Pendragon Assignments 485 AD

Player 1:

You are Gwanona of Northumberland. You are a Cymric (Welsh) person and a Christian. You are 15 years old, the fourth daughter of a squire. Your character can neither read nor write, but she has an amazing ability to memorize things she has heard, word for word, and has perfect recall. Your father works for a knight attached to Wandesborow, which is at the eastern end of Hadrian's wall, the boundary that separated the Roman territory from the free lands to the north. Wandesborow is on the coast of the North Sea. You can see just where you live if you go to http://maps.google.com and search for "Newcastle Upon Tyne". There is a major city there now, but maybe the castle was located here, where Bamurgh Castle now stands: http://www.bamburghcastle.com/history.php Your mother's job is to help her husband's knight's wife, to take care of their household, and do her dirty work. You help her with this.

Your mother loves your older sisters, but she knows that they will be fine marrying men who hope to be squires, but will probably be farmers or woodsmen. She knows you are different, and she knows the bravery of your spirit cannot be contained in Northumberland, and your desire for adventure and new experiences cannot be served by a quiet marriage and a lowly life. However, she knows there are not many choices for women outside of marriage, and that there are very few female knights in the service of any king. One morning after she has served at the knight's table for breakfast, she pulls you into the kitchen to tell you that she has overheard exciting rumors at the knight's table. Britons in the south are joining together to fight the Saxons and drive them back to the continent for good. The knights of your homeland of Northumbria had been fighting off Saxon attacks from the North Sea for decades. Yet, you and your mother both know that there is no future for you as a knight here, where you are already known as a squire's daughter. Your mother gives you her permission, if you wish to leave home, to travel south to seek your fortune. She tells you she will help you to pack as many supplies and as much money as she can help you pull together, for the trip. Will you leave the safety of your home and travel south to seek your fortunes in Logres?

YOUR WRITING ASSIGNMENT:

Choose one of these:

1. Your nationality is Cymric, which means Welsh or Celtic. Research a little bit about your people and tell me ten things about your Welsh heritage. Try starting here: http://www.britainexpress.com/wales/history/iron-age.htm

2. Your character needs to decide whether she should pretend to be a man, and keep her gender secret, or try to make her way as a female in this male-dominated world. What does she choose and why?

PS Here's another page that might be interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-Roman_Britain

Player 2:

You are Gwair of Gorre. Your culture is Cymric (Welsh) and your religion is Pagan. Your father is a knight, and his name is Sir Aeron. You have five brothers, all older than you are. Three of them have already become knights and You are 15 years old and you live in Gaihom. You were born in the year AD 470. Your passions are Loyalty to your liege, Love of family, Archery, and Power.

You receive a letter from your Uncle, your father's older brother, who lives in the land of Logres, to the south. When the letter arrives in your father's manor house, it creates quite a stir, since letters are very rare, and you, being the youngest son, have never received one before. Pretend this is written in Latin. He writes:

Greetings, Gwair, to you, your noble father, your wise mother and your brothers. Good health to you now and forever.

I am writing to let you know about an opportunity for you here in Logres. I am offering you this information instead of giving it to your older siblings because you have always been my favorite. And anyway, they are all idiots. A baron knight here in Logres has a mad, brave plan to restore Maiden Castle to its former glory as a fortress. This was that place, Gwair, a thousand years ago, where our proud Cymric people built one of our finest forts. This is the place, five hundred years ago, that we lost the battle with the Romans, where Vespasian knocked down our defenses. This is the place, my favored nephew, where we may make our stand against the filthy Saxons, now the Romans have gone. I know you're only fifteen years old, but I think you could find honor and adventure in a career as a squire with Sir Cadfael of Aron. Bring with you a letter of recommendation from your father, as well as all the money and supplies he can spare you for your journey. I hope to call on you soon at Maiden Castle, reborn. Your loving uncle, Ifan of Amesbury.

YOUR CLASS ASSIGNMENT:

Choose one of the following writing assignments. You are the only one of the four players whose character would be able to write, so you will be writing "in character," that is, pretending to "be" Gwair:

1. Write a letter to your father asking for money, supplies, and permission to take the trip.

2. Write a letter to your uncle (keeping in mind you may have to take it to him yourself.)

Please respond to this email letting me know if you plan to make the trip to Maiden Castle or take your chances as a sixth son in Gaihom. If you want to google/wikipedia "Maiden Castle" or "Amesbury" or "Welsh people" or "Welsh language"

Player 3:

You are Talorc, a Pictish pagan of the Out Isles. You live in the northwest part of what is now Scotland. Go to http://maps.google.com and look up Isle of Skye and you'll see where you were born. You are the second son of a squire. You are fifteen years old, and you cannot read or write. You have been trained as a mason and have worked cutting stones for farm buildings and the mountain fortresses around the lochs and cliffs of your land. Your homeland was never conquered by the Romans, so you hesitate to travel south of Hadrian's wall, where the Saxons and Britons are fighting it out. However, your dream is to be a knight, and you know that as the son of a squire, you are not going to get very far.

While you are working on repairing a hearth in a meeting house in a local village, you overhear a conversation between a local man who traveled south to Logres and became a knight, and his father who he was visiting. The knight's name is Sir Morleo.

Father: Son, I'm glad you're home for good.

Sir Morleo: Don't be foolish. I'm going back to Logres as soon as I can visit my sisters and sell my estate here on the Island.

Father: Why would you go back? Can't you make a life for yourself among your own people?

Sir Morleo: There is a rich knight in Logres named Cadfael. He has a plan to build a fortress on the site of the old hill fort, Maiden Castle. He is in need of many knights to create an army to defend this fortress against the Saxons, and keep them from entering the lands to the West.

Father: Forget it. It's not our war. We are Picts. Let the Saxons overrun those wretched Welsh fools. We defended against the Romans, we can defend against anyone, but here, in the North.

Sir Morleo: The Britons have asked us again and again to help them keep the Saxons on the continent. We must respond.

After thinking about this news, you wonder if you shouldn't try and make your way down to Logres yourself and investigate this army that intends to fight the Saxons. Perhaps with all these knights, many squires would be needed, and you could lend your aid, perhaps someday become a knight yourself. Will you travel south, to Logres, to check it out?

YOUR CLASS ASSIGNMENT:

Choose one of the following writing assignments. Since your character can't write, you will be writing this as Stephen.

1. Find out a little about your character's origins. The Picts were called "The Painted People" -- why? Who are the Picts? Where are they from? Start here: http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/picts/ Tell me ten things about the Picts that I should know.

2. If you decide to go to Logres, your character will have a long journey ahead of him. What supplies will he need? Where will he get them?

Please respond to this email letting me know if you plan to make the trip to Maiden Castle or take your chances as a stonemason in the Out Isles.

Kinetic Choir: Week 2

Great to see the kids back this week! I had such a good time with them.

Today's class:

Breathing exercises. Deep breathing, and a game called Zoom. Ask your kids about it!

Vocal Warm-ups. We played a game to help them visualize what it means to have higher notes and lower notes. In this game one person (first me, then all the kids had a turn) puts her hand out in front of her, and gives us a starting note. Then the leader raises or lowers her hand, sometimes quite drastically, sometimes more slowly, sometimes in jerks and skips, and the group follows by raising or lowering the pitch they're signing. This was fun! Lots of giggles, but a good way to start thinking about relative pitch, intervals, and good watching practice.

Composition. Several children had written verses to the song "You Are My Sunshine" and we had a great time listening and singing those gems.

Form: We practiced "Rocky Road to Dublin."

Interval Training: We reviewed "Bought Me a Cat" and learned "Little Bird, Little Bird." One has a major third and one has a minor third. We learned the songs thoroughly, and then practiced hearing intervals on the piano and deciding whether it was a "Bought Me a Cat" or a "Chipsy Chopsy" or a "Little Bird." They were really good at it! We'll work more on thirds next week. The goal is that they'll be able to identify major and minor thirds, and also sing them when asked.

Parts Singing: We practiced "My Paddle Clean and Bright" and "Rose Rose Rose Red."

Thank you choir! You had a great day!

Newspaper Class: Week 2

Our second class went great! The kids are on fire with ideas and questions. We do not have time in the hour to accomplish everything these bright minds want to talk about and explore, that's for sure!

Here's what was decided:

The newspaper will be named The Norfolk Post. The first editor is Maggie More and her email is written in your child's folder (if you don't have it, please email me). All written material and photographs should be submitted to Maggie this week. Sales will be by individual paper and also by subscription. Subscriptions are $10 for ten issues, and individual papers are $1.50.

We will mail papers if that is desired.

We decided what graphic look the newspaper should have and in what format it will be printed.

Your child has a folder for each job he or she decided to take on.

Subscription sales: These two representatives of the newspaper were selling subscriptions to the paper at lunch on Tuesday. The Subscription Manager is Martina and she will be in charge of the bookkeeping surrounding subscriptions and also individual sales.

Reporters: Reporters should each write one article on an event. It can be an event inside or outside co-op. They should report what happened, who was involved, where it took place, and when it happened. They may or may not have a photo to go along with it.

Columnists: Columnists can write any type of column they choose. They might write an advice column, a how-to column, an interview column, an opinion column -- whatever they like.

Photographer: While the reporters may submit photos connected with their stories, the photographer's job is to take a picture that is its own story. It can have a caption but should speak for itself.

Editor: The editor puts all the material together and compiles it in the template, and also writes an op-ed.

Cartoonist: The cartoonist draws a cartoon, scans it, and emails it to the editor as an image.

DEADLINES: The reporters, cartoonist, columnists, and photographers need to get their materials to the editor by the end of Friday. She then has Saturday and Sunday to work on putting everything together, and will submit her finished work to me by the end of Sunday so I can get it printed.

Now, this next part is important: There are many parameters that were not defined. There were many questions left unasked. Part of letting the children own this project is letting them figure out the questions that need to be asked instead of just helping them figure everything out in advance. If your child feels like they haven't had enough direction, encourage him or her to go in whatever direction is interesting and inspiring.

There may not be a paper this week -- this may be our week to figure things out and come at it with more information next week. And that is totally fine! Our goal is to put out ten issues, so we have some wiggle room in terms of the schedule. Let's be totally unstressed, totally positive, and whatever happens, we will work it out.

The most important thing this week is that the kids start communicating with each other, start learning what's possible in terms of word count and photo size, and have the experience of working for each other.

If they want to keep track of the questions and problems that occur to them as they're working/thinking/planning, that would be great! They can write right on their assignment sheet.

Kinetic Choir: Week 1

We had a great day in choir today -- as I told the children, these are the choir pioneers,
blazing a trail for an HSoBX choral tradition. They were very good sports even
with our small numbers, and made some beautiful music!

Today's class:

Breathing exercises. We learned the difference between our talking voices and singing voices. We don't use our singing voices for talking, or in most cases we'd sound like Cinderella impersonators all day. Likewise, we do not use our talking voices for singing -- we want to access that sweet, higher voice that feels like it's located up in your forehead, not in your throat.

Vocal Warm-ups. We sang Me-balaba You-balaba Me-balaba and Mommy Made Me Mash My M&Ms. And we're not explaining. And we're not sorry.

Composition. We talked about how most songs have verses and a chorus, and we
looked at "You Are My Sunshine" as an example. The children's first composition
assignment is to write a new verse for this song! They can write about whatever
they like -- we talked about how songs can be about love, about a favorite
thing, about a person, about an event that happened, or really about anything.
I'm very interested to see what they come up with, and look forward to
incorporating their own work into our repertoire.

Form: In the morning class we talked about verse / chorus structure more as we
introduced "The Rocky Road to Dublin" in which Travis will sing the verses while
the choir claps a rhythm, and the choir will join in on the choruses.

Interval Training: In the afternoon class we learned the concept of intervals
and learned about thirds. We sang the song "Bought Me a Cat" which has a lot of
thirds in it. My goal for the class is that the children will be able to
identify and also produce all the different intervals on the major scale. That
will be a real accomplishment!

Parts Singing: Both classes began to learn the round "Rose Rose Rose Red" which
we will learn to introduce parts singing. We also learned "My Paddles Clean and
Bright" in the earlier class.

Next week I will have folders for the kids -- I was trying out some different
things today to see what would stick. I have a better idea now of the directions
we can go. I'm pretty excited about how well they did today!

Listening Links:

Rose Rose Rose Red

Bought Me a Cat (karaoke version)

Note: If you search around on YouTube for "I Bought Me a Cat" you will find many
many links to the Aaron Copeland version of it, but this is NOT the version
we're doing, because it doesn't have the same thirds in it that I need for their
ear training. The one we want goes "Do-Do-Mi, Do-Do-Mi, Do-Do-Mi-So-Mi-Re-Do" if
that makes any sense.

My Paddle Song

You are My Sunshine

Rocky Road to Dublin

Have fun! See you next week. Interested in choir? We have room!

Newspaper Class: Week 1

Yesterday we had a planning meeting, and debated a lot of important questions.
It's vital that the children have ownership of their plans and ideas, so they
can really get behind the effort to produce a paper. I'm trying not to tell them
what to do or make decisions for them. It might take us longer to get organized
this way, but in the end it will be a more memorable learning experience if they
have to wade through some of these potential pitfalls themselves.

The students broke down responsibilities for organization this way:

1. Publishing: Jacob and Stephen are in charge of researching printing options and comparing
prices from several different vendors for black and white or color printing.

2. Market Research: Sarah Berry is in charge of putting together the survey that we will be sending
in your direction. There are three market research questions to help guide their
decisions.

3. Corporate Planning: The others in the group are tasked with coming up with a tagline and mission
statement for the paper. What is our goal? What is our scope? What do we hope to
accomplish? And how do we plan to present ourselves to the world?

What is a tagline?

Think of these examples:

"Let your fingers do the walking."
"Think different."
"All the news that's fit to print."
"Just do it."
"Fair and balanced."
"Can you hear me now?"

Here's a good article about creating a tagline on copyblogger.com.

What is a mission statement?

A mission statement is a document created by a company to focus its purpose and
goals. It should define what we want to do and how we want to do it. It's our
reason for existing, defined in a paragraph. What need do we fill? What do we
believe in? How will we reach our goals?

So, those are the assignments for this week -- let me know if you have
questions, and feel free to have the kids email me for clarification or help!

Three Musketeers Week 6: What's Up, Duke?

Welcome! This blog post is related to my Three Musketeers class at our homeschool co-op, Homeschool Out of the Box. We have an academic section, reading Richard Pevear's translation of the book, and an enrichment section, reading the Usborne Young Readers' abridgement of the story. For all lesson plans related to this class, click the Three Musketeers tag at the bottom of this post.

HOMEWORK: Today we reviewed all our French and also learned how to ask someone their name and tell someone our names. We practiced on each other -- my, we're getting polite.

DISCUSSION: Our review of the reading comprehension from last week led us straight into our topic for today: Queen Anne. We learned her life story, and the background gave us a lot of insight into why she is found in the predicament Dumas creates for her. Learning about the real stories of historical figures that appear in this novel forces us to examine the way Dumas uses his material -- where he stretches the truth, where he invents, and where he uses real events to move his plot along. Queen Anne was a child bride, uprooted from her country and culture, and she was doing the best she could. It's my reading that Dumas treated her pretty well in the novel -- she seems like a victim trying to survive the royal turmoil. That may be a kind presentation.

In the junior class we talked about how in lots of movies (I used Shrek as an example, but lots of the kids had also seen The Princess Bride, which is another good one) a princess is being forced to marry someone she doesn't love. They all recognized this trope and agreed that arranged marriages were wrong and troubling. We talked about how usually in stories or movies, someone rescues the princess at the last minute and she doesn't have to marry the bad guy. In Queen Anne's life though, no one rescued her. No one busted down the doors of the church at the last minute, no one swept her away, no fairy godmother helped her, and she had to marry that guy she didn't know or love. So we can understand why she met someone later in her life that she did fall in love with, since her marriage was so unfair and not based on love. I think they get it.

ACTIVITIES: We had a wonderful time dancing and singing today, and in fact learned the very beginning step of what will become our minuet. The kids were great at this! They should practice at home -- any song in 3/4 meter would be appropriate for practicing. If they've forgotten the step, maybe the phrase "Step step step, tap tap tap" will help bring it back.

SKIT:

In the senior class, we acted out the arrest of M. Bonacieux:

Characters: D'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos, Aramis, Bonacieux, Guards

Action: D'Artagnan and the three musketeers are sitting around his house, just partying like it's 1632, when M. Bonacieux busts in and begs for their help in finding his kidnapped wife.

Bonacieux: Help! My wife's been kidnapped! And now they're after me.
D'Artagnan: We'll protect you, no matter what.

But oh no! Here come the guards to arrest M. Bonacieux. D'Artagnan not only refuses to help him, he encourages the guards to take him away!

Bonacieux: Help! Help! They've got me! Help me!
D'Artagnan: That's right, guards. Do your job. Take this man to the Bastille!

Porthos is outraged, but D'Artagnan explains that they can do more good for M. Bonacieux if they are not arrested with him, as they surely would be if they'd fought for his freedom.

In the junior class, the kids are a bit farther along in the plot, so we acted out the Duke's visit to the Louvre.

Characters: D'Artagnan, Constance, Duke of Buckingham, Queen, Scar-faced man, Cardinal Richelieu, King.

Action: We set up the room as best we could and used our imaginations, but we basically needed a doorway, a street, a bridge, the Queen's chamber, Cardinal Richelieu's office, and the King's office. When we started out, the Queen, the Cardinal, and the King were in their places, Constance was outside the door, the Duke of Buckingham was on the bridge, and D'Artagnan was inside the door. We also had a box of diamonds.

Constance (coming through the door): I escaped my captors!
D'Artagnan: How?
Constance: I tied my bedsheets together and went out the window!
D'Artagnan: Why were you kidnapped in the first place?
Constance: That's not my secret to tell. In fact, I have to go!
D'Artagnan: Let me go with you!
Constance: No, stay here. I have to go by myself.

Constance sets off on the streets of Paris and D'Artagnan sneaks behind. As she reaches the bridge, the Duke of Buckingham puts his arm around her and D'Artagnan protests.

D'Artagnan: Hey! What are you doing? Get your hands off her.
Constance: No, this is the Duke of Buckingham. I was sent here to meet him.
D'Artagnan: Oh, sorry! What can I do to help?
Duke: Follow us to the Louvre and protect us.

So the three of them set off to the Louvre with D'Artagnan guarding the rear. They enter the queen's chamber.

Duke: Oh you're so beautiful, so wonderful, blah blah blah.
Queen: Yes, yes, but we can never be together.
Duke: NOOOOOOooooooOOOOOOooooo!
Queen: Well, I'll give you a present to remember me by.

The queen gives the duke her diamonds. The scar-faced man, who had been hiding in a corner, snuck off to tell Cardinal Richelieu.

Scar-faced man: Hey, the queen just gave the Duke of Buckingham her diamonds!
Richelieu: Ah, that gives me an idea.

Richelieu goes to visit the king.

Richelieu: Hey, I have an idea -- why don't you have a party for the queen. She can wear the diamonds you gave her -- it'll be awesome!
King: That's a great idea.

The king goes to visit the queen.

King: Hey, I have an idea. I'm going to throw you a party. Make sure you wear your diamonds!
Queen: NOOOOoooOOOOOooo!!

If it seems complicated, consider we did this four times, mixing the parts around so everyone got a chance to be the part they most wanted to be. It was so much fun, and I was amazed with the kids, their awareness of the storyline, and their ability to take on these roles and really ham it up.

POETRY: Today we read "More Strong Than Time" by Victor Hugo so we could compare the love scene that Dumas wrote between the Queen and the Duke with Hugo's love poetry. The kids did a great job understanding this poem and were very good readers. I'm interested to see what they will think of some of the lines that Dumas gave the Duke compared to Hugo's images.

ASSIGNMENT: Here are the vocabulary words:

Indifferent
Discretion
Idle
Repudiating
Equivalent
Coquetry
Ransacked
Posterity
Calumny
Indulgence

And the reading comprehension questions:

D’Artagnan makes the same promise to Constance that the Duke of Buckingham makes to the queen. What is it?
What object does D’Artagnan keep noticing, and what initials are embroidered on it?
Why was Athos arrested?
What does the Duke of Buckingham tell D’Artagnan to do?
How many times has the Duke seen the Queen before?
What does he plan to do in order to see her more often?

I'd like them to consider if they'd let themselves get arrested for a friend, and think about Athos' sacrifice for D'Artagnan. Was it wise for him to be arrested, given how fierce the Cardinal was, and how unjust the justice system could be at the time?

Three Musketeers Week 5: The Mousetrap

Welcome! This blog post is related to my Three Musketeers class at our homeschool co-op, Homeschool Out of the Box. We have an academic section, reading Richard Pevear's translation of the book, and an enrichment section, reading the Usborne Young Readers' abridgement of the story. For all lesson plans related to this class, click the Three Musketeers tag at the bottom of this post.

HOMEWORK: We tried reciting the days of the week in French today, and also learned how to say "I'm awesome!" which is very important for a Gascon. We went over some vocab from last week, specifically lackey, bourgeious, apprehended, swaggering, and rendezvous. We also traded sketches and tried to identify each others' musketeers. Some of the students are brilliant caricature artists!

One of our most interesting points from the reading comprehension involved dissecting the phrase: "In prosperity one should sow meals right and left, in order to harvest some in adversity." This is a musketeer's idea of a savings account! How nuts is that? A very Alexandre Dumas type sentiment, we decided.

DISCUSSION: Today we discussed the Louvre, from its beginnings as a medieval castle on the banks of the Seine through its use as a royal palace as it was during the time of the Three Musketeers, to its current life as an art museum. The kids have some assignments on their worksheets relating to the most famous treasures in the Louvre.

ACTIVITIES: In the senior class, I had the kids choreograph a ten-move fight scene. They split their paper into two sides, and then figured out and wrote down ten moves for each side of the battle. Then they went outside to practice and fine-tune their moves.

In both classes, we talked about passwords and the different situations in which they are used, like Constance and D'Artagnan used a password to get D'Artagnan recognized at the Louvre. In the junior class, we played Password, which is just like "Telephone" in that you try and whisper a three word password around the circle and get it safely around without any changes. We had a lot of fun with that.

Another game we played in the junior class was designed to get them started reacting to the literature in a thoughtful way. We sat in a circle and passed a ball around. When each child held the ball, it was his or her turn to speak. The first round we had to say the name of any character from the book. The second round we had to say the name of a character and then whether they were a hero or a villain. The final round we had to say our favorite character and why. It was fascinating to me to see these children, as young as five, really thinking about their choice. Several of them chose Milady DeWinter as their favorite, and when asked why, Elsa for example said, "Because she's powerful and knows how to get things done." I thought that was pretty insightful. Those who chose D'Artagnan as a favorite seemed a little horrified that anyone would pick the scar-faced man, for example. But I could tell from the discussion that they are all reading and all absorbing the material -- excellent.

ASSIGNMENT: I challenged the students to set a password with a friend or relative, so that in case they needed to send a message to that person, they could verify that it was an authentic message. We also had these vocab words to look up:

Uninhabited
Apparition
Customary
Persecute
Reproach
Incontinence
Writ server
Vigilance
Alguazil
Alibi

And these reading comprehension questions on chapters 9 and 10:

What two countries does the Queen love, and why?
The scarred man mistook Aramis and the doctor’s niece for two other people. Who?
Why is Porthos upset with D’Artagnan after Bonacieux is arrested?
What is a 17th century mousetrap?
D’Artagnan listens to a lot of interrogations without interrupting. But when does he interrupt?
Who is D’Artagnan’s alibi?

Three Musketeers Week 4: Lackeys and Abduction

Welcome! This blog post is related to my Three Musketeers class at our homeschool co-op, Homeschool Out of the Box. We have an academic section, reading Richard Pevear's translation of the book, and an enrichment section, reading the Usborne Young Readers' abridgement of the story. For all lesson plans related to this class, click the Three Musketeers tag at the bottom of this post.

We began class today reviewing our French vocabulary and checking out our homework and reading comprehension. The students had put some effort into their visions of the abandoned monastery, and we contrasted their ideas with the ones in the video clip I sent out in email. Here's that video. One of the most important things to absorb from this reading is the fun, witty patter the combatants toss around during the preparations for the duel, which is paid homage in a scene from The Princess Bride -- and you can see that video here. Fun stuff!

DISCUSSION: We talked last week about Victor Hugo and how he wrote more serious intellectual drama and Dumas wrote more popular entertainment and adventure. We talked today about the similarities in The Three Musketeers and popular stories, even fairy tales or bedtime stories. What common elements could we find in this novel and some of our most familiar stories? Damsels in distress, sword fights, chase scenes, very easily identifiable villains and heroes, uncomplicated good guys and bad guys, kings, queens, palaces, secrets, etc. One of the most obvious of these elements, and yet the most difficult to identify, is the number three and the repetition connected to that number. We all remembered "The Three Bears" and "The Three Little Pigs" as well as all the things that come in threes in plot lines of familiar tales. We'll see as we go forward that not only are there three musketeers, but there will be repetitions in threes in the action as well. This was very challenging material for the kids, and even the junior class was able to follow this discussion, and did a great job making this connection.

POETRY: We read the Victor Hugo poem "The Grave and the Rose." I gave them an English translation below the French poem on the page, and we compared how difficult it is to tell who is speaking in the English version, compared to the original French. We continue to look at different challenges of reading literature in translation, and this is one of them. I assigned the children to use two colors of highlighter or colored pencil to delineate the speakers in the quoted parts of the poem.

We also worked on the second line of "Demain des l'aube" and put the first two lines together.

ACTIVITIES: We sang our songs inside today -- no dancing around in the rain for us, but that's okay. It gave us more time to look at the French. We did Il Court le Furet, Sur le Pont d'Avignon, and le Petit Prince, and the junior class also worked on Claire de Lune. No swordfighting today either due to the rain, although the junior class still managed to slash and cleave a little bit!

ASSIGNMENT: On the worksheet for today are four ovals. I'd like the students to draw the faces of the four main characters on those ovals, using whatever props or clues they can draw so that they can trade with a partner and be able to identify which face goes with which character. Here are the vocabulary words they should find and highlight in the text:

Lackey
Misanthropic
Arabesques
Damascened
Rendezvous
Swaggering
Bourgeois
Apprehended
Bastille
Decamp

And here are the reading comprehension questions for chapters 7 and 8.

Who is Athos’ lackey, and what rule does Athos enforce with him?
Who is Porthos’ lackey, and what does he look like?
Who is Aramis’ lackey, and what three problems does he have?
What does this mean: “In prosperity one should sow meals right and left, in order to harvest some in adversity.”
According to the landlord, what is the queen’s situation?
What person does the landlord suspect of kidnapping his wife?

Three Musketeers Week 3: Alexandre Dumas vs. Victor Hugo CAGEFIGHT!

Welcome! This blog post is related to my Three Musketeers class at our homeschool co-op, Homeschool Out of the Box. We have an academic section, reading Richard Pevear's translation of the book, and an enrichment section, reading the Usborne Young Readers' abridgement of the story. For all lesson plans related to this class, click the Three Musketeers tag at the bottom of this post.

HOMEWORK: We began class today by reviewing the vocabulary words they looked up, the musketeer terms they researched and going over the reading comprehension questions.

Important comprehension points:

1. Understanding the difference between the King's Musketeers and the Cardinal's Guard and getting how there were different armies and regiments and whatnot.

2. Understanding why M. Treville pretended to like the Cardinal and praised him. This was a very very tricky one but I did have a few spectacular little readers tell me it was because it was a test for D'Artagnan, to see if he was a spy. We discussed spying and how that works, and how that would have been a foreign concept for naive D'Artagnan.

3. D'Artagnan is insanely impetuous, and for the second time loses an important letter of introduction because he's following his temper into a fight. What would we have done? Finished up with M. Treville and secured our futures and careers. What did D'Artagnan do? Go charging off into the street to die. D'Artagnan! Such a temper! We focused a lot on this in the enrichment track class too.

DISCUSSION: Today we learned about Victor Hugo and compared his biography to that of Alexandre Dumas. Hugo was writing at the same time, but he was a very serious writer, much more intellectual and dark than Dumas. He was less interested in swordfighting and romance and more interested in despair and hopelessness. We talked about how Hugo's life in some ways paralleled Dumas' story -- political involvement, exile, and major shifts in opinions and beliefs. Dumas, however, was more fun. Hugo was such a nut that he ended up making his own furniture by chewing up wood. Seriously. We talked about how great genius sometimes comes with eccentricities (say it with me: eccentricity) and that what we love about Hugo is also what made him a total nutburger. Dumas wrote cookbooks and got fat. Hugo turned out to be some kind of mad beaver.

We also had a great discussion about how reading Hugo might be more interesting in terms of really delving into 19th century French literature, but that it wouldn't be appropriate for their age group. This led to a comparison between the "real" translation of Three Musketeers and the Usborne abridged version. Many kids in the older class have younger siblings reading the "junior" version and have noticed differences. For example, in the junior version, Constance is the landlord's sister, not wife. We talked about how in the 9-12 year old class we can discuss how different marriage was back then, how adultery was much more common and expected, and how marriage in the 17th century was not so much based on love. We talked (patronizingly) about how our little brothers and sisters cannot be expected to make this kind of ethical distinction, and therefore the book they read makes it easy for them by changing some details. Very excellent discussion -- I was so proud of the kids.

POETRY: Instead of reading a Victor Hugo novel, we're going to read and learn some Victor Hugo poetry. The one we're going to memorize in French is "Demain, des l'aube" which is definitely Hugo's most popular work, and perhaps the most famous poem written in French. It is, as you would expect from Hugo, very dark and gloomy. For next week, we're tackling just the first line:

Demain, des l'aube a l'heure au blanchit la campagne

Next week we'll do the second line, and so on. It seems daunting when you look at the whole thing, but I know they can do it. They will amaze themselves and you. Here's a funny video someone made, animating a famous portrait of Victor Hugo as if he is reciting his own poem:

SWORDPLAY: Today the kids learned two new moves -- the cleave and the high block. These are two handed moves. Cleaving looks like you're coming straight down on your opponent's head, the high block is how you would stop someone from cleaving your skull in half. Super fun!

SKITS: Today we acted out two scenes: D'Artagnan comes to Meung and gets in a fight with the scarfaced man, and D'Artagnan chases the scarfaced man through the streets of Paris, enraging the three musketeers in the process. This was great fun, and the children were wonderful at acting! I think it's particularly important in the enrichment class that we bring the story to life in this way, and it was highly entertaining for the children. They did great! This is something we can't do at home with our own books and our own kids, so I want to do this as much as possible as we go forward through the book, whenever we get to interesting scenes that lend themselves well to drama.

VOCABULARY: Here are the vocab words for next week. Please highlight and define.

Casuist
Dispatch
Eloquence
Nimble
Combatants
Miserly
Deign
Edict
Degenerating
Impartial

I also asked the kids to consider the abandoned monastery as a scene -- what might it look like, feel like, what characteristics would make it a great place to duel? Here's a link to the fight scene from the 1993 Disney movie, "The Three Musketeers" that shows how this particular director imagined it.

ASSIGNMENT: Please read chapters 5 and 6. Not all of chapter 6 needs to be read word for word by the kids themselves. There is a lot of dialogue and some of it drags. Honestly these conversations are not that critical to the plot. This is a place in the text where you can summarize for your kids if they're overwhelmed by the material! :) Here are the comprehension questions:

1. What does this mean: “Suffer nothing from anyone except the King, the Cardinal, and M. de Treville”?
2. Why did Athos decide to fight D’Artagnan left-handed?
3. What happened to interrupt the duel D’Artagnan and Athos had started?
4. How did M. de Treville misrepresent the fight to the King?
5. What were the Musketeers doing when D’Artagnan got into a fight with Bernajoux?
6. What was wrong with the King when D’Artagnan and M. de Treville went to visit him?

Three Musketeers Week 2: A Bridge, a Ferret, and a Little Prince

Welcome! This blog post is related to my Three Musketeers class at our homeschool co-op, Homeschool Out of the Box. We have an academic section, reading Richard Pevear's translation of the book, and an enrichment section, reading the Usborne Young Readers' abridgement of the story. For all lesson plans related to this class, click the Three Musketeers tag at the bottom of this post.

HOMEWORK: We began class today by reviewing the vocabulary words they looked up, the musketeer terms they researched and going over the reading comprehension questions.

The most important thing to remember from chapter 1 is the way D'Artagnan responds to offense, throwing himself immediately into life-threatening conflict over what seems to us to be a small irritation. D'Artagnan's behavior at the beginning of the novel is "provincial" and unsophisticated. He doesn't understand the way the world works, he's not into trickery and subterfuge -- he is aggressive and uncomplicated, and of course this gets him into trouble. This is D'Artagnan "before."

The most important thing I want them to remember from chapter 2 is the contrast between the way D'Artagnan was raised (to respect the King and Cardinal) and the way the Parisians behave, making fun of both. We talked about how Paris is a whole new world for D'Artagnan, and how he respects and loves the musketeers as if they are superheroes. Meeting Porthos, Aramis and Athos would be kind of like a kid today walking into a room with Superman, Spiderman, and Batman. He also believes at this point that the King and Cardinal are both noble figures worthy of reverence and obedience. Again, this is D'Artagnan "before."

FRENCH: Here are our French words for today:

Merci Thank you
Du rien. You’re welcome.
Tres bien Very good.
S’il vous plait Please

We talked about the many uses for the phrase "tres bien" and practiced saying it with correct slang pronunciation, which does not at all sound like it is written.

DISCUSSION: We read about Alexandre Dumas and learned some biographical information. Three important points here: First, Dumas was multiracial, and that was a big deal in 19th century France. His African ethnicity possibly made people take him less seriously, maybe affected the way he was received in literary/academic circles. Second, The Three Musketeers was written as a serial novel, which means there were lots of cliffhangers, and Dumas profited by getting his characters into hairy situations and then getting them out. Dumas was an adventure writer -- his books were meant to be exciting and entertaining. He was a pioneer in this genre, combining action, romance, and drama. Third, Dumas lived large -- he traveled a lot, loved to swordfight, cook, eat, and was a major womanizer. He was a big character, physically and figuratively -- a very alive and exciting kind of guy.

DANCE: We practiced our three dances: Il Court le Furet, Le Petit Prince, and Sur le Pont d'Avignon. Silliness ensued. We're getting our movements down, and picking up some of the French. No stress on learning this; we have all semester to absorb it.

SWORDPLAY: Today in the academic track class I introduced the idea of choreography and how in movies and plays, swordfights are not just free-for-alls that the actors can play out however they want. We talked about staging fights with a partner and I gave the kids time to get together with a partner and stage some moves. As of now, they know how to slash supinate and pronate, and how to block those slashes with the opposite slash in a figure 8. They also know how to thrust and block the thrust, and how to salute. And yet, all the choreographed demonstrations that resulted from our efforts ended in a bad death.

VOCABULARY: Here are their vocabulary words for next week. They should find them and highlight them in the book, and look them up or ask for definitions when necessary. Note: There is a swear in here, not necessary to translate it directly, just translate as "Zoinks!" or whatever. I include these swears because they appear in the book. It's Dumas' fault. Blame him.

Daredevil
Mordieu
Entreaty
Subsidiary
Tenacity
Viaticum
Flattery
Fanfaronade
Reprimand
Interim

ASSIGNMENT: The children are to read chapters 3 and 4 in the Pevear, or chapter 2 in the Usborne, and the academic track should be able to answer the following questions:

1. What made M. Treville angry at Athos, Porthos, and Aramis?
2. Why did Treville tell D’Artagnan that he was devoted to the Cardinal?
3. What did D’Artagnan leave in Treville’s office when he ran after the unknown man?
4. With what three people did D’Artagnan arrange to duel?
5. How did he get on each one’s bad side?