Don't Panic

I was cleaning up the schoolroom shelves (still a work in progress), when I came across Shakespeare Stories. It is actually a wonderful book that was never really used because of some wishful thinking on my part. I bought it many years ago in the belief that (too) young Maddy and Lilly would study Shakespeare. I picked it up to move it to another bookcase and I panicked.

"Oh no! We never read this. We haven't studied Shakespeare. Maybe I should keep this in here and I'll come up with some lessons for the next few weeks. Must.study.Shakespeare or they will never have a well rounded education. I read Shakespeare, I even enjoyed it...Wait, when did I read him? Oh yeah, it was high school, my junior and senior year...Stop!"

And there it was. I realized what my brain was doing, what my heart was doing, striving for perfection again, for an ideal. An ideal, by the way that had me buy a book we really couldn't use for a few more years and kind of turned them off to Shakespeare when I forced it one them.

Maddy will be in 9th grade this coming fall, plenty of time left to study Shakespeare.