Children's Questions

I don't think that any normal second-grader could easily dissect the language of the master English-wielder. I too sometimes find it a little dense; yet studying Shakespeare this past semester I have come to love seeing how immediately the concepts he discusses influence my life. I have talked about justification, love, and other topics in the past, and have enjoyed seeing similarities that I have with people like Hamlet, Laertes, and Richard II. Shakespeare does so well at pointing out aspects of their character (that may not be all that great) of which I find I am also possessed. It does so well to see the flaws of others that one also seems to have in order to learn how to get rid of them. Also, recently I have been reading the first several acts of the Tempest and have been enjoying the "born again" theme, with things growing old and new things coming about- this is likewise something that I have always been interested in.

The themes here are not too hard to grasp. I think even a child could understand them, provided that the education was simple enough. I think I would like to try to see how this works out. I have 6 younger brother-in-laws between the ages of 4 and 16, and they are all really bright. They are always amazing me with their young intellects and succinct understandings of the world, with what seems like no irreconcilable complexity.  My question is "what will the kids' reactions to Shakespeare teach me about Shakespeare?" Innocent minds might grasp terrifically well with what he was trying to say.

So the next question would become naturally, "what aspect of Shakespeare do I use?" I could take Hamlet for its examples of internal conflict, Love's Labor's Lost for its remarks on pedantry, Winter's Tale for its ideas on redemption and forgiveness... but  I think I will stick with Richard II with the idea of the loss of power. Now I just have to think about the 'whats' and 'hows' of explaining this to a little kid. We'll see how this goes.