(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, I'm super excited that we are in the midst of summer and in the midst of our summer book club, and I have enjoyed reading stories along with you from the readers that will go along with our Cycle One Foundation's memory work in the fall.

It's somehow fun to get a jump on things that we will be learning together, learning about together, in the fall, and it's kind of fun to get a preview of those stories so that some of the characters and some of the situations will be familiar when we approach them again together in the fall.

But even more than that, you guys, I just really love reading aloud as a family, and I really enjoy encouraging young moms and dads and older moms and dads and young and old kids alike to take some time to read aloud together over the summer months. Now, I know that some people have a different idea of reading than I do, and maybe reading sounds like a passive activity to some people, and maybe you are not fond of slow, passive activities, or maybe your kids are not really fond of that and they really wanna use the summer to be active and to run around and to do something and to play things and to do different things.

I'm here to tell you that reading does not have to be passive. I know it conjures up for some the picture of quietly sitting, turning pages as needed, but not moving much otherwise. Even reading aloud where one person is making noise, reading aloud might sound like a low-movement moment.

For some kids and some families, that makes reading together less appealing. While snuggling in with a book and a fire and some hot cocoa sounds pretty good on a cold winter day, reading aloud might sound like too much stillness for summer. But who says reading aloud means sitting still?

I would like to suggest some active listening ideas for those of you who struggle to sell read aloud time to your active kids, or even to your make-the-most-of-summer selves. Listen, reading can be done anywhere. It can be inside, sure, but it can be outside, on the porch, on a swing, at the zoo, with your feet dangling in the creek, eating ice cream in the park.

Look, my point is take your book with you wherever you're going, whatever you're planning to do during the day, take your book with you. Finding a different venue for your story makes reading aloud something new to do. It gives you all something new to see as you listen, and who knows, might provoke new thoughts in your listeners.

So take your books on vacation. Take your books when you run errands. Take your books when you're gonna meet somebody at the park. You know that there's always gonna be a moment when everybody is too hot to breathe, too tired to play another game, and everybody just needs a rest.

Whip out your story. Whip out your book. Invite your listeners into a story and take a moment to read. Another thing, your kids can, I mean, usually listen to a story while they do something else. My kids used to like to listen to stories that I read to them while they were doing chores.

I don't know if it just made the chore less unappealing, made the time pass faster, gave their mind something to chew on as they did a mindless task, but I can remember sitting in the hall, in the hallway between their two rooms when they were cleaning their room, and I would read aloud as they cleaned.

And I would read only as long as they were moving. So if I looked in and they had become lost in thought or lost in the story, I stopped reading. So as long as they were moving, I kept reading. Look, here's the truth. Some kids listen better when they have some way to get the wiggles out.

You can let them ride a bike or a tricycle around in a circle while they're listening. You can let them or encourage them to doodle or draw on paper. Shoot, you can have them hop on one leg and then on the other leg while they're listening to a short fable.

You can have your kids dig in the sandbox or dig in a flower pot or dig in the yard. Depending on what you're reading, I mean, it might be a fairy tale or a fable. It might be a nature journal. It might be a cookbook. Depending on what you're reading, you can actually make what they're doing part of what they're hearing.

I mean, they could design a fairy creature house on paper or with chalk. They could watch ants build a mound. They could stir up the cupcakes that you are describing. You'll be able to tell if they're still listening as you learn to ask questions along the way and as you enjoy some conversation after the reading is done.

This summer, we've been working together on ways to prime that conversational pump and continue the pleasure of the stories that we're reading together. So today, let's listen to a few more stories from our Copper Lodge Library Edition, Kings of Rome. And then I'm gonna give you a few more suggestions for great conversations.

So the stories that I want to read you today, they're three stories and they're short. And this is what I want you to realize. Some of these stories are super short. They might only be a page or two in the Kings of Rome book and you can read them one at a time or you can bundle two or three together as we'll do today.

We have already read a couple, maybe three weeks ago, we read a couple of stories from the beginning of Kings of Rome. And we had already met the characters, Romulus and Remus. And we had discovered that they had been sort of banished and they are actually, though they are princes, have been serving as shepherds.

Yep, shepherds. And their grandfather, who had been the king, has been kind of exiled himself. And so we're picking up the threads of the story today. Numitor recognizes his grandsons. Okay, here we go. The young prisoner was brought before Numitor in the city of Alba. No sooner had the old man's eyes fallen on the lad than he threw up his hands in a maze and gazed more keenly at the prisoner.

"No herdsman this," muttered the old king to himself, "rather does he bear himself as a prince." Scanning the face before him even more closely, it seemed to Numitor that the features were not unknown to him. Dreams of his lost daughter, Sylvia, gladdened his heart. Gently, the old man tried to win the confidence of the lad, asking him who he was and whence he came.

Remus was touched by the kindness of Numitor and answered, "I will hide nothing from you, sire, for you seem of a princely temper in that you give a hearing and examine before you punish." Then he told the story that Faustulus had often told to him and Romulus of how the wolf had found them as babes on the banks of the river Tiber and had carried them to her cave and fed them with her milk.

Long before Remus had ended his story, Numitor knew that it was his grandson, his daughter, Sylvia's child, who stood before him and his old heart beat quick with joy. Here at length was one who would take his side against the cruel King Aemulius. At this moment, Romulus, leading a rough band of herdsmen, approached the city gate, determined to rescue his brother from the hands of Numitor.

In the city were many folk who groaned under the tyranny of Aemulius. These, hearing that Romulus was without the city gate, stole noiselessly away to join the prince, believing he had come to punish the king. Meanwhile, Romulus had divided his followers into companies of a hundred men. At the head of each company was a captain carrying a small bundle of grass and shrubs tied to a pole.

These rough standards were called manipuli, and it was because they carried these manipuli that captains in the Roman army came to be called manipulares. When Aemulius heard that Numitor had recognized in the prisoner one of his long-lost grandsons, he was afraid. Then, hearing the shouts and blows of Romulus and his men as they attacked the city gate, he rushed to defend it, determined that the second prince should not enter the city.

But Romulus gained, captured the gate, slew the king, and entered the city in triumph. Here he found Remus no longer a prisoner as he had feared, but the acknowledged grandson of Numitor. The old king welcomed Romulus as joyfully as he had welcomed his brother, and the two princes, eager to please the gentle old man, placed him upon the throne from which he had so long ago been driven.

They then sped to the prison where their mother Sylvia had lain since the princes had been born. Swiftly, they set her free and cheered her by their love and care as good sons ever will. Did you enjoy that story? Were there words in the story that weren't familiar to you or words that you had heard before but used in a different way, such as the old man's eyes had fallen on the lad, then he threw up his hands in amaze?

We might say in amazement, okay? So go through the story again and see if there are words that are used differently from the ways that you're used to using them or words that you might need a little bit of explanation for in order to really understand the story. But let's go on.

I want to read to you the next story in "Kings of Rome." It's called "The Sacred Birds." The grandsons of Numitor could no longer live as shepherds on Mount Palatine, which they had learned to love, nor could they dwell quietly in Alba for all their lives. They'd been used to live free among the mountains, nor had they been subject to any king.

So the princes made up their minds to leave Alba and to build a city for themselves on the hills they loved. But the brothers could not agree on which hill to build their city. Romulus choosing the Palatine, Remus the Aventine. Not knowing how to settle their dispute, they asked Numitor to help them.

He bade them, as the custom was, to appeal to augury, that is, to watch for a sign or omen from the gods. These signs were given in many different forms, sometimes by the flight of birds, as happened now. The princes determined to follow their grandfather's advice. Romulus went to Mount Palatine, Remus to Mount Aventine, and patient through one long day, they watched for a sign.

But no sign appeared. The slow hours passed and night drew on apace, yet still the brothers never stirred. Then, as darkness faded before the dawn, Remus saw far off, dark, moving shapes. Were the gods going to be gracious, the prince wondered, and after so many hours send a sign?

Nearer and nearer drew the dark shapes. "Ah," cried Remus sharply, "it is a good omen." For now he could see that the moving forms were six vultures winging their way toward the west. These birds were sacred to the gods and did no harm to corn, fruit, or cattle, nor would they indeed wound any living thing.

Swiftly Remus bade a messenger to go tell his brother of the good omen vouchsafed to him. But even as his messenger sped to do his will, Remus was crestfallen, for before him stood one of the servants of Romulus to tell him that his brother too had seen a flight of vultures.

But while Remus had seen six birds, Romulus had seen 12. What was to be done? It seems now that the brothers were not thinking on which hill the city should stand, but of which of them should build the city. Remus believed that the augury proclaimed him as the founder of the new city.

Romulus was sure that it was he who was intended by the gods to build it, for had he not seen 12 vultures while his brother had seen but six? The princes turned to their followers demanding who should be their king. Then loud and lusty was the answering shout, "Romulus, Romulus, he shall be our king!" And the next story is called The Founding of Rome.

It was in the year 753 BC that Romulus was chosen king. He at once began to make preparations to build the city on the Palatine Hill, the foundation he wished to lay on the 21st of the glad month of April, for, as Romulus knew, this was a feast day among the shepherds.

Often he, with his brother, had joined the herdsmen on that day to offer cakes to the goddess Peles, to beseech her blessing on themselves and on their flocks. And when the prayers and sacrifices were over, how gladly he had joined in the shepherds' games and jollity, no better day could be found on which to lay the foundation of the new city.

When the feast day arrived, a hole was first dug on the spot where the city was to stand, and to this hole the king flung the first fruits of the earth, corn and fruit. Each of his followers then took a handful of earth, which he had carried with him from his own, perhaps distant home, and flung it also into the hole, which was then filled to the top.

Here, too, an altar was built on which the people laid offerings to the gods, from henceforth the spot where the temple had been erected was to be the hearth or center of the new city. Romulus, then throwing his toga, or we would say his mantle, around him with one end covering his head, took a white bull and a cow and yoked them to a sacred plow, the share, or cutting blade, which was made of brass.

With this plow share, the king then made a furrow to mark the boundary of the city, bidding his followers watch that the upturned earth fell inward to the hearth of the city. Not a clod must be allowed to lie without the furrow. When the plow reached the different spots at which the gates of the city were to stand, it was carefully lifted over the spaces.

As he guided the plow, Romulus cried to his gods that his city might become strong and endure and ever grow more powerful in the great world. Out of a clear sky, thunder crashed, lightning flashed over the hills as Romulus uttered his petitions, and the people believed that the storm was the answer of the god Jupiter to the prayers of their king.

When these sacred rites were ended, Romulus bade his men begin at once to build the wall, which was to surround his city. The wall itself was sacred. None might enter the city save by the gates, so the king bade one of his followers, named Celer, to guard the sacred furrow and to see that no one dared to scale the wall or jump across it as it was being built.

Remus, who was still angry that he had not been chosen king, had been standing near to Romulus as he laid the foundation of the city. Then, as the wall began to rise before him, a swift rage sprang up in his heart, and he leaped across it, saying, "Shall such defenses as these guard your city?" Celer, the watchman, seeing that Remus had scorned the order of the king, raised his spade in sudden fury and struck the young prince dead to the ground.

Then, fearing lest Romulus should punish him for his hasty deed, he fled. Fear lent him wings, and his name from that day became a byword to betoken great speed, our own word, celerity, comes from Celer, the swift-footed servant of Romulus. When Romulus was told that his brother had been slain, he showed neither grief nor anger.

"Thus perish everyone who may attempt to cross these walls," were his stern words to those who brought the sad tidings. Celer, it was plain, had fled in needless haste. Okay, you guys, let's think about some questions that we might ask to get conversation going from these three stories. Go back to the first story, Numitor recognizes his grandsons.

And it says in there that Numitor looked at this prisoner who everybody thought was a shepherd and saw something different in him. How does someone bear himself as a prince? You might have to talk with your children about what that means. What is your bearing? It's the way you stand, the way you present yourself, the way you hold yourself, hold your head, the pride that you show in yourself.

How does someone bear himself as a prince? Have your kids demonstrate for you, all right? So in this same story, when Remus was the prisoner who had been brought before Numitor, Romulus, his twin brother, was outside and he was eager to save his brother. And so he fashioned a weapon.

So he's outside and he's gonna storm the city gates and he's gonna come in and save his brother. So he fashioned a weapon. Do you remember what the weapon was and what it looked like? What in the world? It sounded like a weird kind of weapon to me. What good would that weapon do?

And would you make a weapon like that? Ask your kids. If you were gonna rescue your brother or your sister or your mom and dad from an enemy, what kind of weapon would you use? If you had to make the weapon for what you have around you, maybe in your yard or in your garage or even in your bedroom, what kind of weapon would you use, okay?

So in this story, Numitor recognizes his grandsons. It talks about gentleness winning the day. What does that mean? And how did gentleness win the day? Can you think of a time when kindness made a tough situation easier? Now remember, once Romulus and Remus had been discovered to be the grandsons of the old king, they couldn't live as shepherds anymore.

That would just be weird. But they really didn't wanna live in the city like princes might do because they were used to being free and living out in the wild. How might living in a city and living in a country be different, okay? Which do you know the best?

Are you used to living in the country or are you used to living in the city? And would you like to try the other? You might have your kids make a diorama of what life in the country is like and one, what life in the city is like, or they could make a poster and they could act it out.

You guys could have a great conversation about what it means to live in the country. And there are lots of other city-country comparison stories for you to explore. That's a great conversation starter. And maybe mom, dad, if you lived in the city when you were a child but live in the country now or vice versa, you could share from your own experiences what that would be like.

Now, you know that things did not stay happy with Romulus and Remus. And when it came to the founding of Rome, only one of them could be king. And so Romulus and Remus, they didn't get along as well as grownups. What do you do when you have a dispute with somebody, when you're fussing or fighting or disagreeing with someone?

Kids, who helps you handle your disagreements with others? How do you learn to handle your own disagreements? Mom, dad, this is a great teachable moment to talk about learning to handle our own disputes. All right? In this story also, in these stories, we also hear about augury, augury, an appeal to augury.

And Numitor tells Romulus and Remus, well, he doesn't know where they should build their new city. And so an appeal to augury, a sign or omen from the gods. Now, we do not appeal to the gods when we want advice or guidance with a problem or a concern. We appeal to our Lord Jesus Christ.

We appeal to God, our Father. How do we ask God to guide us? How do we ask God to guide us? We don't ask for an omen, but there were times in the Bible when God's people asked him for a sign of what they should do. How do we ask God to guide us?

Talk about with your family, how God has guided you or your family in the past. Kids, ask your parents to tell you about a time that God guided them when they had a decision to make. Also in these stories, we see what happens when jealousy comes into play. When jealousy rears its head.

How did jealousy divide Romulus and Remus in the story? How does jealousy divide friends and family today? How maybe has jealousy ever divided you from a friend or from a brother or sister? What causes jealousy? What does the Bible teach us about jealousy? What should we do to root out jealousy before it becomes a bitter root in our heart causing lots of problems?

These are some great questions that you can ask your children that you guys can use together to explore the stories that we read more fully, more deeply and to draw your hearts closer together. Reading together is a way for a family to build community and to learn one another's hearts.

And I hope that you guys will enjoy doing that very thing this summer. See you next time. (upbeat music) (gentle music) you