Aesop: Androcles and the Lion (7yo girl)

[dangermom]

Hi, this is the second story my 7yo daughter has written. She dictates to me and then copies out the final draft in her copybook. Feedback welcome. (Yeah, her moral is pretty random. )

Androcles and the Lion

Once upon a time, there was a slave named Androcles. He escaped from his master and fled to the forest. Then he came upon a lion who was lying down and groaning. He almost got ready to run away, but seeing that the lion was hurt, he sat down beside him.

The lion had laid out his paw which had a gigantic thorn stuck in it. Androcles took out the thorn and bandaged the lion's paw so that it wouldn't hurt. The lion was able to get up. He led Androcles into his cave and brought meat for him every day. But soon after, they were captured and brought to the Emperor.

The Emperor said Androcles would be thrown to the lion. Androcles was put into the arena and the lion loosed from his cage. Bounding hungrily toward Androcles, the lion soon recognized his friend's face, and stopped in front of him. Androcles told the whole story to the Emperor, and afterwards he and the lion were freed.

If you are happy, thank someone.

[admin]

Thanks for sharing, it is well written. In order to get more out of the story and to set it historically in the right period, I would ask a couple of details and perhaps work it into the story:

1. why is Androcles thrown to the lions?
2. what does it mean to be thrown to the lions? (Make sure she has that in plural and make sure she knows what sort of punishment is for).
3. Why does Androcles go before the emperor? (Where is the emperor emperor)?
4. If you want to be really ambitious, you could find out what 'Androcles' means and perhaps muse on that.

Lene

[dangermom]

Thanks for your reply! We did talk about being thrown to the lions--one of her favorite fold-out books has a Roman coliseum in it, so we could talk about that. I think she left the lion in the singular, assuming that it was just the one particular lion that was slated to eat poor Androcles. I never thought of his name meaning anything in particular, but that makes sense; thanks for the suggestion.

This child is my reluctant scholar, but she seems to enjoy relating the stories back for me to write down, as long as they're suitably exciting! This is my second round of Aesop--my older daughter is finishing Homer A right now (she's on the Trojan Horse story by Padraic Colum).