Is Shakespeare suitable for 8 year old ears?

[RhondaM.]

:tongue_smilie:I feel really dumb asking that. But I'm not talking about the abridged, children's versions. I'm talking about unabridged Shakespeare.

 

I have an 8 year old daughter with a WONDERFUL memory. She never forgets anything. And she listens to tapes, as many children do, over and over and over. And she quotes everything she hears. Word for word, line for line. She is very dramatic about it.

 

And I'm wondering if it would NOT be a good thing to let her do this with unabridged, dramatized Shakespeare.

 

I know that he can get a bit...errr...off color at times...but that would go right over her head. Wouldn't it?

 

All I can see is that she would go around quoting Shakespeare...and that sounds like a good thing. :001_smile:

 

But then...I have only ever heard ONE Shakespeare play, and read only a handful of children's Shakespeare stories. So I really don't KNOW if I should allow her to go off and listen to him (over and over and over).

 

So please tell me...is this a good or a bad idea?

 

Rhonda

[OnTheBrink]

I think unabridged Shakespeare for an 8 year old is too much. Most of it will be lost on her, and there are some adult themes in some of the plays.

 

Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by the Lambs is a good place to start with Shakespeare for that age. I think you can even get it free online at http://www.mainlesson.com

[RhondaM.]

I think unabridged Shakespeare for an 8 year old is too much. Most of it will be lost on her, and there are some adult themes in some of the plays.

 

Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by the Lambs is a good place to start with Shakespeare for that age. I think you can even get it free online at www.mainlesson.com

 

Are there adult themes in just some of them...or in all of them?

 

The reason I am asking is that I was considering splurging and buying a set of 38 dramatized audio plays on DVDs sometime before this fall.

 

I have an 8th grader and 10th grader and there are at least two plays that we will be listening to this year. (Julius Caesar, Merchant of Venice) But I thought I'd like to just pop them in while the kids are playing games...just to sort of let them get used to the language so that it becomes a little less threatening. And then I thought about my dd and how she remembers everything..whether it is over her head or not.

 

I also know that even if she did not quite understand what they were saying she'd eventuall want to take them off to her room and listen to them anyway, because... that is just the way she is.

 

So, I'm not buying them for her...but rather for my older children.

 

So...are there any that do not have adult themes in them? Or should I plan to keep them locked away when they are not being used for lessons?

 

Thanks,

Rhonda

[swellmomma]

My kids love shakespeare, Particularily A midsummer night's dream. When they were still in ps their school had a theatre company come in for their artist in residence and they had all the kids put on a rendition of this and the kids still talk about it, they were in K and gr 1 at the time. DD was a white fairy, ds was Puck.

 

There is a series of books out designed specifically for kids if you are worried about it, they have Romeo and Juliet for kids, Hamlet for kids etc That might help make them more appropriate.

[KarenNC]

We have stuck with the comedies so far---Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Taming of the Shrew, that sort of thing. My daughter has enjoyed these since she was 5 (in video form). She's now 8. Kevin Kline's Midsummer Night's Dream is a favorite of hers.

 

I started her with some of the Jim Weiss retellings, then we watched some of the older BBC ones online (they were available streaming at the time, don't know if they still are). I explained any terms that were unusual, but we read a lot of older literature aloud to her, always have, so the language is not totally unfamiliar to her. She had no problem with Patrick Stewart's audio recording of A Christmas Carol at age 5 either. She has seen abridged children's versions of some of the other plays, but too much violence and death in the tragedies at this point.

[pqr]

Mine love Henry V, "the Scottish Play," and Caesar. I have not allowed them access to Titus yet as the themes are too graphic.

 

We have found that some of the adult themes in Shakespeare are, fortunately, lost on the children

 

There is, however, nothing to gladden a Father’s heart so much as seeing his 7 year old tearing around the house, sword raised high and reciting Henry's speech at Agincourt.

 

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition:*

And gentlemen in England now a-bed

Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."

Edited March 14, 2009 by pqr

[Laura Corin]

What we do:

 

Read children's versions

Watch videos

Learn short extracts

 

Hobbes just started learning short extracts, and he's doing well. We've previously read children's versions of Much Ado and Twelfth Night, then seen the videos. I'm hoping to take both boys to see some Shakespeare on stage soon - having first primed them with the children's versions. Both boys are very good readers with large vocabularies and a decent ability to sit still.

 

Laura

[Jenny in Florida]

Both of my kids have been seeing full productions of Shakespearean stuff since before they were eight. We started buying season tickets to our local Shakespeare theatre specifically for my daughter when she was eight and added our son when he was about the same age. (Prior to that, my son had been going to see student matinees of some shows.)

 

The year my son was three and my daughter six, we all dressed up as Midsummer Night's Dream fairies for Halloween, because both of them loved the movie version. (My son used to call Bottom "Donkey Boy.")

 

And my daughter has been using a speech from Midsummer as one of her audition monologues since she was about that age.

 

Neither of them seem to be suffering any terrible side effects from their exposure to the Bard. Unless you consider my daughter choosing to major in theatre a problem?

 

I have been told, however, that my kids are not typical. And our family actually appreciates the opportunities to discuss issues that are often sparked by reading/seeing these plays. In fact, theatre and literature have been of enormous help to my son in giving him a vocabulary with which to communicate complex emotional ideas. He has often told me that he feels like a certain character or that someone he knows has behaved like a character, and it gives us a place to start talking. Once I realized this was meaningful to him, I started doing it, too. When I'm trying to make a point about something--his behavior or what we expect of him--I will often draw on theatrical and literary references to illustrate.

 

So, I don't have kids who "miss" the mature themes, but reading and seeing these plays has been incredibly enriching to their lives.

 

Plus, it's fun!

Edited March 14, 2009 by Jenny in Florida
Didn't like my word choice.

[Jenny in Florida]

Are there adult themes in just some of them...or in all of them?

 

The reason I am asking is that I was considering splurging and buying a set of 38 dramatized audio plays on DVDs sometime before this fall.

 

I have an 8th grader and 10th grader and there are at least two plays that we will be listening to this year. (Julius Caesar, Merchant of Venice) But I thought I'd like to just pop them in while the kids are playing games...just to sort of let them get used to the language so that it becomes a little less threatening. And then I thought about my dd and how she remembers everything..whether it is over her head or not.

 

 

Well, they were all written for adults. I can't think of any that don't have mature content of some kind. What most people worry about is the sexual content, which comes mostly in the form of bawdy comedy. That won't be much of a problem in either of the plays you mentioned. But there's also violence and tradegy and adultery and all kinds of other stuff.

 

As an aside, I have to say that, even as a Shakespeare fan, I have never liked Julius Caesar. I've always found it kind of boring, but then I feel that way about a lot of the "histories."

 

And Merchant of Venice is a wonderful but very challenging play. It makes a lot of people very uncomfortable because of the apparent anti-semitism. I'd want to make sure to do some work to put that one in context. Off the top of my head, though, I don't remember any overt "adult" content in that one.

[RhondaM.]

Thanks everyone. I think I'll get them and let her listen to at least some of them. We will continue with children's versions and listen to the adult versions and discuss issues that come up.

 

Rhonda

[MBM]

I think your daughter would be fine starting at age eight.

 

We started with the abridged versions.

 

Now my son, who is 11, and I read the Folger's versions a few pages per day several times per week. Then, we listen to a CD or tape, and if we can, we try to see the play at the Shakespeare Theater in Chicago. We aim to study about two per year, but even one is fine with me.

[skaterbabs]

If she can comfortably read the King James Version Bible, then Shakespeare will be easy for her. I friend of mine was reading Hamlet at 4, but she was not your average kid. ;)

 

I'd start her with the Comedies first, even if you use Lamb's paraphrases. (Actually, I really like Lamb's Shakespeare for younger kids.)

 

 

 

~Becky

(Retreating back into newbie lurkdom)

[RhondaM.]

If she can comfortably read the King James Version Bible, then Shakespeare will be easy for her. I friend of mine was reading Hamlet at 4, but she was not your average kid. ;)

 

I'd start her with the Comedies first, even if you use Lamb's paraphrases. (Actually, I really like Lamb's Shakespeare for younger kids.)

 

 

 

~Becky

(Retreating back into newbie lurkdom)

 

For reading, yes, the children's versions will be best. I have two versions around here, plus have access to illustrated books at the library. It was just the dramatized audio I was wondering about.

 

Thanks,

[abbeyej]

My kids each saw their first full-length Shakespeare plays at age 4 or 5, and are big Shakespeare fans. :o) We (usually!) introduce a new play with some retellings (there are a range of possibilities -- I like the Leon Garfield retellings, but Nesbit, Lamb, Coville, and others can be useful) before going to see a full-length production. Shakespeare's audiences would have been familiar with the stories going in as well, and knowing the characters and basic plot (and a few of the well-known lines) can make following the play much more enjoyable.

 

Ds had the chance to be in Richard III (as the younger of the two "princes in the tower") in a professional production when he was 7/8. It wasn't a play I probably would have picked for my 5 and 8 year olds to study, but because of the opportunity we did, and the kids loved it. Their understanding was different than it will be in 10 or 30 or 50 years ;), but that doesn't mean it wasn't worthwhile.

 

This past week, we had the opportunity to visit the real Tower of London (where the two boys vanished / were murdered) and the reconstructed Globe Theatre in London. My kids were *thrilled*, lol. And I was delighted to take them and see all the connections their little brains were making. :)

 

I don't know that there's one single play I'd recommend starting with... Our experiences have been influenced by what live productions were available. My kids have seen / studied to some degree or other: Hamlet, Macbeth, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Julius Caesar... I know there were some other comedies in there too, lol...

 

We read retold versions, the real plays, see full productions, scenes on occasion, watch film versions (including the "Animated Shakespeare" series which is heavily abridged but uses the real language and truly fantastic British actors for the voices)...

[skaterbabs]

If she can read them, she can understand the dramatized versions IMO.

 

My sons tend to "lose" comprehension with the original language, but they aren't really ready for it yet unfortunately.

 

I really like Much Ado About Nothing, the one that was done in the late '90s is pretty kid friendly in that they'll recognize some of the actors. (Beatrice is played by the same actress who played Professor Trelawney in "Harry Potter" and Nanny McPhee.)

Edited March 21, 2009 by skaterbabs