Chapter 8 deals with the Assyrians: Shamshi-Adad and the Story of Gilgamesh. If you don’t mind the subject of cruelty and dictators, then you should be OK with this chapter.
Other than that, this was a fairly easy chapter to go through because I decided to read to them only Gilgamesh the King (Ludmila Zeman) and not the next two books. I am not trying to be mysterious here. It’s just that Susan Wise Bauer has specifically asked us not to publish her reading lists, so I will not go into details about all the other titles.
Suffice it to say that I learned the hard way to preview these titles and, as I looked at them, they just seemed so pagan and raw for my young kids, I decided they should be in middle school before reading such matter. The first volume was not as bad though. Plus, the virtues of forgiveness, mercy, true love and friendship play a huge part in this story. I knew it would be good for my kids to hear this tale.
My daughter colored the picture of Gilgamesh and the lion, but my son did not. No surprises there.
We did not do the art project or the writing project. Maybe it’s my laziness. Maybe it’s the fact that I don’t necessarily want my kids to write a fairy tale. Maybe I don’t trust they will know how to draw a picture of Enkidu. Maybe it’s all of the above.
I know that I am enlarging their vocabulary and cultural awareness by exposing them to historical accounts, names, and places once. That should be enough for now, at ages four and seven.
