Month: December 2007

Come sit with me at the Child’s Play charity dinner!

Posted on By Wil

I’m going up to Seattle in a couple weeks for the Child’s Play dinner and auction, so I asked my friends at Penny Arcade if I could do something to contribute, other than my ticket and whatever I decide to buy in the auction.

"How about two seats at your table?"

Normally, this sort of thing never ends well for me, but that’s because it often comes at the end of a long day at a Star Trek convention, and rather than hanging out with people, I really need to be recharging all by myself.

But this is different. I liked everyone I met at PAX, and had so much fun there, I thought that this was actually a great idea.

So if you are going to the Child’s Play dinner, want to support the charity, and want to see what it’s like to sit with me, Robert Khoo, and some awesome Penny Arcade people while we shove food in our faces, check out the auction and place your bid.

But do it soon, because the auction ends tomorrow night.

Mythology for kids

Posted on By Wil

I read a post at GeekDad this morning about Beowulf and introducing mythology to kids. It reminded me of an an awesome book that I used to introduce Ryan and Nolan to mythology when they were in 3rd and 1st grade called Classic Myths to Read Aloud.

The book collects “Great stories of Greek and Roman mythology, specially arranged for children five and up by an educational expert” and divides them into two “listening levels” based on age (5 and older for Level 1, 8 and older for Level 2) which is quite handy for parents who are worried about holding their child’s interest. The myths are all retold in a way that stays true to the story while making them appropriate for children — there’s no Disney-fying the myth of Hercules here, but Zeus isn’t gong around nailing every nymph he sees, either.

The stories themselves are wonderful, but my favorite part of the book is a section called “a few words more” that goes with each myth. It gives the adult who’s reading them something related to each myth to paraphrase for their child. I loved it, because I could make the myth I’d just read to my boys relevant to their lives (with the added bonus of appearing to possess vast and mysterious knowledge about everything from the origin of the word “capital” to why a marathon is 26.2 miles.)

The book made it easy to share some of my favorite myths with my kids while they discovered favorites of their own along the way. Ryan still talks about when I read him the stories of Theseus, and Nolan loved anything related to the Trojan war. In fact, at the end of the book, there are six stories in a row that tell the story of the Trojan War including the Judgement of Paris, the Trojan Horse, and Odysseus’ journey back to Ithaca. I loved that they were serialized that way, because I could make it into a week-long event with my kids. I introduced them to the concept of a truly epic story, and they didn’t even realize it!

This book, and its sequel, helpfully titled More Classic Myths to Read Aloud (which I couldn’t find online, but have on my bookshelf, nyahh) make perfect bedtime stories for kids of all ages, and if you’re lucky, will lead to your 13 year-old asking you if he can buy Edith Hamilton’s Mythology, because “mythology is awesome.”