Dracula and Cinderella

23 January 2012

Today was our second day in our new homeschooling routine. Ra and I discussed the book we read yesterday, Cinderella by Henry W Hewet. Ra was quick to point out that their were differences between the book and the Disney movie. I explained to her that the movie was based on the story; the story was written first, then Disney made their own version of it. I explained to her that there are a lot of stories and movies that were originally written a long time ago and because it was such a well loved story, other people rewrite it and make it their own by changing little things. I will list the differences we came up with here.

• Cinderella's father was still alive in the book.
• The Step Mother did not play as big of a role in the book as she does in the Disney movie.
• Cinderella does not have friend mice in the book, she collects mice and rats and lizards from around the estate at her Faery Godmother's request.
• Cinderella goes to the ball on two different nights, not just one. 
• There is no backstory for the Prince in the book.
• In the book, Cinderella's Step Sisters begged for forgiveness when they found out it was her at the ball.
• Cinderella invites the Step Sisters to live in the palace and arranges for them to be married to dukes in the book. 
• The biggest difference we found was that Cinderella was extremely patient and loving in the book, even more so than the movie. Cinderella did not even so much as sigh at the tasks she was given to do. She happily helped her Step Sisters get ready for the ball and even showed them great kindness and went out of her way to be generous with them at the ball when they did not know who she was. An ultimate example of "turn the other cheek" and forgiveness.

The discussion that many stories we have now are adaptations of great literary works started Ra thinking. She loves the kids series Monster High, which if you don't know has a cast of adapted familiar characters. Some of them are Draculaura, Frankie Stein, Cleo DeNile, Deuce Gorgon, etc. She asked about them and I told her that they are all based on stories of monsters. Some are myths, some are novels, and some (Cleo and Nefra) are based on real historical figures. She asked if we could read Dracula and so, after warning her that it will get scary she sat next to me and we began reading.

• We made a map in Google Maps "My Maps" program that showed all of the cities Jonathon Harker stopped at on his was to Romania. 
• We talked about which geographic direction Harker was travelling. 
• We located the Danube River and the Carpathian Mountains on a map. 
• We talked about the difference in how long it takes to travel between the time this story was set in compared to modern days.
• We discussed the difference between dinner and supper because he makes a point of correcting himself in the journal entry.  
• We talked about what he meant when he said that the meal "was very good but thirsty."  
• We noted that "Mina" is probably his wife.
• We looked up the recipe for Paprika Hendl and Dumplings and made them for dinner.

All of that in the first three paragraphs of the book! I am extremely excited for this new approach to teaching. I will have to read ahead tomorrow before reading it with the children so that I can be a little better prepared. Other than these activities I had fun spending more time with the kids than I usually do. I decided that I would play with them and not tell them "no" unless there was something that I MUST do. It was an extremely fun day today.