[I just realized that this story from the other day ended up on my other blog…] The other day I blogged about how bringing home a Shakespeare action figure kicked off a whole round of telling my 3 and 5 yr olds stories from Shakespeare. Yesterday I hear my 3yr old playing and she says, “The girl was on the island, and then the witch threw her in the dungeon.” “What’s the witch’s name?” I ask, nodding at my wife to “Watch this…” “Sycorax,” says my daughter. Love it. The best part is how she knows about Sycorax (the witch from The Tempest, by the way) in the first place is even better. I don’t tell them about her, because she’s not really crucial to the main storyline. “Daddy,” asks my 5 year old, “How many girls are in this story?” “Just one. Miranda is the only girl.” “But in my book, I saw somebody else with long hair, and I think it’s another girl.” I may have mentioned that I have a comic book version of The Tempest kicking around. “That’s probably one of the pirates,” I tell her. “I don’t think so,” she says, and goes to get the book. Sure enough, she’s looking at a picture of Sycorax. So I have to explain how that’s the witch Sycorax, who ruled the island until Prospero came and kicked her off. And how she was Caliban’s mom, and mean to Ariel and put her in a tree, until Prospero rescued her.
