Garage Sale Shakespeare and Fake Blood

One of my secrets for inexpensive home schooling is garage sales. We like to stop at a lot of them, especially if there are books. People get rid of tons of useful old books and usually only charge a quarter per book. Talk about a steal! One of these finds was an old copy of Shakespeare’s complete works in two volumes. It is old, smells comfortingly musty, and in very good condition. My kids were still quite young so I wondered if we would actually ever use it and stuffed it into my overflowing book case. Today, as we began our Monday morning history ritual, we finally came across a unit on Shakespeare. The story of Macbeth caught my oldest son’s attention and he expressed an interest in reading some more of Shakespeare’s plays. “Ah Ha!” I yelled as I jumped up and pulled the books from the shelf.  Yes, these will finally come in handy and I didn’t have to run out and spend a bunch of money. We also staged a Shakespearian sword fight at lunch, complete with sticky, fake blood, made of corn syrup and food coloring. And now, as the afternoon sun filters through the leaves, a boy sits reading Shakespeare.  A fabulous education, for pennies!