Thursday, January 31, 2013

A Look at Temptation (Narnia)

For information and resources about other Chapters in the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, click here.

In Chapter four, Edmund Pevensie is tempted by the White Witch and her Turkish Delights.


Just for fun, we discovered Turkish Delights for ourselves.  As a child, I ate Aplets and Cotlets having no idea they were the same thing Edmund Pevensie became addicted to in one of my favorite stories, but the link above will include such details as well as the history behind the delicious (and disgustingly unhealthy) "mouthfuls" of temptation.  For a recipe to make your own, click here.

However, this lesson isn't supposed to be in how to cook or eat, it is a look at temptation, so kids can best appreciate the challenge presented to Edmund here.

Fairy tales are often helpful in illustrating concepts such as temptation.  I suggest introducing your child to the word using an example from their own lives or yours.  Additionally, the apple scene in Snow White is a  familiar way to introduce children to what temptation is.  Snow white likes the idea of crunching into a nice juicy apple and though she says, "no" at first, she does let the temptation get the better of her in the end. The scene is a nice parallel with what Edmund faces in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (and of course, the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden).

I also like to use Aesop Fables with Alice, so here are two related fables and links to online versions.

The Dog and His Master's Meal (Text)
The Dog, The Meat and The Shadow (Text) While this second one isn't specifically about temptation, you can certainly speak about it in the context of temptation after reading the fable.  The dog is tempted by the idea of even more yummy stuff to chew on.  Greed and temptations must be close cousins.

If you would like an explicitly Christian take on the matter, here is something from Sermons4Kids.

Since the activities provided by the C.S. Lewis foundation seemed a little above my daughter's head in terms of social awareness and even example temptations (she doesn't even know what marijuana is, let alone why it would be tempting), I felt a need to tweak this one a little.  I liked the idea of having kids make an advertisement for something "tempting" but the project would have required a lot more time than we could devote, so here is my take on things as adapted for our situation.  Even so, the activity is a twist on one of the activities originally offered in the Educator's Values Guide from the C.S. Lewis foundation, so I will ask the same as they in regard to its use:
They may be downloaded in their entirety, copied and pasted into learner activities and used, in part or in whole, as deemed most appropriate to the learning styles and developmental levels of particular student groupings.


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