Love or Fear

Grace asked an interesting question last night. We just got her new computer game, Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego, in the mail on Saturday and she has been glued to the screen. She was especially interested in the level that deals with Medieval England. Barry is taking a college course in that subject and she noticed that it was the same subject as his course. She has been peppering us with questions ever since. Along the same lines (kind of-if you stretch a little) we had recently bought the special edition Disney Robin Hood so that just fueled the fire. She has been asking all about Prince John and King Richard the Lion-Hearted.

She remarked that King Richard seemed to be well loved and Prince John much hated. She then went on to ask about taxing in that time period and what it went toward. Finally she asked if it were better for a king to be loved or feared. (her words) I asked her what she thought because I really was interested in her take on this. She said that she thought it would be better for a king to be well loved because his subjects would want to serve him if he were a good king. She also thought that a feared king could not really trust his servants because they would not be loyal to him. I told her I thought that was an excellent answer and that I agreed with her. I then sent her to ask Barry the same question. He agreed also. It has been touching to see her sit and talk to her Daddy about a common interest.

She has also been listening to books on tape that, while they are fictional books about animals, evoke that time period. The Redwall series by Brian Jacques. I have actually read several of the books and think that are a wonderful read. The can be quite long for young readers, so she really has to listen to them on tape. Quite a bit too long for a read aloud unless you want to devote several months to it. (Or perhaps you are a better aloud reader than I am.) I would think that it would probably be around a fifth grade reading level. You should check them out!

Love,
Shawna