A lot of years ago, I read Charles Kingsley’s The Water-Babies to my youngest daughter (and she was very young). I took notes about how and where I edited “on the fly,” as they say. In some respects we turned it into a choose-your-own story, as I would say, “OK, now Mr. Kingsley is going to give us a long speech about doctors who give children bad medicine. Should we read that or jump to the next bit?” Sometimes we jumped, other times we read on. At any rate, my notes became a trimmed-down version of W-B on the AmblesideOnline website, and they sat there until this year, when I had another look at them and realized I’d left several cringeworthy things intact while (just possibly) omitting other good stuff. So that was a first thought on “Time to do something different with this.”
The Water-Babies is not a core book for AO Year Three, but Kingsley’s The Heroes (a book of ancient Greek hero-tales) is. And I wondered–do the two books work together in ways that we haven’t thought about much? The thread that connected them for me was the emphasis on fairy tales, something that Kingsley often uses to describe his stories (including the subtitles of both the books). Much of the discussion that homeschoolers have about mythology is about teaching children what is real–specifically, what is really real, and how we can know what is really really real. And that question is one that we get all through Kingsley’s books, both here and also in Madam How and Lady Why, which is used in AO Years Four and Five.
So the idea of making Kingsley’s Year Three books a little more accessible became one with multiple heads (like a hydra). First, and to do right by Kingsley, we have to make it first: the books should be enjoyable. Sometimes, especially because it’s Kingsley, that means we have to take certain things out. But, second, it turns out that The Water-Babies is actually a great preparatory book for Madam How and Lady Why. (Just for starters, you will learn what a glen is.) And The Heroes is a good solid book to read not only to prepare for Age of Fable in Year Four, but also for Plutarch’s Lives. In what way, I hear you asking? Well…it’s a book divided into the lives of three people, each with tasks to do. It has lots of ancient Greek cultural stuff, and even geography–all of which is going to make Plutarch’s more historical study of great lives feel way less strange. (Of course, since you’ve done this whole year of Greek lives, you could balance that out with a year of Emily Beesly’s Stories From the History of Rome instead.)
So, if you have a rising Year Three student, do check Kingsley out. Because, as it turns out, he’s much less optional than we might have assumed. (And don’t stop reading here, scroll down past the book cover for some important information.)
Where can you do this? I’m so glad you asked. You can find the edited-text-plus-notes version of The Heroes here on the AO website. The Water-Babies is here, also free on the website. There are also text-only versions available on the website (no vocabulary, no questions).
But if you want to buy the studies as a book (it’s a two-in-one volume), yes, you can do that too! Here is the link on U.S. Amazon.
“Now, was not that very odd? So odd, indeed, that you will, no doubt, want to know how it happened, and why Tom could never find a water baby till after he had got the lobster out of the pot. And, if you will read this story nine times over, and then think for yourself, you will find out why. It is not good for little boys to be told everything, and never to be forced to use their own wits.” (The Water-Babies)