Tuesday was a perfect day. Having gotten through my meal woes of Sunday and our company leaving on Monday, I woke Tuesday with new determination to enjoy what’s left of our trip. We were in full tourist mode as we headed toward Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

One funny thing about that morning—all four kids were excited about the tour, until I misread the information on the website. On days when there is a matinee performance, tour groups are taken to nearby Rose Theatre rather than touring the Globe. Excavation on The Rose was begun fairly recently, and I thought it would be pretty cool to see it, but when I told the kids, two of them immediately lost interest and didn’t want to go at all. I checked again, discovered it was not a matinee day, and all four were excited again. You can’t always determine what a kid’s interest depends on, but I am always excited to seize an opportunity when they are interested, because their learning multiplies by the hundreds.

We took the tour, with me kicking myself the entire time for forgetting my camera! Then we wandered through the exhibit, where I was surprised at how much time the kids took, looking at things and taking part in the interactive activities. My younger son spent quite a bit of time on the touch screens, choosing short films to watch about Shakespeare’s time, and my daughter loved the “recording studio” where you can take part in the play and then listen to yourself. My older son approached a man there with swords, and we all got an education on different swords from the time period. We were excited to learn exactly what a rapier looks like, because it was mentioned in the book we’re reading right now. The swords were unbelievably heavy! We talked with him for over thirty minutes and learned quite a bit.

We ate the sandwiches we brought while I lectured told the kids where I think the schools fall short when they teach Shakespeare, then we visited the gift shop.

My older daughter bought a poster with this quote from Bernard Levin, my older son got a graphic novel (comic book) version of Macbeth with the full original text, my younger daughter got a feather pen and inkwell and a condensed version of Romeo and Juliet, and my younger son got a wooden sword and wooden dagger.

Oh, and my older son also got a rat puppet, which we named Nybalt, Prince of Rats.

Once we got home, my daughter became irritated with the condensed book because "they left out the best parts," including her favorite line by Mercutio, "The ape...is dead." (It cracks me up to hear her quote that.) Meanwhile, my son was frustrated with the book he got because he couldn't understand it. Scott read a few pages with him, but he was still frustrated. I found this website and read the summary of the entire play out loud. Last night I wondered if we should return the book and get one in "plain English" but this morning I found him reading the book while he ate breakfast, and he said he understands it better now. This further proves one of the complaints I have about how the schools teach Shakespeare: Most of Shakespeare's plays were based on stories that the majority of his audience already knew, whether they were historical events or legends. Because the audience already knew the basic story and even how it ended, they could pay more attention to the language, poetry, and conversations along the way.

When we left Shakespeare's Globe, we walked across Millenium Bridge, also known as the "wibble-dy wabble-dy walkway" because when it first opened it swayed so much it made people sick. (It's been repaired since then.) The sun had come out at that point, and the view across the river and toward St. Pauls was glorious.

It was a wonderful day. All the kids thoroughly enjoyed it, and this morning my son was asking if we could go again and take Daddy. I have to tell you, I'm a little inclined to do so.

Labels: London In The Spring 2008