Aeneid Class: Week 15: Finale

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

Welcome: This is our last class meeting! Weep! Our day today consisted of rehearsing for our show, taking our final exam, and performing for the parents. The Junior Aeneid class also made a craft project and reviewed the whole story of the Aeneid. While we retold the story from the beginning, we decorated pinwheels with scenes from the story -- one on each of eight points of the pinwheel. Then we folded them and stuck them onto the ends of Arma Virumque Cano pencils, and blew into them like the winds of history carrying the story into the future.

Final Exam: No more true and false! Today's final exam consisted of 25 questions, some with more than one answer required, and it was really tough! I'm very proud of the kids for their recall, their enthusiasm, and their excellent brains. The final exam was a big success. Everyone who took it got a commemorative Arma Virumque Cano pencil, donated by Ben and Shira!

The Death of Turnus: In the academic track class, we spent some time discussing the end of the Aeneid. The final scene in our book is the death of Turnus, the Latin hero that Aeneas ended up fighting one-on-one to end the battle and establish his place and a place for his descedents in Italy. There they were, facing each other across the battle field, and the whole weight of history was on them. Aeneas threw his spear and wounded Turnus in the leg and he went down. Now, here comes Aeneas, ready to finish him off, ready to wipe out this whole idea that the Latin king had any power over his Trojans and his future. And Turnus looked up at him and asked for mercy, or at least to have his body returned to his father.

We paused the conversation on that moment and I asked the children to consider what they would do in that situation, if they were in Aeneas' position. This is a hard question! We talked about how we in our culture value kindness and mercy, value giving people second chances, how we would not necessarily kill someone who we had subdued and who was asking for mercy. But the Roman ideal, though they valued clementia, was to be strong, to kill fiercely and to die well. As I said to the children, a Roman soldier was not one to say, "Well, Turnus, we've had our differences, but now I've taught you a lesson and you can go on your way."

Even so, Aeneas paused in that moment too. Did he kill Turnus? Yes, he did. But only after he saw the belt of Pallas, the Etruscan prince and his friend who had helped him in the battle. Turnus was wearing it as a trophy, and it caught Aeneas' eye as he hovered over Turnus, weighing that killing blow. So this archetypal Roman killed his enemy without mercy, but he did it not for the gods, or for himself, but for his comrades in arms, for his fellow Romans, and for Rome. We talked about how this motivation was romanticized in "Horatio at the Bridge" in the lines about the Romans being like brothers, in the brave days of old.

So, those ideas about that scene sort of encapsulated everything I have tried to teach the children this semester about the Aeneid: why it was important, what it meant to the Romans at the time when the Empire was expanding, and why Virgil made the choices he made in writing it.

The Finale: Here are some videos from our final performance:

"Let's Get the Heck Out of Troy"



"Dido and Aeneas: I Will Be Roman"



A Demonstration of Roman Virtue:



A Recitation of an Excerpt from "Horatio at the Bridge":



"Friends, Romans, Countrymen"



"Arma Virumque Cano"



I have loved teaching all your children, and hope to see them all back for The Three Musketeers in the fall! Keep reading!

Aeneid Class: Week 14: The Rostra

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

Rostra: We began our Rostra event immediately, and invited the parents to come up and be populace. We staged the Rostra by pushing tables together in the middle of the room, and attached our Rostra banner to the front of the table. All of us walked around briskly, going "rabble rabble rabble" to approximate the noises of a busy forum if we were in Ancient Rome. Then one by one the kids would take the stage and recite as much of the memory work as they were comfortable reciting. To give you a better idea, here are the videos I put together. I was filming while rabbling, and some of the clips got clipped, messed up in some way, or did not film properly to begin with -- but at least you can get the general idea. All the children were amazing, and I'm very proud of all the hard work they did pulling together the memory work.







Class: Today's quiz was over the Rostra fast facts. We sang our songs, practiced Horatio at the Bridge, and discussed some more of the story of the Aeneid, as Aeneas rallies the Etruscan princes and kings to join the fight against the Latin tribes. Next week is our finale, and we are ready!

Aeneid Class: Week 13: Aeneas' Shield

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

Welcome: We are coming to the end of our class! That is sad for me. I have really enjoyed working with your children this semester. We still have a lot to get through in these last few weeks however, including today -- two painting projects to get through!

Aeneas' Shield: At the end of the reading assignment for today, Aeneas' mother, Venus, gives him a present. This special shield foretells the future of Rome, including our favorite characters, Julius and Augustus Caesar, of course! Virgil wouldn't want to let a chapter go by without reminding us that the whole point of this epic is to validate the authority of the emperor! Today we are making shields with watercolor. To do this project you will need watercolor paper marked with concentric circles, and watercolor paints. Those children who were in my Jungle Book class last semester were reminded that mandalas come in many forms -- and that concentric circles marked with symmetrical designs are everywhere! Some of the students took up the challenge to make pictures of the founding of the Roman empire, and some did more abstract designs. Here are some examples of their work:









I was particularly impressed with how some of the children in the enrichment class were able to graphically articulate the growth of Rome from one city to a big and powerful empire through assimilation and attack. We've been talking about how the bigger you get, the easier it is to get bigger, either by intimidation or war. It was great seeing that some out on some of the shields!

The shields will be used as programs for next week's Rostra event.

Rostra Banners:

Next week we will be putting on our final big event: Oratory at the Rostra. We created banners to decorate our platforms today. I was absolutely floored by the fact that I had ten children all working collaboratively around a single banner, and in three classes I had no arguing, no "he got paint on my part!" at all. Kudos to these kids, really! Super great job. You'll have to wait to see the banners, because I didn't take pictures yet, but they are... expressive.

Rostra Info:

The children almost all volunteered to take part in the oratory at the Rostra next week. You are invited to attend! It will be held in the classroom. Warning: If you are made nervous or queasy by children standing on tables, please bring the appropriate sedatives for yourself. :) Below are the memory lines they chose to recite. You will find the words they're working on in their scrapbooks, or I'm printing them below. They do NOT need to memorize all of the poem in order to participate. Even one line is fine! I told them even one syllable is fine, actually. Encourage the children to recite only what they're really comfortable reciting -- we want this to be a very positive experience, and that means fewer lines is better, if more lines bring anxiety. Look for your child's name in the list below. If you and your child are not sure what you should be working on, please let me know. If your child's name is not on the list, it means they did not want to participate. All participants will receive a special issue "Rostra" citizenship coin.

Mark Antony's speech at Julius Caesar's funeral: Stephen, Louis, Carrie, Hannah, Nathan, Richard, Benny, Cecelia, Basi, Catherine, David, Sadie.

Aeneid in Latin: Shira, Ben, Sarah M., Martina, Julia, Elsa, Katie, Max, Morgan, Miranda

Horatio at the Bridge (either the first two verses, or the last two verses, or both): Emily, Jillian, Sarah R

Brayton will be the MC at the 9:30 class, and Celia will be the MC at the 10:30. I will MC the Juniors.

Reading Assignment:

Reading for next week is Nisus and Euryalus and The Return of Aeneas. After we finish with our Rostra presentation we will be having regular class with singing, Horatio practice, and a quiz over the Rostra fast facts.

Aeneid Class: Week 11: Horatio at the Bridge

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

Welcome: Last week was so gloriously exciting that we needed this week to catch up a bit and regroup. We had some recitations to hear, some songs to review, and we needed to get back in touch with the story of the Aeneid.

Underworld Travel Guides: I checked the kids' work on their Underworld Travel Guides (or Underworld Bestiaries) and awarded citizenship coins to those who had finished the job. Some of these kids did absolutely amazing work on their illustrations and showed a great command of the material and real creativity in presenting the information. I hope these will be keepsakes for your child to remember their experience with this text for years to come. When they revisit the Aeneid in college, hopefully they'll remember their first interaction with it, as kids.

Scrapbooking: Speaking of memories, I had photos printed for the children to paste into their scrapbooks. We took some time to do that today, and look back over the activities they did in class: the dinner party, the gladiator games, and the chariot races. Some of them wrote captions and notes for themselves to look back on. I encouraged them to include their own drawings, their own pictures from home, or any other little keepsakes or memories that they might have collected during the class.

Horatio at the Bridge: We've been working on a dramatic recitation of this poem, and today we solidified the parts. There are four individual parts: Consul (Emily, Julia), Horatio (Sarah R, Stephen), Spurius Lartius (Shira, Martina), and Herminius (Louis, Basi). Ask your kids whether they have an individual part, and make sure they know what they are supposed to be reciting. All of us together will recite the first two and last two stanzas.

Reading Assignments: For next week, read The Flames of War and The Future Foretold.

Aeneid Class: Week 10: Chariot Races

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

Welcome: Today we met outside! The weather was beautiful, perfect for our purposes. We sat on the grass and spent a little bit of time taking the quiz on the Underworld. The enrichment class sang through a few of our songs. Then we learned about the Circus Maximus, the organization of a chariot race, and other relevant facts.

Chariot Race Philosophy Lecture: We focused our discussion on one significant difference between our culture and the culture of Ancient Rome, as illustrated by the clip from "Ben Hur." In the old days, if someone fell out of the chariot, do you think the emperor clapped his hands and called a halt to the race? "Hold on guys, let's take a break and make sure that Maximus is ok! Can we get a stretcher out here?" NO! If Maximus fell out of his chariot, that was his own dumb luck, and if his friends managed to drag him out of the way before the horses came around again, good for them. If not, bad for him.

At this point it's important to do whatever is necessary to communicate to your students that you are about to say something very serious. Maybe stand on a chair. Maybe flap your arms around. Maybe glower. Then tell them that in this respect our culture is *VERY DIFFERENT* from the Roman culture. While the Roman's primary interest in chariot races was entertainment (and they found gruesome injuries profoundly entertaining), our primary interest in chariot races is SURVIVAL. Have them say it out loud: SURVIVAL. I actually had each one individually say it back to me. What is the most important thing today? SURVIVAL. And what constitutes survival? Not falling down, not falling out of your chariot, not causing your charioteer to fall out of his/her chariot, not causing your co-horse to fall over.

I told them clearly that we were creating a spectacle, not a real race, and that while no prizes would be awarded for winning, I would be awarding citizenship coins for safe behavior. As it turns out we only had one injury -- one of our horses scraped up her ankle -- and everyone got their citizenship coin. Looking back on the experience, I'm pretty amazed that someone didn't fall in the Hague or something, but we all had helmets on, and you know that often prevents excitement. Right?

Chariot Race Activity:

To carry off a chariot race the way we did, you will need a wide open space, preferably without traffic. We had a low traffic street that we were able to stop the few cars from coming through during the races. You'll need a mom at the start, a mom at the turn, a mom to help the emperor do his/her job, a mom to orchestrate the horn blowers, a mom to man the first aid station, etc. Then you need the following items:

2 large wagons.
8 dog leashes (four on each wagon, two pairs clipped together to harness the "horses")
Safety helmets
Traffic cones
Emperor chair, costume, and a hankerchief to drop to begin the race
Horns (gift paper tubes, pvc pipe, etc)

Here are pictures:











And here's one video:



For many more pictures and videos, please visit the chariot race Flickr set.

As you can see, we had a great time. Thanks to all the parents and helpers that made it a safe and happy experience for the kids, and thanks to all the kids who really adopted a spirit of cooperation and fun. Yay for chariot races!

Aeneid Class: Week 9: Travel Guide to the Underworld

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

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

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

The Underworld:

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



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



Chariot Races Preparation:

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

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

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

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

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

Aeneid Class: Week 8: Dido's Trick

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

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

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

Dido's Trick:

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

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

Assignment:

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

Arma Virumque Cano: A Song to Teach The Aeneid in Latin

I Sing of Arms and the Man

Link to the video on YouTube.
Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris
Italiam, fato profugus,
I sing of arms and the man who came from Troy to Italy
Exiled by fate, that’s what I’m singing.

Laviniaque, venit litora, multum
ille et terris iactatus et alto Vi
superum saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram;

I sing of arms and the man who came from Troy to Italy
Exiled by fate, that’s what I’m singing.
Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris
Italiam fato profugus.

Multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem,
inferretque deos Latio, genus unde Latinum,
Albanique patres, atque altae moenia Romae.

I sing of arms and the man who came from Troy to Italy
exiled by fate, that’s what I’m singing
Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris
Italiam fato profugus

Musa, mihi causas memora, quo numine laeso,
quidve dolens, regina deum tot volvere casus
insignem pietate virum, tot adire labores
impulerit. Tantaene animis caelestibus irae?

I sing of arms and the man who came from Troy to Italy
exiled by fate, that’s what I’m singing
Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris
Italiam fato profugus

I use this song to teach the first twelve lines of the Aeneid in Latin to our Latin club and also to my Aeneid literature class. Who says The Aeneid can't be a country song? Italy is a country.

Aeneid Class: Week 7: Gladiatorial Games

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

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

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

Gladiatorial Games:

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

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

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

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







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

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

Aeneid Class: Week 6: Roman Virtue Charades

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

Quiz: Today the kids took a mega-quiz! We tackled twenty questions on the Roman dinner party and the Roman virtues. Wow, it was intense. We also had time to sing all of our songs, and in our "Arma Virumque Cano" song we added the verse that starts "Multa quoque." That is exciting. The kids are learning so much Latin, and they sound great!

Activity: Roman Virtue Charades

Academic Track: I wrote the fifteen Roman Virtues (and one Roman vice: furor) onto cards. I gave pietas, dignitas, gravitas, and furor extra cards since I want to emphasize those. I had the children pair up and gave each pair three cards to act out. They had some time to plan their sketches and then they each had a chance to get up in front of the class and act out their virtues so we could guess which one they were portraying. It was pretty hilarious! Here are a couple of pictures:

Celia and Martina preparing to act out constantia.

Richard demonstrating clementia. Seriously, he's just about to demonstrate it.

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

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

Miranda doing "gravitas."

Katie doing "furor."

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

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

Aeneid Class: Week 5: Furor and Pietas

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

Welcome: Today the kids got three new pages in their scrapbooks. The 9:30 class also got to paste in some photos of our Roman dinner party, but due to an error at Walgreen's photo processing center the other classes didn't print, so they'll get theirs next week. Encourage the kids to embellish their scrapbooks with whatever drawings, photos, notes, and stickers they like, particularly drawings they may create while listening to the story or after reading the story. The three new printed pages were as follows: Roman Virtues Fast Facts, the new song "I Will Be Roman," and a new poem excerpt, "Horatio at the Bridge."

We didn't take a quiz today, because we had way too much to do. Next week we'll take a mega-quiz that will cover Roman games, the Roman dinner party, and the Roman virtues. Prepare to write many Ts and Fs!

Lesson: Our lesson today covered the story of Dido and Aeneas, and a discussion of Roman virtues. I picked 15 virtues for the kids to learn, which are detailed on the Fast Facts sheet. We talked about how people in different families, different countries, and different time periods value different things based on what they want to accomplish. For example, we teach our children to be kind and share, whereas the Romans valued the ability to inflict and tolerate pain. A little different.

We talked about the story up to this point and hit all the major plot points, then discussed the situation that Dido and Aeneas found themselves in.

In the story, Dido represents "furor" which to Romans meant to be ruled by passions and selfishness, following the excitement and emotion, the precedence of the individual over the group. While she starts out the story as a good ruler, building her city and society, she is overwhelmed by her love for Aeneas, and becomes irrational, letting her personal agenda override her community's agenda. Aeneas, in this story, represents "pietas" which to the Romans meant dutifulness, doing what was right for the family, the community, the civilization, and the gods. We talked about how Virgil separates these two traits into two characters to illustrate the conflict between them, but how they really both exist within any human.

We talked about how in some situations you need to be ruled by your pietas, but in some situations it's okay to be ruled by your furor. Safety and duty are good, but in our society we also love that passion that pushes you down a ski slope, or toward a work of great art, or into political rebellion. I would love it if the parents would take over helping the kids to see these two pieces of themselves, and help them become more aware in situations that require furor and pietas to balance.

We talked about the other Roman virtues on our fast facts sheet. Next week we're going to play "Roman Virtue Charades" so the kids will have a chance to act out some of these virtues. Check out this link for an even greater list of Roman virtues. Next week we're going to read our excerpt of "Horatio at the Bridge," which is an illustration of Roman virtue. Or actually an illustration of Victorian romanticization of Roman virtue. But we aren't going to unpeel that layer!

Memory Work: This week Celia recited the entire excerpt from the Aeneid in Latin, and she did it with such impressive expressiveness that she sounded like a native speaker! Exciting! The kids seem to be working hard on the memory projects -- remember it's not mandatory, just for fun. Anyone who has run out of things to memorize can start memorizing "Horatio at the Bridge."

Project:

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



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

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

Aeneid Class: Week 4: How to Throw a Roman Dinner Party

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

Overview: The lesson to be learned from this event involves the concept of civilization and what it means to be civilized. The Romans valued their civility highly, and dinner parties were an opportunity to express these qualities in public. They practiced rituals, demonstrated courtesy and respect, and strictly adhered to traditions and conventions. It was very important for the Romans to define themselves as civilized and therefore superior to the barbarian cultures around them. As we discussed in The Jungle Book, a colonizing nation must see the colonized people as "other" and also as inferior, so that the invasion can be seen as helping the dominated peoples, and the conquerors can be seen as saviors.

The interesting thing about the Roman dinner party is that compared to a dinner party today, it's not very civilized at all! As I asked the kids... if someone came to your house for dinner and they sat on the floor, ate with their hands from the serving dishes, and maybe excused themselves to vomit in between courses, would that be civilized? What if they weren't wearing any pants? Today's standards of "civilized behavior" are different from the Romans' standards -- but who's to say that in another 2000 years people will find it low and vile to eat with forks and put napkins in our laps? So, during the party, you want to underscore the importane of the Roman rituals and behaviors, and pretend to be very proud of your intensely refined and civilized behavior.

Preparations:

Step one: Prepare the food and drink. We used olives, boiled eggs, raw cabbage, chicken, pepperoni, grapes, apples, pears, figs, and dates.



We decanted white grape juice into empty bottles that we had labelled appropriately.



Step two: Set the mood with some music. If you have any musicians skilled in playing the lyre, call on them now. We downloaded a Synaulia album and played that on a CD player.

Step two: Set the table. Remember that Romans ate close to the floor. You can simulate this by using a regular folding table without folding out the legs. Drape some fabric over the whole table, including some on the floor where the guests will recline. You'll need a centerpiece that can later be offered as a sacrifice. We used a cabbage.



Step three: Invite in your guests! Encourage everyone to dress up.



The Dinner:

Toast: Give everyone a cup with some ice in it. Explain about how the Romans didn't have refrigerators or freezers, but they did acquire ice from the mountains and keep it cold in deep pits. Boast that the fact that you have ice at your dinner party reflects your intense civilization and impressive wealth. A common table wine was called Mulsum, which was water, wine, and honey. Ask your students why the Romans might have watered down their wine, especially considering that dinner parties sometimes went on for hours. Have the slaves pour out the "wine" and then toast Rome!

Appetizers: You can give each guest a napkin with which to eat, but remind them that in Roman times they would have had their own napkin which they would bring from home to any dinner party they attended, kind of like a personal hankerchief. Pass around the eggs and olives. Talk about how a really great appetizer in Roman times would have been a stuffed dormouse.

Main course: Explain that Romans didn't eat a lot of beef, because they used their cows for work. After a few years of work, a cow would be so tough and chewy that you'd have to cook it for a week before it was edible. Why go through all that drama when you could cook up a pig right away. Pigs didn't have to work, and pork was the Romans' favorite meat.





Sacrifice: Between the main course and the dessert, the Romans paused to sacrifice to their household gods. Here is our altar:



Have one guest bring the sacrificial cabbage, and another light the candles. Then observe a moment of silence during which you respect your Roman values, and the ideas that are important to your family.



Dessert: Pass around the fruit, including the dates and figs, which some of your guests might find unfamiliar.

Entertainment:

After dinner, invite your guests to entertain the group with poetry recitation, song, and dance. Celia M. and Sarah R, from our academic track class, were able to recite the soliloquy from Julius Caesar, and Martina E. set a new record for memorizing the Virgil, at 6 lines in Latin. In the enrichment track class, one of our slaves brought Max N.'s little brother Seth, who recited eight lines of Shakespeare to my amazement! He was immediately granted citizenship in the class. The enrichment track class also engaged in some dancing after dinner:



Guests can also entertain themselves by playing Knucklebones or Latrunculi.





I sent all my friends out to carouse through Rome after my party was over. I hope they all had a wonderful time! Didn't see a picture of your child? or just want to see more pictures of our awesome class? Click here for more Aeneid Class pictures.

Assignment for next week: Make sure you have read through chapter 3 in the book. By now everyone should have a copy! :) Next week we will be making mosaics. Please let your children have a look at some mosaic tile work online. Here's another page with mosaics, and another page.

Aeneid Class: Week 3: Roman Parlor Games

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here are some pictures of the kids playing Tali:

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

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











For more pictures, see our Flickr set.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

VOLUNTEERS: How can you help?

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

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

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

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

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

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