Beatrix Potter

Rosie is going through a delightful phase of being enchanted by all things Beatrix Potter. The tales were read to her when she was smaller, but now she is enjoying reading them to herself. They make for delightful reading & the sentence structure, & language sometimes challenges her.

I wanted to make the most of this interest & have come up with some ideas to keep this love burning for a little while. This is not a unit study by any means, just some ideas to enrich her reading.

Discussion

I usually ask Rose to narrate her readings & I found a handy-dandy Story Chart to use for narrations about the tales of ‘naughty’ animals. Simple, but useful for furthering our discussions about what has happened in each story.

Read

For me to read to Rosie:

My Dear Noel The story of how ‘Peter Rabbit’ came to be

Nothing is Impossible. The Story of Beatrix Potter

Poetry

Appley Dapply’s Nursery Rhymes

Cecily Parsley’s Nursery Rhymes

Writing

Copywork from her favourite tales

Have Rosie write her own simple ‘naughty’ animal story. Again, another handy-dandy story planning chart!

Art

Drawing & painting inspired by the illustrations of Beatrix Potter.

Nature Study

Time for her to observe wildlife & also our pets. As a wonderful home educator pointed out to me; Squirrel Nutkin was so hysterical because Beatrix captured what a naughty squirrel would be like & that talent came from hours just observing squirrels.

To consider:

How does Beatrix Potter’s life compare with Rosie’s life?

The personality traits of the naughty animals

The difficulties they got into

I am really enjoying infusing our days with the richness & beauty of these timeless tales and Rosie is thoroughly enjoying herself.

“Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.”

Beatrix Potter