It has not escaped my attention that I am raising boys here.  This weekend we have had snow in Colorado (o_0) What a surprise.  Okay, so that's not really a shocker.  Tucker barely waited long enough for his feet to hit the floor yesterday morning before he was dressed in his winter gear and headed out to play in the stuff.  Almost two hours later, I went out and dragged him in with him protesteding the whole time that he "wasn't cold yet."

Boys.

Now I want to be very clear that the things I'm about to say apply to girls as well as boys, but I'm raising boys so I'm going to talk about them.  I'm an old-fashioned kind of gal.  I believe in honor, freedom, commitment, and sacrifice.  I long for adventure and a life of purpose.  I want to know that I am encouraging my kids to dream big. 

So this week there have been a couple things I've done to further that goal.  First Michael came home with an assignment to write a report on a famous person.  His imagination was caught earlier this fall by the words spoken by the witches in MacBeth - "Double double toil and trouble..."  I used that as the opportunity to introduce him to Shakespeare and the power of words.  We talked about how the witches preyed upon MacBeth's ambition to deceive him by telling him the truth in such a way as to lead him into a lie. 

When he brought home the assignment I was a little surprised, but pleased to see hear him say that he wanted to do his report on "the man who wrote MacBeth" and then he asked me, "Do you think he's famous?"

Uh yeah.

So we've been to the library and checked out a couple biographies of Shakespeare, books on Elizabethan life and the Globe Theatre, books that translated the plays into narrative to make them easier for children to understand the story.  And I've reserved every DVD the library has of any play Shakespeare wrote.  I was disappointed to realize that my copy of Much Ado About Nothing was on vhs and I don't have a video player so we couldn't watch it.  But we've used our weekend well to cover all kinds of prepartory material and we'll start watching plays this afternoon. 

Michael's teacher sent home a note asking how we could modify the assignment to put it within his grasp.  I'm not modifying it down because I want to see him reach for a lot more than he's presently capable of holding. 

I know what I'm asking of him.  He just thinks it's a great adventure learning all this neat stuff about how people have thought and entertained each other and more about the power of words. 

We've also over the past week watched Madagascar and the Madagascar Penguins.  It's funny, but after watching it yesterday afternoon, Michael was talking to me and saying, "Mom, in think the Penguins know about sacrifice, and honor, and commitment and the things we've been talking about because even though they think that 'The Private probably won't survive' they still go to fight the fossa."

Bear with me guys, it's a big leap from Madagascar to Shakespeare, I know.  I don't want to put my child in a state of shock, but I remember when I discovered Hamlet.  My favorite teacher of all time assigned us a book report on any book of our choosing.  I wanted to impress her.  So I thought through the things I'd heard and read and asked her if it had to be a novel or could it be a play.  She said that if it was a very good play and I did a good report, I could choose it.  So I told her I wanted to study and report on Hamlet ... because it was the most difficult thing I could imagine. .

I know that isn't the reason that Michael picked Shakespeare.  And frankly the fact that his motives are a little more pure than my own is irrelevant.  The fact is that he went there of his own free will and now I intend to make the most of it.  What I remember of my experience is that as I read, and then read aloud because just on paper it was a little confusing, I became intoxicated with LITERATURE.  I fell in love with story and plot and meter and the rise of action and the words that people use to tell their lives or tell the stories that are important to all our lives.  And I'm kind of hoping to get Michael drunk on that same kind of experience. 

He's not going to sit down and read the great classics of literature (yet) he's only in 5th grade.  But if he's exposed to them now, he at least won't resist them later.  (I hope.)  And to further that goal, I brought out a few more films that I hope will ignite his imagination with great story.  To Kill a Mockingbird, The Three Musketeers, and The Count of Monte Cristo.  We watched The Three Musketeers first.  It was a little exciting, and in parts the boys had a difficult time sitting still, but that's okay.  I want them to go into their room and play at thwarting an evil plot, risking a fall, and getting back up man enough to forgive and ask forgiveness. 

Plus there's just something about the sound of a hundred swords ringing as they are drawn from their scabbord that makes ME want to to daring deeds.  Like - risking rejection, dreaming big, and going for the gusto in my own quest to find a job, raise boys who are good men, and living my life authentically. 

So whether it's Michael's report or my next interview.  We are "All for One and One for All" in this house.   And we're not just gonna talk about just what that means we're gonna do it.