Tuesday, December 14, 2004

If You Don't Hate Me Yet...

...just wait and listen to this:

I read greek mythology to my girls at night.

I'm not kidding. My own knowledge of the myths, impoverished at best, led me to pick up a copy of Bullfinch's Mythology and I decided that as long I was going to make a study of it, I'd involve the girls and get them involved. Now, if you've ever read Bullfinch, you know the language is extremely antiquated; he published his mythology books in the mid-Nineteenth century. Naturally, the girls aren't going to sit through a narrative that requires interpreting roughly every third noun or verb. So the trick is to read the story before hand and then, at bedtime, transpose from olden-times, snooty Oxford Don prose to something approximating "Barbie and the Ice-Skating Puppies". Tonight's selection was The Rape of Proserpine which, although sounding a bit intense, was actually pretty tame. My problem is getting the girls to not associate Pluto with Mickey's dog.

We also read Blue's Clues and Pooh and Peter Rabbit, the standard childhood fare. I'm not a sadist (strictly speaking) and I'm actually surprised at how well they've taken to Bullfinch and learned not only the names of Gods and Goddesses but their functions.

They're going to hate me, however, when we start The Inferno.

5 comments:

Mamacita (The REAL one) said...

I bow in your general direction. Mythology is COOL! With a background in basic mythology, your kids will have a built-in understanding of all kinds of things, such as astronomy, literature, fairy tales, and almost every plot known to mankind. Congratulations on your sound and awesome judgement. Oh, and I think your blog is great. I'll be back. You've been warned. The end.

Russ said...

Hey, I might have to try that! Reading and rereading and rereading Pooh and Dora books can get a bit tedious.

Also, thanks for the link!

Russ
http://dailyyak.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

I never read any of those books before, because I never had time to even think bout another book since I been reading the Never Ending Story, which almost made my head explode because it would never end, but it did, so I'm still alive!

I think it's great how you take care of your kids, work, and do everything else!

Hi! Jay sent me!

Rockchild
http://www.rockchild.com

kate. said...

not a bad idea.

i bet i could throw in a few dinosaur references and my boys would stay transfixed for hours. because at their age, they still think zeus was the guy that wrote 'one fish two fish red fish blue fish'.

thanks for my next new challenge.
-kayde.

tobynkatie said...

WOW!! I love greek mythology! It makes me think that there could be some force of nature with the stars and planets that sometimes govern our way of thinking. :) I never really got into it much but I would love to try! :) -k