Peter Pan

A home schooling neighbor of mine gave me a bunch of Illustrated Classics: abridged versions of classic literature with drawings.  I read a few to the girls but didn’t like them.  I felt too much like I was reading Cliff Notes to the kids and they all seemed the same.  When the classic novels were watered down, they seemed so plain.  So, I passed them on to another home schooler.

Then Catherine found an Illustrated Classic of Peter Pan in our church’s library.  She begged me to read it to her.  I could not think of a good reason not to other than my general disdain for abridged literature, so I relented.  The girls both loved this book and really learned the story well.

Until we read this, I don’t think they knew that Tinkerbell was initially a character in Peter Pan, before Dinsey took her over.  In reading the book to them, Catherine said “you never told me that Pixie Hollow was in Neverland!”

On our trip to Disney World, the girls insisted on going on the Peter Pan ride.  But this time they understood the scenes with so much more depth.  Both narrated the entire ride for us: “there’s the bedroom where they fly out, there’ the mermaids, there’s Wendy walking the plank, there’s the Jolly Roger, there’s Captain Hook!  You get the idea.

I don’t think that the girls knew that the television show Jake and the Neverland Pirates was loosely based on the book Peter Pan.  Now they get a lot more of the references on the TV show.

I have been so blessed recently with seeing so much evidence that the girls are comprehending and retaining the chapter books I read to them.  Recently we also took the kids to Sea World.  It was technically a field trip, so we attended a short class on ocean animals first.  The teacher showed us lots of bones and told us about the animals. When she held up a crocodile head and asked what they eat, Catherine responded “Captain Hook’s hand!”