. For instance, when you hear about Caesar Augustus putting out attacks over the world, over the country, there's some connection.

You know what might have been happening in the world that touches our Bible stories as well. Now it is true that studying, reading the "Stories of Rome" will give you some context for your Latin studies. And I wanna tell you guys that the stories in "The Kings of Rome" have a lot to do with timeline cards and our cycle work memory, our cycle one memory work.

So as you prepare for the fall, hey, go ahead and start reading "Kings of Rome" this summer and you'll be amazed at the memory pegs you will begin to pound in for your children. Here's what I'd like to do today. I want to read you three short stories from "Kings of Rome." Now, listen, three stories, but the stories are like a page, two pages, a page and a half long.

So I'm gonna read you three stories and then we are going to, I'm gonna offer you some ideas for discussion. So after you read this stories with your children, how could you elicit some conversation? What could you wrestle with? I think that you will enjoy it immensely. Now, if you want to use the three stories as a read aloud for your students, you can stop the podcast now and then you can call your kids in and you can use this, the next three stories as a read aloud time.

It might make the perfect rest time after lunch or before you go to the swimming pool or when it's too hot outside to play. So you get ready, settle in, and I'm gonna read to you three of the stories from our Copper Lodge Library edition, "Kings of Rome." Story one, "The Lady Roma." Long, long years ago, Troy, one of the great cities in Asia Minor was taken by the Greeks.

Many mighty Trojans had defended their city well and among them all, none had fought more bravely than the Prince of Rome. And the Prince, Aeneas. But when Aeneas saw that the Greeks had set fire to the city, he fled carrying, it is said, his father on his shoulders and grasping by the hand, his son, Ascanius.

Moreover, so precious to him was the sacred image of the goddess palace that he saved it from the burning city. The gods, pleased with his reverence, helped him in his flight by building a ship. So when Aeneas reached the sea, he at once embarked in it with his followers and their wives and sailed away to seek for a new land in which to build a new city.

As the Trojans sailed, they saw a bright star shining above them. Day and night, the star was always to be seen, showing the seafarers the direction in which to steer. At length, the Trojans reached the Western shore of Italy and here at a town called Latium, they disembarked. The women were weary of the sea and no sooner had they landed than they began to wonder how they could persuade their husbands to journey no farther but to settle in the pleasant country which they had reached.

Among these women was a lady of noble birth who was as wise as she was good. Roma, for that was the lady's name, proposed that they should burn the ship in which they had sailed. Then it would be impossible for their husbands to go any farther in search of a new home.

The other women agreed to Roma's daring plan and with mingled hope and fear, the ship was set on fire. When the men saw the flames devouring the vessel, they were troubled. But when they found out how it had been set on fire, they were angry. Yet as anger could not give them back their ship and as Italy was a pleasant land, the men did as the women wished.

They settled near a hill called Mount Palatine and there they built a city. Some old stories tell that the city was called Rome after Roma, the noble lady who had first thought of setting the ship on fire. But other stories say that the country in which Anais landed belonged to a king named Latinus, who welcomed the Trojan and gave him ground on which to build.

Anais married Lavinia, the daughter of the king, and called the city which he built after her, Lavinanum. Soon after this, King Latinus was killed in battle and then for three years, Anais ruled well and wisely, not only over his own Trojan followers, but also over the subjects of his royal father-in-law.

His people he now called Latins in memory of King Latinus. When the three years were past, war broke out against the Etruscans, who were at that time the most powerful tribe in Italy. One day, a terrible storm overtook the armies on the battlefield. So dark grew the clouds that the soldiers could not see each other.

When at length the sky cleared, Anais had disappeared and was seen no more on earth. "The gods have taken him away," said the Latins. So they built an altar and henceforth worshiped their king as the god Jupiter. Ascanius, who had escaped from Troy with his father, now ruled in Levinanum, but he soon found that the city was not large enough for all his people.

So leaving Levinanum, he built a new city and called it Alba Longa, or the Long White City. Alba Longa stood in the midst of the Albin Hills, not far from the site on which Rome itself was soon to be built. Story two, The She-Wolf. After the death of Ascanius, nearly 300 years passed away and then a king named Proca died, leaving behind him two sons.

The name of the elder was Numitor, the name of the younger, Amulius. The crown belonged by right to Numitor, the elder son, but Amulius, who was ambitious, was not willing that his brother should reign. So he said to Numitor, "One of us shall wear the crown "and to the other shall belong the gold and treasures "left by our father, Proca." The story does not tell if Numitor was indignant with his brother and said that the crown belonged to him.

It only tells that Numitor chose to reign, as was indeed his right. Amulius then seized the gold and treasure and bribed his followers to drive Numitor from the throne and to make him king. This, in their greed, they were persuaded to do. Before long, Numitor was banished from the city and Amulius, to his great content, began to reign.

But the king was soon surprised to find that the crown rested uneasily upon his head. It might be that the children of Numitor would someday wrench the crown from him, even as he had wrenched it from their father. That this might never be, Amulius, thinking to get rid of fear, ordered Numitor's son to be slain while his daughter, Sylvia, was kept by the command of the king in a temple sacred to the goddess Vesta.

Here, the maiden tended the altar fire, which was never allowed to die. But the god Mars, angry it might well be with the cruelty of Amulius, took pity upon the maiden and sent twin sons to cheer her in her loneliness. Such strong, beautiful babes had never before been seen.

As for the king, when he heard the births of these little boys, he was both angry and afraid, lest they should grow into strong men and wrest his kingdom from him. In his fear, Amulius ordered Sylvia to be shut up in a prison for the rest of her life, and her beautiful boys he commanded to be thrown into the river Tiber.

Heavy rains had fallen of late, and as the king knew, the river had overflowed its banks. But of this, he reckoned not at all. Although, indeed, the flood was to be his undoing. Two servants, obeying the cruel order of Amulius, placed the baby boys in a basket, and going to the Tiber, flung their burden into the river.

Like a boat, the basket floated hither and thither on the water until at length, carried onward by the flood, it was washed ashore at the foot of a hill called Mount Palatine. Here, under the shade of a wild fig tree, the basket was overturned, and the babes lay safe and sound upon the dry ground, while the river stole softly backward into its accustomed channel.

Before long, the babes awoke hungry and began to cry. A she-wolf, coming to the edge of the river to drink, heard their cries, and carried them away to her cave, where she fed them with her milk, just as she would have fed her lost cubs. She washed them, too, as she was used to washing her own children by licking them with her tongue.

Story three, the twin boys. The twin boys, it was said, were guarded by the god Mars. So it was not strange that as they grew older, the god should send his sacred birds, the woodpeckers, to feed the children. In and out of the cave, the birds flew each day, bringing with them food for the little boys.

But neither the wolf nor the birds could do all that was needful. So before long, the god who watched over the children sent Faustulus to their aid. Faustulus was one of the herdsmen of King Amulius. He had often seen the wolf going in and out of the cave and had noticed, too, how the woodpeckers came and went each day.

So when the wolf went off to prowl in the woods, Faustulus ventured into the cave, where to his amazement, he found two beautiful and well-fed children. He took them in his arms and carried them home to his wife. She gladly welcomed the little strangers, and naming them Romulus and Remus, brought them up as though they had been her own sons.

As the years passed, the boys grew ever more beautiful. Stronger and braver, too, they became, until the rough herdsmen among whom they dwelt called them princes. The lads soon showed that they were fitted to lead the herdsmen. If wild beasts attacked the flocks or if robbers tried to steal them, Romulus and Remus were ever the first to attack and to drive away either the robbers or the wild beast.

Faustulus lived on Mount Palatine, near the spot where the boys had been washed ashore when they were babes. This hill belonged to the cruel King Aemulius, and it was his sheep and cattle that the princes, unwitting of the evil the king had done to them, defended from danger. Not far from Mount Palatine was another hill named Mount Aventine, and here also were herdsmen guarding flocks, but these herdsmen belonged to the dethroned King Numitor.

Numitor was living quietly in the city of Alba. Now, it chanced that the herdsmen of Aemulius began to quarrel with the herdsmen of Numitor. One evening, forgetting all about their enemies, the shepherds on Mount Palatine were merrymaking at a festival in honor of the god Pan. Then the herdsmen on Mount Aventine said one to the other, "See, here's our chance.

We will lay an ambush for these unwary merrymakers." As the gods willed, they captured none other than Remus, and well-pleased with their prize, they carried the prince a prisoner to their master Numitor. Now guys, that probably seems like a cliffhanger. What about Romulus? And will Numitor discover who this kidnapped prince really is?

If you want to know the answer to that question, and lots more I bet you have, you can get a copy of "The Kings of Rome" and keep reading. All right, moms and dads, I want to help you think about how you could ask some questions about your reading that would cultivate a few conversations, maybe get people talking and stoke the enthusiasm for the stories that you just read.

Lots of you have heard about the five core habits, and I want you to know that they are natural to all of us, not just our little kids. And adding those habits naturally, intentionally, to your reading conversations, you will see how the fun grows. Our little children are really good at naming and attending and memorizing and expressing and storytelling, and you will have tons of fun picking their brains and letting their minds wonder and wander.

So here's some ideas. You could begin asking them, who's in the story? You can ask them, when we read this story together, who did you hear about? So for instance, if you read "The She-Wolf Story," that's the second story that we read, you could say, who are the characters?

And your children might be able to tell you, well, the brothers, Numitor and Amulius, and their sister, do you remember, Sylvia, twin boys. The She-Wolf could even be a character. You could ask your children now, where did the story happen? One thing you could do is grab a map and look at present day Italy, and try to figure out where you and your children think Alba Longa, the long white city, could have been.

And then go through the story, ask your children, are there any words that seemed new to you? Any words that you weren't quite sure what the word meant? The word wrench in there, the word wrench, when it talked about that Amulius was worried that someone might wrench the crown away from him, you might have to explain that wrench is a word that seems sort of mean, and it can mean a sudden tearing away or grabbing.

Your children are gonna attend to words that they don't know, or words that are fun to say, or words that they hear repeated. A lot of times young children are even better than grownups at attending to the surface details, what the names were, what the people were described as looking like.

You can really help them tap into this talent by appealing to their five senses. You could ask them, what do you think Numitor looked like? What do you think his voice might have sounded like? You could ask them, what does the wind sound like? What does a storm sound like?

You could ask, what do you think the gold and treasure of Amulius looked like? How big do you think that the treasure was? Do you think it sparkled? What do you think the crowns looked like back in the kings of Rome days? Have you ever seen a fig tree?

You could talk about things that your children absolutely know, even if they haven't seen a fig tree, they've seen a shade tree. What does it feel like in the shade? Maybe you want to go outside and stand in the sun for long enough to get hot and then stand in the shade and ask them, how is it different?

How would you describe the difference? You could say, have you ever smelled a river? Now your kids might laugh at you because they've thought about what does a river feel like and maybe what does a river sound like as it rushes by, but what does it smell like? If you have a chance, take a trip to a river or to another body of water and encourage your children to close their eyes and sit very still and use their sense of smell and see what they can detect.

You can ask your children, where does the story take place? And when does the story take place? So they will be able to say that the She-Wolf story takes place in ancient times, in Italy, in ancient times, even before Rome was founded and that was in the 700 BC.

So you can ask them, is there more than one location in the story? Does some of the story happen in one place, like a king's courtyard? And does some of the story happen in another place, like in the forest? You can ask about all of the people in the story and what they were like.

So what was Numitor like? He was the oldest and who was Amulius? He was the younger son. What was he like and how can you tell? So they might tell you that he was greedy or tricky and you can say, how do you know that? And they will talk to you about what he did and you might be able to talk to your children about the way others see you is based not on what you think about yourself, but on what you do.

It is the face that you show to your friends and your family. That's who people think that you are. One of the best things to do with our little children is to get them to tell the story back to us. That's called narration. You can see how much of the plot they have picked up.

Are they able to tell the story in order? Do they get the people, the main characters into the story? What can they tell you about the characters because of what happened in the story? You can get your children to tell you the conflict of the story. Now they might not know what conflict means, but you might ask them who had a struggle in the story.

In the She-Wolf story, there are several conflicts. One of them is between Numitor and Amulius. They struggle to determine who's gonna rule the kingdom and they solve the issue by what? Well, by compromise, okay? Another struggle, Amulius struggles to feel secure after he has kind of muscled his brother out of the kingdom.

He no longer feels secure. So his conflict is really within himself, how to feel secure in his crown. You can even talk to your children about the theme of the story. So what was the main idea of the story? How did they behave? How were the characters, were they wise or foolish?

Your children are gonna memorize. If you read the story more than once, your children are gonna memorize it. That's the thing about repetition. As we repeat stories, we might think our children are getting bored, but children are not usually bored by repeated stories. They love it. And remember, repetition leads to memorization.

So these names are gonna stick with your kids. These locations, these places, even these virtues that you want to talk about with your children, honor and honesty, kindness, they will stick with your children. One of the ways you can use the core habit of expressing is narration. You can ask your children to tell the story back to you.

You can ask them to act out the story. You can even really get into it and provide props for costumes or a basket for riding down a river in. You can draw the characters. You can ask them, what do you think Numitor looked like? What do you think the she-wolf looked like?

What do you think the shepherd looked like? What kind of clothes did he wear? You can draw the characters. You could draw scenes from the story. If you want to practice handwriting this summer, or if you have a child who's just learning to write in cursive and still thinks that is fun with a capital F, you could give them a sentence or a paragraph to copy.

You can encourage them in their storytelling. You could encourage them to write a story about something that they know, or to write the story of what they think happens next. After the three stories that I just read for you, what do they think is the next step in the story and get them to write it.

There are all kinds of things that you can do with your children that bring the story to life and is more than just sitting and retelling. Using the characters in the story to teach virtue, to teach honor, using the story to introduce new vocabulary words, using the story to stretch their imagination and to incite wonder.

All of these are good ways to bolster the fun that you and your family can have together as you read this summer. I hope that you enjoyed some of our stories from Kings of Rome, and I am looking forward to sharing more stories with you next week from our Exploring the World with Uncle Paul.

I'll see you guys next week. (gentle music) (gentle music) you