Friday, September 14, 2012

Making School Spooky


     One of the things I enjoy about homeschooling Miss C is finding ways to make learning fun -- or if not more fun, more palatable, or more entertaining, or more interesting.  For Miss C, some audio-visual supplement can make a difference.  So as she's heading into a new subject, I poke around to see what I can find.

    In a few weeks, she'll be reading some Edgar Allen Poe poems and stories. And oh, what fun stuff I've found!

You can watch a free, full 45-minute biography called "The Mystery of Edgar Allen Poe" from the Discovery Channel, here.

You can watch Vincent Price enact and recite Poe stories in "An Evening of Edgar Allan Poe", here.
(And not direct Poe material, but about him and very entertaining: a Tim Burton short animated video, called "Vincent" about a little boy who wants to be Vincent Price -- with lots of Poe references.)

Remember "The Raven?"  You can hear the rather creepy Christopher Walken read it here.   And then you can compare his version with a reading by James Earl Jones, here.  And another by John Astin (Gomez!), here

There's a charmingly scary animated video version of The Tell-tale Heart, here.

And an animated reading of Annabel Lee, here.

There's a rap video of the Pit and the Pendulum here.

You can hear Basil Rathbone read the poem "Alone" here.

There's an amusing short animated video of Edgar Allan Poe auditioning to host a tv show called Tales of Mystery.

Goodness, we WILL be ready for Halloween!

3 comments :

  1. We just went to the International Spy Museum in DC and there were Poe references there! I think I remember it being related to codes, but I'm not sure -- there was soooo much to take in!

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  2. This is not on the subject of your blog but I wanted to tell you that I just saw you quilt "Shelter" on a 12x12 site; it was a painting I tried to make years ago but didn't know how to carry it out. You did it beautifully. I was good to see my idea done so well, look at it and feel the same thing I felt when I wanted to do it myself. Weird feeling, but wonderful!

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  3. Awesome, Diane! I'm going to check out each and e Rey one of these, because ir's the most wonderful time of the year!

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